Curated OER
Weather or Not
Hypothetical meteorologists' quotes help young earth scientists become acclimated to weather vocabulary. The terms are all related to air masses and forms of precipitation. This is a fun way to discover if your learners are truly...
Curated OER
Ocean Commotion Activity - Dioramas
Groups make a model of an Ocean Commotion exhibit based on what they saw during the fieldtrip. These dioramas can be used as an informal assessment of student knowledge acquired at Ocean Commotion.
Curated OER
Get Physically Active
Students discover the importance of water. In this physical education science instructional activity, students consider mental and physical activities. Students find their pulse and measure their heart rate. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Mystery Marauders
Students investigate plants with pest damage. In this plant life lesson, students study plants that have been damaged by insects. Students try to discover which insects are causing the damage.
Curated OER
Seas in Motion
Students analyze wave movement. In this Science lesson, students use items that float to observe waves and currents. Students record and discuss their observations.
Curated OER
The Old White Sheet Trick
Students attract night animals. In this Science lesson, students use a large white surface and a light at night. Students observe and record what they see.
Curated OER
Hopper Circus
Students explore biology by participating in an insect identification activity. In this grasshopper lesson, students discuss the types of insects who jump high and identify their anatomical parts. Students collect a group of "hopper"...
Curated OER
Food Chain Checkers
Students model the food chain. In this instructional activity, students play a game resembling checkers that simulates the food chain within the ocean. Students make changes to the game to better represent how the food chain operates.
Curated OER
Winter Wonderland - Winter Olympics and the Water Cycle
After a concise introduction to the water cycle, junior meteorologists access NOAA's average snowfall data. They choose a city to examine in terms of precipitation. Then they look at historical snowfall data and use it to predict snow...
Curated OER
Build a Model Submarine
Learners form lab groups and work together to construct a submarine out of a soda bottle. Next, they observe its action in a tub of water as the inner pressure is changed. It is an engaging experiment. However, links to outside resources...
Curated OER
Tides - The Ins and Outs of Tides
Get your junior oceanographers to generate tidal prediction graphs on an interactive website. They will feel like experts in the field, or shall we say, experts in the ocean! This is a brief, but worthwhile activity that could be used to...
Curated OER
Volcanoes!: The Mountain Blows its Top
Students observe two demonstrations to conclude why bulge developed on the north flank of Mount St. Helens and conclude that when the "cap" was removed the pressure inside the volcano was suddenly released causing the violent eruption.
Curated OER
Volcanoes!: Forecasting the Path of Mudflows
Learners construct a mockup of a volcano by crumbling up newspapers and piling them into the shape of a volcano. They place a tarp over the newspapers making sure the tarp is large enough to simulate a flat area at the volcano's base....
Curated OER
Volcanoes!: The Dangers of Snow and Ice
Students observe a demonstration of how melting snow and ice can contribute to mudflows. They then observea list of continents with the number of snow and ice covered mountains on each continent and discuss. They then label a group of...
Curated OER
Volcanoes!: Eyewitness Accounts
Students review previous lessons about volcanoes and name the phenomena they think the eyewitnesses of the Mount St. Helens witnessed. They play the roles of reporter, eyewitness and scientists who are serving on a committee...
Curated OER
Land and People: Cape Cod Activity 1
Students make a model aquifer to study the uniqueness of Cape Cod's ground-water system. Using the model., they determine how easily contamination spreads in the aquifer system by completing and recording three activities. Using the...
Curated OER
Our Nation's Natural Disasters
Sixth graders classify their regions' natural disaster(s). Within this lesson students enhance their research skills by utilizing different resources, as well as their writing skills by composing short research papers.
Curated OER
Our Disastrous World
Young scholars explore natural disasters around the world from the experiences of other students, friends and families. They collaborate with countries such as Japan, China, India, Australia, Russia, Great Britain as well as from the...
Curated OER
Sand Explorations
Young scholars experiment with different samples of sand from Maui leeward and windward beaches. They create a sand map to suggest at least one contributing factor for the formation of each beach sample. They test the samples to...
Curated OER
Finding Epicenters
In this earthquake learning exercise, students use the seismographs from different locations to determine the epicenter for the earthquake. Students plot the epicenter on a map. This learning exercise has 1 graphic organizer.
Curated OER
Lesson 4: Fire, Rock, and Water
You can demonstrate the destructive force of volcanic mudflows to your early earth scientists using this lesson plan. Messy, but memorable, the two demonstrations require some preparation. Use one or both! Included is a link to activity...
Curated OER
How Volcanoes Grow
Students create models of the three major types of volcanoes and determine how a volcano's shape is related to the type of material erupted. They then observe a demonstration that simulates the nature of two volcanic materials: lava and...
Curated OER
Lesson 2 Activity 2: Mapping Mount St. Helens
Students use topographic map skills to interpret impact of the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens on the volcano's topography, and draw profile views of Mount St. Helens before and after the May 18, 1980, eruption.
Curated OER
How Volcanoes Grow
Learners build models of the three major types of volcanoes and see how a volcano's shape is related to the type of material it erupts. As a class, they observe a demonstration that simulates the nature of two volcanic materials: lava...