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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Days of '49: "I've Been Toiling Hard for the Last Two And a Half Years"

For Teachers 6th - 11th
Students trace the stages of gold mining in California. They discuss the life of a gold miner and how the discovery of gold influenced towns and cities in California during the 1949 Gold Rush.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make a Community Almanac

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students gather geographic information about their community. They work together to create a community almanac.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Igneous Rocks

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students perform experiments in which they grow crystals. They draw pictures of where each type of rock originates from. They also identify igneous rocks by using a chart.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Faulty Movement

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discover the faults throughout the Earth. They describe the different types of faults and how they are related to earthquakes. They build models of the faults.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Time of Man

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners demonstrate visually Mankind's relative place on the earth's timeline. They familiarize themselves with the use of the metric system in measuring and producting a timeline.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geothermal Features of Yellowstone

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore the geothermal features of Yellowstone National Park. Through a PowerPoint presentation and the use of a Smart Board, students recognize the four geothermal features. They discuss the differences of each feature....
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Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Is My Water Safe?

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners discuss what makes their drinking water safe and unsafe. They locate and visit a local tributary and test the water's pH, hardness, dissolved oxygen, and total alkalinity. They compose a summary paragraph about the tests and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students watch a video about plate tectonics. in this Earth Science lesson, students watch a video clip from Bill Nye about Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics. They make a slight crack in a hard boiled egg and manipulate the egg to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Virtual Field Trip

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders are introduced to the concepts of weathering and erosion. In groups, they rotate between different stations to discover how each process effects different landforms. To end the lesson, they discuss each change in the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What is Biocomplexity?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners dicuss different aspects of biocomplexity. They demonstrate synthesis of complex concepts by creating before and after posters expressing how the concepts of biocomplexity have ben internalized. Students define the term...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Moving Continents from Pangaea to the Future

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders examine how the movements of the Earth contribute to fossil distribution.  In this fossils lesson students make maps of the placement of the continents. 
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Slinky and Waves

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young scholars watch a demonstration using a Slinky during a lecture on basic wave properties. Properties addressed in the demo include wave speed, wave length, amplitude, period, and frequency.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science: Draining the Land - the Mississippi River

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use topographic maps to identify parts of rivers. In addition, they discover gradient and predict changes in the channels caused by variations in water flow. Other activities include sketching a river model with a new channel...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bhutan, the Last Shangri-La: Sandwich Squash: How the Himalayas Were Formed

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create and record a model of mountain formation. They identify major mountain building formations. Students understand how the Himalaya Mountains were formed, why they are located near Bhutan, and why they are becoming larger.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weathering Landforms

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders brainstorm a list of ways the Earth's surface can change. As a class, they are introduced to the concepts of erosion and weathering and discover how wind and water cause changes to the surface of the Earth. To end the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pattern

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students describe examples of the relationship between structure and function in living systems, particularly with regard to specialized tissues and organs. They describe examples of biological diversity and adaptation of organisms with...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plate Tectonics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students identify that most of mountain ranges found on all major land masses and in the oceans are external reflections of tectonic movements within the earth. They identify that earthquakes and related phenomena are caused by the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Basin & Range Faulting

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students identify that the crust of the earth is constantly moving and that with the exception of faults accompanied by earthquakes, this rate of movement is far too slow to notice. Then they print a copy of cross-section map A and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earthquakes

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students observe the melting of ice. In this phase change lesson, students observe ice as it melts. They discuss the process and create a Venn diagram comparing water and ice.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Let's Roam Together

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Learners collect information about buffalo and transform their classroom into a wildlife park. In this conservation lesson, students work in groups to research a question pertaining to buffalo populations and habitat requirements. They...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Edible Coal Mining

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners explore the concept of bituminous coal and the role it plays within our world.  In this economic and earth science lesson plan, learners discover and model the extraction methods with hands-on activities.  Learners also identify...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks and Minerals: Sedimentary Rocks

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Learners explore the concept of rock formation. In this sedimentary rocks lesson, students observe and record their findings about sedimentary rocks. Learners then create limestone, coal, and sandstone models and write reports explaining...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Preparing for Disaster

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the effects of earthquakes. In this earthquake lesson plan, students investigate survival strategies and disaster preparedness in the wake of an earthquake.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Oceanographic Yo-Yo

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students examine how oceanographers use chemical and physical parameters of seawater to locate hydrothermal vents.  In this ocean lesson students complete an activity and worksheets.