Students study the recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  In this recent earthquakes lesson students complete an activity while working in groups.

Students participate in a hands-on simulation to help them explain that coal resources are deposited unevenly between the earth's surface and under the ground.

The tectonic processes that have resulted in the formation of the Marianas Arc, and the Marianas Trench are explored. Groups of pupils access websites that give them a wealth of information about these formations. Each group must prepare...

Curious kids examine plate tectonics and give examples of their movement. They recognize how plates change the Earth through video, and web-based articles. In small groups, they receive complete a tectonics puzzle by silently switching...

Coal forms from the ancient remains of plants that were alive on Earth before the dinosaurs! Scholars use their t-charts from the previous lesson over resources and research to determine if their information is correct. Through analysis...

Huygens spacecraft landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, making it the farthest landing from Earth ever made by a spacecraft. In this hands-on activity, the 12th installment of 22, groups explore how density affects speed. To do this,...

How does chemistry help deep-sea explorers? Part four of a five-part series of lessons from aboard the Okeanos Explorer introduces middle school scientists to technologies used in ocean exploration. Groups work together to analyze data...

Students identify and define geology and earth surface vocaulary and their meanings to classify rocks and explore caves and their properties. Students find rocks and test them according to Moh's scale. They create a color coded earth...

Students examine hiking preparation.  In this hiking lesson students plan and pack a bag for a day hike, explore wildlife safety, and investigate the teamwork involved in a group hike.

Learners study the path and forms of water through Earth. In this water cycle lesson, students role-play water as it moves throughout the Earth. Learners play the water cycle game and complete various stations to learn about water forms...

Learners compare and contrast the Earth's interior with 2 other planets by looking at images on the computer. In this planet interiors lesson plan, students write a paper about their findings.

Pupils identify the fault lines and tectonic plates on the map. In this earth science instructional activity, students simulate landscape formation using robots. They take a quiz at the end of the instructional activity to demonstrate...

Learners simulate strike slip faults using CEENBoTs. In this earth science activity, students identify the fault lines and tectonic plates on a world map. They label the different parts of a fault line.

Students explore the formation of volcanoes. In this earth science lesson, students build their own volcanoes in the lab using different materials. They identify the different types of volcanoes.

In this earth science worksheet, students look at the properties that are common to identifying minerals and the types of observations one can make.

Students explore the theory of Plate Tectonics. They participate in a simulation in which they re-enact the debate over Plate Tectonics vs. traditional beliefs of stationary continents that were widely accepted during the 1800's and...

Young scholars understand the movement of tectonic plates. In this tectonic plates lesson, students access prior knowledge of convergent, divergent, and transform boundaries.  Young scholars discuss energy transfer involved in plate...

Students view a video and conduct a problem solving activity to explain the effect different waves have on the earth's structure and what effect they have on different structures.

Students compare and contrast the volcanoes of Earth and Mars, and examine specific volcanoes on Mars. They model the processes that create cone and shield volcanoes, and measure the slope angles of cone and shield volcanoes.

Students explore how volcanoes are formed, list the parts and characteristics of volcanoes, state the differences in various types of lava, and analyze the volume of ejecta from a volcano.

Students participate in a whole class discussion to relate what they know about earthquakes to the processes of plate tectonics. They respond to prompts that lead them to conclusions about the layers of the earth.

Eleventh graders analyze and interpret an animated model of Earth’s rifting processes.  In this Earth Science lesson, 11th graders connect Earth’s rifting processes with the Earth’s surface in the Gettysburg battlefield. ...

For this earth science worksheet, students find the missing vocabulary words related to the minerals of the earth found in the crust layers.

Fifth graders explore volcanoes and the rocks they produce using the Internet. The lab portion of the lesson prompts young scientists to compare and describe igneous rocks. Next, they critique a pair or more of...