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Curated OER
Continents and Oceans
Students identify oceans and continents and their locations on a map. They color-code and label their own map of the world's continents and oceans. They play the game Continents and Oceans to identify specific areas.
Space Awareness
Continental Climate and Oceanic Climate
There's nothing better than a cool breeze blowing in from the ocean. Scholars explore how water affects change in temperature using a hands-on experiment on climate. They use measurement tools to compare the continental and oceanic...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
EarthViewer
Can you imagine Washington DC and London as close neighbors occupying the same continent? Learners will be fascinated as they step back in time and discover the evolution of the earth's continents and oceans from 4.5 billion...
Curated OER
Continents and Oceans on the Move
Students create an awareness of the vast percentage of water covering the earth. They relate similarities/differences between topographical maps and other maps of various time periods. Students examine how to use a topographical map.
Curated OER
Map Puzzles
Students make puzzles from world maps, dramatizing how much of the globe is covered by ocean.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: First Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
A set of first grade geology lessons focuses on plate tectonics and movement of plate boundaries. During the pre-lab, learners experience three types of plate movement through a kinesthetic demonstration. The lab...
Curated OER
Introduction to Oceans
Students complete a variety of activities in preparation for a unit on oceans. They discuss their own proximity to the ocean, identify and name the oceans on a globe, and in small groups identify facts about a selected ocean. Students...
Curriculum Corner
Earth Day Book
This Earth Day, celebrate our beautiful planet with an activity book that challenges scholars to show off their map skills, complete a crossword puzzle, write acrostic poems, alphabetize, and reflect on their personal Earth-friendly habits.
Curated OER
Oceans Away
Students explore oceans. In this science lesson plan, students locate oceans, seas and continents of the world, identify ocean-related occupations, and complete activities pertaining to food chains as well as pollution.
Polar Trec
Where in the World Is Our Teacher?
Kirk Beckendorf, a middle school teacher, joined researchers at the McMurdo Station in Antarctica to help maintain automatic weather stations. The lesson encourages pupils to track his travels around the region. They connect with the...
Curated OER
Mapping the Ocean Floor
Learners construct and interpret a line graph of ocean floor depth and a bar graph comparing the height/depth of several well-known natural and man-made objects and places. In addition, they calculate the depth of two points using sonar...
Curated OER
What Do You Know About Oceans?
Learners brainstorm and discuss what they know about oceans and seas, read poem My Ocean Speaks by Olga Cossi, discuss narrator's feelings about ocean, write reflective journal entries about their experience or inexperience with the...
Curated OER
You Got The Whole World In Your Hands: Geology, Earth's Layers, Science
Students make a model of the Earth's crust out of foam in order to better explain the make-up of the Earth's layers. They add continents and oceans.
California Academy of Science
Tropical Belt
Where in the world is the equator? Explore a world map with your class, coloring in oceans, continents, and rainforests while locating the three major lines of latitude: the equator, Tropic of Cancer, and Tropic of Capricorn. Discuss how...
Curated OER
Underwater Mountains & Trenches
Students determine Earth's deepest trench, outline continents, major ocean mountains, and trenches on color-key map using Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils, identify oceans' geographic features, locate significant oceanic features around...
Channel Islands Film
Island Rotation: Lesson Plan 1
How do scientists provide evidence to support the theories they put forth? What clues do they put together to create these theories? After watching West of the West's documentary Island Rotation class members engage in a series of...
Curated OER
Recent Volcanoes And Earthquakes:
Young scholars investigate the current model for the structure of the Earth. On a world map, they mark areas where they think earthquakes and volcanoes occur and compare those areas with earthquake and volcano location patterns.
Curated OER
The Dynamic Earth
Students participate in assessments related to the layers of the Earth. They read chapters of text, answer questions, watch videos, and identify and label continents and oceans on a map. They design posters, create vocabulary cards,...
Curated OER
Rain Forest Adventures
Young scholars identify and describe where tropical rain forests are located and examine the geographical correlation between rainfall and rain forest. They brainstorm what they think they know about tropical rain forests - where they're...
Curated OER
Pangaea Puzzle
Students explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted. In this Earth's surface lesson students complete a lab and answer questions.
Curated OER
Meteors and Meteorites
Students create Earth boxes containing some of Earth's biomes--desert, forest, tundra, ocean, and mountains. They simulate Earth's encounter with a comet trail and the resulting meteor shower. They present their Earth boxes to...
Curated OER
Gallery Walk Questions about Energy and Material Cycles
Students state the physical, chemical or biological processes associated with these environments: Pelagic ocean zone, California coat Cave, Indiana Barrier island beach, North Carolina Sand dune, Dunes National Park, Colorado Wetland and...
Curated OER
Water, Water Everywhere, and Nary a Drop to Drink!
Students sing the continent song and locate oceans between the continents on a map. They read "They Earth is Mostly Ocean" and copy notes into their journals. They watch a demonstration of water and saltwater evaporated to see what is...
Curated OER
Tracking Ocean Ecology
Learners look at the data maps given to them about how chlorophyll affects the algae blooms and make predictions about the harm they will cause. In this data maps lesson plan, students manipulate data sets from the website.