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 lesson, students gather materials, insects, and objects from their playground and schoolyard and bring them into class. Students...
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

What Does Life Look Like Under a Microscope?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discover cells make up all living things. In this life science lesson, students investigate living organisms and the cells that create them. Finally the students create a testable question, conduct an investigation, and draw...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life Processes

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

What is Life?

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students investigate the characteristics of living things. In this life science instructional activity, students examine several living and non-living specimens. Students determine which things are living and non-living.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Living vs. Nonliving

For Teachers K - 5th
Students explore the characteristics that distinguish living things from nonliving things. Students examine video clips and still photographs to gather evidence and develop criteria to decide if something is living or nonliving.
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
Students compare water access in the United States with that of Africa. For this water access lesson, students located Ghana and Kenya on a globe before reading Peace Corps Volunteer accounts of the difficulty of accessing clean water....
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
Curated OER

Penguins Around the World

For Teachers K - 5th
Students investigate penguins. In this Science lesson plan, 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
Learners 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 learners 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

Living in a Watershed

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders examine watersheds. In this ecosystem lesson, 4th graders discover what a watershed is and identify the local watershed they live in. Students investigate the attributes of a watershed as well.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Aquatic Life

For Teachers K - Higher Ed
Students explore aquatic life. In this science instructional activity, students visit an aquatic ecosystem and collect animals found there. Students create a food chain for the aquatic ecosystem.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

RAINFOREST Mini-Unit

For Teachers K - 4th
Students engage in a variety of activities to investigate the subject of rainforests. The lesson focuses on the different floors of the rainforest and the types of life that exists on each.
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.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weather and Water in Ghana

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Young scholars research the rainy and dry season to investigate Africa's weather. In this African weather instructional activity, students use the given websites to research the rainy and dry seasons of Ghana in Africa. Young scholars...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Needs of Living Things

For Teachers K - 5th
Students watch video clips of animals and plants in their natural environment, to gather evidence that all living things have basic survival needs. Students draw pictures of real or imaginary pets eating, drinking, breathing, and taking...