Bring your students on an icy exploration of the polar ecosystem! The Arctic and Antarctica may look frozen and empty at first glance, but they’re full of life perfectly adapted to the cold.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the polar regions. (Don't miss the narwhals and emperor penguins!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, and Seven Worlds, One Planet.
- Free Printable: Use the Polar Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
Dive into the wonders of Antarctica with this multi-grade lesson collection! Tailored for K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12, each unit includes engaging activities, thought-provoking discussions, and hands-on projects to uncover the mysteries of the frozen continent. Enhance your teaching with stunning BBC video clips showcasing Antarctic wildlife, research stations, and breathtaking icy landscapes. Printable resources like animal fact sheets, scientist journal templates, and conservation challenges bring the learning to life for your students. Perfect for science, geography, and environmental lessons!
Sometimes a discovery doesn't happen in the field — it happens decades later, in a drawer.
In the 1980s, an Antarctic expedition recovered a fossil and recorded it simply as "vertebra of a large reptile" in a field notebook. That single line was all anyone knew about it for the next 40 years.
It wasn't until paleontologist Dr. Mark Evans revisited old research and notes that the fossil was properly identified — as the first dinosaur bone ever found in Antarctica. Its distinctive shape points to a Titanosaur, the largest dinosaur to ever walk the Earth.
The bone had been sitting in a collection the entire time. What changed wasn't the fossil — it was someone finally looking at it with the right knowledge asking the right questions.
Scientists have found some very old ice. No, it’s not bag of frozen peas that have been in your freezer for three years (which means someone’s not eating their vegetables). It’s actually cores of Antarctic ice, the oldest that have ever been collected, that go back over a million years.
Researchers are keeping almost 200 pieces of meter-long ice cores that were drilled from a depth of almost 3 km over the course of four years. After careful preservation, the ice now needs to be melted in order to reveal the rich environmental history that the ice has to offer. When melted carefully and incredibly slowly, scientists can see how the Earth changed over time, including variations in temperature, snowfall, and wind, because the tiny bubbles give a snapshot of carbon dioxide levels.
Studying this old ice will help scientists understand our environment today. For example, the concentration of greenhouse gasses we see today is higher than they have been in the past 800,000 years. To understand how the climate might change in the future, we need to learn about how it’s changed in the past.
Research in Antarctica is important, but it’s not the most accessible place — have fun finding an Uber willing to take you (and your lab equipment) all the way there! Scientists no longer have to rely on foot travel, as they did decades ago, but taking to the air needs a bit of extra thought, because the technology has to work in Antarctica’s severe weather.
A promising solution is a new drone, tested in a part of North Wales known as “Snowdonia,” where the frigid temperatures put the drone through its cold weather paces. The drone has a few benefits — it doesn’t need a pilot on board (so it can go to remote places), it can travel up to 1000 km in one trip, and needs significantly less fuel than a normal plane. It does still need someone controlling it from the ground, but this can be from a computer, at base, perhaps with a mug of hot cocoa.
Researchers Rebecca and Tom will be conducting Antarctic research with this drone, with the goal of using radar on the drone to draw a picture of what’s under the ice sheets, to help predict how fast they could melt.
Discover the amazing animals that live in the coldest environments on Earth in this Kahoot about the polar regions. From powerful polar bears and playful seals to emperor penguins and Arctic foxes, students will explore how animals survive freezing temperatures, icy waters, and long, dark winters.
This Kahoot highlights the special adaptations that help polar animals hunt, stay warm, raise their young, and move across snow and ice. Students will also learn how different species depend on one another within polar food chains and how life continues to thrive in these extreme habitats.
Watch the related BBC videos (below), then invite your Grade 3–8 students to test their knowledge and uncover the fascinating world of polar animals.
Celebrate the incredible work of Sir David Attenborough — a storyteller who has helped millions of students and viewers explore the natural world. On the occasion of his 100th birthday on May 8, 2026, we honor his enormous accomplishments in the field of environmental advocacy and his role in revolutionizing nature documentaries.
This playlist brings together 10 unforgettable clips from landmark BBC series like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, and Frozen Planet. Each video showcases amazing wildlife, powerful storytelling, and moments that spark curiosity and wonder.
Perfect for the classroom or at home, these videos help students connect with nature, understand our planet, and feel inspired to protect it.
This Planet Earth Passport is your students' perfect guide (just right for ages 8–11) to exploring some of the most-watched videos clips from the iconic BBC series Planet Earth. And it's right in time for Earth Day on April 22!
You can take part by showing your class our playlist of eight amazing animal videos and using our passport as a companion. Students will follow the map to each location and answer questions at each stop. They'll explore:
- Polar Bears in Antarctica
- Bobcats in the Rocky Mountains
- Catfish in France
- Marine Iguanas in the Galápagos
- Cave Swiftlets in Borneo
- Mouse Lemurs in Madagascar
- Dolphins in Western Australia
- Emperor Penguins in Antarctica
To make copies of the passport, print on both sides flipped on the long edge. Make sure you collate and then cut them in half (there are two passports per set).
March 5, 2026, marks the 20th anniversary of premiere of BBC's Planet Earth (and it's just in time for Earth Day on April 22, too!). The breathtaking and award-winning documentary series, narrated by none other than Sir David Attenborough, highlights the natural wonders of our planet. In honor of this momentous occasion, we've put together some of the most popular clips from this beloved natural history show for students ages 8–14.
Get up close and personal with hydroplaning dolphins. Witness an iguana hatchling's terrifying race to survive, pursued by racer snakes. Watch the first steps of two polar bear cubs emerging from hibernation. More of the real-life magic of our blue marble awaits in this video playlist, part of our Planet Earth Collection. Grab your Planet Earth Passport and start exploring!
Bundle up and join Andy for an Antarctic adventure! In this fun emperor penguins worksheet, you'll:
- Uncover fascinating facts about emperor penguins’ size and survival tricks.
- Test your memory with quick quiz.
- Learn fun vocabulary words like “raft” for penguin groups.
- Draw some fish for the penguins to eat!
Brave the chill and meet the coolest creatures on Earth! This playlist of 11 frosty video clips from BBC landmark shows like Frozen Planet and Planet Earth explores how animals survive some of the coldest places on the planet. Students will learn about adaptations, seasonal behaviors, and the survival strategies that help bison, foxes, seals, grizzlies, snow monkeys, polar bears, lynx, and more thrive in freezing climates.
They’ll discover how winter weather shapes each animal’s daily life; how they find food, conserve energy, protect themselves from predators; and why these icy habitats play a vital role in Earth’s systems.
Welcome to Zavodovski — a volcanic island that lives in the icy waters north of Antarctica. First watch Volcanic Islands Create a Penguin Sanctuary, a short clip from the award-winning BBC series Planet Earth. Sir David Attenborough introduces you to the world’s largest chinstrap penguin colony, which thrives despite (and in some cases, because of) its treacherous seas and active volcano.
Once your students have watched the video, invite them to check for understanding with this quick, 8-question quiz!
Bring your students on an icy exploration of the polar ecosystem! The Arctic and Antarctica may look frozen and empty at first glance, but they’re full of life perfectly adapted to the cold.
✨ Perfect for grades 3–8, here’s what you need to bring ecosystems to life:
- Iconic BBC Videos: Share the clips on this page to introduce the location, plants, animals, and climate of the polar regions. (Don't miss the narwhals and emperor penguins!) Brought to you by world-class BBC programs like Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, and Seven Worlds, One Planet.
- Free Printable: Use the Polar Brochure Template to help students pull it all together in an ecosystem report with facts they’ve learned (and a little extra research).
It’s everything you need to make ecosystems easy to teach and truly memorable for your students.
Dive into the wonders of Antarctica with this multi-grade lesson collection! Tailored for K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12, each unit includes engaging activities, thought-provoking discussions, and hands-on projects to uncover the mysteries of the frozen continent. Enhance your teaching with stunning BBC video clips showcasing Antarctic wildlife, research stations, and breathtaking icy landscapes. Printable resources like animal fact sheets, scientist journal templates, and conservation challenges bring the learning to life for your students. Perfect for science, geography, and environmental lessons!
Sometimes a discovery doesn't happen in the field — it happens decades later, in a drawer.
In the 1980s, an Antarctic expedition recovered a fossil and recorded it simply as "vertebra of a large reptile" in a field notebook. That single line was all anyone knew about it for the next 40 years.
It wasn't until paleontologist Dr. Mark Evans revisited old research and notes that the fossil was properly identified — as the first dinosaur bone ever found in Antarctica. Its distinctive shape points to a Titanosaur, the largest dinosaur to ever walk the Earth.
The bone had been sitting in a collection the entire time. What changed wasn't the fossil — it was someone finally looking at it with the right knowledge asking the right questions.
Scientists have found some very old ice. No, it’s not bag of frozen peas that have been in your freezer for three years (which means someone’s not eating their vegetables). It’s actually cores of Antarctic ice, the oldest that have ever been collected, that go back over a million years.
Researchers are keeping almost 200 pieces of meter-long ice cores that were drilled from a depth of almost 3 km over the course of four years. After careful preservation, the ice now needs to be melted in order to reveal the rich environmental history that the ice has to offer. When melted carefully and incredibly slowly, scientists can see how the Earth changed over time, including variations in temperature, snowfall, and wind, because the tiny bubbles give a snapshot of carbon dioxide levels.
Studying this old ice will help scientists understand our environment today. For example, the concentration of greenhouse gasses we see today is higher than they have been in the past 800,000 years. To understand how the climate might change in the future, we need to learn about how it’s changed in the past.
Research in Antarctica is important, but it’s not the most accessible place — have fun finding an Uber willing to take you (and your lab equipment) all the way there! Scientists no longer have to rely on foot travel, as they did decades ago, but taking to the air needs a bit of extra thought, because the technology has to work in Antarctica’s severe weather.
A promising solution is a new drone, tested in a part of North Wales known as “Snowdonia,” where the frigid temperatures put the drone through its cold weather paces. The drone has a few benefits — it doesn’t need a pilot on board (so it can go to remote places), it can travel up to 1000 km in one trip, and needs significantly less fuel than a normal plane. It does still need someone controlling it from the ground, but this can be from a computer, at base, perhaps with a mug of hot cocoa.
Researchers Rebecca and Tom will be conducting Antarctic research with this drone, with the goal of using radar on the drone to draw a picture of what’s under the ice sheets, to help predict how fast they could melt.
Discover the amazing animals that live in the coldest environments on Earth in this Kahoot about the polar regions. From powerful polar bears and playful seals to emperor penguins and Arctic foxes, students will explore how animals survive freezing temperatures, icy waters, and long, dark winters.
This Kahoot highlights the special adaptations that help polar animals hunt, stay warm, raise their young, and move across snow and ice. Students will also learn how different species depend on one another within polar food chains and how life continues to thrive in these extreme habitats.
Watch the related BBC videos (below), then invite your Grade 3–8 students to test their knowledge and uncover the fascinating world of polar animals.
Celebrate the incredible work of Sir David Attenborough — a storyteller who has helped millions of students and viewers explore the natural world. On the occasion of his 100th birthday on May 8, 2026, we honor his enormous accomplishments in the field of environmental advocacy and his role in revolutionizing nature documentaries.
This playlist brings together 10 unforgettable clips from landmark BBC series like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, and Frozen Planet. Each video showcases amazing wildlife, powerful storytelling, and moments that spark curiosity and wonder.
Perfect for the classroom or at home, these videos help students connect with nature, understand our planet, and feel inspired to protect it.
This Planet Earth Passport is your students' perfect guide (just right for ages 8–11) to exploring some of the most-watched videos clips from the iconic BBC series Planet Earth. And it's right in time for Earth Day on April 22!
You can take part by showing your class our playlist of eight amazing animal videos and using our passport as a companion. Students will follow the map to each location and answer questions at each stop. They'll explore:
- Polar Bears in Antarctica
- Bobcats in the Rocky Mountains
- Catfish in France
- Marine Iguanas in the Galápagos
- Cave Swiftlets in Borneo
- Mouse Lemurs in Madagascar
- Dolphins in Western Australia
- Emperor Penguins in Antarctica
To make copies of the passport, print on both sides flipped on the long edge. Make sure you collate and then cut them in half (there are two passports per set).
March 5, 2026, marks the 20th anniversary of premiere of BBC's Planet Earth (and it's just in time for Earth Day on April 22, too!). The breathtaking and award-winning documentary series, narrated by none other than Sir David Attenborough, highlights the natural wonders of our planet. In honor of this momentous occasion, we've put together some of the most popular clips from this beloved natural history show for students ages 8–14.
Get up close and personal with hydroplaning dolphins. Witness an iguana hatchling's terrifying race to survive, pursued by racer snakes. Watch the first steps of two polar bear cubs emerging from hibernation. More of the real-life magic of our blue marble awaits in this video playlist, part of our Planet Earth Collection. Grab your Planet Earth Passport and start exploring!
Bundle up and join Andy for an Antarctic adventure! In this fun emperor penguins worksheet, you'll:
- Uncover fascinating facts about emperor penguins’ size and survival tricks.
- Test your memory with quick quiz.
- Learn fun vocabulary words like “raft” for penguin groups.
- Draw some fish for the penguins to eat!
Brave the chill and meet the coolest creatures on Earth! This playlist of 11 frosty video clips from BBC landmark shows like Frozen Planet and Planet Earth explores how animals survive some of the coldest places on the planet. Students will learn about adaptations, seasonal behaviors, and the survival strategies that help bison, foxes, seals, grizzlies, snow monkeys, polar bears, lynx, and more thrive in freezing climates.
They’ll discover how winter weather shapes each animal’s daily life; how they find food, conserve energy, protect themselves from predators; and why these icy habitats play a vital role in Earth’s systems.
Welcome to Zavodovski — a volcanic island that lives in the icy waters north of Antarctica. First watch Volcanic Islands Create a Penguin Sanctuary, a short clip from the award-winning BBC series Planet Earth. Sir David Attenborough introduces you to the world’s largest chinstrap penguin colony, which thrives despite (and in some cases, because of) its treacherous seas and active volcano.
Once your students have watched the video, invite them to check for understanding with this quick, 8-question quiz!