Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
Ice core samples give scientists access to climates of old—those from more than 800,000 years ago. Through an analysis of various temperature graphs from ice cores, tree rings, and weather stations, scholars compare historical climates...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Plant Phenology Data Analysis
Beginning in 1851, Thoreau recorded the dates of the first spring blooms in Concord, and this data is helping scientists analyze climate change! The culminating instructional activity in the series of four has pupils graph and analyze...
Chicago Botanic Garden
What Can Tree Rings Tell Us About Climate?
Tree rings are slightly thicker on the south side of the tree because it receives more sunlight. Part two in a series of five lessons helps learners analyze tree rings to determine the environmental conditions that caused size...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is important, for without it, life on Earth would not exist. An activity that includes modeling the greenhouse effect and acting out the Earth's energy balance makes up the first part in a series of seven...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Nature Walk and Ecosystem Introduction
A food web has no organism higher than a tertiary consumer because there wouldn't be enough energy left to sustain them. The fourth installment in a seven-part series begins with a nature walk to get pupils thinking about their...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Introducing Ecosystem Services
Ecosystems provide many things humans not only use but also need in order to survive. The last lesson in the series of seven introduces scholars to the idea of ecosystem services, that ecosystems provide humans with many things we need....
Science 4 Inquiry
Introducing the Types of Energy
Young scientists explore many different types of energy including light, heat, nuclear, sound, potential, and more. They match the types of energy and identify when energy transfers from one type to another.
Curated OER
Making E-Books in the Kindergarten Classroom
Students produce e-books using themselves and their physical surroundings to demonstrate content standards, such as number sense or color recognition. They provide evidence using a digital camera, props, and the presentation tool.
Curated OER
Alexander Graham Bell: Voice of Invention
Students watch a Biography episode about Alexander Graham Bell -- his remarkable inventions, family life, and the individuals who influenced his work.
Curated OER
Crops 2: What Plants Need to Grow
Students explore the kinds of things that plants need to grow well.
Curated OER
Preserving the Harvest: Dry it Out!
Young scholars explore how people preserved their food in the past. In food preservation lesson, students create different models that enable someone to dry out food, such as a food dehydrator. Young scholars also...
Curated OER
Subtracting With the Hundreds Place And Regrouping
Learners solve math problems involving subtracting with regrouping. They practice the steps for subtracting in the hundreds place with regrouping, through teacher guided practice. Independently, pupils complete story problems involving...
Curated OER
Butterfly 2: A Butterfly's Home
Students determine which environmental characteristics make up a favorable butterfly habitat.
Curated OER
Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere!
Young scholars collect and compare bugs using magnifying lenses and graph data based on their comparisons. In this bugs lesson plan, students also make an aspirator by using a jar, tubing, and screen.
Curated OER
A Pressing Project
Students create a collection of pressed plants. In this plant lesson, students use newspaper, plywood, and a rubberband to press plants they previously collected.
Curated OER
F.B.I.
Students create a worm bin full of fruit and vegetable scraps wit paper and observe what happens over time. In this decomposers lesson plan, students observe that the fruit and vegetable scraps become new soil.
Virginia Department of Education
Modeling Multiplication of Fractions
Multiply your understanding of multiplying fractions. A short lesson teaches pupils how to multiply fractions. By using fraction models, they get a better understanding of the concept.
Curated OER
Puss in Boots/Jamil and the Clever Cat
Second graders read the story PUSS IN BOOTS identifying main characters, setting, and significant events. They then read the story JAMIL AND THE CLEVER CAT and compare it with the story PUSS IN BOOTS compiling a list of characters,...
Curated OER
Black, Striped, White, & Plaid: Changing Patterns
Students create a new design for an everyday object using color and patterns after observing objects that surround them in the classroom; focusing on five examples that are either solid colored or patterned.
Curated OER
The Great Water Hunt
Students examine a globe to locate the bodies of water present and create a representation of those bodies of water for further exploration of the concept. Extensions of their observations are made at school, home, and the community.
Curated OER
Paper Plate Sunflowers
A great way to recall the parts of a flower is to make one. Little learners create sunflowers out of paint and paper plates. They also discuss and label the various parts of their flowers.
Curated OER
Ocean Friends Nametags
Students complete a number of activities to complete a study of ocean animals. They identify the animals, make nametags using appropriate colors, the animal habitats, and make a book by putting the pages in numerical order.
Curated OER
Describe Environmental Interrelationships
Students describe environmental interrelationships using list of criteria. They are able to explain organism interaction, based on definitions provided. Also, students can use references and worksheets, to describe effects of pollution...