Curated OER
Polishing the Petoskey
Students select a stone and polish it. Throughout the process they demonstrate an understanding of rocks and fossil formation.
Curated OER
Eagle Creek Park (A Hike)
Students plot a hiking course using aerial photos and a topographic overlay and find the latitude and longitude of absolute locations. They measure the total distance of a hiked area and figure the area of the ground walked using Heron's...
Curated OER
Spectral Surprise
Students experience a model that produces, separating, and displaying spectral colors.
Curated OER
Looking At Water: a Walking Field Trip
Fourth graders observe the effects of water on the soil and record those effect by drawing sketches of water erosion and conservation practices.
Curated OER
Five Themes of Geography
Students conduct research to determine why geography is important and how it provides information regarding many aspects of the world. They investigate the hemispheres, longitude, latitude and absolute location.
Curated OER
Timing the Transit of Venus
Young scholars calculate elapsed time and look for patterns.
Curated OER
Mystical Chinese
Learners explore various Chinese beliefs about the environment. Using the internet, they research the characteristics of Feng Shui. They discuss how human actions modify the physical environment and vice versa. They discover how the...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Fast and Slow Changes on Earth's Surface
Observe fast and slow events that change the face of Earth's surface with this slideshow. Students will use evidence from videos and images to describe how changes on Earth's surface can happen quickly or slowly. Students will have the...
NASA
Nasa Earth Observatory: Changing Global Land Surface
Learn how scientists view the changes in the land surface made by humans over time. Read questions that scientists pose to answer some unknown questions about global land surface and learn several things scientists are doing to try to...
National Geographic
National Geographic: Interactions Within Earth's Atmospheres
Using computational models, students investigate the interaction between greenhouse gases, solar radiation, and the Earth's surface for the impact on climate. They then look at data on atmospheric carbon dioxide to analyze changes in...
CK-12 Foundation
Ck 12: Fourth Grade Science: Earth Science: Theory of Plate Tectonics
[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Discusses what a tectonic plate is and how scientists can recognize its edges, how the plates move by convection in the mantle, the three types of plate boundaries...
Utah State Office of Education
Utah Science: Change Is My Game
Discover the ways in which the Earth's surface is always changing and what causes those changes through reference materials and a collection of activities.
Library of Congress
Loc: Sea Changes in a Community
A lesson plan dealing with the fishing industry in New England and native and immigrant fishermen, and government legislation.
NOAA
Noaa: National Ocean Service Education: Global Positioning Tutorial
Illustrated tutorial explains the history and science of geodesy. Animations help students visualize how scientists measure and monitor the size and shape of the Earth and the location of points on its surface.
TED Talks
Ted: Ted Ed: Cloudy Climate Change: How Clouds Affect Earth's Temperature
As the Earth's surface temperature gradually rises, it has become vital for us to predict the rate of this increase with as much precision as possible. In order to do that, scientists need to understand more about aerosols and clouds....
Utah Education Network
Uen: Reasons for the Seasons
Lesson plan addresses misconceptions about seasonal changes and Earth's orbit through a pre-lesson plan survey and follow-up experiments to scientifically study the answers to questions found in the survey. Includes great teacher...
Other
Bscs: Earth's Changing Surface Lesson 3: Grand Canyon Explorers
Students will learn that landforms can change over time in this lesson. Included are a minute-by-minute lesson plan, activities, and teacher discussion points and questions.
Other
Chicago Science Group: Earth's Changing Surface Virtual Field Trip
Join Science Companion author Belinda Basca and her family as they explore the land forms in Hawaii from a helicopter! Includes suggestions for teacher lessons, student activities, and web resources.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Earth Is a Changin'
This instructional activity introduces and describes the main types of erosion (i.e., chemical, water, wind, glacier and temperature). Students learn examples of each type of erosion and discuss how erosion changes the surface of the...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Nisqually Glacier at Mount Rainier
Observe the Nisqually Glacier at Mount Rainier in this video segment from NatureScene. [4:07]
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Iris: Station Monitor
Students can type in their zip code to find and explore the nearest live earthquake station data.
Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology
Iris: Seismic Monitor
Seismic Monitor allows you to monitor global earthquakes in near real-time, visit seismic stations around the world, and search the web for earthquake or region-related information.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story
Examine these graphs from the NOVA/ FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic increases in the temperature of Earth's surface and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
National Geographic
National Geographic: Sources, Sinks, and Feedbacks
Students will learn about how the Earth's carbon cycle works, as they examine the relationship between levels of carbon dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere and the temperature of the ocean's surface. Includes online student...