Intel
Composting: Why Bother?
The first STEM lesson in a group of 10 explores composting. After discussing how to make a better tomorrow, classes are challenged to track garbage in their communities, visit a local waste management facility, and conduct a survey about...
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature
Young scholars are shown how temperature affects dissolved oxygen and they create a graph showing this relationship. They think about the adaptations of animals to live in different water temperatures. Students test four different water...
Bonneville
Compost Bioreactor Design
Organic waste is a hot topic. The second of three installments in the Bioreactor Water Heating unit challenges pupils to create bioreactors that collect energy released from compost. After watching videos on the properties of water and...
Curated OER
Composting in Schools: Observing Compost Microorganisms
Students explore composting. In this composting lesson, students use compound microscopes to observe the microbial communities in compost. Observations and documentation of changes will occur over the course of several weeks.
Curated OER
Let's Make a Compost Cake
Students create a compost cake. In this gardening and decomposition science lesson plan, students review and describe the "nutrient cycle." Students create a compost pile, measure and record the dimensions and temperature of the pile,...
Curated OER
Collecting Compost
Students observe a composting box. For this soil lesson, students create a composting bin by using a bin, newspaper, worms, and food scraps. Students create a composting food web.
Curated OER
Composting
Eighth graders collect data from Bottle Biology compost columns and record using Excel spreadsheet.
Curated OER
Seed to Soup Organic Garden
Have your young biologists visit decomposition stations as they explore the process of organic material. This activity involves some set-up as kids will be visiting 13 desks to collect colored paper each representing a different element...
Curated OER
De"compost"ition
Students develop an understanding of the decomposition process and the parameters which influence the rate at which it occurs.
Curated OER
Recycling Garden Waste
Young scholars experience how to make compost. This lesson plan is ongoing with periodic checks and maintenance. They select a piece of ground around the school or around their homes to establish a compost pile. Organic materials are...
Curated OER
Decomposers at Work!
Students design and conduct investigations that illustrate the process of decomposition. After a lecture/demo, students simulate the process of soil composting in the classroom. They closely chart the decomposition of their soil.
Curated OER
Planning and Preparing a Vegetable Garden
An anticipatory slide suggests personal benefits from gardening. Then the presentation goes into choosing a location, considering soil type, the use of fertilizers, and the variety of crops available to choose from. If you are teaching...
Curated OER
Make Your Own Newspaper Plant Pots
Students make plant pots out of newspaper as part of a recycle, reuse, and reduce instructional activity. In this recycling instructional activity, students fold a piece of newspaper to make a pot in which to start plants. They fill it...
Curated OER
Planning A School Garden
Students discover how to plan a vegetable garden. Each student take responsibility for growing one vegetable from seed, to transplanting the seedling into the soil, and providing the plant with light, moisture, temperature and healthy soil.
Curated OER
Give Me Back My School: A Back to Basics Approach to Ecological Restoration
Ninth graders research local geography to create successful, ecological school landscaping. They determine soil type, average weather patterns and temperature graphs and use the information to select ideal plants and plant maintenance...
Curated OER
Red Worms Rock!
Second graders measure red worms. In this lesson, 2nd graders observe and collect data on red worms. Students measure the red worms and create a graph with the data they collect.
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Respiration
Learners are presented with the question, "Do plants that grow underwater use oxygen?" They create an experiment to test the presence of dissolved oxygen in the water using provided materials. Student experiments include a control jar as...
Curated OER
Tides in the Hudson
Students view an illustration of the Hudson River watershed and identify the bodies of water shown. They discuss what happens when fresh and salt water mix. Students view a teacher demonstration of the stratification of fresh and salt...
Curated OER
Change Since 1609
Students recognize how the climate of the Hudson Valley has changed since the last glaciation. They explain these changes using a reconstruction of the land use changes in the Hudson Valley composed of confetti, Ziploc bags and other...
Curated OER
Paleoclimate of the Hudson Valley
Learners recognize how the climate of the Hudson Valley has changed since the last glaciation and be able to explain these changes. They reconstruct the paleoclimate of the Hudson Valley.
Curated OER
Dinnertime for Animals
Is a deer an herbivore? What about a spider? Experiment with the food chain in an interactive science experiment. After listing the herbivores from a selection of animals, third and fourth graders compare the skulls and teeth of...
Curated OER
Animals Must Fit In
A instructional activity on tadpoles is here for your young biologists. Learners read a short paragraph on tadpoles, then answer three questions regarding how parts of their bodies help the tadpole to survive in the pond. There is a good...
PBS
Cloud Clues
It's cloudy with a good chance of learning! An inquiry-based lesson begins with an exploration of transparent, translucent, and opaque materials. Young scientists then connect their learning to the different cloud types as they take the...
Curated OER
A Tour Down the Hudson River
Students discuss how the Hudson River is an ecosystem made up of both biotic and abiotic factors. They view the PowerPoint the Journal Down the Hudson River. Students become aware of where the Hudson River begins and ends, the plant and...