Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Watershed Lesson Plan

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students are introduced to the concepts of a watershed, stream flow and water quality. This five-day plan is an excellent way to introduce students to the concepts involved. They create their own watershed using a paper bag, water and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Minerals of the Earth

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students learn and practice identifying Earth's minerals and their properties. Working in small groups, they evaluate minerals. This is a well-described lesson plan, which students enjoy.
Activity
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach

Hydrology and Landforms

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Three days of erosion exploration await your elementary geologists. Learners begin by examining rivers via Google Earth, then they model water flow in sand, and finally, they identify resulting landforms. This lesson is written...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Delicate Balance

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students complete an activity to help them understand the Earth's delicate balance. In this Earth instructional activity, students will draw and discuss the ways the Earth's atmosphere can be harmed. Students will then participate in a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

An Introduction to the Night Sky and Movement Astronomy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Basically, this is an interactive exploration of educational astronomy software and an app. Young astronomers discover how the apparent motion of the sky relates to Earth's movements and the position of the observer. It is out of this...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reasons for Seasons

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students investigate a model of the tilt of the Earth in its relationship to the Sun during the different seasons of the year. They study the solstices and equinoxes, while determining how sunlight hits the Earth with different angles in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

DAY AND NIGHT

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students use a lamp as the sun and his/her body as the earth. They rotate in different directions to explain how the earth moves around the sun. Using specific questions in their discussion, students discover the reasons for day and night.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Modeling Day and Night

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students complete a science experiment to study the role of night and day on sleep patterns. In this sleep patterns lesson, students brainstorm about night and day and the causes for the rotations on Earth. Students work in groups to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

After 7 years, capsule of comet dust heads to Earth

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students examine an article on a space capsule and explore NASA.  In this space exploration lesson students brainstorm the pros and cons of space exploration, then rehearse a sketch and present it to the class. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Water Planet

For Teachers K - 4th
Students use NASA photographs and hands-on activities to compare the amounts of land and water on our planet. They discover that the world has five oceans and that they cover seventy percent of Earth's surface. Students learn how this...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Goes Around Comes Around

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate how the ocean plays a part in the water cycle. In this earth science instructional activity, students locate a puddle outside and mark it with chalk. Students observe the changes in the water during the next two days.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sampling Rocks

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students investigate rocks. In this earth science lesson plan, students collect rocks from the schoolyard and describe each of the rocks. Students measure and weigh each rock and record the results. Students create a rock guide for the...
Lesson Plan
Virginia Department of Education

Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes

For Teachers K - 2nd Standards
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a activity highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

Planet X

For Students 8th Standards
How did the earth become the mass that it is now? Your young scientists explore this question through the concept of density. Their inquiries consider the impact of gravity on the formation of planets. The culminating activity of the...
Unit Plan
Columbus City Schools

Keeping It Hot!

For Teachers 7th Standards
Hot off the presses, this collection of thermal energy activities, lessons, and printables is sure to amaze. Demonstrate how thermal energy moves about in a system using simple materials. Pupils demonstrate their understanding...
Lesson Plan
3
3
Chicago Botanic Garden

Calculating Your Carbon Footprint

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
Unplugging from technology for one day per week will decrease your carbon footprint—are you up to the challenge? Part two in a series of three allows individuals to explore their personal carbon footprints. By first taking a quiz at home...
Lesson Plan
PBS

Breaking it Down

For Teachers 4th - 12th
After challenging themselves to correctly choose the form of erosion and length of time required for a given landform to develop, earth science class members model mechanical and chemical weathering with various lab demonstrations over...
Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

Rocks & Minerals

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
Take young geologists on an exploration of the rock cycle with this six-lesson earth science unit on rocks and minerals. Through a series of discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on investigations your class will learn...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water in the Biosphere

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Environmental explorers examine the campus and take note of living organisms. Introduce them to the biosphere and the questions of the day: How much water can be found in the biosphere? A slide show helps you along, and even contains a...
Interactive
Weber State University

The Sun and the Seasons

For Students 9th - 12th
Why is there more daylight in June than in December if you live above the equator? How does the angle of sunlight shift throughout the year? Answer these questions and more with an interactive article about the sun, its path through the...
Handout
National Institute of Open Schooling

Occurrence and Extraction of Metals

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Steel is a man-made alloy or a mixture of metals. Lesson 18 in this series of 36 focuses on metals and their extraction from Earth. Individuals read about, discuss, and answer questions after learning how people find most metals, the...
Unit Plan
Intel

Biomes in Action

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
A STEM project-based learning lesson, number four in a series of 10, focuses on human impacts to biomes around the world. Groups work together as environmentalists to research a specific biome, investigating human impacts on it. From...
Lesson Plan
1
1
Chicago Botanic Garden

The Carbon Cycle

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
There is 30 percent more carbon in the atmosphere today than there was 150 years ago. The first instructional activity in the four-part series teaches classes about the carbon cycle. Over two to three days, classes make a model...
Activity
DiscoverE

Shake It Up with Seismographs

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Shake up your lessons on earthquakes. A simple seismograph lets scholars record "earthquakes" in the classroom. These earthquakes occur when classmates drop balls from different heights. Young scientists measure these with seismographs...

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