Curated OER
Settlement Exploration: Then and Now
NASA has crafted an imaginative and memorable series of lessons, "NASA and Jamestown Education Module." This lesson plan is one of the five components. In it, middle schoolers connect history and science by comparing the settlement of...
Curated OER
Coal Supply and Demand
A hands-on simulation perfect for an economics lesson, young learners investigate the availability of different sources of natural energy (coal, natural gas, oil, solar, and nuclear) and how this availability affects their cost. Simulate...
Curated OER
Floating Fishes: Fishing Expedition
A referenced PowerPoint is not included, but this lesson can still make an impact with emerging environmentalists. After introducing them to the facts about overfishing, they experiment with a fishing simulation using colored beads and...
Curated OER
Natural Resources: Getting a Fair Share?
Students explore the impact of human behavior on key components of the environment, examine how theirn own personal decisions have added to the problem, and explore possible solutions to the current ecological crisis.
Curated OER
Naturally Speaking
Students identify the Earth's natural resources and classify them as renewable or non-renewable. They simulate the distribution of resources and discuss the fairness and effectiveness of the distribution. They identify ways that they use...
NOAA
To Explore Strange New Worlds
It's time to boldly go where your class has not gone before! The introductory lesson in a five-part series takes young oceanographers aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos to begin a study of ocean exploration. The lesson includes a comparison of...
CK-12 Foundation
Natural Selection: Peppered Moths
Can human activity influence the colors of moths? The simulation explains how pollution changed the color of tree bark, which led to the survival of a different variation of moths. It also discusses the shift back as air quality improves.
Curated OER
Exploring the Natural World of the Balkan Peninsula
Students explore the different habitats in the Balkan peninsula. In this ecology instructional activity, students research about a species and create a 3D diorama of its environment. They present project in class and share their research...
Curated OER
Go Fish! Exploring The Tragedy of the Commons
Students discover what happens when people take advantage of shared resources. For this ecology lesson, students explore "The Tragedy of the Commons" by playing a role playing simulation game in small groups. Students soon discover the...
Curated OER
Hazards: Fifth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
After comparing earthquake and volcanic hazards to one another, fifth graders take a closer look at damage associated with a volcanic eruption. They then create a simulation of mudslides due to a volcanic eruption. Using different...
Pennsylvania State University
Learn, Protect, and Promote Water
A hands-on activity helps learners explore the water cycle. After discussing how they use water, classes discuss water pollution and then move into a simulation where 20 pupils move through the water cycle based on description cards.
Curated OER
The Age of Exploration
The Age of Exploration provides a way for students to learn about various topics relating to geography, history, and science.
American Museum of Natural History
Wonderful World of Wasps
Shockingly, wasps sometimes challenge lions as the king of predators! Learners explore the life of a wasp in an interactive online lesson. They read about the characteristics of wasps and then complete activities to learn about their lives.
Curated OER
Peppered Moth Simulation Activity
Students simulate peppered moth predators using SmartNotebook. In this life science lesson, students collect survival data and analyze results. They explain the importance of changes in species over time.
Shodor Education Foundation
Rabbits and Wolves
A change in a parameter can end in overpopulation. The resources gives pupils the opportunity to control the parameters of rabbits and wolves in a natural setting. Using the set parameters, the simulation runs and displays the population...
Curated OER
Beauty: Patterns in Nature
Young scholars explore the patterns of nature. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students examine beauty in nature and participate in a hands-on simulation that demonstrates how human preferences for beauty have led to an increased...
Curated OER
Pet Rescue
Students, in teams, follow the process of design, including the stages of investigation, creation, and reflection, as they devise a way to help "save" a (simulated) pet who is trapped in a pipe.
Curated OER
Evacuating a Volcano: A Simulation
Students explore hazards associated with cataclysmic natural events, and human responses to them by creating emergency plans.
Curated OER
Natural Selection: Exploring the 'Ohi'a Common Garden
Seventh graders examine natural variation by visiting the Ohi'a Common Garden in Volcano, Hawaii. In this natural selection lesson, 7th graders study background information about phenotypes, genotypes, and phenotypic plasticity before...
Council for Economic Education
The Economics of Income: If You’re So Smart, Why Aren't You Rich?
If basketball players make more than teachers, why shouldn't learners all aspire to play in the NBA? Unraveling the cost and benefits of education and future economic success can be tricky. Economic data, real-life cases, and some...
Curated OER
Voting Simulation
Students explore the process of voting. They study the lawmaking branch of the state government.
Curated OER
Floods and Flash Floods
Junior geologists, hydrologists, or meteorologists simulate what happens during the flooding of a river and demonstrate factors that contribute to flash flooding. This outstanding resource provides a vocabulary list, online resources,...
NASA
Exploration of a Problem: Making Sense of the Elements
When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson plan in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to...
Curated OER
Exploring Evolution Lesson Plans
There are evolution lesson plans that can help teachers get past the controversy to increase student understanding of natural selection.