Curated OER
Games on Echolocation
Get a little batty with life science! This fun simulation game replicates how bats use echolocation to hunt moths in their native Hawaiian habitat. After creating blind folds and discussing some basic principles of echolocation, students...
Newspaper Association of America
Power Pack: Lessons in Civics, Math, and Fine Arts
Newspaper in Education (NIE) Week honors the contributions of the newspaper and is celebrated in the resource within a civics, mathematics, and fine arts setting. The resource represents every grade from 3rd to 12th with questions and...
Curated OER
Cycles and Starting Mealworms
Here is a fascinating lesson about the life cycles of plants and animals, and other cycles found in nature. Learners explore the cycle of the moon, the tides, and other sequences of events in every day life. The big activity is the...
Curated OER
Ecuadorian Rainforest
Have your class talk about the importance of the rainforest and the products that come from it. Learners watch a video showing the path of chocolate from the rainforest to the supermarket. They discuss how the rainforest and chocolate...
Space Awareness
The Intertropical Convergence Zone
Young scientists know it is hotter along the equator, but why is it also rainier? Through the process of completing two experiments and a worksheet, scholars discover the answer is the intertropical convergence zone. First, they...
Scholastic
Pilgrim and Wampanoag Daily Life for Grades 3-5
Thirteen steps make up a lesson that challenges pupils to compare and contrast the daily lives of Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe. Learners revisit the Graffiti Wall then break into small groups for an investigative reading assignment...
Science Matters
Basic Needs
Scholars take part in a grand conversation about the basic needs of living things. Working collaboratively, pupils brainstorm and identify similarities to come to the conclusion that the environment meets the needs of all living things.
Curated OER
Vanished Occupations: Life on an Iron Plantation
Learners analyze photographs to understand life on a plantation. In this vanished occupations instructional activity, students examine why iron plantations were created and what natural resources were needed to make iron. Learners...
Curated OER
Marine & Aquatic Habitats Activities - Aquatic Animals
Learners explore importance of marine or aquatic habitats, and investigate habitat characteristics and conditions required by various organisms to ensure survival. They then select an animal to study and design an artificial habitat...
Curated OER
Animal Life Cycle
Students conduct hands-on experiments. In this life cycle lesson, students are able to observe a variety of animals as they travel through their life cycle (brine shrimp, mealworms, frog eggs and chicken eggs). Students respond to what...
Critical Thinking Cooperative
Doing Our Share
Whether at home or in the classroom, each member of a community has certain responsibilities they must tend to. With the help of the children's story Piggybook by Anthony Browne, kids learn how to assign jobs in a fair and safe manner...
Curated OER
The Life Cycle of the Mealworm
Fourth graders provide a habitat for live mealworms and observe their life cycle. In this animal life cycle and scientific inquiry lesson, 4th graders create a habitat for a live mealworm and observe and record related data as it grows....
Curated OER
Literacy Through Photography
Students practice using words to describe photographs they have taken. In this descriptive writing lesson, students utilize a disposable or digital camera to take 5 pictures of their life after school. Students create slides from their...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Fish Morphology
Life comes in all different shapes and sizes, and fish are no exception. Here, young scientists create fish prints as they learn how specific characteristics allow different species to survive in their particular habitats.
Space Awareness
Let's Map the Earth
Before maps went mobile, people actually had to learn how to read maps. Pupils look at map elements in order to understand how to read them and locate specific locations. Finally, young cartographers discover how to make aerial maps.
Curated OER
Sound for Sight
Students study echolocation and understand how dolphins use it to locate prey, escape predators, and navigate their environment. They view a video, "In the Wild-Dolphins with Robin Williams" and see first hand how dolphins communicate. ...
Curated OER
Who Am I? the Web of Life ... With a Twist!
Students are assigned a secret species identity. They identify with the help of the other players. Once all identities have been deciphered, players form a circle and, by passing a ball of yarn from "species to species", they form...
Sea World
Seaworld Science Activity
A fun collection of activities about marine life would be a great addition to your elementary science unit. From cute penguins to scary sharks, the unit features crafts, experiments, and basic research projects that will teach your...
World Intellectual Property Organization
Learn from the Past, Create the Future: Inventions and Patents
3D printers, selfie sticks, smart watches. GPS, self-driving cars, YouTube. Imagine life without inventions. Believe it or not, these items were all invented in the last 10 years. Inventions, and the inventors responsible for them, are...
Curated OER
Economics
Fourth graders study the effects of economics in their daily life. In this economics lesson, 4th graders construct a list of wants and needs if they had an unlimited supply of money. Students discuss how economics help people make...
Science Matters
Energy Flow
Budding scientists work collaboratively to reenact energy flow in a food chain. Scholars take on roles such as producer and consumer and perform tasks that symbolize energy flow in order to provide evidence of how much energy passes...
Curated OER
The Practice Interview
Students study the interview process by interviewing each other in pairs using a name game. They formulate and ask effective interview questions and practice interviewing skills. They invite a guest to their classroom or go outside the...
Curated OER
The Great Cookie Company
Fourth graders implement real life application of money, problem solving, economics, and consumer awareness. In this three week economics unit, 4th graders operate a business, write checks, balance accounts, and market their product.
University of Texas
Scarcity
How can having too little of something impact your life? Scholars investigate the concept of scarcity in their own lives and in the overall picture of the economy. Brainstorming activities as well as student-parent work bring to light...