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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Build Your Own Ocean Ecosystem

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
Hold the sea in the palm of your hand! Amateur oceanographers work together to create models of an ocean ecosystem in the sixth and final installment in a series. Raise awareness of global ocean health issues through guided research,...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Animals of the Fire Ice

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
When the sun's rays can't reach the producers in a food web, where does all the energy come from? Extreme environments call for extreme food sources. Young scientists investigate creatures that appear to get their energy from methane...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

The Methane Circus

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
Step right up! An engaging research-centered lesson, the third in a series of six, has young archaeologists study the amazing animals of the Cambrian explosion. Working in groups, they profile a breathtaking and odd creature and learn...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

What Killed the Seeds?

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
Can a coral cure cancer? Take seventh and eighth grade science sleuths to the underwater drugstore for an investigation into emerging pharmaceutical research. The fifth installment in a series of six has classmates research the wealth of...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Oceans of Energy

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
Are the earth's oceans really just giant batteries, waiting for their energy to be harnessed? Middle school mechanical engineers will be shocked by the amazing amount of energy that forms around them after diving into part four of a...
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Lesson Plan
NOAA

Where Have All the Glaciers Gone?

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
What happens when ice melts? Well ... water happens. When that melting ice is a glacier, the amount of water that results produces change throughout the world. Middle school science sleuths uncover the truth about global warming, the...
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Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

What’s Up with Matter?

For Teachers 6th Standards
Take a "conservative" approach to planning your next unit on mass and matter! What better way to answer "But where did the gas go?" than with a lab designed to promote good report writing, research skills, and detailed observation. The...
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Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

Totally Tides

For Teachers 7th Standards
Surf's up, big kahunas! How do surfers know when the big waves will appear? They use science! Over the course of five days, dive in to the inner workings of tidal waves and learn to predict sea levels with the moon as your guide.
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Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

Biome Basics with a Disastrous Twist

For Teachers 7th Standards
Bored with your current biome bag of tricks? This bundle is a bountiful bag of biome fun! Travel the globe with seventh graders and explore the biotic and abiotic factors that define our world's biomes. Then, introduce a little chaos to...
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Lesson Plan
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum

Red States/Blue States: Mapping the Presidential Election

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Young historians investigate how voting patterns have changed by comparing the outcome of the 1960 election to the outcome of the recent election. A creative final assessment has participants making a news show wherein they provide...
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Department of Archives and History

Clotilde, The Last Slave Ship

For Teachers 4th - 11th Standards
The Clotilde was the last known ship to bring slaves from Africa to the United States - good riddance! Dive into the details of the ship, its cargo, origin, and route, and learn about the future of the Africans on board with a...
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Lesson Plan
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Learning to Give

Why Volunteer?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Inspire scholars to volunteer their time to make a positive change in their community. With help from research, a public speaker, and reflection, learners define and asses what it takes to be a volunteer in a business, non-profit,...
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Interactive
Giraffe Heroes Project

It’s Up to Us

For Teachers 6th - 12th
The Giraffe Heroes Program is designed for teens willing to stick their necks out to make a difference, and to create community service projects that tackle real world problems. The resource guides teens to choose an issue, design a...
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Unit Plan
Washington University in St. Louis

Teaching Jazz as American Culture

For Students 6th - 12th
Jazz and the City, Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement, Jazz and Gender, Jazz and Literature, Jazz and the Arts, Jazz and Film. Here's a packet of unit plans organized around themes that reflect American culture. Each unit examines how...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Master P in the House: An All School Energy and Climate Change Plan

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
A person in the US uses 20 times more energy than a person in India—that's a drastic difference! The final instructional activity in the 12-part series goes back to the initial energy audits, analyzes which room showed the most...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

Yesterday: Our Energy Needs Over Time

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
How has our relationship to energy changed over time? An engaging exploration challenges learners to create a timeline showing human energy needs and uses over time. Scholars review what timelines are, choose a 50-year period in history...
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Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

Transformation: Energy in Disguise

For Teachers 6th Standards
Energy transformations happen everywhere, every second of the day. The energy transformation common to most scholars is potential and kinetic energy. The three-week lesson covers multiple types of energy transformations through...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

It's All in the Name: Weather Versus Climate

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
What goes up when rain comes down? An umbrella! Activity eight in the series of 12 explores weather and climate. In pairs, participants analyze maps, watch a short video, create a weather forecast, and complete a reading to determine the...
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Lesson Plan
National Wildlife Federation

By Air, Land, or Sea: The Formation and Location of Our Natural Resources

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Coal forms from the ancient remains of plants that were alive on Earth before the dinosaurs! Scholars use their t-charts from the previous instructional activity over resources and research to determine if their information is correct....
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Recent Weather Patterns

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
Decide whether weather is changing! A two-part activity first challenges classes to review the differences between weather and climate. Once finished, individuals then analyze historical data to determine if climate change is happening...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Climate Change Around the World

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
It is unknown if cloud cover increases in response to carbon dioxide levels changing, helping climate change slow down, or if cloud cover decreases, allowing Earth to warm faster. Part four in the series of five lessons has classes...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Personal Choices and the Planet

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
The last activity in the series of four has individuals determine steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprints and then analyze their schools' recycling programs. Through a sustainability audit, they identify how and where their...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Greenhouse Gas Emissions – Natural and Human Causes

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
Part three in the series of seven has pupils discussing the different greenhouses gases, learning about the carbon cycle, and then watching a short video about the carbon cycle. Based on their knowledge, individuals complete a greenhouse...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
The fourth activity in a series of five has classes participate in a jigsaw to learn about global impacts of climate change and then share their new information with a home group. Groups then research impacts of climate change (droughts,...