Curated OER
When Clay speaks
Learners listen as the teacher reads "When Clay Sings," by Byrd Taylor. They discuss clay, and view a variety of clay items. Students watch a video clip "Interests in One of a Kind Pots." They watch a demonstration on working with clay....
Curated OER
The Sahara: Home of the Tuareg
Young scholars study inhabitants of the Sahara. For this Tuareg culture lesson, students explore the how the Tuareg people adapt to their environment as they research specific Internet sites.
Teach Engineering
What Does Light See?
The second installment of a seven-part series focuses on the refraction of light and how it affects the colors we see. Learners consider how this concept connects to biosensors for cancer detection.
Orange County Water Atlas
Location, Location, Location…
Young geographers discover not only how to read and recognize coordinates on a map, but also gain a deeper understanding of latitude and longitude and how climate changes can vary significantly across latitudes.
Curated OER
Predicting Lunar Eclipses
Students explore lunar eclipses and discover how to predict an eclipse the same way that ancient people did. They examine dates of recorded eclipses and find a pattern. Students apply an algorithm to the pattern.
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Tessellations: Geometry and Symmetry
Students examine tesselllations and their geometric properties. They have a better knowledge of polygons, can identify types of symmetry in tessellations. Also students use visulization, spatial reasoning, and geometric modeling to...
Curated OER
It Counts
Students explore one to one number correspondence. In this early math lesson, students make observations about and classify plants in order to gain an understanding of using numbers to describe their world.
Curated OER
Tessellations
Learners identify shapes that will tessellate. They construct a tessellation using transformations. Students identify transformations in tessellations. They identify applications of transformations such as tiling and fabric design.
Curated OER
The Great Fossil Find - Reconstructing the Pieces
Students go on an imaginary fossil hunt. They follow a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature. They attempt to reconstruct fossil pieces into an animal.
Curated OER
Fractals, An Inquiry: Day 4
Students put their growing understanding of the scientific inquiry process to work. They use paint to implement their plans to experiment with how changing one aspect of the fractal making process influences their appearance.
Curated OER
Pliable Proteins
Students make models of protiens using wire and paperclips. They are given step by step instructions with lots of information about proteins throughout the directions. They make the three basic structual elements of proteins;...
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Sound Portraits
Students observe a variety of sounds which can be heard within their schoolyard habitat by sitting quietly by themselves for five minutes, listening, and then recording the sounds around them by drawing them.
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The Earth Moves Under My Feet
Middle schoolers study earthquakes, monitor seismic activity using the Web, and plot real-time activity. They examine movement of the Earth's tectonic plates. They create an earthquake preparedness project.
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The Earth and the Compass
Fifth graders construct a water compass to investigate the effects of Earth's magnetic field and other sources of magnetism. They predict, observe and draw conclusions from their investigation.
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Sound Waves
Students observe how sound waves would look and behave if we could see them. They determine ways the model is accurate and inaccurate based on actual sound waves.
Curated OER
Finding the Ages of Rocks and Fossils
High schoolers practice dating fossils. They learn the concept of "deep time"--that earth was formed billions of years ago. They experience excellent hand-outs and virtual age tutorial links.
Curated OER
Turtle Lesson
Students explore the five common turtles that are native to the eastern United States. They investigate each turtle's characteristics, environment, means of protection, eating habits, and show how they can help these turtles survive.
Curated OER
The Cytochrome-C Lab
Young scholars examine a method biologists use to try to determine relationships. They examine how amino acid sequences have been determined for a number of proteins, and how scientists can make inferences about DNA based on the amino...
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Virus and Bacteriophage
Students examine the differences between a virus and a bacteriophage. They explore various websites, identify the parts of a virus and a bacteriophage, and construct a model of a virus or bacteriophage.
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Classroom Cladogram of Vertebrate/Human Evolution
Learners build a Colossal Classroom Cladogram of vertebrate evolution. After putting it together, they show the gradual, mosaic accumulation of the traits which we, as humans, possess.
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The Monarch Watch
Students collect and examine the life cycle of monarch butterflies. They also tag butterflies and release them as part of a nation-wide project to study monarch butterfly migration.
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"Garden Springs Gardeners"
First graders ponder the question of how plants help their lives. They observe and compare properties of several different plants. Differentiate between living organisms and nonliving objects.
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Plant Structure and Growth
This plant structure and function PowerPoint addresses the main organs and the factors that affect its development as well as going into detail about the specializations at a cellular level. The cell functions and system...
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Does One Tree a Forest Make?
Students take a walk around the schoolyard looking at and identifying the trees. One leaf for each tree is collected. A chart is developed that represents the population of trees on the school ground. They keep journals and write an essay.