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Water Quality Monitoring
Students comprehend the four parameters of water quality. They perform tests for salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH and clarity or turbidity. Students comprehend why scientists and environmental managers monitor water uality and aquatic...
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Habitat Unit - Day 2
Learners explore abiotic factors that affect habitats. After a class lecture, students work in groups to answer questions about plant tissue, production and growth. They share answers, complete a crossword puzzle, and create a habitat...
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Birth, Growth, And Development
Students understand that all living things have a life cycle that includes being born, developing into an adult, reproducing, and eventually dying.
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Catch As Catch Can
Students capture and observe insects. Using provided netting, students design and create a butterfly net. They study many types of insects and their benefits. After identifying insects caught, students complete a graph. Students write...
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What does AG have to do with me?
Students practice alphabetizing while categorizing sources of basic agricultural products. They discuss agricultrual products, discover where they are grown and draw a simple agricultural scene on poster board.
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I Depend on You, You Depend on Me!
Students explore the interdependency between humans and the ecosystems. They examine how uncontrolled development threatens the rain forests. They discuss how human actions affect the rain forest.
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Eco-Logical: A Coastal Logic Problem
Fourth graders study the characteristics of five coastal communities. They use logic cards and matching activities to identify the proper community for plant and animal species.
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Carnivorous Plants: A Bugs Nightmare!
Young scholars research carnivorous plants and how they trap insects. They role play as botanists to write a research field guide about a newly discovered imaginary carnivorous plant.
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Wind Distribution of Weed Seeds
Students investigate how many seasons it would take for wind to disperse seeds one mile downwind from an initial growth of one spotted knapweed plant. They construct and use a wind tunnel as part of their experiment and graph their results.
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Lessing meets Haring
Students create a challenging mural that functions as visual storytelling and encourages graffiti prevention. They examine the history of their town, pose questions about public art and view artwork by Keith Haring for inspiration.
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Riparian Zones Grades 4-8
Students examine and analyze the Riparian Zones found on the edges of streams and lakes. They assess why those are such valuable ecosystems and then conduct actual field research on riparian zones and conclude by drawing conclusions from...
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Environment
Fifth graders receive a general overview of the world's environmental dilemmas thereby understanding the global implications of their actions. They examine their connection to the ecosystem by looking at the influence of the environment...
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NATIVE AMERICANS
Pupils study the importance of nature to Native Americans and discover the growth stages of Northern beans and mustard seeds.
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No magic borders
Students discuss what they have heard about pollution. They explore the purposes and limitations of political boundaries and borders and identify some of the causes and effects of pollution.
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Philadelphia's Important Contribution to the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Learners analyze a primary source document (Jefferson's secret letter to Congress) and identify its objectives through the aid of focus questions. They complete a graphic organizer and write an article summarizing Philadelphia's...
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Plants
Students plant bean seeds and draw pictures of the plants as they grow. They create their own garden, plant the seeds, and keep a journal of their growth.
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Stratigraphy and Cross-Dating
Young scholars interpret archaeological strata using the law of superposition. They apply cross-dating to determine the age of other artifacts.
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Land Use
Students examine ecosystems that covered Illinois 200 years ago, investigate some living and non-living components of ecosystems, identify components of prairie system, create food webs, and observe human effects on environment. Lessons...
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The Macaroni Lab
Learners are given an introduction to the "ecosystem", what factors make up an ecosystem (biotic factors, abiotic factors, food chain, producers, consumers and decomposers) and how those factors interact.