Curated OER
A Model of Three Faults
Students investigate faults. In this science lesson, students explore the many stresses and strains in the earth's layers and research the types of faults in their state.
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Community Building
Students build different shapes using sketches. In this geometry lesson, students explore measurements and units as they build and create models of buildings. They use SketchUp to create and manipulate shapes.
Curated OER
Modeling Oil and Gas Reservoirs
High schoolers investigate energy by researching how oil reservoirs work. In this fossil fuels lesson plan, students conduct an experiment using a half full bottle of water, corn oil and oxygen, recording their data as the elements are...
Curated OER
Edible Rock Activity
Who knew Snickers® could be used to teach science? Give your budding earth scientists a chance to explore the Law of Superposition, in addition to a well-earned snack.
Science Matters
Up and Down Fault Blocks
The Sierra Mountains in Nevada and the Tetons in Wyoming originally formed as fault block mountains. In order to visualize these fault blocks, pupils use construction paper to create layers of earth. They cut the paper models and form...
Curated OER
Volcanoes: Fifth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Fifth graders explore volcanoes and the rocks they produce using the Internet. The lab portion of the lesson prompts young scientists to compare and describe igneous rocks. Next, they critique a pair or more of...
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Pangaea Puzzle
Students explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted. In this Earth's surface lesson students complete a lab and answer questions.
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Stratospheric Ozone
Students explore about the structure of Earth's atmosphere and about the stratospheric ozone. They discuss how it is produced and destroyed, where it is located, why it is important, and how it is changing. Students investigate about...
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Plate Tectonics & Land Forms
Fourth graders discuss the different interactions of plates and the ways mountains are created. In this plate tectonics lesson plan students complete an activity in groups.
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Earth's Atmosphere and Temperature
Pupils explore the layers of earth's atmosphere and conduct an experiment to identify carbon dioxide. They construct models using styrofoam to represent molecules in the atmosphere's layers. To discover how sunlight efffects...
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The Mountain Blows its Top
Students replicate a volcanic eruption. In this volcanoes lesson, students follow the provided procedures to show and describe how the inflation of a bulge led to the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
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Candy Quakes
Eighth graders use candy to show the effects of deformation forces on the earth's crust. In this rock and fossil formation lesson students construct models and simulations to describe and explain natural phenomena.
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Earth's Plate Tectonics
Students identify the different layers of the Earth. In this earth science instructional activity, students create a model of the crusts and continents. They explain how plates movement cause earthquakes and volcanoes.
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Understanding Lava Layers
Seventh graders trace the lava flow of an erupting volcano. In this earth science lesson, 7th graders experiment using baking soda and vinegar. They record and share their observations.
Polar Trec
What Can We Learn from Sediments?
Varve: a deposit of cyclical sediments that help scientists determine historical climates. Individuals analyze the topography of a region and then study varve datasets from the same area. Using this information, they determine the...
Curated OER
SCRUMPTIOUS SOIL
Students engage in investigations that lead to the discovery that earth materials consist of rocks, soils, water, and air. They build models of soil profiles, using breakfast cereal and other edible materials. They observe how water...
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CUPCAKE CORE SAMPLING
Students explore what is beneath the surface of the earth is one of the jobs of a geologist. Rather than digging up vast tracts of land to expose an oil field, or to find coalbearing strata, core samples can be taken.
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Greenhouse in a Bottle
Students create models of the greenhouse effect using recycled 2-liter bottles. They discuss how their models compares to the real greenhouse effect the earth experiences.
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Sandwich Stratigraphy
Two activities are included in this resource. In the first, junior geologists model sedimentary rock layers, apply the Law of Superposition, and demonstrate folding and faulting of the Earth's crust. The model is technically a sandwich....
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Environment: Battling for Oxygen
Young scholars construct an interactive ozone depletion model using gumdrops and toothpicks. After analyzing the data obtained from the model, they record it on butcher paper and complete worksheets about oxygen.
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Exploring for Petroleum - Modeling an Oil Reserve
Learners experiment with locating oil reserves. In this conservation activity, students use a cardboard box to create sand, rocks, and an oil reserve (water balloon). They use a probe to dig around in the box to find the oil reserve and...
Ocean Explorer
The Volcano Factory
The tectonic processes that have resulted in the formation of the Marianas Arc, and the Marianas Trench are explored. Groups of pupils access websites that give them a wealth of information about these formations. Each group must prepare...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Heat it Up!
This demonstration of solar ponds can be used in an earth, environmental, or physical science setting. Lab groups set up a solar pond and model how it is able, due to a salt concentration gradient, to maintain heat for future use.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Kindergarten Lesson Plans and Activities
This unit focuses primarily on plate tectonics and plate boundaries surrounding continents. It contains pre- and post-lab sections that walk young geologists through plate movements in order to visualize what's going on inside Earth.