Curated OER
Telling Our Own Stories
Explore online profiles and social media with your middle and high school classes. Use blogs to inspire your class to craft a well-written, thoughtful response to a prompt you give. A few example prompts are given.
American Museum of Natural History
What's This? Gold
Cell phones are likely made of gold—at least part of them! An interesting lesson explains the conventional and not-so-conventional uses of the popular element gold. From the Inca empire to modern-day technology, learners discover gold...
Curated OER
Acid Rain Effects
Get out the goggles and conduct a simple experiment to model and explore the harmful effects of acid rain (vinegar) on living (green leaf and eggshell) and non-living (paper clip) objects. Young chemists observe and describe the harmful...
Science Matters
Earthquake Building/Shaking Contest
Japan is one of only a handful of countries that constructs buildings that are almost earthquake proof. The 13th lesson in the 20-part series challenges scholars to build structures to test against earthquakes. With limited materials and...
Curated OER
Layers of the Earth
Students identify the layers of the Earth and complete activities for the topic. In this Earth layers lesson, students chart their ideas about the Earth's layers and view a PowerPoint for the topic. Students view an apple to learn about...
Curated OER
The Celestial Sphere and Circumpolar Motion
Learners investigate the celestial sphere and circumpolar motion. In this science lesson, students view an applet, The Celestial Sphere and Circumpolar Motion. Learners discuss the Earth's rotation and stellar movement.
Curated OER
Solar System: The Four Inner Planets and Earth's Moon and Astronauts
Second graders read THe Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System. For this language arts and science lesson, 2nd graders explore the four inner planets. Students view the inner planets using Google Earth.
Curated OER
Science Videos
Young scholars plan, practice, and act in a 2-3 minute videotaped production about a specific topic. Students from a local high school give presentations pertaining to seasons, earth rotation, and moon phases. Young scholars analyze the...
Curated OER
Water Cycle
Students identify the different stages in the water cycle. In this earth science lesson, students calculate the residence time of water in oceans using a mathematical formula. They explain how this cycle regulates the Earth's climate.
Curated OER
Glaciers As Indicators of Global Climate Change
Students research about glacial ice melting on the four major spheres of the Earth. In this earth science activity, students explain how this process relates to global warming. They create a presentation and share their findings with the...
Curated OER
Earth Day Activities
Earth Day is April 22nd - you can celebrate by incorporating some environmental activities into your curriculum Code: F7G4U8JHCDTD.
Curated OER
Using the Synoptic Code for the Prediction of Water
Students construct a thermoscreen for the experiment. For this earth science lesson, students make observations and interpret them using synoptic codes. They predict the weather based on gathered information.
University of Colorado
Terra Bagga
Earth's magnetic poles switch positions about every 200,000—300,000 years. In the activity, groups create a planet with a magnetic field. Once made, they use a magnetometer to determine the orientation of the planet's magnetic field....
PHET
Soda Bottle Magnetometer
Introduce learners to set of complete instructions that describe how to build a magnetometer that works just like the ones professional photographers use to predict auroras. The diagrams are wonderfully descriptive, and the written...
PHET
Mapping the Field of a Dipole Magnet
High school scientists build their own magnetometer and use it to map the field surrounding a bar magnet. Excellent background resources is included, as well as a diagram of how to build the magnetometer.
PHET
The Dynamic Nature of the Sun
In this second lesson plan of the series, pupils learn to observe similarities and differences in photos of the sun and record them in a Venn diagram. Then, small groups practice the same skill on unique images before presenting...
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Signals from the Deep
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill directly impacted an area of the Gulf of Mexico the size of Oklahoma. A marine biology lesson plan looks at the impact of an oil spill on the deeper parts of the ocean. Scholars download actual data...
NASA
What’s the Problem with Isotropy?
Some patterns are so small, we can't see them without the help of technology. The same is true for cosmic microwave background radiation. During this activity and discussion, scholars examine both anisotropic and isotropic items and...
NASA
Lava Layering
Take the old baking soda and vinegar volcano to the next level by using it to study repeated lava flows over time, examine geologic features on Earth and Mars, and speculate about some of the formations on Mars.
University of Colorado
Spacecraft Speed
Space shuttles traveled around Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour, way faster than trains, planes, or automobiles travel! In the 13th installment of 22, groups graph different speeds to show how quickly spacecraft move through...
NASA
Packing for a L-o-o-o-ng Trip to Mars
Pack just enough to fit. Crews determine what personal items to take with them on a trip to Mars. Each team must decide what to take with them on a two-and-a-half year trip to Mars and whether their items will fit within the allotted...
NASA
The Atmospheric Filter
What is the difference between a comet and a meteoroid? An educational lesson includes five demonstrations of how the atmosphere can inhibit our ability to measure many things in the galaxy.
PHET
CME Plotting
Young scientists build on their previous knowledge and apply it to coronal mass ejections. By plotting the path of two different coronal mass ejections, they develop an understanding of why most don't collide with Earth.
University of Colorado
The Jovian System: A Scale Model
Jupiter has 67 moons! As the seventh in a series of 22, the exercise shows learners the size and scale of Jupiter and its Galilean moons through a model. They then arrange the model to show how probes orbited and gathered data.