Curated OER
Roll With the Punches: Oprah's On!
Sixth graders prepare questions for an Oprah Winfrey talk show featuring the characters from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the amazing novel by Mildred D. Taylor. Selected students role-play the characters and answer questions Oprah...
Curated OER
Water Pollution Lesson Plan: What's the Flow?
Students study urban runoff. They identify the urban runoff in a simulated area and determine peak flows using charted data. Finally, they discuss possible causes of the differences in flow rates.
Curated OER
Mapping The Ocean Floor
Young scholars explore and analyze the bottom structure of underwater habitats. They describe and explain what can't see through the collection and correlation of accurate data. Learners assess that technology is utilized as a tool for...
Curated OER
Particulate Matter- How Dirty is the Air We Breathe?
Fourth graders investigate air pollution. In this air pollution lesson, 4th graders test the air quality by using a block of wood and petroleum jelly. Students investigate the pollutants on the wooden block.
Curated OER
Start at the Very Beginning
Learners explore ocean ecosystems. In this cross curriculum art and oceans lesson, students create a collage featuring three-finger algae using sand paper, tissue paper, and construction paper.
Curated OER
The Discovery of OXygen
Students conduct experiments to identify the different properties of oxygen. In this chemistry lesson, students examine its importance to life on Earth. They explore the historic dispute about oxygen's discovery.
Curated OER
Physical Characteristics of the Troposphere
Students lexplore environmental trends in the troposphere- temperature, dew point, pressure and wind speed- by checking their hypotheses against data collected by weather balloons.
Curated OER
Build A Model of the Water Cycle
Young scholars identify and describe the steps in the water cycle. They discover the sun as the source of the cycle. They work together to create their own water cycle model.
Curated OER
The Water Cycle and Watershed
Students summarize the steps in the water cycle. In this earth science lesson plan, students create a skit, song or poem showing the various components of the cycle. They identify the different watersheds in their area.
Curated OER
Earth Science: The Sun-Earth Relationship
Students examine the sun's impact on the Earth. They read online articles, explore various websites, and answer questions using information found on the Internet.
Curated OER
What's in My Water, and How Did it Get There?
Learners analyze water samples to see the contaminants and then use the Internet to find the sources of the contamination. In this investigative water lesson students analyze water and work together to solve the mystery of...
Curated OER
Protest Art in Pre-Revolutionary Russia
Young scholars study the social class conflicts that existed during the Russian Revolution by reading the short stories of Anton Chekov and Leo Tolstoy. They analyze the stories to find criticisms of pre-Revolutionary Russia before...
Curated OER
Crashed On the Moon
Students compare/contrast the environments of our moon and earth, and examine examples of how these differences would affect their daily activities on our moon. They develop lists of emergency supplies to bring if their spaceship crashed...
Curated OER
Space the Next Frontier
Students examine the use of space as the frontier of the future. Using the colonist's experience coming to the New World, they identify challenges they would face if they were to settle in space. As a class, they share what they already...
Curated OER
What's "In" There: A Study of the Inner Planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
First graders identify and explore the four inner planets. In this planet science lesson, 1st graders watch a PowerPoint about the planets. Students read the book Our Solar System and discuss the inner planets. Students create a book...
Curated OER
Heroes of the Revolutionary War
Eighth graders discuss as a class what a "hero" is and watch a PowerPoint presentation about George Rogers Clark and John Paul Jones. They then turn in their books and discuss some of the technology available to soldiers during the time...
NASA
Making Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide
Some like it hot! Scholars observe both exothermic and endothermic reactions as part of the carbon dioxide oxygen cycle. First, scientists demonstrate (or watch) a chemical reaction to create pure oxygen using fire for...
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,...
University of Colorado
Looking Inside Planets
All of the gas giant's atmospheres consist of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up all stars. The third in a series of 22, the activity challenges pupils to make scale models of the interiors of planets in order to...
Chymist
Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz
One of the most recognizable commercial melodies was written in 1977, and led to gastronomical relief around the world. Scholars use Alka Seltzer tablets to measure reactants and calculate the chemical equation for the reaction of NaHCO3...
Teach Engineering
Extinction Prevention via Engineering
It's time to save endangered species through engineering. The third lesson in a nine-part Life Science unit has young environmentalists study species extinction. An engaging discussion leads to some ideas on how to use engineering design...
Curated OER
Avoiding Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Burning Fossil Fuels
Chemistry and earth science meet in a lesson on carbon dioxide emissions. After reading about atmospheric problems caused by using fossil fuels, science stars balance equations for the burning of different alkanes. They compute the...
Carnegie Mellon University
Transportation
Teach your environmental studies, life science, or engineering class how an internal combustion engine works using the first few slides of the accompanying presentation. Then, focus in on the resulting carbon emissions. Finally, take a...
NOAA
El Niño
El Nino, La Nina ... and the Santa Maria? The 11th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program explains the mechanism of El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Pupils use previous data to determine...