K20 LEARN
Water We Going To Do? Floodplains And Watershed Management
How has human activity affected Earth's watersheds? An action-packed lesson plan, part of the K20 Center, examines water's ability to go with the flow regardless of what is in its path. Scholars build model watersheds, examine time-lapse...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Third Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Third graders examine plate movements and boundaries with a lab that demonstrates how volcanoes and earthquakes are formed. It presents different types of stresses an object can withstand through a hands-on...
Curated OER
Managing Wildlife
Students discuss the current conditions of wildlife in New England. Students explore how animals are tracked and how their population is managed.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Fifth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Fifth graders continue their investigation of the plate tectonics cycle with an exploration of the movement of Earth's crust. During the lab, young geologists conduct an experiment to discover the result of different types of...
Teach Engineering
Viscous Fluids
Elasticity and viscosity. Help your class understand the similarities and differences with an introduction to viscous fluids. After describing four types of fluid behaviors: shear thinning, shear thickening, Bringham plastic,...
Agriculture in the Classroom
"Steer" Toward STEM: Careers in Animal Agriculture
Think like an engineer and an agricultural scientist over the course of 12 lessons in a STEM based unit. Young scientists take on the roles of animal physiologists, animal geneticists, agricultural engineers, animal nutritionists,...
Teach Engineering
Mechanics of Elastic Solids
Make the connection between Hooke's law and elasticity with an activity that introduces the class to the behavior of elastic materials. The resource defines stress and strain to calculate the modules of elasticity of...
Curated OER
Creating and Restoring Health Forests
Students explore how to create and restore healthy forests. Given a scenario, teams of students create a management plan to assist the forest in becoming healthy, safe, and appealing. Students consider the ecosystem, adaptations of the...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Teach English, Teach About the Environment
Spread the message of recycling while teaching your English language learners new vocabulary and practicing verb tenses. Included here are four lesson plans for each level (beginning, intermediate, and advanced) as well as accompanying...
Curated OER
Household Conservation/Efficiency
Hook your class up to an online home energy usage calculator so that they can estimate the amount used per month by their families. Then give them Watt meters with which they will measure the power consumption of several small...
California Academy of Science
Conservation Island
Why not walk in the footsteps of Teddy Roosevelt and become a conservationist? After discussing issues and reasons for animal extinction, the class creates their own conservation plans. Each small group is given mock data regarding a...
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
Animal Keynote Report
Learners produce a research project on an animal. Using the Internet, they find pictures and information about animals. They are also given a list of items that should be covered in their report, including the appearance of the animals,...
Curated OER
Pendulums
First-time physicists experiment with pendulums in this physics lesson. They vary the weight of the bob, record how long each takes to complete ten period swings, and then calculate the time for one period. They repeat the procedure,...
Curated OER
Competition/Cooperation Relationships
Students view the PowerPoint slide of a lynx and hare and discuss what would happen if all the lynxes were destroyed. They then take notes on the lesson and brainstorm about other competitive/cooperative relationships as well as discuss...
Super Teacher Worksheets
Mammal Scavenger Hunt Activity
Did you know that a polar bear's skin is actually black? Or that the lightest mammal weighs less than a paperclip? Young scientists learn these and other amazing facts about mammals as they explore the animal kingdom with...
Channel Islands Film
Human Impact on the Food Web of Santa Cruz Island
What happens when a non-native species is introduced onto an island? Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Island chain located off the coast of southern California, provides the perfect laboratory for young environmental scientists to...
Curated OER
States of Matter
First graders experiment with different states of matter in order to observe the changes in matter. In this states of matter lesson plan, 1st graders see and explain how solids, liquids, and gases change.
Curated OER
Evacuating a Volcano: A Simulation
Students explore hazards associated with cataclysmic natural events, and human responses to them by creating emergency plans.
Curated OER
Human Needs
Young scholars investigate human needs and how they have adapted to different environments. They complete an experiment to discover the effect of stress on muscles. They use the food pyramid to create a plan for healthy eating.
Curated OER
Cranes, Crosswalks, and Big Gulps
Learners watch a video and answer questions based on wildlife jobs. For this wildlife lesson plan, students learn that biologists don't just play with animals but that there is a lot of study involved.
Curated OER
The Environment and the Community
Students observe their environment and come up with ways to protect it. In this environment lesson plan, students discuss pollution and ways to prevent it. Then they create a poster with drawings that show a goal to reduce pollution and...
Curated OER
An Introduction To Material Sciences
Students investigate the concept of molecular structure. They describe the behavior of simulated molecules and identify any dislocations in crystalline structures. They also define various related vocabulary words and use them in...