Curated OER
Look Out, Below!
Students study the four layers of soil while identifying the substances that each level is composed up. They investigate the properties of soil such as color, texture, water retention and the ability to maintain life by growing a plant.
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The Water We Drink
Third graders relate that the quality of their drinking water is subject to the condition of the environment and water found in streams and creeks in their community. They track the travel of a wad of paper from a student's desk to a...
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You want me to do what with this Dirt?
Eighth graders explore how to take soil samples and use GPS to determine the location of the site they have chosen to take the samples.
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Sand Castles: Pre-engineering 101
Students examine how soil holds together and what the effect of particle size and water content is on soil. In this engineering lesson students complete a lab, record their observations and discuss what they learned.
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Martha Who?
Learners explore how the number and types of organisms an ecosystem can support depends on the resources available and on abiotic factors, such as quantities of light and water, a range of temperatures, soil composition. They are...
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Detecting Magnetic Materials in "Martian" Soil
Students simulate some of the Pathfinder experiments by devising methods of collecting and measuring magnetic substances in pseudo-Martian soil. The efficiency of each of the methods used to collect materials is evaluated in this...
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Field Trip Preparation
Students prepare for a field trip. They navigate through a Underground Network site. This "field trip" can be conducted in a patch of healthy grass or soil anywhere you can find it: right outside your building, in a backyard or at a...
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Interpreting An Archaelogical Site
Students study the site of an archaeological dig site in order to begin looking at how they can be interpreted. They look at a soil profile and respond to a research question that simulates a real site. The other questions are used to...
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How Much is Dirt Worth?
Fourth graders graph the percentages of the materials that make up the Earth and complete computations based on their results. In this topsoil lesson, 4th graders diagram the different layers of Earth's composition.
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Exploring Great Salt Lake
Fourth graders go on a field trip to make observations about plants in the Great Salt Lake area. They make observations about the environment and record the types of pants that are living there. The lesson is to introduce the concepts of...
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pH Potential
Pupils experiment to determine the positive and negative impacts of human activities on environmental change. They examine how physical and biological processes such as decomposition affect soil characteristics while looking at the pH of...
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"Tri-County" Project--Ground Water
Students explore data on some of the landforms in Nebraska to distinguish between porous and nonpremeable soils. The state's groundwater is investigated.
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Flower Power: Kansas Quarter Reverse
Learners examine the Kansas quarter reverse and explore the basic needs and life processes of plants. They take a nature walk around the school and draw living and non-living things. In the classroom the sort the specimens collected into...
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"Tri-County" Project--Ogallala Aquifer
Students explore the Ogallala Aquifer in the state of Nebraska. The signs of pollution found are examined and the data classified.
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Rocks and Minerals
Students are able to describe earth processes (e.g., rusting, weathering, erosion) that have affected selected physical features in students, neighborhoods. They are able to identify various earth structures (e.g., mountains, faults,...
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Space Science: A Scoop of Moon Dirt
Students discover soil characteristics and how it is formed on Earth and the Moon by examining local samples to a lunar simulant. They replicate the effects of wind erosion by scraping dry bread with sandpaper. Students use rocks and...
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Reflection and Absorption of Light
Students use a microcomputer connected to a light sensor and temperature probe to explore the reflection and absorption of radiation for different surfaces. Students follow instructions in this guided inquiry based lab and are then asked...
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Plop! Plop! Fizz! Fizz!
Fourth graders study physical and chemical weathering. They explain how the processes of weathering and erosion change and move materials that become soil. They create a K-W-L chart to show what they know and list what else they would...
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The Earth is a Changin'
Students view examples of different types of erosion. In this erosion lesson, students discuss the different types of erosion and how erosion changes Earth. Students explore erosion and the effect it has on engineering.
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HABITAT for the other 90%
Learners examine the connection between the habitat needs of endemic species to the habitat needs of humans. In this habitat lesson students research the habitat requirements of a given family then develop an idea to improve the habitat...
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Biomes of Canada
Fifth graders, in groups, research one of the biomes of Canada. They create a multi-slide PowerPoint presentation about their biome that contains specific types of inserted/downloaded pictures, recorded voice, and a sound effect.
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Exploring Wyoming Species Habitats
Middle schoolers are introduced to the concept of species habitats and ranges. They introduced to ArcView GIS as a tool for mapping. Pupils use query data for species withina county, elevation, range, rivers and streams, land cover, and...
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Reading the River
In collaborative groups, young ecologists measure the temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen for three different freshwater samples. They examine each sample with a microscope and record observations on the microorganisms in the pond...
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How can my breakfast help the birds?
Sixth graders design farms with a bird's habitat in mind. In this farm lesson plan, 6th graders research how sun grown coffee destroys a bird habitat, and then they make their own farm with a bird's habitat being preserved. They then...