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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

National Museum of Natural History

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students explore U.S. history by participating in a class field trip. In this museum lesson, students attend a field trip to the Natural History Museum and identify cultural stories and art pieces they enjoy. Students collaborate in...
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Unit Plan
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Curated OER

Artificial Selection

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The second lesson in the series begins with a starter activity discussing wild versus domesticated animals. Then, scholars play a card game, with optional variations, to emphasize artificial selection. Next, they attend a field trip to a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Stuff of Stories: Using Museums to Inspire Student Writing

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Middle schoolers write descriptions, narratives, and dialogues based on objects of art and time periods in a museum. They base several writing assignments on art objects and paintings, including a literal description and an emotional...
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Activity
American Museum of Natural History

Mesozoic Museum

For Students 6th - 12th
Mini museum curators create an exhibit that showcases the Mesozoic era. Pupils use their knowledge of dinosaurs to make informative posters, drawings, and dioramas. Following three steps to complete the hands-on activity, scholars read...
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Activity
National Park Service

The Young Naturalist

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Beginning with a brief history of our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, then followed by a discussion of his interest in nature, young scientists take to the outdoors to locate and observe local plants and insects. Scholars return to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Effect of Natural Selection on Genes, Traits and Individuals

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Rotating through five stations, evolutionary biologists explore the question of how changes in DNA facilitate the changes in a population over time. High-quality, colorful cards of animals, skeletons, skulls, and DNA sequences can all be...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Nature in a Flick of the Eye

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young scholars explore the visual information a diorama artist provides by thinking of all the details for the background of a location described by their teacher. They investigate diorama artists and their importance in creating the...
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Website
American Museum of Natural History

What's the Big Idea About Archeology

For Students 4th - 8th
The American Museum of Natural History offers a website sure to engage young anthropologists. Learners can dig into a site that offers an explanation of the field of archaeology, the kinds of questions archaeologists ask that launch...
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Lesson Plan
California Academy of Science

Poetic Reflections

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
Poetry is a wonderful way to explore language, express topical understanding, and incite creative thinking. After a trip to the local natural history museum (or zoo), learners write an acrostic or a cinquain poem describing one of their...
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Worksheet
Alabama Wildlife Federation

Wildlife Habitat Checklist

For Teachers 2nd - 4th Standards
Take a walk on the wild side with a project about animal habitats. After kids observe a chosen animal in its home, they describe the animal's food and water sources, shelter, and how it raises its young. They then write a short fictional...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Landscape Confection: Pre-visit Activity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Upper graders explore the concepts of landscape art, man, nature and their inter-relationship. This is a critical thinking and analysis activity intended to prepare the class for an up coming trip to a local art museum. They analyze,...
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Activity
K-State Research and Extensions

You Ol’ Fossil

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Geologists are gneiss, tuff, and a little bit wacke. The fifth chapter of seven includes ten activities at four different levels. The hands-on activities cover fossils including how they are formed, vertebrates, invertebrates,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Archaeology 101

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st
Let's go on an archaeological dig! Here is a instructional activity that allows your young scientists to do just that! You fill up an empty water table or tray with sand, and bury miscellaneous objects. Pupils use spoons, sifters, and...
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Website
American Museum of Natural History

Up Close With a Zapotec Urn

For Students 6th - 9th
If a Zapotec urn, buried for over a thousand years in a temple in the lost city of Xoxocotlan in the Valley of Oaxaca in the mountains of southern Mexico could talk image the stories it could tell. That's the set up in a clever resource...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Museum Idea

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students evaluate and record the various types of museum careers. In this The Museum Idea lesson, students create a bicentennial time capsule, design a Museum of me, and make a classroom mini museum. In addition students visit a local...
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Unit Plan
New York City Department of Education

Egypt

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
This six-week unit encompasses all subjects with a focus study on world history and the development of ancient civilizations. As gifted and talented students dive into the interesting yet challenging topic of Egypt, they think critically...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

From Curiosity Cabinet to Museum Collection

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students study binomial nomenclature and museum-based research. They create a curiosity box, label the objects in their curiosity box , develop a classification scheme for the objects, and create a database of all objects collected by...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Biomimicry, Nature: Architecture of the Future

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore the relationship between nature and architecture. In this cross curriculum history, culture, and architecture instructional activity, students observe and discuss structures visible in nature. Students view websites in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction to the Nature Journal

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students create nature journals. In this introduction to the nature journal lesson, students discover the uses of nature journals and begin their own. Students are challenged to use vivid, concise terms in their descriptive language....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What is a Museum? The Musee' d'Orsay

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students read paragraphs and study pictures to learn about museums and in particular the Musee' d'Orsay. In this museum study lesson, students study the range of activities found in a museum and the characteristics common to all museums....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Social Studies Wonders: An Exploration

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....
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Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

DNA Detective

For Students 6th - 12th
Match up the DNA code. Pupils read the website from the American Museum of Natural History about how DNA can determine whether a skin is from a particular type of reptile. Using the same technique, learners match up products with the...
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Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

What's This? Frozen Tissue

For Students 6th - 12th
Take a peek into thousands of frozen samples. Learners try to identify an image of a piece of frozen tissue. After choosing the correct answer, scholars find out more information about the American Museum of Natural History's Frozen...
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Activity
American Museum of Natural History

Making a Field Journal

For Students 6th - 12th
Trowels and brushes are certainly important tools for an archaeologist working on a dig. Perhaps more important, however, is the archaeologist's field journal. Christina Elson, an archaeologist working with the American Museum of Natural...