Nevada Outdoor School
Let It Snow! Let It Melt!
Winter weather offers a great opportunity to teach young scientists about the states of matter. This activity-based lesson plan includes a range of learning experiences, from experimenting with the rate at which ice...
Mascil Project
House Insulation
Make sure your house is warm in the winter. Pupils analyze graphs of heating costs for two similar houses and make hypotheses for why the costs differ. They then build models of houses with appropriate insulation to reduce heating costs.
University of Colorado
Terra Bagga
Earth's magnetic poles switch positions about every 200,000—300,000 years. In the activity, groups create a planet with a magnetic field. Once made, they use a magnetometer to determine the orientation of the planet's magnetic field....
Urbana School District
Fluids
In 1879, Sir William Crookes discovered the fourth state of matter, plasma. The presentation covers states of matter, phase changes, density, pressure Pascal's Principle, buoyant force, Archimedes' Principle, Bernoulli's Principle,...
E Reading Worksheets
Tone Worksheet 3
The interpretation of a poem often lies in the mind of its reader, especially when reading the tone. Focus on author's word choice, middle schoolers read four different poems and briefly state a perceived tone for each, along with the...
Curated OER
Food Chains
Have your class discuss food chains using this presentation. This resource goes through a step by step exploration of plants and the food chain. It talks about the energy of the sun, producers and consumers, herbivores and carnivores,...
Curated OER
The Learning Bottleneck
Students identify and analyze what energy is and how they feel after moving around a lot. They identify other ways that they can acquire heat and if there is some sort of mechanism for storing energy. Finally, students construct their...
Curated OER
Ocean Power
Students explore the energy resources of the ocean. In this energy lesson, students participate in 4 activities focused on energy resources from the ocean.
Curated OER
Teaching the Complexities of Earth's Systems
An understanding of systems is integral to the study of the Earth.
Curated OER
Harvest the Wind
Wind is a natural resource available around the world. Help your pupils appreciate the power and importance of wind by researching wind farms, making pinwheels, and designing windmills.
Curated OER
The Transformation and Use of Different Types of Energy Using Local Flora and Fauna in a Vietnam Village Setting
Eighth graders examine the concept that the sun is the ultimate source of energy for living things. They conduct an experiment in which they roast marshmallows over a flame that has been produced from methane gas, which originates from...
Curated OER
Variables Affecting Earth's Albedo
Students study the variables that affect the Earth's albedo. In this environmental data analysis instructional activity students interpret and graph information and calculate changes.
K5 Learning
Why Does the Ocean have Waves?
Six short answer questions challenge scholars to show what they know after reading an informational text that examines waves—what they are, what causes them, and how different Earth factors affect their size and strength.
Curated OER
Trends of Snow Cover and Temperature in Alaska
Students gather historical snow cover and temperature data from the MY NASA DATA Web site. They compare this data to data gathered using ground measurements from the ALISON Web site for Shageluk Lake. They graph both sets of data and...
Curated OER
Remote Sensing and Landsat Satellite Imagery
Students comprehend how satellites use remote sensing to produce images. They use supervised classification with Landsat images. Students recognize that the earth's surface has different basic land surfaces that reflect/emit different...
Curated OER
Earth's Energy Balance Performance Standard
Students examine how Earth-Sun relationships affect Earth's energy balance and the pattern of world temperatures. Students study a Surface Temperature Regions map and write a paragraph describing the temperature pattern from the Equator...
Curated OER
Cooler in the Shadows
Students explore how the amount of sunlight and heat change in areas that are shaded.
Curated OER
CONVECTION
Students experiment to produce a visual convection current in the classroom and compare it to the images taken of convection cells in the Sun. They analyze the source of the Sun's energy and this type of energy transport.
Curated OER
Reasons for Seasons
Students model the tilt of the Earth as it orbits the Sun. They explain the meaning and characteristics of solstices and equinoxes. They explain that sunlight hits the Earth at different angles at different locations over the course of...
Curated OER
Climate Change & Coral Activities
Students study how the ocean stabilizes our planet's climates and how global warming is becoming a threat to this fine balance. In this climate change lesson, students identify that fossil fuel emissions are responsible for...
Curated OER
Super-Fast Solar Flares!
For this solar flares worksheet, students observe a sequence of figures of a solar flare observed in 2003 from the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager satellite. Students solve 6 problems including finding the scale of each...
Curated OER
'Round and 'Round it Goes!
Students discuss and interpret background knowledge on poster copy given on the water cycle. Students complete the included activity sheets using the poster as a reference in small groups. Students identify and name where water can be...
Curated OER
Solar S'Mores
Students see that solar energy is the energy given off by the sun. They explain that when light energy is absorbed by objects it is changed to heat energy and that dark-colored objects absorb more light and store more heat from sunlight.
Curated OER
Solar S’Mores
Learners cook with the power of the sun. In this solar energy lesson, students explore solar cooking as they apply scientific principles to cook s'mores.