NASA
NASA: Moving Cargo
How does NASA transport people and cargo to planets? The five-lesson unit breaks down the transportation system that scientists use to transport cargo to space. Pairs team up in order to devise a transportation system that will...
Earth Day Network
Filtering Water
See the water filtration system up close with a fun science experiment. Young scientists work for several class periods to design a water filter using household objects, and then decide which filter material would be most effective...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Climate Change Impacts on Ecosystem Services
The fourth activity in a series of five has classes participate in a jigsaw to learn about global impacts of climate change and then share their new information with a home group. Groups then research impacts of climate change (droughts,...
Consumers Energy
The Cost of Electricity
How much is your toaster costing you every day? Young environmentalists calculate the monetary costs of household appliances based on their average consumption of wattage.
Salt River Project
How Do We Clean Polluted Water?
How do we clean up oil spills and other pollutants in the water? Explore water treatment strategies with a set of environmental science experiments. Groups remove oil from water, work with wastewater treatment, and perform a water...
Teach Engineering
Preconditioning Balloons: Viscoelastic Biomedical Experiments
What does stretching a balloon have to do with equilibrium? Groups explore preconditioning by stretching a balloon to a point of equilibrium. They then measure the amount of force required to stretch the balloon to the same point several...
Polar Trec
Arctic Smorgasbord!
Two blooms of phytoplankton, instead of just one, now occur in the Arctic due to declining sea ice, which will have widespread effects on the marine life and climate. In small groups, participants build an Arctic food web with given...
Curated OER
Walking the Five Themes - Your Community to Ours
Students in two classrooms share information about their communities in classrooms throughout the year. In groups, they identify the physical and human characteristics of each area and how they change through time. They also discover the...
Curated OER
Life in Space: International Space Station
Students explore the potential challenges of living in space. In this investigative lesson students search the Internet to locate 16 nations that are working together to build the Independent Space Station, then they divide into...
Curated OER
Working for Water
Students examine the ways that government works to help improve aquatic habitats. In this water habitats lesson students view a video and plan a school restoration project.
Curated OER
Help I've Fallen And I Can't Get Up
Middle schoolers examine how natural disasters impact humans and how to develop a disaster relief plan. They develop a list of natural disasters, and in disaster relief teams, create an emergency plan for their families to follow if a...
Curated OER
Measurement of Biotic and Abiotic Objects
Students identify biotic and abiotic factors. In this environmental study lesson, students conduct a series of experiments to collect and record data and draw conclusions based on the results.
Curated OER
Bearing the Torch: A Study of Ancient Greece
Second graders research Ancient Greece. In this Ancient Greece activity, 2nd graders survey the geographical, historical, and cultural aspects of Greece. Students discover stories of Greek mythology and explore the beginning of the...
Curated OER
Weather and its Effect on the Environment and Settlement
Students, after choosing two diverse cities, collect data on weather for a month and construct a graph on temperature and precipitation. After collecting population data of said cities, and graphing it, they plot population on a large...
Curated OER
Environment: The Haves and the Have Nots
Pupils examine consumption habits in developed and developing countries and determine their effects on natural resources. In groups, they assess graphs on the Living Planet Report and observe the connection between consumption and...
Curated OER
Making Sense of Things: The Human Body and Senses
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate the accuracy of their senses.
Curated OER
Secrets of the Ocean Realm - In the School "Star Gardens"
Young scholars learn to use a tide table in plotting tidal curves and create a tide calendar by plotting a month-long tidal curve on an ordinary pictorial calendar.
Curated OER
Connections Between World Events, Geography and the Human Quest for Knowledge
Students examine the relationship between innovations in geography and world events. Using maps, they report different information from a spatial perspective. They develop hypothesis about how man's quest for knowledge has impacted the...
Curated OER
Tree Lesson
Students compare and contrast characteristics of conifer and hardwood trees. After collecting samples of branches around the school, they classify the branch as hardwood or conifer. Groups of students identify given twigs. They go...
Curated OER
Nature and Nurture
Students look into the role both nature and nurture play in determining an individual's traits. They examine how genes and the environment affect personality
Curated OER
Evergreen's Green Team Energy Audit
Learners investigate the ways energy is used at their school and how it can be changed. In this energy instructional activity, students participate in a service project related to energy. Learners record and calculate changes that...
Curated OER
Home Sweet Home
Middle schoolers examine the change in the diversity of animals living in an area before and after development. In order to do this, students need to have access to an area near their school which is undeveloped. A good, "real life" lesson.
Curated OER
Youth Dealing With Homophobia:Stories From Real Life
Students read testimonials of real gay and lesbian teenagers dealing with homophobia. They discuss how to create an environment that respects all persons regardless of sexual orientation. They discuss a variety of emotions that these...
Curated OER
Populations – The Survival of the Fittest (Part 1)
Students explain in their own words why organisms live together. In this biology lesson, students model what happens to organisms if their environment changes. They explain the importance of evolution.