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Lesson Plan
Messenger Education

Give Me a Boost—How Gravity Assists Aid Space Exploration

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
The propellant needed for space explorations runs in the thousands, while paying to get the craft into orbit costs millions! In the second installment of three, two activities explore laws of conservation of energy and momentum. Using...
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Activity
Nature New Brunswick

Habitat for Endangered Wildlife and You

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Compare and contrast your habitat with that of endangered plants and animals! Learners discuss what a habitat is actually comprised of, describing what theirs looks like. They fill out a graphic organizer explaining what they eat, how...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spring

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students examine lichens in an outside field trip. Students explore the diversity of this organism and ask questions about them.
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Lesson Plan
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Teach Engineering

Biomes and Population Dynamics - Balance Within Natural Systems

For Teachers 9th - 12th
How large can a population become? The fifth installment of a nine-part unit teaches young ecologists about limiting factors that determine the carrying capacity of species in the Sonoran Desert. Here is a PowerPoint to help present this...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Volcanoes!: The Dangers of Snow and Ice

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students observe a demonstration of how melting snow and ice can contribute to mudflows. They then observea list of continents with the number of snow and ice covered mountains on each continent and discuss. They then label a group of...
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PPT
Curated OER

Forest Ecosystems

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Forests are briefly defined and broken down into four different types in this PowerPoint. Facts and photos are provided for each type, including: deciduous, tropical rain, coastal, and coniferous forests. This is a wonderful presentation...
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Worksheet
National Shooting Sports Foundation, Inc.

How Many “Un-endangered Species” Do You Know?

For Students 5th - 9th
Can endangered species become un-endangered? Of course! Examine six lucky animals whose populations once were dwindling, but now are healthy and thriving. Learners match animal images to brief descriptions, complete a true/false...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mother Nature Has Her Say

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students use their creative writing skills to develop interview questions for Mother Nature. Using writing, they respond to the questions another student developed and use the internet to research any topic they need more information on....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Weather-Tracking Tools

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students build tools to help track the weather. In this weather lesson, students follow directions to build a rain gauge, barometer and hair hygrometer.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cloud Poems

For Teachers 1st
First graders make daily observations about clouds, write in their cloud books, make cloud charts, and make a poem about clouds.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Prairie Mural Project

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders construct a large mural of a praire showing plants, and animals that would live there.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Citifying the Country

For Teachers 1st
First graders present a list of the attributes of a region and tell how changes occur in a region.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cloud Observations using GLOBE Protocols

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students observe which of ten types of clouds are visible and how much of the sky is cloud covered. They see that by observing clouds, we can get information about temperature, moisture, and wind conditions in different places in the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Look at Those Leaves!

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students observe leaves in hands-on ways. As they observe attributes, they will group the leaves according to these attributes and consider any patterns they see emerge. In addition, they will communicate what they have learned about...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Prairie Adaptations

For Teachers 12th
Twelfth graders consider the survival of prairie plants. They examine how some tallgrass prairie species are adapted to the conditions of their ecosystem. They make a prediction of how a species might change given new conditions.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Climatic Zones

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders recognize and locate Frigid, Temperate, and Torrid climatic zones on the word map or globe. They explain that plants, animals, and human societies display adaptations to the climates they live in .
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Activity
National Park Service

Petrified Forest National Park

For Teachers 6th - 9th Standards
Poetry Soup, a reading and writing unit constructed by the Petrified Forest National Park, will have scholars hungry to learn about nature. The cross-content unit contains topics related to history, science, and language arts. Content...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Biomes: Extreme Climate

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create a web connecting global warming, the Arctic, and wold climate. They write a paragraph explaining the role of the Arctic in world climate.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Extreme Climate

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students discuss global warming, greenhouse effect, permafrost and other key words.  In this climate lesson students create a web that connects global warming, the Arctic and world climate then write a paragraph explaining the role...
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Interactive
Curated OER

Phytoplankton

For Students 6th - 9th
In this phytoplankton instructional activity, students read and study online information on plankton blooms to answer 8 short answer questions about the topic.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Illinois' Habitats Happening

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use the scientific inquiry method to examine the ecosystems and biomes in Illinois. Using the characteristics of a local habitat, they identify the best conditions for an ecosystem to survive and how a slight change can damage...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life Cycle of Butterflies

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students identify ways plants and animals make changes related to the seasons, specifically focusing on the life cycle of butterflies.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Learning Lesson: The Shadow Knows I

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students examine the elevation of the sun to discover the changes in seasons. They observe and measure the length of their shadow. They compare this measurement to one taken four months later.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Warm is the Water?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars research how surface sea temperature changes throughout the year. They draw a time series of sea surface temperatures for each month of the year and a depth profile for a summer and winter month using an OceanExplorer...