Your task today: count all the trees on a tree farm. To complete the assignment, learners first estimate the number of trees on a tree farm using random sampling. To improve their own response they then evaluate provided...

Students grow duckweed, observe what happens when an organism population is allowed to grow without predation or competition, view videos about invasive species, and develop a proposal for controlling the growth of an invasive species in...

Space science stars journey through our night sky and take virtual photos of galaxies to investigate simple random samples. Higher math is used to analyze the data collected. Copy the evaluation/assessment questions onto a handout...

What's that buzzing in your ear? An insightful lesson about genetically modified mosquitoes! Partnered pupils explore the creation, release, and monitoring of mosquitoes designed to reduce the mosquito population. After watching a video,...

Students test the factors that influence the rate at which a virus spreads through a population. They complete a lab activity then discuss data collected and review and answer a set of questions.

Students examine macro-invertebrates in order to better understand their link to the food web. Working in groups, they record observations of several areas of a stream or river, collect samples from the river bottom, and identify the...

Students learn how to count animal populations by the Mark and Recapture method. In this counting animal populations lesson plan, students begin by predicting amounts of different candies in a jar. Students then simulate using beans, two...

Students design an investigation using yeast. In this environmental engineering lesson, students design an investigation to determine how environmental factors affect the growth of yeast. They will collect quantitative data and discuss...

Ninth graders discover how statistics are used to interpret results of scientific experiments. Students write hypotheses and test the hypotheses by collecting data and organizing the data. Students graph their data to produce a visual....

Students are taught how to format and enter data into an Excel spreadsheet. They make a graph, and interpret graphed data. Students discuss the possible impacts of zebra mussels on the Hudson river. They graph zebra mussel data.

Over the course of three class periods, middle schoolers design an experiment to provide learner input to administration about which rock band to invite to play at school. They practice several random sampling exercises, all well...

Students experiment with pea pods to observe/appreciate the diversity of individuals within a population, and to explain of how dominant and recessive traits, genotypes, and phenotypes help produce variation in a population.

This is an effective simulation of how communicable diseases such as AIDS can be spread throughout a population. Classmates exchange samples from their individual cups of liquid: one of them containing a dilute NaOH solution, and the...

A link to a comprehensive macroinvertebrate guide gives you the information needed to prepare for this field study activity. Sample macroinvertebrates are collected from areas representing different environmental conditions. Junior...

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...

Students study human population traits. In this science lesson plan, students gain an understanding of the terms dominant, recessive, haploid (monoploid), diploid, genotype, phenotype, scientific sampling, and scientific modeling as they...

Learners create animal print casts from molds in the classroom. They use the cast patterns to identify animal prints on a field trip in which they locate animal tracks, identify the location with GPS and create field casts of the...

Students study the roles that women have played in science throughout history. They work in small groups while visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Sixth graders participate in an activity in which colored jelly beans represent fish in a lake--10 green jellybeans per "lake" representing tagged fish. They draw from the beans (fish) and record the number of tagged fish they draw...

Students practice the scientific method in the classroom, either in preparation or as a substitution for real-world field experience. They examine a simulated biodiversity research situation, using a "mini-plot" or sampling square...

Fifth graders identify the species of plants and animals found in an environment. They compare these findings to plant and animal species found in an unlike environment. Students acquire and compare soil samples from the two sites chosen.

Students answer the question, "What environmental problems arise due to animal and human overpopulation and what might need to be done to combat these problems?" They play games, graph data and write proposals about the question.

Students examine the phenotypic variation within a natural population of a single species. They collect data on the species and analyze the data using statistical/spreadsheet software. Students interpret their results and present their...

Seventh graders use paper bags and crackers to simulate a wildlife sampling of salmon. They record data on spreadsheets and determine a formula to estimate salmon populations.