Discovery Education
The Key to It All
Which characteristics make organisms unique? Dichotomous keys simplify the process of classifying organisms by focusing on these unique characteristics. Young scholars learn how to use the dichotomous key flow chart by creating their own...
It's About Time
Organic Substances
Host an exciting lab in which learners burn fruit rinds to better understand hydrocarbons. A reading passage and analysis questions wrap up the lesson.
Nature New Brunswick
Habitat for Endangered Wildlife and You
Compare and contrast your habitat with that of endangered plants and animals! Learners discuss what a habitat is actually comprised of, describing what theirs looks like. They fill out a graphic organizer explaining what they eat, how...
Discovery Education
Clutter Cutter
Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...
Scholastic
What's Your Angle?
Identifying types of angles meets real-world application in an excellent, hands-on geometry activity. Learners use pipe cleaners and a visual model to independently discover the acute, right, or obtuse angles in their classroom,...
Scholastic
Lesson Five: The Earth, Rocks and Minerals
Apply the principles of geology to a series of collaborative, hands-on class activities. Young earth scientists learn more about igneous, metamorphic, and sedentary rocks before classifying and weathering rocks that they find....
New South Wales Department of Education
Invertebrates
Of all invertebrates, insects by far are the most numerous. Scholars discuss invertebrates and then use a key to classify them. They see different examples and must describe features of each organism based upon the key.
New South Wales Department of Education
The Mangroves
Mangroves are a nursery for a variety salt-water organisms. Learners explore the mangrove ecosystem through audio, video, and/or images, to see the organisms that live in this environment and make food chains pertaining to this...
Resources for Early Childhood
Making Math Meaningful and Enjoyable
Your young learners will enjoy mathematics that is meaningful correspondence as they play their way to a deep mathematical foundation. Organized around the math standards, this appropriate sequence of conceptual, preschool...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama
It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...
Illustrative Mathematics
What Shape Am I?
Sharpen your pencil and grab a ruler, it's time to draw some quadrilaterals! Given the definition of a parallelogram, rectangle, and rhombus, learners draw examples and nonexamples of each figure. The three definitions are...
Mr. Jones's Science Class
Periodic Table Project
Don't be fooled by the title; this is not really a lesson on elements. It is a project on classification, using the periodic table as an example. For that reason, it could be used in any branch of science. As an example, a group may...
UAF Geophysical Institute
Carbon Footprint
Your young environmentalists can calculate their carbon footprint and discuss ways to reduce it with a worksheet about climate change. After reading a handout about what impact one's carbon footprint can have on the environment, kids...
Center for Math and Science Education
Pocket Solar System
How in the world can something as big as the solar system possibly fit in your pocket? Complete this simple modeling activity and find out, as young scientists gain an appreciation for the incredible scale of outer space.
Curated OER
Element Research Project
Students research elements on interactive Internet periodic tables, take notes using Inspiration software, and write descriptive paragraphs with graphics. They create presentations.
Other
Poets & Writers Magazine: Classifieds
Found in these classifieds are numerous calls for manuscripts of various kinds (some of a somewhat controversial nature). Contests are also mentioned.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Classification Basics
This lesson will explain how and why scientists classify organisms.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Volcanoes of the Deep
Discuss how individual organisms and groups of organisms interact with each other, and research and classify symbiotic relationships between individual organisms of different species.
Other
Villanova University: Constructing a Dichotomous Key
This exercise provides information on how to construct a dichotomous key using geometrical shapes. Another exercise shows how a key can be constructed based on traits in a classroom group.
Rice University
Rice University: The Hand Squeeze
Students will enjoy this data collection and class analysis experiment involving the time it takes for a hand squeeze to travel around a circle of people. From organizing the activity to collecting the data to making a table and graphing...
Sheppard Software
Sheppard Software: Parts of the Food Chain: Producers, Consumers, Decomposers
Learn how scientists classify different types of organisms in an ecosystem or in a food chain by their role and function as either a producer, a consumer, or a decomposer. Then play a game that tests your understanding of these important...