Curated OER
Student Guide: Evolution Videodisk from Videodiscovery
High schoolers use this worksheet with the videodisk from Video discovery titled Evolution: Inquiries into Biology and Earth Science.Written because there is no computerized control program available, it is to be used with a standard...
Curated OER
Determining the Age of Fossils
High schoolers examine the concept of radioactive dating. In this radioactive dating instructional activity, students investigate how to determine the ages of fossils and rocks as they learn about half-life radioactive decay.
Curated OER
What is a Karst
Students investigate landforms by holding a class experiment. In this topography lesson, students define the word "karst" and discover why sinkholes are created on the surface of the Earth by completing worksheets. Students create a...
Science 4 Inquiry
Let's Get Moving
Rivers top the list of causes of erosion over time. Scholars experiment with wind, water, and ice reshaping sand. They connect the simulations facts about erosion and deposition to understand unique landforms such as the Grand Canyon and...
Curated OER
What Is Natural?
Your junior highers will learn about which objects are natural and classify objects as abiotic or biotic. Your class will trace human products to their natural resources using matter cycles and then create their own definition of nature.
NOAA
Deep-Sea Ecosystems – A Tale of Deep Corals
Many have debated which came first, the chicken or the egg, but this lesson plan debates which came first, the hydrocarbons or the carbonate reef. After a discussion on deep-sea corals, scholars receive a set of questions to research and...
Cornell University
Classification
Explore the scientific method of classification. An interactive activity asks learners to create a classification system for a group of objects and develop a flow chart to communicate their systems. In addition, individuals use a...
Curated OER
Classroom Aquaponics: Exploring Nitrogen Cycling in a Closed System
Students investigate nutrient cycling in a simplified desktop ecosystem involving aquarium and hydro-ponically grown plants. They set up an aquarium with 10 gallons of water at least a week before the lab is planned and place...
Curated OER
What's Under There?
Learners determine ways to make "observations" about unknowns, such as the land beneath an ice sheet or the interior of the Earth, using tools other than sight. They build "mystery boxes" and exchange them with other groups to "map"...
Curated OER
Heat Up the Floating Plates
Eighth graders research the connection between the convection currents within the mantle of the earth and the moving of Earth's plates. A connection to lessons at previous grade levels on the rock cycle and important background...
Curated OER
Chemical Weathering
Students measure the effect of water temperature on the rate of a chemical reaction, similar to the interaction of a weak acid and carbonate rock, using hot water and effervescent antacid tablets.
Curated OER
Habitats
Students investigate the habitats of living things and the cycle of the food chain. In this scientific inquiry online lesson, students examine the habitats of plants and animals as well as the food chain as they sort pictures of living...
Curated OER
What is a Karst?
Students examine the process that creates limestone. In this limestone lesson students complete a worksheet and participate in a lab activity.
University of Colorado
Are All Asteroids' Surfaces the Same Age?
There are more than 600,000 asteroids in our solar system. Pupils analyze images of two asteroids in order to determine if they are the same age. They count craters for each asteroid and compare numbers.
Monroe City Schools
Clouds! Clouds! Clouds!
Here is a beautiful activity on clouds designed for your 1st graders. Learners study three different types of clouds. They construct drawings of cumulus, cirrus, and stratus clouds. The Cloud Book, by Tommie dePaola is used to introduce...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels vs. Alternative Fueling Systems
Fourth graders brainstorm the differences between the fossil fuels that people use in their transportation now and what they could use to minimize greenhouse gas emissions. They use a variety of techniques from webquests to writing...
Curated OER
Glacial Geocaching
Eighth graders measure strike and dip of given land features and explain the difference between them. They also look at rock and mineral samples for indentification, along with calculating the density. Finally, information is analyzed...
Curated OER
Reopen: A Study of Five Closed Mines
Students analyze data to determine which of the fived closed mines would be beneficial to have reopen. They acquire knowledge of rocks and minerals in the area to give reasons why that mine should open again. Students gain knowledge in...
Curated OER
Sediment Tubes
Young scholars observe how different density soils and rocks behave in wind and in water. They make predictions and careful observations as they explore sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
Curated OER
Changes Inside Planets
Students investigate the concept of planetary differentiation. They complete an experiment to simulate it using gelatin and food. The activity includes vocabulary to increase reading comprehension skills as part of the inquiry. The...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics
Students research separate elements of the theory of Plate Tectonics, then share that information with each other, drawing conclusions from the culminated information.
Curated OER
Redefining an Earthquake
Ninth graders build an "Earthquake Machine" (a manipulative model of a fault line) and use it to explore stick-slip behavior of some faults and to develop a more accurate definition of an earthquake and its causes.
Curated OER
Aquifer Model
Students, after researching and brainstorming about aquifers and locating aquifer maps of Texas, participate in the building of a model of an aquifer complete with a pumping station. They also answer a variety of questions at the...
Curated OER
Life in a Cup
Third graders make and maintain a mini terrarium. They keep a daily journal of what happens in their terrarium and record daily observations and measurements.