Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Build Your Own Aquifer
Ever wondered how an aquifer works? Introduce your class to the amazing way many people get water by exploring how underground aquifers work. Two fun hands-on activities are used to help kids understand what an aquifer is, how it works,...
Cornell University
Discovering Enzymes
Explore the function of enzymes through a series of lab investigations. Learners use household enzymes such as hydrogen peroxide to model the role of enzymes. The enzymes break down proteins with and without a catalyst.
National Park Service
Erosion
A set of PowerPoint slides supports a lecture or class review of weathering and erosion. Viewers learn the definition of each and examine various photos for evidence. Erosion is further depicted as caused by wind, water, and ice....
Curated OER
Earth Materials Module
This slide show progresses through a comprehensive review of the grounding principles of earth science. Get down and dirty with the details of fossil fuels! Help your geologists to have a rock solid understanding of the rock cycle. The...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
Review the difference between rocks and minerals using this resource. Learners identify and investigate the physical properties of these objects. They create a Venn diagram to compare and contrast types of rocks. This is a motivating way...
Curated OER
Tree Friends
Students are introduced to tree structure and use. They identify their special tree using all senses except sight. Students identify six different internal parts within a cross section of tree trunk (bark, phloem, xylem, cambium,...
Curated OER
What's Wetland Allelopathy?
Students study plants and what they need to thrive and survive. They make plant extracts from chosen wetland plants and test their allelopathic effects on the germination rate, radicle growth, and hypocotyl growth of test seeds of other...
Curated OER
Building on the Land
Ninth graders study how cities affect the environment and design an ecologically-sound city. They focus their study on the benefits and constraints of life on the Northern Great Plains.
Curated OER
Talkin' Trash (All About Landfills)
Students investigate the types of waste created by people and identify various options for trash disposal. They read and discuss a handout about what a landfill is and the different types of trash, match types of trash with the proper...
Curated OER
Termite Trail Marking Behavior
Students examine termites and their trail-marking behaviors. They draw lines on paper with various ink pens and experiment to see which types of ink the termites follow--or which inks do and do not elicit trail marking behavior.
Curated OER
Water Filtration Competition
Learners design water filtration systems. They draw sketches and write paragraphs about their systems. After presenting their systems to the class, each group then builds their system and determines its effectiveness for purifying...
Curated OER
The Copper Basin Problem
Students view a video about how human actions impact the environment. They design a set of experiments to address some of the problems and issues raised by the video.
Curated OER
Hazardous Waste Cleanup Methods
High schoolers examine how hazardous wastes are cleaned up. They work together to identify the positives and negatives of cleaning up certain hazardous wastes. They answer questions as part of the activity.
Curated OER
Minerals
Students apply rules to compare and rank the hardness and softness of minerals. They perform a scratch test on four unknown mineral samples, read a bar graph that illustrates the comparative hardness and softness of four named minerals,...
Curated OER
Testing Your Water
Students perform several water quality tests on groundwater from their area. They use test strips to determine the pH, hardness, alkalinity, nitrates, iron and chloride levels.
Curated OER
Biodegradability
Students study the effects of water, salt water and heat on common household materials. They separate an emulsion and show that the materials are completely recoverable and observe the effect of acetone and water on polystyrene.
Curated OER
Rock Solid
Students investigate the three types of material stress related to rocks. They watch a PowerPoint Presentation, view an online animation of the three types of rock stress, identify the various types of rocks, answer true or false...
Curated OER
Water Works
Students investigate water use and what happens at a water treatment plant. They define and discuss key vocabulary terms, view a diagram of a water treatment plant, and conduct an experiment that simulates the water filtration process.
Curated OER
A TOUGH NUT TO CRACK
Based on a set of criteria, pupils will evaluate the quality of pecans.1. Bring a gram scale and papershell pecans. Provide five pecans for each student. 2. Divide the class into groups of five and provide each member with five pecans....
Curated OER
Rock and Roll with Music and Movement
Fourth graders improvise music and dance to express their analysis of types of rocks. They discuss the three classes of rocks, list describing words, and create a short musical piece and dance to symbolize the rock they are dancing.
Curated OER
Air Pollution Word Search Activity
Pupils examine the issues surrounding air pollution. They discover how it affects peoples health and the government's regulations. They complete a word search activity to practice the vocabulary.
Curated OER
Weathering and Erosion Splashdown
Fourth graders investigate how plants and their roots help slow the erosion process.
Curated OER
Florida's Springs
Students illustrate how water is stored and the water cycle. They discover how underground water can become contaminated.
Curated OER
Whodunit?
Students observe the geometric patterns on fingerprints. They classify fingerprints into groups and obtain prints from surfaces.