A sign that washed away from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 beached itself 3,595 miles away in France. This artifact and others from around the world help scientists understand water currents and the far-reaching impact of hurricanes. Scholars...

Third graders view a classroom simulation that demonstrates how the Earth's rotation creates day and night.

Students discover that the Earth rotates on its axis in a cyclical fashion. They examine how this rotation results in day and night.

First graders study that day and night result from shadows produced by Earth's rotation. Students work to show how shadows are produced, look for and identify shadows and observe shadows produced from different sources.

Students explore day and night and the relationships between the Earth, the sun and the moon. They discuss the ways in which the sun and moon help us. They watch a short video that helps illustrate these concepts.

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,...

Fifth graders observe a demonstration that shows how the alignment of the sun, moon, earth relate to the phases of the moon that occur each month. They describe the moon's phases after experimenting in a small group setting and recording...

Second graders demonstrate knowledge and appropriate use of hardware components, software programs, and their connections. After a lecture/demo, student groups utilize raisins and apples to demonstrate day and night. They put togethre a...

Students investigate the Earth and the Moon. They select activities from a menu of options including viewing videos, drawing magnetic fields and plate tectonics, creating vocabulary flashcards, observing the phases of the moon over a...

Students investigate that the sun is at the center of the solar system through role play. One student is the sun and one student is the Earth. The students then show how the Earth orbits around the sun. Students view a flashlight and...

Students share their science expertise with elementary students in a conference format. Elementary students rotate through sessions of different science disciplines (Biology, Earth Science, Physics, Chemistry, Computers).

Students closely examine the earth's crust and various landforms. In this Earth's layers lesson students work in cooperative groups and analyze their roles and responsibilities therein. Each group is assigned a specific landform to...

High schoolers read and discuss," The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton and complete a short writing exercise as a warm-up for a longer piece of science fiction writing. They choose a topic and create a science fiction short story...

Students explore the concept of daylight. In this daylight instructional activity, students compare the amount of daylight on a particular day in Anchorage compared with daylight where they live. Students color maps of the US according...

Students compose songs about recycling. In this ecology lesson, students use vocabulary and concepts related to recycling to generate lyrics for an original song. Students construct musical instruments out of discarded materials.

Young scholars explore wants and needs. In this ecology and economics lesson plan, students listen to the story The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and compile a class list of what the boy got from the tree. Young scholars categorize...

If only we could harness the energy of fifth graders, our energy problems would be over! The class discusses where different forms of energy come from and how we use them. They complete a chart of the activities that they do daily...

If you are looking for an outstanding lesson on the Moon for your budding astronomers, look no further! This outstanding plan is full of wonderful, meaningful activities for your charges to engage in. Pupils will discover why there are...

How does the color of a surface affect the heating of the earth? Middle school science classes experiment with color and surface albedo to determine the relationship. The website has tabs for an overview, teacher's instructions,...

Students explore using energy from the sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. This excellent two-day lesson has groups of students build and test a variety of solar cookers....

The sun sends the earth 35,000 times the amount of energy required by all of us on the entire planet, every day. The fourth lesson in the 10-part series looks at how light energy from the sun transfers into thermal energy. Scholars build...

Give your pupils a front row seat at the biggest light show in the sky this year! In addition to admiring the total solar eclipse, young astronomers can explain the phenomenon with a little help from an inquiry-based instructional...

The moon takes just over 27 days to orbit around Earth. Young scientists position themselves as the earth as they rotate around the sun and hold the moon. This allows them to observe the patterns and phases of the moon.

Do great gardeners really have green thumbs—or just really great soil? Environmental scholars discover what makes Earth's soil and soil quality so important through research and experimentation. Learners also develop an understanding of...