How do different parts of the world experience day and night? Introduce scholars to the concept of global citizenship while teaching about animal behavior with discussion of nocturnal and diurnal animals. Then, learners complete...

The sound a frog makes lets people know what it's up to. A two-part lesson begins by discussing the life cycle of a frog and the individual stages with drawings. The second part has learners listen to the frogs' different sounds and what...

Larvae transportation on the New England seamounts is based on the density of the water. Scholars calculate density and graph salinity versus temperature to better understand the distribution of organisms in a water column....

When the sun's rays can't reach the producers in a food web, where does all the energy come from? Extreme environments call for extreme food sources. Young scientists investigate creatures that appear to get their energy from methane...

Go where no one has gone before. Learners experience what it is like to be a scientist exploring new territory. Using audio and a scripted text, pupils take a trip in the depths of the ocean. They follow their trip with a hands-on...

Students discover that science is part of everyday life. In this science lesson, students create a science collage, draw a scientist, and write about science in the news.

Woody Guthrie will capture the imagination of even your most reluctant learners. Using his work, your class will develop their skills in non-fiction reading comprehension, interpreting primary source material, and use of multiple forms...

Is qualitative or quantitative research more convincing when it comes to climate change? In the eighth lesson during this 21-part series, scholars begin by performing a quantitative analysis of deforestation and urbanization. Then, they...

Climate change and weather extremes impact every species, but this lesson plan focuses on how these changes effect polar bears. After learning about the animal, scholars create maps of snow-ice coverage and examine the yearly variability...

Isn't technology great? The 12th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program introduces technology that marine scientists use. Pupils take part in an activity using conductivity,...

Does having an addict in your family make it more likely to become one yourself? Explore the genetic risk factors, as well as the prominent environmental influences, for substance addiction in a lesson plan that encourages awareness and...

Concept muraling helps learners improve their comprehension of a text by giving them a way to organize their understanding of the key concepts in that text. Introduce readers to this process with a carefully scaffolded lesson that models...

You're in high school and you just got the coolest car ever! But, now you need to start thinking about car insurance. Luckily, your teacher prepared you by engaging you in a life skills lesson like this one. The class actually calls...

Mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys, island arcs, mountain ranges, earthquakes, volcanoes ... there are so many features associated with plate tectonics. The 14th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography...

Kids in grades K-2 increase their logical reasoning and visual discrimination skills by determining which things shown are alive. They use the criteria that all living things move on their own to mark each image as alive or not. 

Familiarize young biologists with the inner workings of eukaryotic cells with this vocabulary worksheet. By cutting out and matching a series of definitions and memorization tips to the organelles listed in the provided...

The circle of life is all around us, from the black bears in the nearby mountains to the pile of dead leaves in the backyard. Encourage young scientists to take a critical look at the world around them with a set of lessons...

Does your class have a bright future in the solar energy industry? Science scholars take an in-depth look at what's new in solar technology. After completing research into the solar industry, participants create and market a product in...

Who actually goes looking for a virus? Expose your class to the high-stakes life of an epidemiologist on the trail of the Nipah virus. Pupils engage in a short video, then examine how scientists predict, model, and find the source of...

What can fossils tell us about periods of extinction? Young scholars interpret fossil layers to make conclusions about changes in life during different geological time periods. They analyze the fossils for abundance and diversity as well...

Introduce your class to one of the ways that technology is benefiting humanity. The Global Precipitation Measurement Mission involves the data collected by nine satellites from different countries with a united focus on studying world...

Students examine ways in which humans have brought change to the natural environment. In this ecology and literacy lesson, students listen to the book Island Boy by Barbara Cooney. Students observe and define map-reading vocabulary as...

Upper graders become "shipwreck detectives" by studying the debris field from a shipwreck in the Aegean Sea which took place in the 700s.  A website is accessed that gives specific information about the debris field, and pairs of...

Balancing a budget—the bane of many people's existence! Yet, its' something that must be done, especially in government systems. The resource, fourth in a seven-part series exploring local government, focuses on various exercises that...