Curated OER
Rock Cycle
Fourth graders participate in a Rock Cycle game to gain an understanding of the cycles that form metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks.
NOAA
Make Your Own Volcano!
Make a volcano erupt in your own classroom! Young scientists use household and craft materials to model and simulate the eruption of a volcano.
Curated OER
Rockin' Chalk
Fourth graders access prior knowledge of rocks and minerals. In this petroglyphs lesson, 4th graders become familiar with artwork on rocks. Students create original artworks using rock art.
Curated OER
A Science Experiment With Crayfish
A crayfish can lead to a science experiment involving habitats, animal behavior, and anatomy..
Curated OER
Rock On
Fourth graders create a powerpint presentation to inform their classmates about a selected type of rock. Students are divided into groups to research a particular type of rock. Each group researches their topic using traditional and...
Curated OER
This is Your Rock, This is My Rock
Fourth graders review the types of rocks and minerals they see in photographs. Individually, they are shown a sample of rocks or minerals and classify them based on their characteristics. They give their observations to another...
Micron Technology Foundation
States of Matter
Solids, liquids, gasses oh my! Young scientists will be amazed when they try this experiment, which uses dry ice to discover the states of matter through sublimation.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
New England's Ground Water Resources
Learn all about where ground water is stored, how it moves, and how it is accessed in a detailed and thorough 10-page reading. Whether supplementing reading for an existing environmental or earth science course or providing background...
Curated OER
Mini-Landslide
Students explore how different materials (sand, gravel, lava rock) with different water contents on different slopes result in landslides of different severity. They measure the severity by how far the landslide debris extends into model...
Curated OER
Rock Discovery
Fourth graders identify rocks in this discovery lesson by examining rock characteristics and processes. They identify basic properties of minerals and rocks. They revise their theories of the natural world, once they see and learn new...
Curated OER
Classifying Rocks and Minerals
Students identify rock types by observing key characteristics. Describe the differences between minerals and rocks. Observe rocks using a magnifying glass and draw shapes and colors of the minerals.
NASA
NASA
Everything you have ever wanted to know about our solar system, space exploration, and more can be found here. Be prepared to clear your schedule; you will be sucked into the app like a star into a black hole.
Curated OER
Create Your Own Rock!
Fourth graders create and name their own rock by combining paper minerals. They define rock and mineral, examine samples of minerals, and using colored scrap paper, arrange and glue the pieces of paper to represent a new mineral.
Bethel School District
Observations and Inference
What's the difference between qualitative and quantitative observations? Learners make observations, inferences, and predictions about their environment with a set of questions and activities that are applicable to either language arts...
Curated OER
This Mine of Mine
Students explore natural resources by conducting a geology experiment in class. In this mineral mining lesson, students discuss the types of geological material that can be found when mining and the uses for these resources such as coal....
Curated OER
Seed to Soup Organic Garden
Have your young biologists visit decomposition stations as they explore the process of organic material. This activity involves some set-up as kids will be visiting 13 desks to collect colored paper each representing a different element...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
What is the Water Cycle? Activity B
Curious physical scientists follow a lesson on the properties of water with this lesson on distillation. They observe a miniature water cycle model that filters dirty water into clean water. These two lessons combined are an enriching...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels vs. Alternative Fueling Systems
Fourth graders brainstorm the differences between the fossil fuels that people use in their transportation now and what they could use to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. They use a variety of techniques from webquests to writing...
Curated OER
Making Rocks
Students use their imaginations in order to journey to the center of the earth to find different types of minerals. They create minerals using playdough and create scientific drawings of them. Finally, students create a map to locate the...
Curated OER
Mineral Magic
Students classify rocks and minerals according to their characteristics, after finding the similarities and differences of school supplies and pasta.
Curated OER
Fossil Inferences
Fourth graders use their knowledge about fossils to arrange fossil pictures in sequence from oldest to youngest. They explain how fossils can be used to make inferences about past life, climate, geology, and environments and discover...
Curated OER
Primary Energy Sources Pros and Cons
Students explore the different types of renewable and nonrenewable energy sources. In this earth science activity, students discuss the pros and cons of each type. They conduct a variety of experiments on renewable energy.
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Earth Has Many Layers
Students conduct an experiment. In this Earth's layers lesson, students learn about soil, sand and rock. They complete their own Jell-O Mountain and investigate the Earth's layers on-line.
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach
Hydrology and Landforms
Three days of erosion exploration await your elementary geologists. Learners begin by examining rivers via Google Earth, then they model water flow in sand, and finally, they identify resulting landforms. This lesson is written...