NOAA
What's a CTD?
Why are the properties of the water important when exploring the ocean? Young scientists discover the tools and technology used in deep sea exploration in the fourth installment in a five-part series. Groups work together to...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Using Positive and Negative Numbers in Context
Measure the temperature of your math class with a temperature-based lesson on adding and subtracting rational numbers. The thermometer serves as a vertical number line for learners as they work together to solve a temperature change...
Kenan Fellows
What Is Heat?
If objects have no heat, how do they can gain and lose it? Scholars experiment with heat, temperature, and specific heat of various substances. They create definitions for these terms based on their own conclusions to complete the fourth...
Discovery Education
How's the Weather?
Young meteorologists explore different aspects of the weather while learning about measurement devices. They build instruments and then set up a weather station outside and measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed, and...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
EngageNY
Describing Distributions Using the Mean and MAD
What city has the most consistent temperatures? Pupils use the mean and mean absolute deviation to describe various data sets including the average temperature in several cities. The 10th lesson plan in the 22-part series asks learners...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Weather and Climate: What's the Difference?
Future weather forecasters collect daily temperatures over a period of time. Afterward, they compare their data with monthly averages, as researched on national weather websites, in order to grasp the difference between weather and...
Space Awareness
Oceans as a Heat Reservoir
Oceans absorb half of the carbon dioxide and 80 percent of the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. Scholars learn how and why the oceans store heat more effectively than land and how they help mitigate global warming. Pupils...
Colorado State University
Why Does it Get Colder on a Clear Night than a Cloudy Night?
Clouds are nature's insulator! A lab investigation asks learners to use an infrared thermometer to measure differences in infrared temperatures. They find that pointing the thermometer at a cloud has a much different result than pointing...
Concord Consortium
Pressure Equilibrium
All together now! Physical science pupils observe the effects of temperature and amount of substance on pressure and volume of a gas. The interactive resource guides learners through the Combined Gas Law, where they observe changing...
Colorado State University
Why Do Clouds Form in the Afternoon?
The stability of the atmosphere changes on a daily basis. A kinesthetic lesson models how the stability of the air changes as it's warmed by the sun. Learners connect their models to the changing air currents and movement of warm and...
Science 4 Inquiry
The Yin and Yang of Photosynthesis: Day vs. Night
Floating fragments of elodea can grow even without roots. Young scientists use eldoea plants to observe the oxygen production from photosynthesis. They study the difference between having access to high amounts of light and low amounts...
Teach Engineering
Battle of the Beams
Make the strongest beam possible using taffy? Groups mold a taffy-water mixture into a beam and a reinforcing material of their choice. To finish the final installment of a two-part series, participants test its strength by adding...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Carbon, Greenhouse Gases, and Climate
Climate models mathematically represent the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land, sun, surface, and ice. Part two in the series of four lessons looks at the role greenhouse gases play in keeping Earth warm and has participants...
National Wildlife Federation
It's All in the Name: Weather Versus Climate
What goes up when rain comes down? An umbrella! Activity eight in the series of 12 explores weather and climate. In pairs, participants analyze maps, watch a short video, create a weather forecast, and complete a reading to determine the...
Curated OER
The Molar Volume of a Gas
Students find the standard molar volume of a gas. In this molar volume of a gas lesson plan, students react magnesium metal and hydrochloric acid and collect the hydrogen gas produced using a gas collection tube. Students calculate the...
Curated OER
The Effect of Dissolved Salt on the Boiling Point of Water
Explore the properties of solutions with a lab activity. Chemistry fans determine the boiling point of water, add salt to create a solution, and then repeat the process four more times. They design their own data table and then graph the...
Curated OER
Temperature School
Students observ the cooling and warming of room temperature, hot, and ice cold cans of water by measuring the change in temperature over time. They then attempt to develop explanations for the observations made and apply their findings...
Curated OER
Weather-Air Temperature
Students complete activities to learn about changing air temperature. In this air temperature lesson, students study various ways to measure air temperature and learn factors that influence temperature. Students study the weather in a...
Curated OER
Measuring Solar Energy
Learners study solar energy and how to measure it. For this energy sources lesson students complete a lab, obtain data and use that to convert surface temperature to energy.
Curated OER
Measuring Temperature
Students examine how to determine temperature on a thermometer. They read and discuss an informational handout, discuss examples of Fahrenheit and Celsius scales, and complete a worksheet.
Curated OER
Feeling the Heat
Students investigate the urban heat island effect. In this urban heat island effect lesson plan, students learn how trees, grass, asphalt, and other things on the school grounds effect temperature. They use the information to generalize...
Curated OER
Temperature Change and the States of Matter
Tenth graders observe the processes of evaporation, condensation, melting, freezing, boiling, and sublimation. They do a quantitative investigation of the freezing of water, to explore explanations that involve particles.
Curated OER
Temperature (Celsius)
Third graders solve Celsius and Fahrenheit conversion problems, watch weather forecast and convert temperatures to Celsius, and design and present their own weather forecasts for different regions based on information gathered from...