Students explore the relative sizes of the Sun, Earth and Moon as they make an impressive large-scale model for classroom use throughout the unit.

Students learn information about the planets Mercury, Venus, and Earth by playing a trivia game.

First graders discover plate tectonics. They observe the forces of erosion. They observe the forces of weathering. They state three ways the earth changes. They record observations and make conclusions about their observations.

Students explain how the earth's magnetic field works and looks. They create their own free-floating compass using the everyday materials. After constructing their compass, they test it and determine north.

Eighth graders define orbit, rotation and revolution. They demonstrate the orbit, rotation and revolution of the Earth. Students identify the types of measurements and the instruments that used for orbit, rotation and revolution. They...

Students create scale models of Earth, the Moon, and the distances within the universe. Working in groups, they construct their models of Earth and the Moon on a scale of 50:1 and calculate how far apart to place their models. They...

Students explore the Earth and its rotation. Volunteers model the sun-Earth system to demonstrate that the Earth rotates around the sun. In groups, students simulate "traveling" around the sun and discuss when it is night and day.

Students develop a sense of geologic ("deep") time and the ways in which Earth scientists construct the geologic time scale. They study he major events that shaped Earth, including the origin and evolution of its lithosphere, atmosphere,...

Students identify the Earth's natural resources. In this Earth science lesson, students read the book The Great Kapok Tree and discuss types of natural resources. Students use categories such as wood, paper, and trees and list items that...

Second graders discover how to use longitude and latitude to locate specific sites on Earth. They compare old and new ways of locating specific places, and discover how latitude and longitude coordinates are used to locate places on Earth.

Learners explore the layers of earth's atmosphere and conduct an experiment to identify carbon dioxide. They construct models using styrofoam to represent molecules in the atmosphere's layers. To discover how sunlight efffects...

Eighth graders examine the forces that are constantly acting on the Earth. They describe the theory of tectonic plates and demonstrate the two kinds of earthquake waves. They also examine the role of volcanoes in the structure of the...

Students visualize the Earth's ecosystem at a specific time period and how Earth has changed over time. They create a detailed journal entry for a specific time period and create a birthday card to Earth.

Fourth graders will explore our solar system. In this physics lesson plan students create a model of the solar system to explore the movement of Earth, the Sun, and stars.

Young scholars participate in a JAVA activity to vary the seismic P and S wave velocity through each of four concentric regions of Earth. They match "data" for travel times vs. angular distance around Earth's surface from the source to...

In this Earth's forces worksheet, students will review the characteristics of earthquakes, including types of faults. Students will interpret a seismograph read-out from an earthquake. Students will complete 10 fill in the blank...

Young scholars identify questions and problems in the earth and environmental sciences that can be answered through scientific investigations. They design and conduct scientific investigations to answer questions related to earth and...

Students examine the geological time scale: the Earth is ancient; time can be divided into periods based on its fossil content.

Learners identify Earth's equator, prime meridian, lines of latitude, lines of longitude, parallels, and meridians.

Students explore different areas of America by using the internet and the "Google Earth" website in this interactive, social studies lesson for late elementary students. This lesson includes a resource link to download a free program to...

Students calculate the radius of the earth. They use the method and data suggested by Eratosthenes. They investigate the interrelationships among mass, distance, force, and time through experimental processes.

Students build a model of the Earth showing tectonic plate boundaries. The pattern for the model is provided in the lesson. This is a very useful hands-on component for a lesson about geology or earthquakes.

Students use pencil and paper to explore the Coriolis effect and how the Earth's rotation causes global wind patterns.

In this Earth's atmosphere worksheet, students observe the effects of air pressure using an egg. They describe what happens to the egg and what makes it do what it does. Then they determine how to get the egg out of the bottle opening at...