National Park Service
Caves, Canyons, Cactus, and Critters
Mother Nature's Gravel Company is open for business! The unit includes four lessons covering weathering and erosion. Experiments are simple to complete and young geologists compare notes to see who makes the biggest ice wedge, moves...
Curated OER
Cactus Wheel
Students explore plant biology by conducting field experiments outside of class. In this desert plant lesson plan, students discuss how cacti thrive in such dry climates and how dense their populations are. Students utilize action cards,...
Curated OER
Invasion of the (Cactus) Booty Snatchers
Young scholars, in groups of four,identify and analyze relationships among birds within a population, a community and an urban ecosystem. They fill out, while they're completing their experiments, a Populations of Birds Student Data Sheet.
Science Matters
Blubber Gloves: It’s All About Insulation
Instill the concept of adaptation with the help of Blubber Gloves—ziplock bags, shortening, and duct tape. Scholars discuss how animals and plants keep warm in polar regions, record their predictions, and try on their Blubber Gloves to...
Curated OER
Thought Experiments in Physics
Using thought experiments in physics can be incredibly valuable, but there some pitfalls to avoid.
Curated OER
The Sugar Snap Pea Experiment
Young scholars examine types of plant structure. In this plant biology instructional activity, students observe various types of plants, such as ivy and grapes, and discuss the differences in structure. Additionally, young scholars plant...
Desert Discoveries
Who Depends on the Saguaro?
Young scientists design a picture of a saguaro cactus that shows the cactus and some of the animals and plants that interact with it. There are many of these special relationships between plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert. Your...
Curated OER
What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Water
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate whether plants need water to survive and grow. They observe two cactus plants for four weeks, analyzing the results of one plant having received water and the other having received no water.
Curated OER
Plant Diversity and Distribution
Students construct a defined plot on school grounds and observed patterns in plant life. They count trees, shrubs, cacti and record on a data sheet. They compare data and generate a plant diversity overlook for their school.
Curated OER
The right place to live
How do various plants survive in different environments? They adapt! Kids determine which plant traits make them perfect for their specific environment. They consider three plants and can even complete a plant experiment. Note: Intended...
Curated OER
How Much Water Do Plants Need?
Learners experiment with the effects of varying amounts of water on household plants. They give different amounts of water to plants and then observe and record the effects.
Curated OER
Desert Water Keepers
Young scholars experiment with models to find how plants survive in the desert environment. In this plant mechanisms activity, students make leaf models to understand how leaves conserve water. Young scholars collect cactus in bags and...
Curated OER
DNA Isolation from Plant Tissue
Young scholars perform an experiment to extract and observe DNA from plant Tissue. They read about the procedure and relate it to the procedure used to isolate DNA from an endangered plant species. This is lesson three in a nine lesson...
Curated OER
Desert Habitat
Students examine how desert plants and animals are adapted to life in the desert. They listen to the book, "Seasons of Saguaro," conduct experiments to demonstrate plant succulence, and create and draw an animal or plant that...
Curated OER
Pour and Load Agarose Gels
Learners practice pouring an agarose gel and loading the DNA into the wells to perform a genetic analysis of variation among individuals and between populations. They electrophorese the gel overnight.
Mathematics Vision Project
Module 6: Congruence, Construction, and Proof
Trace the links between a variety of math concepts in this far-reaching unit. Ideas that seem very different on the outset (like the distance formula and rigid transformations) come together in very natural and logical ways. This unit...
Curated OER
Taking a Trip Through the Regions
Students identify the location and characteristics of different regions throughout the world. Using this information, they compare and contrast the regions and discover how they change over time. They use the internet to research a place...
Curated OER
Plant Pipes
Students work together to discover the path water follows in plants. They create multicolored flowers. They label each part of the plant and note their function.
Curated OER
Soil Permeability
Learners discuss how soil permeability is affected by permafrost. In this soil lesson plan, students freeze soil over night, and discuss how the environmental conditions of freezing affect soil and further affect vegetation.
Curated OER
Deserts
Students do various activities to explain where the United States' desert region lies in relationship to the state in which they live, become familiar with plants and animals in the Sonoran desert, and make a story map of Roadrunner...
Curated OER
Design-A-Weed
Students create a "super weed" that prospers in teh harsh conditions on plant Weediv. They comprehend how weed adaptations give the plants an advantage over native plants. Students define the term adaptation. They give three examples...
Curated OER
Rainsticks
Students create a rainstick decorated with repeated patterns of shape and color, out of paper towel tubes.