Is your current lesson plan for salt and freshwater literacy leaving you high and dry? If so, dive into part one of a seven-part series that explores the physical features of Earth's salt and freshwater sources. Junior hydrologists...

Introduce your earth science enthusiasts to the earth's energy budget. Teach them using an informative set of slides that include illuminating lecturer's notes, relevant vocabulary, embedded animations, colorful satellite maps, and a...

Bacteria outnumber all other forms of life on Earth. Scholars observe the growth of bacteria in petri dishes to understand their role in maintaining good health. Then, they observe the growth of bacteria after they introduce...

Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...

Is the expansion of American corporations abroad a good or bad thing? After examining the global operations of Ford Motor Company, McDonald's, and Walmart, class members are asked to evaluate the impact of globalization and...

Use a variety of whole fruits to represent the different planets in the solar system to introduce scale sizes to your math or space science class. They follow suit by creating a non-scaled model of the solar system using specific-colored...

Attracted class members to an activity-packed journey through the science behind the invisible forces at work all around us. From jump rope generators to junkyard wars, there's never a dull moment when eighth grade physics scholars...

With the abundance of food products we can easily access in our society today, it is easy to forget the toll this can take on our global environment. Young learners will discover how the transition to agriculture and domesticated living...

Very specific diameters are given for blowing up three different balloons to represent, in scale, the moon, Earth, and Mars. In groups of three, amateur astronomers explore scale measurements and distance in space.

Now you see it, now you don't. Our moon seems to pull a disappearing act from time to time—but why? Take your seventh grade scientists above and beyond to discover the truth about the moon and the role it plays in Earth's little...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Young geologists piece together the puzzle of plate tectonics in an earth science lesson. Given a physical map of the world, they search for land formations that indicate the location of different types of plate boundaries.

When we think of ocean exploration, many of us have visions of sunken pirate ships full of treasure or mysterious creatures of the deep. What really motivates deep-sea investigation? The first in a series of diverse six-part lessons...

Learners interpret data from a three-dimensional array of current monitors to determine an overall pattern of water circulation. They hypothesize what effect an observed water circulation pattern might have on seamount fauna. A very...

Science can be quite tasty. A delectable unit from NASA shows learners why it's important to consider food, nutrition, and health in space. Four lessons explore the idea in great depth, including testing cookie recipes. Along the way,...

Over four weeks, third graders participate in lessons that boost spelling, grammar, reading, and writing skills. Scholars explore spelling patterns, suffixes, singular and plural possessive nouns, quotations, and conjunctions....

Almost every ancient culture observed the stars and saw pictures in the patterns. Studying stars allowed them to guide travelers, determine when to plant crops, when to harvest food, and the stories surrounding the images include some of...

Winter, spring, summer, and fall—take the learning of the seasons beyond the elementary level to the middle school classroom. Curious learners begin by watching videos about the seasons and the rotation of planet Earth. Then,...

Investigate the fascinating, yet terrifying phenomenon of hurricanes from the safety of your classroom using this earth science unit. Focusing on developing young scientists' spacial thinking skills, these lessons engage...

Why does it look like there is a man on the moon? Why does the moon look different every night? These are the focus questions of a lesson that prompts class members to observe and record the nightly changes of Earth's natural...

How do scientists provide evidence to support the theories they put forth? What clues do they put together to create these theories? After watching West of the West's documentary Island Rotation class members engage in a series of...

It's time to boldly go where your class has not gone before! The introductory lesson in a five-part series takes young oceanographers aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos to begin a study of ocean exploration. The lesson includes a comparison of...

The moon takes just over 27 days to orbit around Earth. Young scientists position themselves as the earth as they rotate around the sun and hold the moon. This allows them to observe the patterns and phases of the moon.

What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...