Curated OER
Earth's Water
If the majority of our planet is covered with water, why do we need to bother conserving it? With a thorough and varied investigation into the location and types of water on the earth, learners will gain an understanding of why this...
Curated OER
Gelatin Volcanoes
Learners investigate magma flow using gelatin volcano models. In this earth science instructional activity, students sketch the magma bodies as observed from the top of their model. They explain why magma moves that way.
Colorado State University
How Far Away Is Space?
Outer space may be a lot closer than you think! Science scholars model the layers of the atmosphere using transparencies to gain insight into the scale of space. The resource includes ideas to tailor the activity to the skill level of...
PBS
Water Cycle and Watersheds: Ways of Watersheds | UNC-TV Science
Take a field trip with water as it moves on and below Earth's surface. Investigators discover the link between water and land in the water cycle and the importance of watersheds while viewing an animated video. Scholars test their...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part I), The Geology of Oil
Junior geologists work through three mini-lessons that familiarize them with the formation and location of fossil fuels. Part one involves reading about petroleum and where it comes from via a thorough set of handouts. A lab activity...
American Chemical Society
Exploring Moisture on the Outside of a Cold Cup: For Dry Environments
If the area you live in is arid, or the preceding experiment in this unit didn't yield obvious results, use this one in place of it to help reveal where condensation comes from. The mini unit that this is part of a comprehensive...
Curated OER
Earth Book
After viewing a teacher-led demonstration on a variety of landforms of the Earth, 1st graders create an Earth book. This nicely-done hands-on lesson has students produce books that describe, in pictures and words, different aspects of...
Curated OER
Good Old Earth Materials
Students investigate different types of building structures and how they are able to stand up to earthquakes. Through comparison they determine which buildings are better able to handle earthquakes than others. They create a building,...
Space Awareness
How To Travel On Earth Without Getting Lost
Have you ever wanted to travel the world? Take a virtual trip with a geography lesson that uses longitude and latitude, the position of the sun, an astronomy app, and a classroom globe.
Curated OER
Volcanoes: Sixth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Bring a set of pre-lab, lab, and post-lab lesson plans on volcanoes to your earth science unit. Sixth graders explore the three types of volcanoes found on Earth, plot the specific locations of these volcanoes on a map, and...
Columbus City Schools
The Mystery of Earth’s History
Every living creature can leave a fossil record, yet most fossils belong to extinct organisms rather than ones currently living. Scholars learn about dating rock layers, fossils, and the environment of the past. Pupils understand that...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Automotive Emissions and the Greenhouse Effect
It is recommended that you conduct this fabulous experiment as a whole-class demonstration. Collect air samples from the environment, human exhalation, and car exhaust, then compare them for carbon dioxide content using bromthymol blue...
Australian Government
The Great Artesian Basin
Covering 23% of the continent and holding 64,900 cubic kilometers of water, the Great Artesian Basin is the primary source of water for much of inland Australia. Using detailed student worksheets, experiments, and case studies,...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Black Carbon - a Dusty Situation
Introduce your young meteorologists to black carbon produced by the burning of fossil fuels by showing the video, "Changing Planet: Black Carbon." Viewers discover that deposition of this carbon on polar ice impacts the absorption of...
American Chemical Society
Exploring Moisture on the Outside of a Cold Cup
As a stand-alone or as part of the intended unit, this is a valid investigation of what causes condensation to occur. By limiting the amount of air around a cold cup of water and comparing it to one out in the open, they find that...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Rising Ocean Temperatures - Rising Sea Levels
As an anticipatory set, young environmental technicians watch a video about how ocean temperatures seem to be changing along with the global climate. They perform a laboratory demonstration with the purpose of observing what happens to...
American Chemical Society
Condensation
It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...
Curated OER
Watershed Works: Unit 2
The second of a three-unit lesson plan, this focuses on how human-made structures affect watersheds. Using watershed models that were built during the first unit, junior geologists now place buildings, dams, or levees into the models and...
Curated OER
Floods and Flash Floods
Junior geologists, hydrologists, or meteorologists simulate what happens during the flooding of a river and demonstrate factors that contribute to flash flooding. This outstanding resource provides a vocabulary list, online resources,...
National Geographic
The Monsoon
Few things are as fascinating as the challenge of climbing Mount Everest. This lesson investigates how monsoon weather impacts climbers. To begin, you are instructed to show various video clips. The only one directly provided, however,...
NOAA
Plate Tectonics I
Young geologists get a glimpse beneath the earth's surface in this plate tectonics investigation. After first learning about the different layers of the earth and the constant movement of its plates, young...
NASA
Let's Investigate Mars
Take your science class on a hypothetical field trip to Mars with an engaging astronomy lesson. After first learning about NASA's Mars rover missions, young scientists plan their own scientific investigations of Earth's...
Curated OER
Earth's Energy Budget - Seasonal Cycles in Net Radiative Flux
Students attempt to understand seasonal variation by viewing images of the energy received by the earth. In this weather lesson, students view images from NASA of the influx of energy from the sun and make predictions about resulting...
Curated OER
Skin Cancer Investigation: A Multi-Component Project
Students compare the perceived and actual risks of getting skin cancer, while looking at ways to minimize these risks. They may have very little grasp of the severity of the threat of skin cancer or be unaware of the increase in the...