Curated OER
How Old Is Illinois?
Students use fossils found in rocks to determine the age of rock in Illinois. They use a chart to identify the fossils and then identify the periods of rock.
Curated OER
Carbon Dioxide - Sources and Sinks
Where does all of the carbon dioxide come from that is supposedly leading to climate change? Earth science pupils test animal, plant, and fossil fuels as sources in this investigation. Using an indicator, BTB, they are able to detect the...
Curated OER
How Old Is Illinois?
High schoolers use fossils found in rocks to determine the age of the strata between Rock Island and Chicago. Pupils pretend they are geologists. They must determine the age of all rock layers between the Mississippi River and Lake...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels: Facing the Issues
Students explore energy by researching fuel usage on Earth. In this fossil fuel lesson, students define fossil fuels, the energy created by burning them, and the impact on the environment when using them. Students conduct pollution...
Curated OER
Science: Making Trace Fossils
Students explore types of fossils and discover how sediment affects fossil preservation. They focus their study on trace fossils and create their own using sediment, water, and a small organism such as a snail or lizard. Students use...
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels: Understanding a Nonrenewable Resource
Incorporate fossil fuel issues into your curriculum with these lesson plan ideas.
Curated OER
Mud Fossils
Students observe real fossils. In 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...
Columbus City Schools
Diversity of Living Things
Here's a topic classes can really dig—the fossil record. Use the well-organized and thoughtful road map to take eighth graders back in time to unearth the answer. Learn how our climate has changed, and how organisms have...
Teach Engineering
Enough Energy? Play the Renew-a-Bead Game
Pairs simulate the energy usage of different countries by drawing beads from a bag, which contain different beginning ratios of non-renewable and renewable energy resources. The activity concludes with a series of questions to tie...
American Museum of Natural History
Talk to a Titanosaur
Learn all about the Titanosaur with an engaging website that delves deep into the large reptile's physical traits, family history, discovery, and fossil reconstruction.
National Wildlife Federation
Meet the Extractors, Harvesters, and Harnessers: Methods, Technology, Benefits and Consequences in Acquiring Natural Resources
There are advantages and disadvantages to all sources of energy; the trick is determining which one has the least impact! Part six in the series of 12 has learners further explore energy resources. After reading information about one of...
National Wildlife Federation
Master P in the House: An All School Energy and Climate Change Plan
A person in the US uses 20 times more energy than a person in India—that's a drastic difference! The final lesson in the 12-part series goes back to the initial energy audits, analyzes which room showed the most conservation of energy,...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Personal Choices and the Planet
How big is your footprint? Activity three culminates the series by having groups complete carbon footprint audits with people in their schools and/or around the districts. Groups then gather their data, create a presentation including...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Personal Choices and the Planet
The last activity in the series of four has individuals determine steps they can take to reduce their carbon footprints and then analyze their schools' recycling programs. Through a sustainability audit, they identify how and where their...
Curated OER
Using the Carbon Cycle Interactive Game in the Classroom
An online reading and interactive game bring the path of a carbon molecule to life for your earth science explorers! As an assessment, learners can map out or write about their experience in the carbon cycle. Thoroughly written...
Curated OER
Regents High School Examination: Physical Setting Earth Science 2008
Throughout this earth science exam, high-school geologists complete a series of multiple choice and short answer questions about the solar system, atmosphere, and earth system. This is an amazing test, as are all of the exams developed...
Curated OER
Fossils
In this fossil learning exercise, students match six terms with their definitions about types of fossils and they circle the proper term to make nine statements true about preservation of fossils.
Curated OER
Living Fossils
Students study the term living fossil and examine why some of the reasons they survived. In this fossils lesson students form a hypothesis and use data to see if it is accurate.
Curated OER
Examining the Fossil Record
Learners create an evolutionary tree based on fossil morphology and their ages. In this fossil record lesson plan, students are given 23 pictures of fossil. They study their morphology and arrange the fossils by age and structures on a...
Curated OER
What is a Fossil?
In this fossils worksheet, students are given a bag of fossils mixed with non- fossils. They are to determine which category each item belongs to and give a reason. They answer questions about how they determine fossils from non-fossils.
Curated OER
Fossils
Students complete a unit on fossils. They read and discuss informational handouts, define key vocabulary terms, answer discussion questions, create a geologic timeline and a timeline of their own life, analyze bones, and create a fossil...
Desert Discoveries
How Old is Old? (And, How Much is a Million?)
Here is an interesting lesson on how old things are designed for young scientists. In it, learners compile a list of their birthdays, and the class puts them in sequential order from youngest to oldest. Then, they sequence 15 objects...
Curated OER
Fun with Fossils
Second graders explore the geologic process of fossil formation. In this geology lesson, 2nd graders discuss the job of a paleontologist and make their own model of a fossil. This lesson includes teacher directed questions.
Curated OER
Determining the Age of Fossils
Students examine the concept of radioactive dating. In this radioactive dating lesson, students investigate how to determine the ages of fossils and rocks as they learn about half-life radioactive decay.