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Northwest Coast Indians: Spring and Summer Salmon
Here is a fabulous lesson about the cultures of the Northwest Indians. Through an exploration of a story about the Salmon People, learners study the practice of harvesting salmon and the cultural importance of salmon to the Northwest...
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Insect Anatomy
A wonderful lesson plan on the many benefits of having spiders and bugs around us. Learners discover how important these bugs are to our ecosystem. The instructional activity helps young biologists see the differences between spiders and...
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Cell Wall Recipe: A Lesson on Biofuels
Biotech engineers discover that changes in the DNA code for cell wall formation can help create crops better suited for biofuel production. They extract DNA from wheat germ. They decode paper strips with codes and relate the activity to...
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Photosynthesis Lesson Plans
You can teach students about the importance of plants and the process of photosynthesis with motivating lesson plans. Follow along and find out how one science teacher uses experiments, stories, and her love of plants to get kids excited...
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Food Chains: Integrating Science and Reading
Using a high interest science topic, like the food chain, can get students excited about reading, math, and more! A multitue of wonderful ideas that have cross-curricular connections.
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Feeding Frenzy
Young biologists take a look at the myriad of ways that animals increase their chances of surviving in the wild. The adaptations help animals hide, hunt, and attract a mate. This lesson specifically explores how insect mouth parts are...
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Taking Count of Biodiversity
Here is a well-designed lesson on biodiversity that should intrigue your charges. In it, pupils compare a natural desert area to a school field to see how habitat destruction affects species diversity. Groups set up transects and collect...
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Where'd You Get Those Genes?
Really a unit, this resource exposes middle schoolers to genetics at their level. They read interviews and biographies, trace a family tree, play games that simulate inheritance concepts, and more! Teacher's procedures, student...
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Fossil Kit I - Lesson Plan
Here is a 14-page lesson plan that deftly outlines a wonderful educational experience for your youngsters. In it, students learn about a variety of animals that have left behind clues of their existence in fossil form. Many excellent...
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Jeopardy Game - Animals
Here is a fantastic Jeopardy-style game for elementary schoolers that's all about animals. This is one of the more thorough of this type of presentation.The 53 slides cover all sorts of topics about a variety of animals. There is an...
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Edible Bug Project
Students recognize the characteristics of insects. In this edible bugs lesson, students observe the body parts of an insect. Students create an edible insect using a grape, carrot sticks and sorrel stems and leaves. Students share the...
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Carrying Capacity
Young biologists identify how plants and animals are affected by changes in their ecosystem and environment. The concepts of succession, maintenance of habitats, interrelationships, and adaptation are all discussed. This well-developed...
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Levers and Wedges in the Human Body
Young biologists identify parts of the body that serve as wedges (teeth and fingernails), and as levers (jaw, arms, and legs). The hands-on activities described here should be exciting for learners to perform, and should also lead to a...
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Ego Trip- Exploring the Inner Workings of the Human Body
Students gain an understanding of how systems and organs in the human body work. They create their own fictional account of a trip through the human body, and describe one response the body makes to stimuli.
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Animals Galore
A well-designed lesson plan which covers the characteristics of the animals found in the six animal groups is here for your young biologists. In it, learners divide up into six groups; the amphibians, reptiles, mammals, birds, fish, and...
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Using Your Teeth
In this Using Your Teeth worksheet, students read information about teeth and then complete the labels for a diagram about teeth. Students also think about the differences between human and animal teeth and design an information leaflet...
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Fish Tank Territories
Students observe swimming and resting patterns of aquarium fish to determine how different parts of the habitat are used. Different pairs of students should compare their results after several days to look for daily patterns.
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A Rat's Life
Here is a two-page worksheet on rats and mice. Learners answer nine true/false questions about rats and mice, then compose answers to seven short-answer questions about these two rodents. Finally, they must compose a fictional story...
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A Hidden Beauty
Expose the beautiful mystery of bulbs as young botanists learn all about these fascinating plants. They glean information from a short text before observing actual bulbs (consider an onion), and comparing their findings with predictions....
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A Whole Lotta Changin' Goin' On
Here's a fabulous instructional activity on the life cycle of a butterfly. Youngsters are able to identify and understand the four stages of life. They construct models of a caterpillar and write a sequence story about the life of a...
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My Friend, the Volcano
Working in cooperative groups, young scientists research and report on how undersea volcanic activity may benefit marine ecosystems. There are many links to websites that you can use to stimulate curiosity or for pupils to use for...
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Plant Part Exploration: Stems
Explore water transport in plant stems using this fun experiment! Your scientists will start by reading Stems by Vijaya Bodach. Then, activate prior knowledge about plant stem functions and water transportation. Demonstrate this concept...
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Tell Me About Teeth
In this science instructional activity, learners investigate the purpose of teeth, types of teeth, their anatomy, dental care, animal skulls and teeth, parts of a tooth and related topics by reading and completing the activities on the 8...
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Discovering Local Food Chains
Fourth graders study about food chains. With the assistance of a local biologist, Students hike the school trail system. They explore ecosystem and collect data by charting the organisms found and identifying the energy source. They...