Lesson Plan
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Field Research Project: Comparing the Parent Rock Material of the San Francisco Terranes With Local Soil Types

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Young scholars investigate rocks and minerals and take a field trip to sample soils. They analyze rocks and soil, research the geological terrenes of the topology of San Francisco, and produce a lab research report.
Lesson Plan
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How to Recycle a Rock

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders explore the rock cycle and explore how rocks are made, changed, destroyed and recreated. They create representations of these processes with hands-on activities.
Lesson Plan
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Watershed Investigations

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students find maps of the region to show rock formations and soil types and use GIS to compare radon levels. They describe three types of radioactive decay, interpret graphs, and follow steps to develop a nuclear bomb or energy.
Lesson Plan
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Everybody Needs a Rock

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
Students, after making quantitative and qualitative observations of their rocks, construct a Venn diagram or dichotomous key to classify their rocks.
Lesson Plan
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Water and Ice

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students explore water as it changes states of matter. In this physical property activity, students use observation, measurement, and communication skills to describe changes in water as it goes from a solid to a liquid and back again.
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Bridge Construction

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students build a model of a bridge and test the amount of weight it support. They identify different types of bridges: suspension, arch, girder, truss, cantilever, cable-stayed and moveable.
Worksheet
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Mineral Identification

For Students 7th - 9th
In this mineral identification activity, students match 10 terms to their definitions. Terms include types of minerals, tests and characteristics of minerals. They write down the tests used to identify an unknown mineral and they fill in...
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Water: Naturally Cleaned

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students use stream trays covered in different types of rocks or soil to investigate infiltrates and runoff. In this water pollution lesson, students work in groups with stream trays that have different substrates. They write a paragraph...
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Science: Down Home Dinosaurs

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
students participate in hands-on activities to discover the different types of fossils. Using teacher-provided materials, they make models of cast and trace fossils. After writing essays describing how traces are formed, students plan a...
Worksheet
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Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition Study Guide

For Students 8th - 10th
In this weathering, erosion and deposition worksheet, learners answer questions about the causes of weathering, the types of weathering such as mechanical and chemical weathering and resistance to weathering. They also write two...
Lesson Plan
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Science: Making Trace Fossils

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore types of fossils and discover how sediment affects fossil preservation. They focus their study on trace fossils and create their own using sediment, water, and a small organism such as a snail or lizard. Students use...
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Fossils

For Students 9th - 12th
In this fossils worksheet, students will read 15 statements and determine if it is describing a fossil or not. If it does describe a fossil, students must identify what type of fossil it is. Then students will complete 3 short answer...
Worksheet
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Waves

For Students 9th - 12th
In this waves worksheet, students read about the different types of waves and how the speed of waves is calculated. Then students complete 5 matching, 8 fill in the blank, and 9 short answer questions.
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Mighty Minerals-We Use Them Everyday

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders investigate the importance of knowing about rocks and minerals. They study the way in which many products are produced from rocks and minerals. Students are shown how we obtain many of the rocks and minerals we use.
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One Person's Trash: Breaking it down

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers research how trash is disposed of and make an edible landfill. In this trash lesson plan, students research proper trash disposal, and discuss how trash affects the community. Then they make an edible landfill.
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Petrology in the Gravel Pit

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students are introduced to a wide range of rock types when they examine pebbles and boulders exposed in a gravel pit. Students practice rock description and identification and categorize the rocks sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic.
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Metamorphic Rock

For Students 7th - 12th
In this metamorphic rock worksheet, students review the types of metamorphism and compare foliated with non-foliated. This worksheet has 10 short answer questions.
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Science: What Happens to Create the Lode?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students understand how mineral deposits are formed and why they are not evenly dispersed. They create and describe three different precipitates from four solutions simulating mineral ore deposit formation in sedimentary rock.
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Groundwater Basics

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Groundwater is an essential natural resource, not to mention a fascinating topic to study. Here is a series of twelve amazing lessons on the water source and how we use it in our daily lives. Concepts require higher math and physics...
Lesson Plan
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Digging in the Dirt

For Teachers 1st
First graders awareness is raised that not all dirt is the same. They compare and observe particle sizes in three different kinds of soils. They keep a record book of what the discover and talk about how some soils are alike and some...
Worksheet
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Landforms

For Students 7th - 9th
In this landforms worksheet, students answer 2 questions about the major land forms and types of mountains. They match 10 landforms and types of mountains with their definitions.
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Plate Tectonics Review

For Students 8th - 10th
For this plate tectonics worksheet, students review concepts such as the types of plate boundaries, the concept of continental drift, sea-floor spreading, earthquakes, and plate tectonics. They match 30 terms with their definitions.
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Cell Study

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students (females) are introduced to the cell. They discuss what a cell is, and students define what a cell is. Students comprehend that all living things are made up of cells. They comprehend that life is defined as something that...
Worksheet
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Stem-and-Leaf Plots

For Students 9th
In this stem-and-leaf plots activity, 9th graders solve and complete 9 various types of problems. First, they determine the mean, median, and mode of the stem-and-leaf plot shown. Then, students summarize the similarities and differences...