Curated OER
Fracking: Positive or Negative Impact?
Your teenagers may have heard of fracking, but do they really know what it is? And could they debate the benefits and risks? Educate your environmental science class with a lesson about hydraulic fracturing, non-renewable energy sources,...
Curated OER
Mother Nature Has Her Say
Young scholars 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...
Curated OER
The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. For this environmental lesson, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an Iowa name...
Curated OER
Organic Matter
Written for an agriculture curriculum, this presentation on organic matter is also informative for gardening or horticulture classes. It details the chemical makeup, affecting factors, functions, maintenance, and composting to create a...
Curated OER
Floods and Flash Floods
Junior geologists, hydrologists, or meteorologists simulate what happens during the flooding of a river and demonstrate factors that contribute to flash flooding. This outstanding resource provides a vocabulary list, online resources,...
Curated OER
It's Natural!
Here's a nicely designed learning exercise that will allow your young scientists to learn about common materials and products that come from nature. They also looks at synthesized products that come from a factory. This simple matching...
ARKive
Natural Selection- the Peppered Moth
Can human activity cause animals to evolve? Your budding biologists will find out the answer to some of the big questions in natural selection with a peppered moth activity. They will watch a few short videos, look at pictures, and...
Curated OER
Everything is Made of Something
Young scientists can use this activity to learn about natural resources, as well as what we use them for. A word search prompts pupils to find sixteen words about natural resources.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
A Lesson on the Nature of Science
If you are looking for a great way to present natural selection in humans, look no further. This handout is intended to accompany the 14-minute video The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans, which can be found on the...
Take the challenge
Connecting with Natural/Open Spaces
Get your class outside, away from the television, and maybe even learning something about nature while they're at it. Individuals will chose an open, natural space to spend time in for several days. Each day they will complete a page in...
Curated OER
Nature Art
In this nature art lesson, students take a nature walk and collect items with different sizes, textures and colors. Students use the items they collect to make a collage.
Curated OER
Plaster Casts of Natural Objects
Fourth graders observe objects in science and create a contour picture of the the object. In this arts and science observation lesson, 4th graders develop a clay sculpture of their object. Students generate a list of texture words to...
Curated OER
Science: Schoolyard Trees
Sixth graders choose specific trees to research while taking a nature walk around the schoolyard. They discuss tree and leaf parts and observe various types of leaves. After writing their reports, 6th graders present them to the class...
Curated OER
Good Old Earth Materials
Students investigate different types of building structures and how they are able to stand up to earthquakes. Through comparison they determine which buildings are better able to handle earthquakes than others. They create a building,...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Greenhouse Gas Emissions — Natural and Human Causes
What impact do humans have on greenhouse gas emissions? What are the natural causes of these gasses? Thanks to the carbon cycle, carbon dioxide eats away at the earth's atmosphere with the intensified help of humans. Young scientists...
PBS
Breaking it Down
After challenging themselves to correctly choose the form of erosion and length of time required for a given landform to develop, earth science class members model mechanical and chemical weathering with various lab demonstrations over...
Curated OER
Rock On! Featuring the Igneous, Sedimentary and Metamorphic Trio!
Get your classroom rocking with this four-lesson earth science unit. Through a series of shared reading activities and hands-on investigations, young geologists learn about the three types of rocks and the unique properties of each.
Curated OER
Investigation of Crystallinity in Polymeric Materials
A kaleidoscope is constructed using polarizing polymer paper and then low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, and polypropylene are all melted onto individual glass slides and examined through a microscope. The intent is to...
Curated OER
Leaves: All-Natural Solar Collectors
Take a good look at tree leaves and notice the adaptations for collecting solar energy. Pupils trace the margins of five different leaves onto graph paper and count the number of squares covered. They then relate this infomation to the...
California Academy of Science
Composting: A Scientific Investigation: California Academy of Sciences
Garbage, recycle, compost: Does it really matter where we put our trash once we are done? By making detailed observations over seven weeks, kids will see which materials break down naturally to become a healthy part of the soil, and...
Curated OER
Changes in Nature
The goal of this science lesson is to have youngsters be able to identify the physical and chemical changes in the carbon cycle, and water cycle due to weathering. The in-class inquiry/experiment is quite interesting and easy to...
Curated OER
Allele and Phenotype Frequencies in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations
In the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, some tiny creatures show just how quickly natural selection can turn a mutation into an advantageous adaptation. Watch a video about rock pocket mice, who show that one small change can make all...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section One: What is Biodiversity?
Four intriguing and scientific activities invite learners to explore the natural resources of their town. The activities cover concepts such as genetic traits, organizing species in a taxonomy, the differences between different species...
Society of Petroleum Engineers
Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy
Energize an environmental science unit on natural resources with this collection of instructional materials. From simple coloring sheets for primary grade children, to guiding questions for a high school research report, a wide variety...