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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Ecosystems 2: Why Are There Cities? A Historical Perspective

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students investigate the importance of food surpluses to the historical development of urban ecosystems.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

PASSENGER PIGEONS: NOMADS LOST

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore the concept and implications of extinction using the example of the Passenger Pigeon, once an extremely abundant species that was completely eliminated by humans.
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Lesson Plan
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science

The Dating Game

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learn about the human's ancestors through the (carbon) Dating Game. Use the script to have your high schoolers act out one round of the game. Once they have the idea, they will research another human ancestor and play a second round the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon: A Publicity Campaign

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the environment by designing a group project.  In this ecology lesson, students identify the man made threats to the Amazon while reading environmentally conscience vocabulary terms.  Students collaborate in groups...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ecosystem Services - Water Purification

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students see that ecosystems provide services to people that are essential to life as we know it. Reporters (drops of water) could interview the trees and soil in the surrounding ecosystems for news stories on how they helped keep the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Purification

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students use the example of natural water purification to show that healthy ecosystems provide services to people that are essential to life as we know it.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animal Poetry

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Fourth graders write poems that use local wildlife as their inspiration. After a class discussion which produces a list of wildlife that pupils have seen in their town, a review of three types of poetry ensues. They look at how haiku,...
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Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Watching Crystals Grow

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Amazing science can sometimes happen right before your eyes! The class gets cozy as they watch crystals grow. They use Epsom salts, rocks, and food coloring to create crystals. They'll observe the entire process, documenting every step...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Revolutionary Money

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Examine paper money from the American revolution! Historians study the paper bills and discuss the history of money. How has money changed over the times? Activities are included. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Great Rivers 2: The Ups and Downs of River Flooding

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Second in a three-part lesson on rivers, this lesson focuses on the flooding that occurs in riparian locations. First, learners take a look at facts about the Amazon River. They read online materials and fill in a worksheet as they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Ecosystems 2: Why are There Cities? A Historical Perspective

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Second in a series of five lessons, this lesson encourages preteens to consider cities as urban ecosystems. First, they keep a food diary for a few days. They visit the Natrional Agricultural Statistics Service website for current data...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Ecosystems 4: Metabolism of Urban Ecosystems

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Cities are compared to living, breathing, metabolizing organisms. Fourth in a five-part series of lessons, this one focuses on the flow of materials through a city. Links to interesting websites and images make your delivery of...
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PPT
Curated OER

La Belle Époque [1871-1914]:

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Progress through various aspects of the  "The Beautiful Era" in this presentation. Political, technological, and scientific contexts surround the time of innovation and change in the world landscape. The short length of this slide show...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Empirical Challenges of Racial Classification

For Teachers All
This lesson will help students examine their preconceptions and assumptions about racial categories and understand the impossibility of constructing a consistent system of human racial classification.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Ecosystems 3: Cities as Population Centers

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars discover that throughout history cities have been centers of population but that human exploitation of fossil fuels was key to the growth of large cities worldwide. They research urban growth through a number of websites.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mineral Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students complete a scavenger hunt worksheet as they find examples in their classroom, at home, etc., of minerals. Excellent worksheet!
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Create a Classroom Exhibit: Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students bring in rocks and minerals from home. They observe them and describe them carefully, completing a worksheet. Finally, a classroom exhibit is created.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Letters from the Japanese American Internment

For Teachers 4th - 12th
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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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students participate in multiple hands-on activities to explore reproduction and pollination. In groups, using a cotton swab and powder, students simulate being pollinators and plants. They name the parts of the flowers and the function...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students bring rocks and minerals from home to investigate in the classroom. In this rocks and minerals lesson plan, students observe all the rocks and minerals brought into the class and answer 7 questions about the features of the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and  investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black history,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Westward Movement

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students study the westward movement through examining stamps. In this westward movement lesson plan, students draw conclusions, determine cause and effect relationships and examine the westward movement of the United States by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Size Shapes Animals

For Teachers Pre-K - 3rd
Students investigate how size affects large and small animals differently. In this animal lesson plan, students determine how size affects different animals by constructing their own animal out of marshmallows. Once students create...