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An Awareness of Light Made Simply Fun

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners with sensory perception issues discover the properties of light through a series of excellent hands on activities. They look at beams of lights in a darkened room; use a kaleidoscope and optical illusions as they experience the...
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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students observe and identify characteristics of artifacts and fossils; explain how artifacts and fossils are used to explore the past; and identify ways that Native Americans prepared food and made tools
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Using a Thermometer

For Teachers 1st
First graders use their senses to formulate questions and make predictions to determine what is in the "Wonder Bag". They hold pieces of ice and examine while listing descriptors on a chart and then take their own temperature using an...
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Cave Formation Age Estimation

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students investigate growth rates of flowstone formations. They view a virtual field trip and discuss how flowstones form. They observe the cave fieldtrip and predict the growth rate for a cave formation. They graph growth rates and...
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Reading Trees: Understanding Dendrochronology

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students examine tree-ring dating and discuss the lack of water the settlers in Jamestown faced. They create paper tree rings, simulate rain patterns, and describe the history of construction paper tree sequences.
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Structure of the Earth

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders study the cause of climate change, and how clouds form and affect weather. They define condensation and precipitation, the greenhouse effect and the water cycle.
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Chemical or Physical Change?

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders participate in several science activities to note chemical or physical changes after discussion. They understand that all matter has definite structure which determines physical and chemical properties.
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Blue Genes: Affect Your Life!

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students, in groups, research, analyze and synthesize information on genetic diseases. After watching a video on genetics, groups perform research on a variety of genetic diseases and present their findings to the class.
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Inside Out: An Up-Close Look At Foods We Eat

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders identify the origins of meats and vegetables consumed by humans on a daily basis. They classify foods (meats, dairy products, grains...) and create a food pyramid.
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SURFACE CURRENTS

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Young scholars identify five major ocean currents and identify the correlation between ocean circulation and prevailing winds.
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Magnets

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students investigate the magnetic attraction of different materials by observing a demonstration, and review the words "attraction" and "materials." Next they conduct exploration of a number of materials which have different properties...
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Just Bee-Tween Flowers!

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students examine the major plant and bee parts and the interdependency between bees and fast plants. They observe and record the stages of growth of fast plants, take photos of the plant's life cycle, and cross-pollinate plants.
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PLANETS IN PROPORTION

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students discover scales for both the solar bodies' relative sizes and their distances from the sun. They find equatorial circumference and volumes of their solar bodies. Students apply estimation strategies and proportioanl reasoning to...
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Beans and Birds: A Natural Selection Simulation

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students examine the problem concerning the evolution of seed color in pinto bean plants "How does natural selection change the frequency of genes or traits over many generations"? Students work in teams to design an experiment that...
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Worm Weather Predicted

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners examine worm habitats. In this animal habitats lesson, students participate in a lab activity that requires them to explore the adaptations that earthworms make to their environment.
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Velocity

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Young scholars determine the average speed of a toy car as it travels six different distances set up by Students. Three trials are done for each distance. The only requirements is that the longest distance must be at least three times...
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Science: Trouble in the Troposphere

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students research a NASA Website and record information about an assigned city's tropospheric ozone residual monthly climate. In groups, they graph the information for the past year. They form new groups and compare their city's...
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Looking into Eratosthenes' Radius of the Earth

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers, in small groups, research Eratosthenes and his calculations of the Earth's radius. They write a summary of the person, the experiments and his calculations to determine how accurate Eratosthenes was in his estimations of...
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Who Turned the Lights Out?

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students discover the life cycle of butterfly by observing its growth from egg to caterpillar and the formation of its chrysalis. Students conduct an experiment in which they design housing for the chrysalises which are either in full...
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Using the Microscope

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners demonstrate their ability to properly make observations using a compound microscope. They prepare an onion skin slide and focus on it in both low and high power. Then they measure the diameter of one of the cells.
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Measurement: Using the balance

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students use a balance and gram cubes to measure several different objects. They then record their results on a data chart and answer questions about them.
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So, just how hot am I?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students design a lab demonstrating the scientific method. In this earth science activity, students investigate different materials for their heat absorbing property. They report their findings in class.
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Sea Ice Research

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students study sea ice and its importance in climate and climate change. They discuss sea ice as a presence of a food source for marine animals in the arctic and complete a lab activity. After completing the lab, they watch a video...
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Movement, it's FUN-damental!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students discover how muscles work. In this biology lesson, students explain the causes of fatigue and muscle soreness. They create graphs and compare results with their classmate.