It’s important that schools teach young people about the environmental impact of human activities, and equip them with the knowledge and skills to understand these impacts and what needs to be done to address them. This should include the environmental consequences of armed conflicts.

With the support of the British Ecological Society, we have prepared a suite of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teaching resources on conflict and the environment, and on our work. We wanted to highlight the wide application of the environmental sciences, and show how STEM subjects can support careers in environmental research and advocacy.

On this page you can download classroom resources for Key Stage 3, 4 or 5 students that explain our work, introduce some examples of the environmental problems associated with conflicts and, hopefully, fuel interest in this topic area.

About CEOBS
This 2-minute video introduces CEOBS and our staff.

How we use STEM subjects in our work
Video shorts where our staff explains how a love of a STEM subject helped us choose our environmental careers, and the best things about our jobs.

Quiz questions
Download and take the quiz to explore some of the topic areas.

Worksheets
Download worksheets that explore three case studies; these can be used in the classroom or adapted. The worksheets focus on how NASA satellite images can be used to examine and monitor environmental degradation.

Click here for links to more useful materials and tools that can support lessons and independent student research.

We hope that these resources are useful. Please do get in touch if you would like to learn more or have specific questions about the environment impacts of wars and conflicts. You can learn more about CEOBS here.

Worksheets and quiz

Worksheet 1 – The Iraqi marshlands

Worksheet 2 – Deforestation in Colombia

Worksheet 3 – Oil fires in Iraq

Take the quiz – Download

Video

Our introduction to CEOBS

How we use STEM subjects in our work – Linsey

How we use STEM subjects in our work – Eoghan

How we use STEM subjects in our work – Henny

How we use STEM subjects in our work – Leonie

How we use STEM subjects in our work – Doug