US Environmental Protection Agency
Non-Point Source Pollution
Investigate the different types of pollution that storm drain runoff carries into oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams with this class demonstration. Using an aquarium and an assortment of everyday items that contaminants like motor oil,...
Michigan Sea Grant
Water Quantity
It may be tricky for a young mind to conceptualize that less than 1% of all water on earth is useable for humans to drink. Simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth by removing measured amounts of water from a five-gallon...
Institute for Geophysics
Understanding Maps of Earth
Here is your go-to student resource on primary geography concepts, including facts about the surface of the earth and its hemispheres, latitude and longitude, globes, types of maps, and identifying continents and oceans.
Discovery Education
Motion in the Ocean
How do temperature changes affect ocean currents? Scholars explore convection currents by demonstrating the flow of water in a baking dish. They use ice, heat, and food coloring to see currents. Then, they draw conclusions about their...
NOAA
Climate, Weather…What’s the Difference?: Make an Electronic Temperature Sensor
What's the best way to record temperature over a long period of time? Scholars learn about collection of weather and temperature data by building thermistors in the fourth installment of the 10-part Discover Your Changing World series....
It's About Time
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Emerging biochemists more fully understand the flow of energy in ecosystems as they explore the laws of thermodynamics and relate them to energy transfer in food chains. They also investigate heat loss from the human body and how...
Wilderness Classroom
Ocean Life
Our oceans are composed of many complex relationships. Young oceanographers explore relationships between organisms, understand the world ocean's currents, and discover the effects of water pollution and how it behaves. There are...
Science Matters
Wave Watching
Seismologists use the direction and arrival times of p waves and s waves to determine the distance to the source of an earthquake. The engaging lesson has students line up to form human waves. Through different movements when attached,...
American Museum of Natural History
Microbes Coloring Book and Scavenger Hunt
Coloring pages showcase microbes—bacteria, viruses, and protists. Scholars have the option to download a coloring book and scavenger hunt or color the page directly on the computer. Three paragraphs describe each microbe.