Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Web of Life

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students demonstrate the interrelationships of animals and plants. In this ecology lesson, students discuss the things plants and animals need for survival and study the glacier food chain. Students simulate the web of life by using a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Forest Life- Wood Bug Study

For Teachers K - 7th
Examine wood bugs and their habitat. Learners gather wood bugs and examine their bodies. Then discuss their body parts and how they help them survive. They also predict where they think wood bugs live to then graph the class results.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Urban Life: What Lives in Our Schoolyard?

For Teachers K - 7th
Students research living organisms by exploring their school grounds. In this microscopic observation activity, students gather materials, insects, and objects from their playground and schoolyard and bring them into class. Students...
Worksheet
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A Rat's Life

For Students 3rd - 5th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sorting Things Out

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Written to examine seeds that grow in Kansas, you can adapt this lesson to anywhere you live. Learners sort a mixture of five different seeds to by any characteristic of their choice. When your budding scientists are exploring the life...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life Processes

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students identify life processes and create their own creature. In this creative science lesson, students identify an organism's life processes and categorize them into groups. They then create their own creature and write about how it...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Classification and Identification

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students, after exploring and analyzing diagrammatic and taxonomic keys and their association to marine sciences, identify and classify objects and organisms based on visual attributes/characteristics. They research and create their own...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Barrels and Buckets: Access to Water - What Would It Be Like to Live in Africa?

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars compare water access in the United States with that of Africa. In this water access lesson, students located Ghana and Kenya on a globe before reading Peace Corps Volunteer accounts of the difficulty of accessing clean...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Game of Life

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe what it means for a marine animal or fish to be threatened or endangered after playing game simulating extinction.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Disguise for the Eyes

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Young scientists discover how many, many animals use color as a way of helping them to survive in the wild. They understand how animals use color in their everyday lives. Pupils engage in hands-on activities, watch videos, access...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Aquatic Ecosystems

For Teachers K - 7th
Students study the diversity of marine life and their habitats.  In this aquatic ecosystems lesson students complete a lab activity and experiment. 
Lesson Plan
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Penguins Around the World

For Teachers K - 5th
Students investigate penguins. For this Science lesson, students compare and contrast penguins to flying birds. Students use a Venn diagram to illustrate the differences and similarities of penguins and flying birds.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Microfishing

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students use a simple method to collect living microorganisms from natural and/or artificial environments and develop skills in microscopy, observation, drawing, speculation, hypothesizing, oral presentation, and raising questions.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

PLANT LIFE CYCLES

For Teachers K - 5th
Student learns about the life cycle of plants by watching a time-lapse video. This activity provides students with further evidence that all living things grow and change as they progress through their life cycle. Student conducts a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Recognizing the Importance of Sight

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students discover the true value of their senses. In this sight lesson, students discover the difficulty of life without sight by performing everyday activities without the help of their eyes. The students examine their results and the...
Lesson Plan
Polar Trec

Animal Monitoring Introduction

For Teachers 3rd - 4th Standards
Not only do mealworms taste great, they are also great for classroom science lessons. In pairs, young scientists observe and record what they see as they check out what their mealworms are doing from minute to minute. Each minute...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Soil

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students conduct an experiment to evaluate whether plants need soil to survive and grow. They plant two seeds, one with soil and one without, make predictions, and record and analyze the seed germination results on a worksheet.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fred the Fish -- A River Ran Wild

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
Students apply cause and effect relationships to water pollution in a stream. In this pollution lesson students recognize the importance of clean water in their daily lives. Students accompany "Fred the Fish" as he travels down stream....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Wonders

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students explore hydrology concepts. In this environment and biology lesson plan, students identify and describe macroinvertebrates using a variety of pictures and resources. Students observe and write about a classroom aquarium in which...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Clearly Classified

For Teachers 3rd - 10th
Young scholars review the classification system for living organisms and apply it the classification of insects and flowers in the still life by Ambrosius Bosschaert. They create a chart classifying the animals and plants in the painting...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Agriculture is a Cycle

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students explore cycles in nature. In this cross curriculum agriculture lesson, students define "cycle" and research weather and planting folklore. Students make a bracelet in which individual colored beads represent the many "cycles" of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Rainforest

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students learn the characteristics of the rainforest.  In this rainforest lesson, students read stories about the rainforest and discuss them.  Students work in groups to brainstorm all the facts they know about the rainforest...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossils

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Young scholars complete a unit on fossils. They read and discuss informational handouts, define key vocabulary terms, answer discussion questions, create a geologic timeline and a timeline of their own life, analyze bones, and create a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get to Know- Insects, Spiders and Others

For Teachers 1st - 4th
Learners investigate live insects. For this insects and spiders lesson, students work in groups to explore the outdoors and capture insects. Learners observe, discuss and record information about the insects they discover. Students...