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Natural Features as a Resource
Students investigate how land and water can meet basic needs. In this natural resources lesson, students locate water features on a Landscape Picture Map and describe how water is used to meet their needs.
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Four Seasons
Students identify the change in the seasons. In this earth science instructional activity, students describe weather of each of the seasons and illustrate pictures of each season. Students discuss their illustrations with their classmates.
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Autobiographical Writing About Memories
Students reflect on fall memories in preparation for creating an autobiographical composition. For this composition lesson, students explore how many writers use the changing seasons, fall in particular, to describe a character's...
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Edible Coal Mining
Learners explore the concept of bituminous coal and the role it plays within our world. In this economic and earth science instructional activity, students discover and model the extraction methods with hands-on activities. ...
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History of the Universe
High schoolers describe how the universe was formed. In this astronomy instructional activity, students listen and respond to questions in a PowerPoint instructional activity that includes various theories about how the universe was...
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Egg Hunt: Review of States and Capitals
Fourth graders participate in an Easter egg hunt that gives them clues to states and their capitals. In this states and capitals lesson plan, 4th graders use clues to figure out the states described.
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Filigree Jewelry
Students describe physical and human characteristics of North Africa and the Middle East, plot on a map areas populated by nomadic people in those areas, explain importance of filigree jewelry in Arab culture, and create their own jewelry.
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Design a Reef!
Learners design a functional model of a coral reef ecosystem. In this coral reef instructional activity, students identify the energy sources and material cycles of a coral reef. They write an essay about their niche in their own ecosystem.
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Dinosaurs
Students will develop goals for inquiry. They will also improve content area reading and research skills. The context of studying dinosaurs will help learners to distinguish from organisms that live presently and those from the past...
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The Rain Maker
Second graders work in small groups with a cup each of several materials. Students layer the gravel, sand, and water into a resealable bag. They draw a picture of this bag in their water journal. Students place their sealed bags in a...
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Energy Conservation
Third graders discuss four points related to conservation. They work in groups to design a package to keep an ice cube from melting to demonstrate the concept of insulation. They then make a chart that shows which materials used did the...
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Types Of Nebulae
Eighth graders explore the different types of nebulae that can be found in the solar system. They view a PowerPoint presentation about the material and identify each nebulae as it is presented. Students also discuss the life cycle of a...
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The Greenhouse Effect
Seventh graders investigate the temperature change in open and closed containers. In this earth science lesson, 7th graders relate this lab activity to greenhouse effect. They create a line graph from data collected in the experiment.
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Comets and Meteors
Students construct a model of a comet nucleus using dry ice. They add other materials and describe the features. They complete related exercises on an Internet Web site.
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Keep It Hot
Young scholars design and conduct an experiment to explore the insulating abilities of different materials for keeping a liquid in a paper cup warm. A small group of lab partners test four different materials: black paper, white paper,...
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Science: Avalanche!
Eighth graders examine avalanches after reading excerpts from John Muir's book, "The Yosemite." In small groups, they conduct experiments with flour, sugar, and potato flakes representing different snow consistencies. Then, 8th graders...
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Visit the Rainforest
Fifth graders define what a tropical rain forest is, what animals and plants exist there and realize how important the tropical rainforests are to life on Earth. They work in pairs to access websites imbedded in this plan to research the...
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Star Child Astronomy
Students gain understanding of the relationship of Earth within the Solar System. They increase knowlegde of the planets, sun, moon, meteoroids, asteroids and comets.
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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Fourth graders discover the differences between: reduce, reuse, and recycle by performing hands on examinations. They list what would happen to the soil if we allowed the earth to wash away and briefly discuss the meaning of erosion.
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Natural Disaster Risk at Home
Students analyze the natural disater threat and potential mitigation techniques of their (parents?) home. They apply classroom knowledge to students, non-academic daily life. Students recongize how earth processes specifically affect...
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Night Sky
Students discover why stars can only be seen at night. They participate in a read aloud of, "Night Sky" by Carole Stott and, "Switch on the Night" by Ray Bradbury. Using the sky objects described in the readings, they brainstorm and list...
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THE FARMER CARES FOR THE LAND
Middle schoolers will identify cause and effect relationships in issues relating to Agriculture and the environment.Ask students to describe what farmers do. Then ask middle schoolers to define the word "environmentalist." Ask students...
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How Do You Dew?
Students examine how the processes of condensation and evaporation occur. They describe the relationship between heat energy, evaporation and condensation of water on Earth. They give examples of the processes of evaporation and...
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Minerals vs. Rocks
Fourth graders are introduced to the characteristics of a variety of minerals and rocks. As a class, they are shown rocks and minerals and asked to describe them as a geologist would. They work together to measure and record their...