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Civilizations of the Americas
Study and compare multiple aspects of both Aztec and Inca civilizations. Young historians explain how each of the empires came to be, and how they were both defeated by the Spanish. The resource starts out as a good lesson, but is...
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Human Evolution
Students make and use observations of Laetoli footprints to provide clues to life in the past. They collect and analyze data to study the relationship between foot length and body height.
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Three Dimensional Geology
Students use rocks and fossils to interpret the geology of an area. They use prior knowledge and make recommendations about where to build a subdivision based on the rocks.
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Frosty the Snowman Meets His Demise: An Analogy to Carbon Dating
Students read and discuss an article about carbon dating, then participate in a hands-on lab to discover how carbon dating works. Students also write a letter to a friend explaining the process, and how archeologists use the process to...
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THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER
Students explore how a nuclear accident can affect biological systems. They examine the case of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in 1986.
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Who Was Charles Darwin?
Students complete two activities to study Charles Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. They read Darwin's journal from the voyage of the Beagle and look at the scientific ideas that influenced the development of his theory.
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Weather
Students recognize that carbon dioxide's role in the greenhouse effect. They research the greenhouse effect to design and create a greenhouse structure to measure the changing temperatures over a 24-hour period. In addition, they write a...
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Polishing the Petoskey
Students select a stone and polish it. Throughout the process they demonstrate an understanding of rocks and fossil formation.
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Polishing the Petoskey
Students polish a Petoskey stone to show how to make an attractive rock display. In this polishing rocks lesson plan, students use sand paper and polishing materials to polish a rock and remove the rock dust. This is to display a nice...
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Birds of Different Feathers: Species Specialization
Students identify differences in bird species and explain the concept of species specialization. They attain the knowledge that different birds occupy different habitats.
Students identify characteristics and features of birds that make...
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Evolution
Tenth graders are introduced to the topic of evolution. Using the internet, they discuss Charles Darwin's life and work in this field of science. They examine fossils and discuss how they support the theory of evolution. They participate...
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It's About Time
Students create their own timeline. In this social science lesson, students write the important events that happened in their lives on their timeline and then compare their timeline to Earth's timeline.
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Reading Follow-up Activity
Students color a worksheet while discussing characteristics and composition of caves.
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Exploring Hybrid Cars
Students explore GreenHybird.com and develop a list of questions car buyers might have. Students also attempt to answer the questions on GreenHybrid.com and then explore the answers with car dealers in the area before writing a clear and...
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Geologic Age
Students investigate radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time and how geologists use this information to determine the absolute age of rocks or minerals.
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The Effect of Natural Selection on Genes, Traits and Individuals
Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...
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Manipulating Scale Measurements in Photographs
Students study the basic metric units and how they compare to each-other. In this scale lesson students learn how to plot a 2-D representation of objects in relation to each other.
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Earth Epochs
Students explore earth epochs, i.e, Permian, Precambrian, Cambrian, Ordivician and through pictures they see what life on Earth and animals looked like. They organize Earth Epochs according to years going from greatest to least...
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Exploring Climate Change with GIS
Young scholars investigate climatological changes that are occurring to the Earth. For this climate change lesson, students access an assigned web site to view maps and lessons that show how climate change makes a difference to life on...
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Get Cracking
Students compare the life cycle of an animal hatched from an egg with one born from its mother's womb. The lesson focuses on dinosaur eggs. They create dinosaur eggs from balloons and papier mache.
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Not Just For A Baby's Bottom
Eighth graders investigate the presence of talc in the geologic record. The different characteristics of talc is covered. The lesson includes background information for the teacher.
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A Scale of the Earth
Students create a scale model of the different eras, periods, and epochs of Earth's 4.6 billion year history. In addition to different time periods, other major events will also be added to the model from fabricated radioactive decay...
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Plate Tectonics: Recycling the Seafloor
Students classify earth's layers and plates using Ocean Seismicity data. For this plate tectonics lesson, students outline where the plate boundaries are on the world map. They then compare these predicted boundaries with USGS map of the...
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Smog Be Gone
Students begin the lesson by identifying greenhouse gases. In groups, they observe and record the effect of the gases on the atmosphere and the temperature of the Earth. They participate in activities that describe the role of...