Curated OER
Water Around Us
Students create a collage of human land use activities around a body of water. Students evaluate the effects of different kinds of land use on wetland habitats, and create a list of pros and cons for each land use.
American Museum of Natural History
Journey to the Bottom of the Sea
Properties of water make it essential for the life of marine species. Learners complete an online game to answer questions about the role water fulfills for organisms in ocean habitats. The game emphasizes the properties of water and how...
Curated OER
Backyard Habitats
Students identify habitat elements. They create a habitat in a backyard, on a balcony, at a workplace, or in a schoolyard and provide the four basic requirements of wildlife survival (food, water, cover, and places to raise young). They...
Curated OER
Stream Ecology In Wisconsin and Puerto Rico
Students identify the different types of water and explain in what proportions they exist on Earth. They identify and correctly label the parts of the water cycle and how these parts interact with each other. Students identify the...
Curated OER
Mapping The Ocean Floor
Young scholars explore and analyze the bottom structure of underwater habitats. They describe and explain what can't see through the collection and correlation of accurate data. Learners assess that technology is utilized as a tool for...
Curated OER
Who Dirtied the Water?
Learners develop a greater understanding and concern for the plight of our coastal waterways. Students begin to recognize that we are all partially responsible for water pollution.
Curated OER
Sand Shakes & Mud Pies: Investigating Sediment
Take a field trip to a location where water and land meet to study patterns of sediment organization in wet habitats: river or ocean beaches, sand dunes, tidal marshes, the edge of a pond, or a woodland stream. Small groups collect pairs...
Curated OER
Water Quality Sampling
Students explore the water qualities in Texas. They evaluate the water quality of six different samples by observing and smelling them. They present a list of the cups that contained good water quality based on their observations. They...
Curated OER
Plankton in the Air
Here is a lab activity adequate for use with any full lesson on environmental factors that shape animal adaptations or marine animal characteristics. Pupils will discuss the role plankton plays in the environment and filter-feeding...
Curated OER
Biodiversity in Illinois-Pond Habitats
Second graders construct a pond habitat in the classroom using a small swimming pool partially filled with water, real cattails, a tree log adjoining, and plastic animal life appropriate to a pond setting. They examine the frog in detail...
Curated OER
Rocky Intertidal Field Trip
Students investigate tides and the land submerged under them. For this intertidal field trip, Students visit the intertidal zone and observe the habitats and animals that live there. Students view the pools under rocks where...
Curated OER
Modeling Estuaries
Students create a model estuary. In this modeling estuaries instructional activity, students identify characteristics and mix water of varying densities. Students form a hypothesis, conduct an experiment, and analyze the results.
Curated OER
Marine & Aquatic Habitats -- Journey of a Drop of Water Through a Watershed
Students discuss pollution and the steps in the hydrologic cycle. They follow a drop of water through a watershed simulation. They discover the components of a water cleaning system as well.
Ocean Explorer
Easy as Pi
Seamounts are large, extinct volcanoes that rise up from the bottom of the ocean floor. They are a relatively new landform in the scientific community, and this lesson invites students to learn about the amazing diversity of life found...
Curated OER
Boston Harbor Cruise: A Shoreline Survey
The students take a harbor cruise, photograph, and draw shore line features attending to evidence of human impact/consequences, and its cost on marine/land animal habitats vegetation, weather patterns, signs of erosion, and the water...
Curated OER
A Wild Chain Reaction
Learners explore habitats. In this habitat lesson, students break into groups and are labeled as a part of a habitat. Learners then do an activity with yarn that shows how all of the parts are connected and depend on each...
Curated OER
Kure Waste Chase Game Lesson
Students work together to identify marine debris. They explain the effect of the debris on various ecosystems. They draw different types of ocean currents as well.
Curated OER
How would an oil spill affect a Marine Sanctuary?
Students explore the concept of environmental stewardship. For this science lesson, students discover how scientists assess damages to the environment following oil spills. Students conduct a simulation of a public meeting in order to...
Curated OER
Two Rivers Ran Through It
Sixth graders discover the problems that early Mesototamian farmers faced while developing agriculture in the land between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. They design a working model that solves those unique challenges.
Curated OER
Pond and Pond Organisms
Students explore pond ecosystems. In 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...
Curated OER
Plants And Animals in the Local Environment
Pupils observe the various living things they can find outside their playground making sure to look both on the ground and in the air. They develop a large poster Venn digram, as a class, of plants and animals that live in the air, on...
NOAA
What's New?
Biodiversity in some areas is more diverse than one might think. Using a two-day lesson, pupils consider the biodiversity of the Hudson Canyon and the characteristics of one organism. They begin with an analysis of the common earthworm...
Curated OER
Dynamic Wetlands
Students construct and observe a model of two different types of wetlands. In this wetlands lesson, students create a model of a wetland with constant drainage and a wetland that maintains a well-saturated soil. Students observe and...
Curated OER
Science: Where the Worms Live
Young scholars build mine-earthworm habitats to discover their niche in them. They make predictions about what the niche looks like in a week and draw a picture of it. Students notice the tunnels in the soil and how the sand and dirt...