Curated OER
What is Life?
Students investigate the characteristics of living things. In this life science instructional activity, students examine several living and non-living specimens. Students determine which things are living and non-living.
Curated OER
What Makes up an Ecosystem?
Eighth graders design posters of working ecosystems using pictures from magazines. They label autotrophic, heterotropic, or saprotrophic energy sources, and identify predators and prey.
Curated OER
Mobility: Fuel for Change
Students determine how to lower the reliance on petroleum-based fuel. In this environmental stewardship lesson, students create concept cars for the future that using renewable energy.
Curated OER
From Polymers to Bioplastics: Looking Toward Finding Renewable Resources
Students investigate the properties of polymers. For this chemistry lesson, students explain the importance of energy sources. They produce a bioplastic from the lab and evaluate its structural integrity.
Curated OER
Systematics: Classifying Organisms
Learners describe the techniques biologists use to classify organisms. In this biology lesson plan, students create cladograms and phylogenetic trees. They list the levels of taxonomic hierarchy.
Curated OER
Water Cycle
Young scientists explore Earth elements by conducting an experiment. They define water vocabulary terms such as condensation and precipitation. In addition, they conduct a water experiment in which they build a terrarium, so they can...
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Temperature
Young scholars are shown how temperature affects dissolved oxygen and they create a graph showing this relationship. They think about the adaptations of animals to live in different water temperatures. Students test four different water...
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen Introduction
Students are shown how dissolved oxygen enters the water. They are taught the difference between a water sample that has been exposed to the air and one that has not. Students brainstorm what organisms need to survive. They use dissolved...
Curated OER
Deep Sea Vents
Students study the vent and non vent deep sea and see the differences in habitats. In this investigative lesson plan students complete a worksheet and work in groups.
Curated OER
The Biogeochemical Cycles
The majority of this presentation is a collection of diagrams and graphs that back your lecture on biogeochemical cycles. The last few slides define ecosystems and the Gaia hypothesis. You may find these slides valuable, but will...
Curated OER
Periodically Puzzling
In this periodic table worksheet, students use the list of coded letters and clues that correspond to the represented elements in the first four periods of the periodic table to complete the chart at the bottom of the sheet. They...
Curated OER
Chemistry 301
In this chemistry 301 instructional activity, students answer questions as it relates to the electron configuration of given elements. Students use the periodic table to assist in their interpretation of the questions provided.
Curated OER
The Energy Debate - Sea Level Rise
Students comprehend the impact of global warming on our coastal cities. They appreciate how geographic information systems can be used to represent scientific data. Students research the melting of the ice caps in Antarctica and the Arctic.
Curated OER
Science: Trouble in the Troposphere
Young scholars research a NASA Website and record information about an assigned city's tropospheric ozone residual monthly climate. In groups, they graph the information for the past year. They form new groups and compare their city's...
Curated OER
Where Do Green Plants Get Energy?
Fourth graders realize that plants need light, water, and carbon dioxide to carry out photosynthesis. They participate in groups of 4 to plant (with materials provided) a test group of beans to compare to the control group, write a...
Curated OER
Science: A-maze-ing Plants
Students discover how light helps plants to grow. By placing a plant inside a box cut into a maze, they observe how the plant finds its way through the maze to the light source.
Curated OER
Electromagnetic Pick-up
Students investigate electromagnetic energy. In this magnetism lesson, students will create an electromagnet and test changes with increased energy. They will compete by building the strongest electromagnet.
Curated OER
Free Up the Ketchup!
Students, in teams, use given materials and their knowledge of Newton's First Law to create a device that will remove a sticky ping pong ball from a 16-oz. cup (which represents ketchup stuck in a bottle.)
Curated OER
Cellular Respiration stage 1: Glycolysis
Ten reactions involved with the process of glycolysis within cellular respiration are summarized here. The aerobic stages and anaerobic interactions leading to fermentation are detailed and wonderful diagrams to support the information...
Cornell University
Splitting Water with Electricity
Explore how electricity splits water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Learners begin by calculating the voltage necessary to separate the water. They then perform the experiment and measure the ratio of hydrogen and oxygen bubbles.
University of Connecticut
Building Your Own Biosphere
On September 26, 1991, four women and four men entered the scientific experiment, Biosphere 2; the doors were sealed for two years in order to study the interactions of a biosphere. In the activity, scholars explore biospheres by...
Cornell University
Sound Off!
Time to witness the effects of sound. Learners analyze different materials to determine their abilities to absorb sound waves. They use free software to monitor the amplitude of the waves to verify results.
Discovery Education
Perfectly Decomposed!
We all know someone who won't eat the banana with a brown spot, the grape with a dimple, and the apple with a bruise. Scholars use different fruits to explore what happens when fruits really start to decompose. They set up an experiment...
University of Colorado
Great Red Spot Pinwheel
The great red spot on Jupiter is 12,400 miles long and 7,500 miles wide. In this sixth part of a 22-part series, individuals model the rotation of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. To round out the activity, they discuss their findings as a...