Curated OER
Race the Track! The Time Challenge (lesson 2)
Students design a track that keeps a ball in motion for 5 seconds or longer. In this designing lesson plan, students explore force, gravity, and cause and effect when it comes to science and building before building their own track.
PBS
Breaking it Down
After challenging themselves to correctly choose the form of erosion and length of time required for a given landform to develop, earth science class members model mechanical and chemical weathering with various lab demonstrations over...
Curated OER
Hurricanes 1: The Science Of Hurricanes
Students are introduced to the science of hurricanes in an effort to highlight how forces change the speed and direction of motion. They list facts about hurricanes; including insights about the formation, movement, and impact hurricanes...
Curated OER
Monster Plants Storia Teaching Guide
Who wouldn't want to read a book about monster plants? Get those kids into informational texts with an engaging topic, like meat eating plants! You'll use the teaching guide to provide structured practice as your class reads to...
Kenan
Respiratory System
Explore the respiratory system with a model. First, pupils build a set of lungs to experiment how they inflate and deflate. Then, they delve deeper into the topic with a web quest to discover new information about the nose, trachea, and...
National Wildlife Federation
Hot, Hotter, Hottest: Extreme Weather's Impact on Our Resources
How dry is it? It's so dry, the river only runs twice a week! Through an analysis of maps and discussions, pairs learn about droughts across the United States in the ninth of 12 lessons. They then read about, answer questions, analyze...
Curated OER
Sun and Shadows
Why do shadows look different in the summer than in the winter? What causes day and night? How can a sundial be used to tell time? Answer these questions and more through two engaging lessons about light and shadows. Fourth and fifth...
Curated OER
The Marvels of Mud
Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine the role that...
EngageNY
Using Quotes to Explain Relationships: The Invention of the Electric Motor
Read it and read it again. Scholars do multiple reads of the text The Electric Motor. During the first pass, they read to discover the gist of the text. In the second, pupils use quotes from the article to explain the use of the electric...
Curated OER
Buildings Have Lives, Too: Disasters and Their Effect on People
Students research natural disasters and their lasting effect on both people and the environment. In this environmental science lesson, students complete a group project on a natural disaster of their choosing. Students examine multiple...
Curated OER
Let's Heat Things Up!
Students build and evaluate simple models to understand the greenhouse effect. They explore the role of increased greenhouse gas concentration in global warming, and the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves...
Curated OER
Severe Weather
Fifth graders identify the causes and effects of several different kinds of
severe weather phenomenon. They read an excerpt from John Muir's book The Mountains of California and research one of the following severe
weather phenomena...
Curated OER
The Stroop Effect
Students explore the specific areas of the brain that process different types of information. They examine processing conflicts. Students participate in a hands-on minds-on activity using the Stroop Effect. They design psychological...
Curated OER
Physical Science: Gravity
Students investigate the properties of force and gravity and their effects on everyday life. In groups, they test various balls by bouncing them on different surfaces and observe the properties. In another activity, they test marbles and...
Curated OER
The Effects of Pollution!
Learners examine pollution and how it affects the environment. They discuss how human activities lead to more pollution. They talk about the importance of recycling. There is a skit, resource links, and activities provided to make this a...
Michigan Sea Grant
Food Chains and Webs
Starting with a simple food chain, young scientists interpret the difference and interrelatedness between herbivores, carnivores and producers. They answer questions related to cause and effect of food chain disruptions, including the...
Curated OER
Weathering Rocks
Here is a geology lesson that is sure to get your charges excited. It's all about the process of weathering of rocks. Learners study natural events that can cause rocks to break apart. Some of these events are: ice wedging, plant...
California Academy of Science
Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise
Ice is nice, and its condition on the planet has a significant effect. Junior geoscientists experiment with ice melting in both water and on land to discover how each affect the rising sea level. This detailed lesson outline even...
Curated OER
Changing Planet: Rising Ocean Temperatures - Rising Sea Levels
As an anticipatory set, young environmental technicians watch a video about how ocean temperatures seem to be changing along with the global climate. They perform a laboratory demonstration with the purpose of observing what happens to...
American Chemical Society
Condensation
It's time to break the ice! If you are doing all of the lessons in the unit, children have already seen that increasing heat increases the rate of evaporation, but is the opposite true? Does decreasing temperature cause more condensation...
Curated OER
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
Students analyze photographs relating to the 1906 San Francisco earthquake for earthquake damage. They determine the cause and effects of the earthquake and the fire.
Curated OER
Dark Days on the Prairie
Young scholars explore U.S. geography by researching agriculture. In this dust bowl lesson plan, students complete a cause and effect worksheet based upon the dust bowls that covered a large portion of Oklahoma and Texas in the early...
Curated OER
Ready-Set-Tech: When a Volcano Erupts
Wouldn't it be a blast to uncover the science behind volcanic eruptions? Explore, research, and examine the nature of volcanoes with three fun hands-on projects kids will love. First the class takes to the Internet to research volcanoes....
Curated OER
Earthquakes
Students inspect the causes and effects of earthquakes and examine how seismic waves travel. In this earthquake activity, students determine where earthquakes happen and why, before determining how to build an earthquake resistant...