Curated OER
How Do Geology and Physical Stream-bed Characteristics Affect Water Quality?
Students examine geological bedrock in landscape regions and collect data. In this investigative lesson students retrieve data on the Internet then interpret, and graph it.Â
Curated OER
What Makes Up a Healthy Watershed
Students, after observing the elements of a local watershed, explore the need to protect watersheds as water resources for the future. They examine the factors involved with a watershed: geology, ecology, and the effect of man's...
Curated OER
Earth System Science
Students investigate the age of the earth by using accepted scientific methods. They conduct research about the use of radioactive dating and there is a simulation activity of the process. Finally, students measure the radioactive decay...
Curated OER
Rock Candy Crystals
Learners discover how rocks are created. Â In this rock formation lesson plan, students investigate saturation, evaporation, and phase changes in geology. Â Learners create rock candy from skewers, string, boiling water and sugar.
Messenger Education
Look But Don’t Touch—Exploration with Remote Sensing
Mars is home to the tallest mountain in our solar system, Olympus Mons. In this set of two activities, learners review geologic land formations through the analysis of aerial maps. They then apply this knowledge to aerial maps of objects...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Rocks & Minerals
Take young geologists on an exploration of the rock cycle with this six-lesson earth science unit on rocks and minerals. Through a series of discussions, demonstrations, and hands-on investigations your class will learn about the...
Curated OER
Volcanoes: Second Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Young geologists explore volcanoes with a series of engaging geology activities. First, they learn the difference between magma and lava before coloring and labeling the parts of a volcano. During the lab, individuals watch a...
Curated OER
Geological Features: How Weathering & Erosion Help Create Landforms
Learners explore how the Earth's surface changes resulting in geological features and landforms. They perform a read-a-loud on Thomas
Locker's Mountain Dance, complete a KWL chart, and create a
landform using plaster of paris.
Curated OER
Geologic History of Long Island Sound
In this geologic history of Long Island Sound worksheet, students read about how the Long Island sound was formed through rivers and glaciers advancing and retreating. Students answer 5 questions about the reading and the formation of...
Curated OER
Geologic History PowerPoint Follow Sheet-The Rules of the Game
In this geologic history worksheet, learners answer questions about the earth's history, about dating fossils, about layers of rocks and about unconformity.
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...
Curated OER
Fossil Hunt
Learners ask questions about the nature of science as they experience a 'Fossil Hunt'. They reconstruct a book that has been literally destroyed, just as the fossil record has been changed by billions of years of geological processes.
Curated OER
Geology and it’s Influence
Students compare current geological map and the one from 1800's. In this earth science lesson, students discuss differences between the two and explain the factors that caused the change. They write an essay about how these changes...
Curated OER
Sculptors of the Earth
Students observe evidence of erosion and various rock formations that have formed as a result of erosion and weathering. Their task is to explain how the forces of weathering and erosion contributed to sculpturing these rocks into arches...
Curated OER
Layers of Time in the Earth
Learners are introduced to the concept of stratification as a historical and geological process. Students will read about the Richard Beene archaeological site, which lies near San Antonio, Texas on the Medina River, and watch a short...
Curated OER
Glaciers
Seventh graders summarize how Earth processes today are similar to
those that occurred in the past. They read excerpts from John Muir's "Yosemite Glaciers" and explain how slow geologic processes have large cumulative effects over long...
Curated OER
Memory Game
Students create cards for a memory game by entering data into a spreadsheet that is then merged into a word processing document. Tutorials are available through links on the lesson page.
Curated OER
Calibrate Peer ReviewTM: Petroleum Geology of the Persian Gulf Region
Pupils explore the origin and distribution of oil and gas in a region of global significance, the Middle East including the geologic history and the socio-political and environmental issues associated with hydrocarbon exploration and...
Curated OER
Fracture Fundamentals: A Cheesy Analog
Students make small cuts (fracture nuclei) in processed cheese food and then apply stresses perpendicular or parallel to the cuts to see how fractures grow. They make predictions before each experiment and explain their results to the...
Curated OER
Coastal Geology and Geomorphology
In this coastal geology worksheet, students use Google Earth to locate the Oregon coastline. Students then complete 6 short answer questions based on coastal geology.
Curated OER
Time and Earth History Socratic Questions
Young scholars develop a sense of geologic ("deep") time and the ways in which Earth scientists construct the geologic time scale. They study he major events that shaped Earth, including the origin and evolution of its lithosphere,...
Curated OER
Inferring Ancient Environments From Fossil Foraminifera
Students use a reference diagram of fossil foraminifera with their paleo-water-depth assignments to interpret the water-depth of a particular area of California during the geologic past.
Curated OER
Dating Popcorn
Young scholars simulate the dating process with popcorn. In this geology activity, students discuss how geologist find the age of rocks by gauging the amount of decay of radioactive elements. They have 6 bags of popcorn and each group...
Curated OER
Goodbye Honey Buckets
Learners investigate arctic geology and hydrology as well as tundra ecology as they consider options for sewage treatment. Public safety, environmental impact, and issues of construction and engineering be explored.