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Explorations Through Time
In this earth history learning exercise, students visit a website and complete 15 fill in the blank and 8 short answer questions based on what they read. Topics include biodiversity, animal kingdoms, evolution, fossils, and extinction.
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Phase to Phase with the Moon
Fourth graders study the Moon phases. The lesson includes hands-on activities as well as web-based activities. They use models of the Moon and a lamp to study each of the phases of the Moon, and test their knowlege of the Moon on a web...
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A Whole Lotta Shakin'
Students read first hand accounts of earthquake survivors in order to begin the describe the different types of earthquake waves and the order in which they arrive. They engage in using earthquake waves as a means to indirectly study the...
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Let's Take a Rock Apart!
Young scholars examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.
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Diversity of Life: Geologic Time Scale
Students investigate the history of Earth by creating a geologic time scale. For this Earth History lesson, students practice sequencing events in their life as a way to get familiar with creating a time scale. Students...
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Dust in the Wind; Chemicals in the Water
Students explore mechanical and chemical weathering at stations. They articulate some mechanisms of chemical and mechanical weathering through exploration in a lab. Students stations describe how chemical weathering differs from...
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Volcanoes
Third graders study the concept of plate tectonics. In the process they embark in research and construction of a volcano. They complete a web quest while assessing how to research, give oral reports, and create a product.
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Seasonal Cloud Cover Variations
Students, in groups, access data from the NASA website Live Access Server regarding seasonal cloud coverage and the type of clouds that make up the coverage. They graph the data and make correlations between types, seasons and percentages.
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Discovering the Wetlands!
Students name wetland plant and animal life. In this ecosystem lesson students go birdwatching and interpret native plants through art.
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Too Hot? Gotta Vent!
Students study deep sea exploration and underwater geology, specifically hydrothermal sea vents. They create digital video projects of their own to demonstrate their knowledge, illustrating the discoveries of the explorers of the ocean's...
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Vertebrate Dioramas
Students describe the development of their chosen form of vertebrate life from the past to the present in a four to six page paper. They explain the use of a phylogenetic tree, and use this to exemplify an organism's evolutionary change...
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Genetically-Modified Food
Young scholars investigate the pros and cons of genetic engineering. They watch a short Bill Moyers video, conduct Internet research, create a poster, participate in a pro/con debate, and write an essay expressing their personal feelings...
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No Escape
Via four student handouts, marine biology learners examine the topography and circulation cell of the Fieberilng guyot. Then they examine the number of individual hydroids counted at each depth. Pupils use the information to relate water...
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Evolution of Observation
Students develop an awareness of the evolution of the scientific method. They facilitate the student's knowledge of looking at variables from different perspectives. Students develop their abilities to defend their ideas with facts or...
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The Flat Earth
Students are first presented with the idea that the Earth is really flat. They prove that it is not--using a variety of techniques.
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Science: Trouble in the Troposphere
Students research a NASA Website and record information about an assigned city's tropospheric ozone residual monthly climate. In groups, they graph the information for the past year. They form new groups and compare their city's...
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Geologic Time: Relative and Absolute Dating
Students investigate relative and absolute dating; determine the difference between the two dating systems; and apply this knowledge by creating a geologic timetable of their own.
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Rivers And Capitals
High schoolers become familiar with the use of GIS for research and become aware of the importance of rivers to cities. They also analyze the placement of cities and learn the names of rivers in the United States.
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Robert Boyle and Religion
High schoolers discuss past cultures and the history of ideas in seventeenth century science. They answer a list of questions and prepare for a debate on the subjects of science and religion and views on how the universe was created.
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Put A Scientific Spin on Teen Read Week!
Celebrate Teen Read Week by incorporating literature into your science curriculum.
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Life Has A History
In this biology worksheet, students identify and match various classes of species found today. Then they explain why biodiversity exists today on earth and define evolution. Students also describe who a paleontologist is and what they do.
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The Universe
Students recognize that the stages of evolution a star goes through are determined by the size of the star. They conduct research to draw a set of diagrams illustrating the stages in the evolution of three sizes of stars.
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Three D Constellations
Students address a major misconception in astronomy, the understanding of scale. The activity is designed to introduce students to both celestial coordinates and to the first rung on the distance determination ladder, parallax.
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Mud Fossils
Students observe real fossils. For this science lesson, students make their own mud fossils by pressing material into the mud and letting it dry in the sun for 3-4 days. Students then get the fossils out displaying their mud...