Curated OER
Life in the Crystal Palace
Marine biologists research sea ice communities. Assign some groups to construct paper models of sea ice communities in winter, and some to construct models of them in summer. The lesson is simplistic, but the Internet resources provided...
Curated OER
Crystal Ice Art
This isn't just an art instructional activity, it's a science instructional activity too. Kids draw a lovely winter scene and then paint over it with a solution of epsom salts and water. They make predictions, then observe how crystals...
Polar Trec
Ice Cores: Modeling Ice Sheets
Ice cores provide scientists with knowledge of historic melt layers, air temperatures, greenhouse gases, and climate stability. Scholars work in groups to build layers representing snow and ice over thousands of years. Then, groups...
Curated OER
Crystal Growing
Students explore the different phases of a crystal. In this mineral lesson students grow their own sugar crystals using a sugar recipe.
Polar Trec
Polar Detectives: Using Ice Core Data to Decode Past Climate Mysteries
How does examining an ice core tell us about weather? Learners set up and explore fake ice cores made of sugar, salt, and ash to represent historical snowfall and volcanic eruptions. From their setups, scholars determine what caused the...
Curated OER
Snowflake Bentley
Students explore crystals through the story Snowflake Bentley and then create crystal pictures of their own. In this interdisciplinary lesson, they create a crystal web chart on chart paper, design artificial snowflakes, and write poems...
Curated OER
Ice
Learners examine the different propereties of ice, such as freezing temperature. In this scientific lesson students complete several activities using ice, like making ice cream.
Curated OER
Sea Water Freeze
Middle schoolers observe how salinity affects the time it takes water to freeze. They participate in an experiment to determine that ice is essentially salt-free whether formed from fresh or salt water
Cornell University
The Science of Snowflakes
Who can grow the best crystals? Challenge class members to develop strategies for enhancing growth in the crystals. Through a lab investigation, learners study the properties of crystals and test the effectiveness of different growth...
Concord Consortium
Hydrogen Bonds: A Special Type of Attraction
How does hydrogen bonding explain ice crystals? An engaging interactive answers just that. Scholars explore how polar molecules interact and observe the changes as temperature fluctuates as well as the hydrogen bond attraction.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Icefish Blood Adaptations: Antifreeze Proteins
Ever wonder how fish survive in freezing cold water—especially Antarctic waters? Some fish have an adaptation that lowers the freezing point of their life fluids. Learners model these adaptations in two lab explorations. The first...
Curated OER
Comparing Ionic and Polar Covalent Crystals
Twelfth graders make a number of ionic crystals. They compare a preserved snowflake to the physical properties of the ionic crystals. They apply qualitative observations and drawings in their discussion of the similarities between ice...
Curated OER
Sea Ice
Students observe the freezing times and temperatures of water with varying levels of salinity. They determine how icebergs form, how they act, and what they may be made of. They discover that salinity level affects the time it takes...
Curated OER
Ice Cream
Students explore the concept of the colligative property. Through experimentation, students lower the freezing point of a liquid in order to create a solid by using household ingredients to create ice cream.
Normal Community High School
Crystalline Structure
Cubic crystals can have 6, 8, and even 12 sides. Here is a presentation that shows pupils three different kinds of cubic crystalline structures: cubic, body-centered, and face-centered. These structures are then applied to three...
National Institute of Open Schooling
Solid State
Crystal comes from a Greek word meaning ice. Activity eight in a series of 36 has class members analyzing amorphous and crystalline solids and further classifying them based on their forces. They then explore solids, learning about unit...
Curated OER
Characteristics of Crystals
In this crystals worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer by filling in the characteristics of the different crystal types including melting/boiling point and electrical conductivity.
Curated OER
Science Jeopardy - The Earth Sciences
The earth sciences are the focus for this Jeopardy-style review game. Categories include geology, space, scientific investigation, meteorology, and oceanography. Diagrams and pictures are involved with most of the questions, making this...
Colorado State University
Can Boiling Make Something Freeze?
Use boiling as an avenue for freezing. Young scholars watch as liquid nitrogen removes heat from the ingredients for ice cream. As this happens, the nitrogen boils and the ice cream freezes—all in the same container. A little science magic!
K12 Reader
Improve Your Writing with Similes
A language arts instructional activity works like a dream. Class members become as busy as bees as they complete a activity geared toward similes. The layout of the sheet is as clear as crystal, with directions that are easy to follow.
Curated OER
A Tool for the Environment
For this desalting salt water worksheet, students will read about three different methods of desalting sea water which includes distilling, crystallizing, and filtering. Students will describe these methods in three short answer...
Curated OER
The Water Cycle
For this recognizing the water cycle worksheet, students observe the water cycle and color the sun, water droplets, ice crystals, and bodies of water. Students color 4 pictures.
Curated OER
Liquid Crystal IR Detector
Middle schoolers experiment with one method of detecting infrared radiation. They simulate the detection of infrared radiation using a liquid crystal sheet.
Curated OER
Science: Suddenly Snow
Students engage in snow-related activities during the first winter snowfall. After explaining the elements needed for it to snow, they preserve snowflakes on frozen slides and observe them under a microscope. Then, they write diamante...