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Earth Science/ Scientific Methods
Students identify questions and problems in the earth and environmental sciences that can be answered through scientific investigations. They design and conduct scientific investigations to answer questions related to earth and...
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Earth Science - Earth's Atmosphere
Students build an understanding of the dynamics and composition of the atmosphere and its local and global processes influencing climate and air quality. They analyze global atmospheric changes including changes in CO2, CH4, and...
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Earth Science - Weather
Students build an understanding of the dynamics and composition of the atmosphere and its local and global processes influencing climate and air quality. They analyze air masses and the life cycle of weather systems.
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Oil and Natural Gas Formation
Students complete a narrative paper and a drawing depicting how the formation of oil and natural gas taken from the Earth's crust were once plants and animals millions of years ago. In this oil and natural gas lesson plan, students read,...
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Geologic Timelines
Students view geologic time lines and discuss how old the Earth and solar system is, when dinosaurs roamed Earth, and when humans first appeared. They review the four major eons and life that was present in each before creating a time...
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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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Building for the Big One
Young scholars build and test structures that can best withstand earthquakes. They create their structures from playdough, cornstarch, grape-nuts and popsicle sticks and place their structures on a "shake table."
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Blazing Gas
Fourth graders read and discuss the sun and the energy we use on Earth from the sun. In this sun lesson plan, 4th graders discuss the solar system, planets, and answer short answer questions.
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Earthquakes
Fifth graders explore the causes of earthquakes and the various types of fault lines through a variety of hands-on demonstrations using prepared cakes. They record their observations in their science journals.
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Air and Water in the Environment
Young scholars demonstrate an awareness of air as a substance that surrounds us and takes up space, and whose movement we feel as wind. They predict and describe how local weather conditions affect living things, including themselves.
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Areology-The Study of Mars
Students examine core samples from Mars and discover what they can use it to tell the history of Mars. In this core sample instructional activity students create and analyze their own core samples then eat them at the end.
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Earth Structure and Materials
Students explain what is meant by term nuclear radiation, describe in detail electromagnetic spectrum, differentiate between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, understand half-life of isotopes, differentiate between processes of...
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Fostering Geospatial Thinking: Space to Earth: Earth to Space (SEES)
Students locate and access data to help them with their science inquiry. In this geographical positioning lesson students evaluate and compare data sets.
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Microbial Influence on Earth's Systems
Learners identify the different biogeochemical cycles on Earth. In this biology lesson, students observe microbes under a microscope. They compare and contrast respiration and photosynthesis.
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Water Layering and Circulation
Students examine relationships and interactions between different types of water. They experiment with colored water of different temperature and salinity and discuss how the results relate to real ocean currents.
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Climate Change: Is there a Controversy
Students explore climate changes. In this climate changes instructional activity, students research what causes changes. Students search the Internet, summarize reports they find and create a poster with the information.
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Getting to the Core of Climate Change
Students investigate climate changes by graphing and analyzing ice core data from Greenland and Antarctica. They create, explain and report the pattern of data on a graph of ice core data. In addition they find relationships between the...
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Fourth graders participate in an activity which introduces them to common types of precipitation. They examine "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" through a teacher read aloud and make a weather pamphlet.
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Impact Craters: Holes in the Ground!
Students simulate crater formation through a lab activity. In this space science instructional activity, students calculate how much energy is transferred during meteorite impact. They identify different factors affecting the size and...
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Comparison Activities
Young scholars explore the size of the sun and it's temperature. Using the Internet, students visit given websites to compare the sun's diameter, outer layers, and mass to visual items young scholars can relate to. They also compare...
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The Magic School Bus Out of This World
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students explore craters that objects of different sizes and weights (marbles, Ping-Pong balls, and aluminum foil balls) create.
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The Spectrum of a Star
Tenth graders identify stars based on their line spectra. In this astronomy activity, 10th graders analyze spectrograph and determine the elements present in the star. They explain the relationship between temperature and star classes.
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Digging into the Past
Students discover how fossils are found and how they help scientists reconstruct the past. They examine how they shed light on what kinds of animals and plants lived over the years, when they lived, and under what environmental conditions.
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Forest Canopies: View from the Top
Learners examine the economic and ecological benefits of forest canopies. They read and discuss an article, answer questions, conduct research, draw field sketches of a canopy ecosystem, conduct a feasibility study, or prepare tourist...