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...
NOAA
Deep-Sea Ecosystems – Entering the Twilight Zone
Imagine an ecosystem without any light or oxygen, where living things convert carbon dioxide into food. This ecosystem is thriving and might just be the largest ecosystem on our planet, yet we know very little about it. The lesson...
Curated OER
Life Cycle of a Plant: How Living Things Grow and Die
An engaging slide show for 2nd graders introduces them to the life cycle of plants. Students match up plant vocabulary words to their correct definition. Pairs of students play a vocabulary game, then students must draw and label leaves,...
Chicago Botanic Garden
The Carbon Cycle
There is 30 percent more carbon in the atmosphere today than there was 150 years ago. The first lesson plan in the four-part series teaches classes about the carbon cycle. Over two to three days, classes make a model of the cycle, add...
American Chemical Society
Isolation of Phytochrome
Why do soybean plants that are planted weeks apart in the spring mature simultaneously in the fall? Four independent activities cover the history of phytochrome research, scientist collaboration, the electromagnetic spectrum, and...
Curated OER
Leaf, Tree and Prairie Study
Young scholars are introduced to the topic of Botany and the process of photosynthesis. Using various habitats, they research the amount of destruction it is facing and how to solve the problem. They make a leaf booklet with leaves they...
Curated OER
Life is Weird
Separate your science class into small groups and assign each a specific deep-sea organism to research. The class will learn about all of the organisms as each group presents their assigned animal. Following their presentations, you can...
Curated OER
This Life Stinks
Chemosynthetic communities of cold seep areas are considered in this instructional activity. Working in collaborative groups, marine biology or oceanography learners research and prepare a report about oxidation-reduction reactions...
Curated OER
Sugar and carbohydrates, protein, fat and water - that's what little plants are made of!
High schoolers identify photosynthesis as the mechanism by which plants convert sunlight energy into a usable energy source for plant processes. They identify photosynthesis as the mechanism by which plants create a molecule that can be...
Curated OER
Leaf Straw
Students investigate plant structure and the process of photosynthesis. Using everyday items, they demonstrate that the leaves and stems of plants can act like a straw. In addition, they identify plant structure.
Curated OER
Testing Leaves for Starch: the Technique
Like good scientists, kids often want to see first-hand why things are as they are; they can do just that in the starch-testing photosynthesis activity found here. Depending on the age of your pupils, you may wish to do the investigation...
Curated OER
Beat a Leaf
A simple, yet effective classroom activity is described in this resource on leaves and how they grow. The activity should lead pupils to discover how plants make their own food and what they need to survive. In the activity, they create...
Curated OER
Wetland Metaphors
Students describe the characteristics of wetlands and identify their ecological functions. They inspect items and use them to create metaphors about wetlands.
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Respiration
Students are presented with the question, "Do plants that grow underwater use oxygen?" They create an experiment to test the presence of dissolved oxygen in the water using provided materials. Student experiments include a control jar as...
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lego Atoms and Molecules: Chemical Reactions
Show young chemists what a chemical reaction looks like with two parts of a hands-on experiment. First, learners conduct a wet lab where they observe the reactants (baking soda and calcium chloride, with phenolsulfonphthalein) before,...
NOAA
Animals of the Fire Ice
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...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.
Science Matters
Celery Lab
See firsthand the work plants do to move nutrients through their systems with a lesson that demonstrates the role of the xylem and phloem in plants. Young scientists observe celery move colored water through its stem to the leaves and...
Curated OER
Do Plants Eat?
Young scholars explain that photosynthesis is a process that plants use to convert light energy into glucose. They summarize photosynthesis as a chemical process in which the plant uses carbon dioxide and water to form glucose and oxygen.
Curated OER
Chloroplasts
Students study chloroplasts, their structure and evolution. In this photosynthesis lesson students experiment with polarized light and the production of chlorophyll.
Curated OER
It Ain't Easy Being Green!
Students explore the needs of plants. In this science lesson plan, students plant seeds and place one in a sunny spot and the other in a dark area. Students observe what happens.
Curated OER
2005 Submarine Ring of Fire Expedition: What's for Dinner?
Students compare and contrast photosynthesis and chemosynthesis as sources of primary production for biological communities, and describe sources of primary production observed in biological communities associated with volcanoes of the...
Curated OER
How do plant & animal cells make and use energy?
Middle schoolers show the relationship between the need for plants to undergo photosynthesis in order to generate oxygen. They see the flaws associated with this thinking because of the lack of CO2 and H2O and lack of sufficient gravity...
Curated OER
Leaf Unit
Students complete a unit on leaves and their functions. They identify leaves and the trees they belong to, read various books, observe the process of photosynthesis on a flannel board, and create a leaf collage.