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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Make a Compost Cake

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students create a compost cake. In this gardening and decomposition science lesson, students review and describe the "nutrient cycle." Students create a compost pile, measure and record the dimensions and temperature of the pile, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Star Count

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore the night sky with their star counter. They to determine the types of stars and the number that can be seen from their local area and share their data via the Internet. They participate in NASA online projects.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

One Room School House Reading Lesson

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore schools during the Colonial period. In this American history lesson, students participate in a simulation of school days in Colonial America. Students visit a museum and use the schoolhouse as a setting for their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sextant Solutions

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore ways a sextant can be a reliable tool that is still being used by today's navigators and how computers can help assure accuracy when measuring angles. This activity will show how computers can be used to understand...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Big Meltdown

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students work together to develop a container to keep an ice cube in a solid state. They identify the three stages of matter and test different materials for this experiment. They share their results with the class.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solids in Bottles

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars use funnels to put the five solid materials into clear bottles with caps. They observe how the particulate materials look, sound, and move when they shake and roll the bottle. Finally, students write "sound and touch"...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Exploring Magnetism

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders experiment with magnets in order to visualize that magnets have a north and south pole, some materials can be magnetized, and magnetization occurs because of the magnetic moments of individual molecules in matter.
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Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

You've Got to See it to Believe It!

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Youngsters develop an understanding of how smog is produced, and how exhaust from automobiles is one of the major sources of smog. They explore the roles that engineers play in developing technologies that reduce smog, then work in teams...
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Lesson Plan
NASA

Things Are Not Always What They Seem

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Science is magic that works. Magical color-changing beads and a coffee can that follows voice commands are just two examples of magic tricks that rely on science. After completing a hands-on activity and an experiment investigating the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wild and Wetlands

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Upper graders identify the major characteristics of a wetland. They explore the human factors that change a wetland and write a descriptive paragraph about wetlands. This comprehensive lesson also has an interactive "Watershed Game"...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Figure of Speech

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Examine the changing nature of language in the U.S. View and discuss excerpts from a PBS documentary with your class and then conduct Internet research, and complete a team project on the evolution of teen expressions. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Pray, Why Speakest Thou Thusly?"

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Examine popular language and slang and how they have changed over the course of American history. Conduct Internet research, use an online interactive Colonial House website to translate 17th century language into 21st century language,...
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Lesson Plan
John Hopkins University

Diets and Influence on Food Choice

For Teachers 9th - 12th
From start to finish, this is a truly excellent lesson plan addressing the epidemic of diet-related disease in the United States. Learners begin with a reading excerpt of detailed information on trends in the American diet and the...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Hand Battery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Get hands-on in your physical science class by having learners conduct electricity with their own hands! By placing one hand on each of two different metals, a current can be generated and measured on a microammeter. Make an experiement...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Get Connected!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
A great lesson introduces your youngsters to electricity. They use internet links, streaming video, and engage in hands-on activities to understand what electricity is and how it works. They build a circuit board, and construct a variety...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On

For Teachers K - 2nd
Here's a fabulous lesson on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a butterfly. This...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Westward Ho!

For Teachers 5th - 9th
For any teacher of American History, The Lewis and Clark Expedition is a watershed event that should be shared with your students. This is a very good lesson on the Expedition, and the events that led up to it; including The Lousisiana...
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Lesson Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Living Things/ Nonliving Things

For Teachers K
How can you tell if something is living or nonliving? Introduce a set of criteria which can be used to determine which things are alive and which are not. The class discusses the basic needs of all living organisms, checks out an...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Project Geode

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Young geologists attempt to predict the appearnace of a geode's internal structure based on how it looks from the outside, its mass, and its physical characteristics. In this geologly lesson, learners use scientific equipment to collect...
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Lesson Plan
Incredible Art

Historical Narrative Using Silhouettes

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Connect art and history with a series of activities inspired by the work of contemporary artist, Kara Walker. After watching an Art 21 video about Walker and examining the images in a PowerPoint presentation, class members use...
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Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

A Crystal Lab

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Young chemists grow ionic crystals, metallic crystals, and supersaturated crystals in three different lab experiments. Observing these under a microscope allows pupils to compare the various structures. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Supply

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders complete three activities. In this water supply activity, 4th graders learn that water can exist in different forms and watch a demonstration of each form. Students explore the water cycle and make a water cycle using the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Right Chemistry

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students see that chemistry is the study of matter, how matter reacts and combines to create new chemicals, the changes that take place in matter and what makes up matter. This lesson provides many good ideas across the curriculum to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water and Ice

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students conduct an experiment. In this forms of water lesson, students observe ice to see what changes take place and then write in their journal about what they observed.