Students identify the law of superposition and it states that beds of rock in a series are laid down with the oldest at the bottom and younger layers on the top. They construct a legen for a block diagram and construct a block diagram...

Students use foam packing pieces to represent molecular positioning inside the four layers of earth's atmosphere. This lesson help students visualize that molecules become thinner as one ascends higher in the atmosphere.

Fifth graders examine photographs of the eastern and western Franklin Mountains. As a class, they discuss what is shown and the different colored rocks and the orientation of the layers. In groups, they are given clay of two different...

Students identify and interpret concepts about how the Earth was formed and convey some of these ideas in a painting. Students experiment with different types of paints and paint applicators to achieve a variety of visual textures....

Young scholars discover how palaeontologists conduct a dig for fossils and how they interpret the age of the fossils. In small groups, they prepare a "dig site" consisting of bones, rocks and soil layered in a cardboard box. They switch...

Student identify the three stationary positions, on the Earth, on the Moon, and in a house floating atop the cloud layers of Jupiter. They also identify the three orbiting positions, orbiting the Earth, orbiting the Moon, and orbiting...

Students discover facts about rain forests, list the common products that come from rain forests, recognize how important rain forests are to our daily lives, and list and describe the layers of rain forests.

Students experiment with soda cans and water to discover why air pressure is greater closer to Earth's surface.

Learners draw a picture and label the layers of a rain forest in Africa.

Third graders observe a cupcake and attempt to answer each question on the observation page. They write three sentences that explains how a geologist takes core samples of the earth's surface. Students make sketches and write...

Students participate in a hands-on activity to investigate how water is recycled in a small environment, and determine how water is cycled on earth.

Sixth graders understand the patterns of change observable on Earth as a result of the movement of the different bodies in the solar system. They identify the physical characteristics of the different components of the solar system.

High schoolers use CAD maps to explore active faults in Idaho. Through observation of maps, they explore the layers of the Quaternary and Holocene faults. Individually, or in groups, they identify characteristics of faults such as...

Learners diagram the spreading of the ocean floor. For this earth science lesson plan, students read an article on plate boundaries of the ocean. Learners are expected to diagram the oceanic convergent boundary, and...

Middle schoolers discuss why the ocean is salty. They discuss what salinity is. Students are told that is they want to know how much salt is in a body or water, they would use a special scientific tool. They complete an Estuarine Layers...

The final lesson in the 20-part series is a post assessment covering earthquakes and volcanoes. Twenty-three questions incorporate each of the previous lessons through multiple choice, justified multiple choice, expanded multiple choice,...

Here's a great geology lesson plan for 3rd graders on weathering and erosion of soil. After a class discussion on how nature can "move a mountain," learners take a look at how a modern phenoma called acid rain can also cause weathering...

Rocks and minerals are great on their own, but they also turn into some pretty amazing stuff! An online lesson explains the different types of materials we get from rocks and minerals, including glass, plastic, and coins. An embedded...

See how much your class knows about earthquakes and volcanic activity and how these events shape geologic features. The first lesson in the series of 20 is a pre-test to find out what pupils already know. It includes 10 vocabulary...

The San Andreas fault is one of the longest fault zones in the world. In a series of 20 lessons, the fourth lesson has pupils use a paper model to recreate various types of plate faults. Each is held in position then drawn...

The epicenter is the point on the ground above the initial point of rupture. The 10th lesson in a series of 20 encourages scholars to learn to triangulate the epicenter of an earthquake based on the arrival times of p waves and s...

The San Andreas Fault is the largest earthquake-producing fault in California. In the seventh lesson plan in the 20 part series, pupils create maps of California, focusing on the San Andreas Fault system. The comparison of where...

Young scholars experiment with water density, temperature and salinity. In this water lesson, students observe how the coldest water sinks to the bottom of a test tube, and how saltwater sinks in comparison to freshwater.