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River Research
Students use the internet to research the streams and rivers found in Illinois. Using the information, they identify and describe the rivers and streams along with the physical characteristics of a river ecosystem. They share what they...
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Poetry and Nature
Young scholars observe an object in nature and record them. In groups, they create a group poem about the same object. They create their own poem based on another object using other their senses to help them. They share their poems with...
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Aquatic Exotics
Students identify and describe the aquatic exotic species found in Illinois. Using the internet, they research the species origins and discover their effects on native species in the area. They discuss how appropriate it is to introduce...
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Prairie Math
Students work together to build models of prairie plants. Using the model, they estimate the height and then measure them using metric and standard units. They write a fraction to represent their part of the whole set and compare and...
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Easy Street
Students work together to complete a simulation on drought days. As a class, they discuss their results and compare water usage of the past to current numbers. After reading short excerpts, they answer discussion questions and review as...
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Go To The Head of the Cloud
Students pretend they are water droplets traveling through the water cycle. Using their text, they discover the steps in the cycle and the different paths water can take. They write a report about their journey through the water cycle...
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Leach Out and Touch Someone
Pupils discuss how groundwater becomes polluted. In groups, they design and create models of groundwater pollution sources. They demonstrate to the class how the water may become contaminated from local and nonlocal pollution sources.
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Migration Activation
Pupils play the role of migrating birds. As a class, they simulate a migration of birds to one place and back again. They relate their habitat size and changes to their current population numbers. They discover the many dangers of...
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Photosynthesis
Students are introduced to the process of photosynthesis. In groups, they test the effects of the lack of sunlight on plant leaves and compare the results with their hypothesis. They note the characteristics that plants and animals share...
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What's Up with Waste?
Fifth graders design a brochure that identifies types of solid waste that are often improperly disposed, explains the effects of this disposal and proposes a solution to the problem. The read humorous books, define vocabulary words and...
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Sense of Place: No River Too Wide-Bridges
Fifth graders discover the history of their hometown Des Moines River. In this U.S. Geography instructional activity students speak with Iowans that tell stories of the settlers and early villages near the Des Moines River. Students...
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Testing for Vitamin C in Different Drinks and Foods
Students examine the importance of vitamin c in their diets and the sources that it comes from. In this vitamin activity students complete hands on activities, interpret data and make a bar graph.
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We Care About Fire Safety
Learners investigate the hazards of fires and how to best protect themselves and their family. In this home safety lesson, students examine the importance of a smoke detector and discover how many homes are missing them among their...
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Water-The Liquid Gold
Students investigate the necessity of water for the survival of plants, animals, and people. They explore the affect that water has on human and natural environments through literature, field trips, and discussions.
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Recycling & Our Environment
Students present information about recycling to other students. In this environmental protection lesson, students create a puppet show or commercial about the importance of recycling for other students to view.
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Sun and Earth
Young scholars explore the sun, its structure, how big it is and how far away it is. In this solar system lesson students complete a lab activity on dew point and weather.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Learners participate in a recycling campaign. In this recycling lesson, students create an Earth Day display for a local store. Learners design a mural as a reminder to people of ways to reduce, reuse and recycle.
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Creek Detectives WISE On-line Research Community
Learners investigate ways people cause harm to the environment. In this environmental lesson, students explore a case study on the Internet. Learners explore all of the online activities and collect data for a presentation.
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Fit for Our Future
Students understand the importance of physical fitness as part of a healthy lifestyle. In this health lesson students create a display and presentation about what they learned.
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Cool! Awesome! What is it?
Students work in small groups to brainstorm hypotheses about mysterious science photographs, read and interpret answers to the science photographs, cooperatively develop a set of clues for the images and develop their own science photo...
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Where Do Things Come From?
Second graders examine the recycling process. In this recycling lesson, 2nd graders discuss the reasons for recycling and create storyboards to show where a specific material comes from. Students complete a worksheet as a follow-up...
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Ecology Scavenger Hunt
Who doesn't love a scavenger hunt? Have your class complete a scavenger hunt to become familiar with ecology in this engaging lesson that has them organize their items on a paper bag to illustrate information. Furthermore, learners will...
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The Water Cycle
Young scholars simulate the water cycle. In this water cycle instructional activity, students create a model of the water cycle. Young scholars draw the water cycle and write a paragraph explaining their drawing.
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Sharks
Pupils research sharks, the food chain, and the water habitat shared by humans and sharks.