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Garbage Pizza
Students examine amount of garbage disposed of by average household weekly, classify different categories of garbage and describe composition of landfills, investigate what happens to waste after it is collected by garbage trucks, and...
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The Uses of Radiation
No visual aids, no activities, and no demonstrations accompany this plan. What you will find, is background information for a short lecture on the use of isoptopic radiation in the medical field and in our everyday lives. Should you...
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Toys in Space
Studentsexplore how gravity affects the operation of toys and simple machines. They watch a video and experiment with simple machines.
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Space Salad
Students identify and analyze some of the similarities between Earth and Mars. Students identify why scientists believe that living things such as plants can live on Mars. Students evaluate each of the Growing Space modules identify in...
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Probes, Exploration & Application
Students examine some of the benefits of the space program to our life on Earth.
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Life Beyond Earth
Students investigate the solar system and what makes a planet habitable. They complete an online Webquest, simulate a NASA training program online, take an online quiz, answer discussion questions, and locate newspaper articles about the...
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Science: What Is a Barometer?
Fourth graders discover how barometers help to predict the weather. Using newspapers, they examine the weather forecast and determine the meaning of high and low as they pertain to pressure. After making cluster diagrams, 4th graders...
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The Magic School Bus Lost in Space
Students identify the planets by making two models of the Solar System. They create a model that shows the order of the planets and a model that shows the planets sizes as compared to one another. They may write about the planet they...
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The Grand Canyon
Fourth graders study the Grand Canyon. They research the Grand Canyon and locate the Colorado River on the map of Arizona. They discuss erosion and read how sedimentary rock was formed. They view photographs of the Grand Canyon and...
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The Science of Glaciers
Students identify the contents of a glacier like those found in Patagonia. They construct a mini glacier model in class. Students compare and contrast the classroom model with Patagonian glaciers. They label specific parts of the...
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Apply Scientific Inquiry and Scientific Habits of Mind
Students review the components of the scientific inquiry method. In groups, they develop hypothesis on a variety of different topics and design an investigation or experiment to test it. They share their conclusions with the class and...
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Salmon vs. Dams: The Dam Removal Debate on the Elwha River
Students use roll playing to discuss the merits of tearing down these dams so that the Elwha River can run free. The activity is presented in the form of a council meeting to encourage students to try to build consensus in finding...
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Destination Mars!
Fifth graders view Mysteries of Earth & Mars Video on DVD and record thoughts in their online journal. They record data in a spreadsheet about each planet then form a theory of the best time to launch a space craft from Earth to land...
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Mission Planning: Geography
Students investigate the use of latitude and longitude to locate specific locations on Earth and evaluate that location as a potential landing site for researchers, terrestrial or alien space missions.
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Solar Storms
Learners investigate the cycles of solar activity. They plot the solar activity and use the graph to answer a number of questions and explain the relationship between the solar storms and sunspots and the impact on earth and space travel.
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A Comparison of Land and Water Temperature
Students use the NASA website's Live Access Server to create a graph of surface temperature at two locations on earth. They analyze the data and then answer specific questions provided in this lesson plan. They also examine and compare...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Carbon Through the Seasons
Meteorologists view an animated video by the Environmental Protection Agency to learn how the carbon cycle works, and then move into groups to analyze and graph actual data of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration from Hawaii's...
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Volcanoes: How Safe Are They?
Students explore the most dangerous volcanoes on Earth, plot their locations, and research different volcanic hazards.
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A Cosmic Cafeteria
Students indentify and differentiate between transit and surface food systems. Students measure energy that is released by various foods. Students compare and contrast cooking with solar energy on earth and what they might have learned...
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Lunar Life Support
Students design and build models of nine life support systems which are crucial to our successful settlement of the Moon. Each team must define the requirements of their system, exploring how these requirements are currently being met on...
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Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Satellite Dataflow Demonstration
Students participate in a hands-on demonstration of the communication between the EUVE satellite and a scientist on Earth.
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Sky Show
Middle schoolers participate in a discussion of the sky and colors. They watch a demonstration of how colors can change. They examine the issue of if weather should be a part of their coursework.
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Planetary Place Value
Third graders explore place value to the ten thousands place. This incredibly thorough, 24-page lesson has learners construct, order, and compare numbers to 9,999. This three-day lesson includes reteaching and extension activities...
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NASA Robots
Students explore the world of robotics. In this robotics lesson, students discover what a robot is and work with partners to find out how hard it is to accurately guide robots through simple tasks.