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A Journey to Language Arts
Students explore events of the Lewis & Clark expedition. Students observe a PowerPoint presentation. They demonstrate journal writing using first person point of view. Students describe life in North America during the early 1800s.
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Block & Tackle
Students participate in a lab experiment in which they discover the need for so many blocks and tackles on sailing ships. In groups, they make and test their predictions and practice measuring objects in various units. They record and...
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How Electronics Come to Us: Distribution and Use
Students identify environmental challenges that can be solved throughout a product's life cycle. They experiment and examine how we can choose and use products in an environmentally responsible manner. Each student is also involved in...
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Radish Seed Garden
Fifth graders explore the effects of overpopulation in an ecosystem while applying the scientific method. They discuss overpopulation and its meaning. Students as an organism competes for space in an overpopulated area. They plant...
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All Caught Up!
Students discover the difficulty involved in trying to isolate a target species by fisherman. They discuss this issue and its problems as a class. They examine how bycatching affects their lives.
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Hey, Look Me Over!
Students make observations about mealworms using hand lenses, rulers, and cotton swabs. Students complete their own mealworm observation chart, then they share their observations with the class. This is one station out of five in an...
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Let Your Ears Do the Walking
Students examine the effects of bycatching on water environments. They discover how echolocation works. They participate in a simulation of the process to use it while walking blindfolded.
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Habitat Choice in Woodbugs
Students investigate woodbugs. In this scientific investigation activity, students explore the steps scientists take when conducting an investigation using live specimens. Students explore habitat preferences for woodbugs in various...
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Pond and Pond Organisms
Students explore pond ecosystems. For this pond organism activity, students will use pond water and a plastic bad in order to locate and identify freshwater organisms. The activity is designed for younger grades, but includes an...
Tech Museum of Innovation
Seed Dispersal
Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!
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Exploration of "Pillbugs"
Fifth graders define vocabulary terms, identify the characteristics of a pillbug, and create a dichotomous key. Then they examine the pillbugs and make observations and record these observations. Finally, 5th graders observe specific...
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Letters from the Japanese American Internment
Students examine letters of Japanese-American children during internment in World War II. They discover what it was like in the camps and how they were treated once they were released. They also view photographs of the camps.
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Oyster Morphs: Adaptations to the Environment
Students demonstrate how organisms adapt to their environment. They examine prey and predators, natural selection, and adaptations by representing oyster morph.
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Clean Sweep
Students organize and conduct a cleanup of a local beach, lake, or stream. They keep track of the types and amounts picked up and analyze this information in the classroom.
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Hygiene Potato Graphs
Fifth graders discuss the importance of proper hygiene. After watching their teacher peel potatoes, they discuss why she was wearing rubber gloves. They demonstrate how to wash their hands properly and why one should never touch...
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The Geographic Question
Learners are introduced to the characteristics of a river system. In groups, they discover how rivers are formed and how it flows. They discuss the relationship between the river system and people and develop ways to keep the river...
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Electric Circuits
Students explore energy by completing an electricity worksheet. In this conductors lesson, students define the energy related vocabulary terms circuit, electronics, conductor and semi-conductor before examining computer chips in class....
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Com-Post With Us? Learn About Recycling While Having Fun
Students examine the importance of recycling to help the environment. In groups, they make a compost bin on the school grounds recording how the material changes from week to week. They collect other materials for recycling like cell...
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Egyptians as Engineers
Student design and build Lego vehicles that drag given amount of weight up an incline. They show how this demonstrates Egyptian methods of pyramid construction.
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The Sound of Calm
Students examine the relationships that exist between ocean currents, wind and climate. Using those relationships, they discuss how they affect the oceans. They create their own music to represent the sounds of the ocean and share them...