National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Water Supply
Participate in three activities that look at the earth's limited water supply and the changes water goes through as it enters each phase of the water cycle. The resource is complete with three activities that demonstrate the changing...
Curated OER
Let's Take a Rock Apart!
Students examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.
Curated OER
Where in the world is the Hydra Electron?
Walk your class through the journey water takes once it leaves your kitchen sink, all the way through the water cycle. Demonstrations support your lecture. This plan is thoroughly written, but ideally you would follow it up with water...
Curated OER
Earth System Science
Students explore the Earth and its ability to support life. They discuss the geosphere and the water cycle and complete the Water Wonders activity. After completing the activity, they respond in their journals and reflect upon the...
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Earth Has Many Layers
Learners conduct an experiment. In this Earth's layers instructional activity, students learn about soil, sand and rock. They complete their own Jell-O Mountain and investigate the Earth's layers on-line.
Curated OER
Earth, Sun, and Moon
Learners participate in a demonstration and complete an online activity that illustrates the earth orbits the sun once a year, and that the moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the earth.
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Water Cycle
Young scholars explore the water cycle. In this earth science lesson plan, they read the book Water Dance by Thomas Locker and use an interactive whiteboard to review the water cycle with an interactive website.
Curated OER
Water on the Move
Students play a "Water on the Move" game to deepen their understanding of the water cycle.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonic Cycle
Learners explore the Earth's movements by completing worksheets. In this plate tectonics instructional activity, students define such natural disasters as volcanoes, earthquakes, tsunamis and mudslides and discuss their connections to...
Curated OER
Famous Rock Groups
Students define igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, and use rock identification books to identify igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. Students then discuss which rocks early man would have found useful for tool creation.
Project SMART
Rocks and Minerals: Touch the Earth
Students complete a unit of lessons on rocks and minerals. They conduct research, write e-mail questions to geologists, write daily journal entries, label maps demonstrating types of rocks/minerals found, and create a web page that...
Curated OER
Life cycles
Students identify and explain the parts of a flower and their role in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed dispersal and germination using the Internet. Students will also study and discuss the key points and...
Curated OER
Earth, Sun and Moon
Learners investigate that the sun is at the center of the solar system through role play. One student is the sun and one student is the Earth. The students then show how the Earth orbits around the sun. Learners view a flashlight and...
Forest Foundation
Forests, Carbon & Our Climate
To conclude their examination of forest ecosystems, class members consider the role forests play in the carbon cycle and how forests can offset climate change.
Curated OER
Pangaea Puzzle
Students explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted. In this Earth's surface lesson plan students complete a lab and answer questions.
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics
Students participate in a series of experiments to learn about plate tectonics and the different materials of the Earth. In this plate tectonics lesson plan, students use eggs, water, beakers, paper, and more materials to learn about the...
Curated OER
Luray Caverns - Rock Formation
Fifth graders conduct research on the geological formation Luray Caverns located in Luray, Virginia in preparation for a field trip to the caverns. They conduct Internet research, and answer worksheet discussion questions.
Curated OER
Seed to Soup Organic Garden
Have your young biologists visit decomposition stations as they explore the process of organic material. This activity involves some set-up as kids will be visiting 13 desks to collect colored paper each representing a different element...
Curated OER
Latent Heat and Clouds
Students explore latent heat and how it relates to clouds in the atmosphere. In this earth science activity students investigate how clouds are formed. Students examine clouds and the water cycle.
Curated OER
Up, Up, and Away
Students create a model to explore the water cycle. Students also perform different experiments to witness water changing from a liquid to a gas. Students are asked to if they can find ways for water to go away without pouring the...
Curated OER
Life cycles
Students identify and explain the parts of a flower and their role in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed dispersal, and germination. Students recap the following information: that plants need light, warmth,...
Curated OER
Rocky Intertidal Field Trip
Students investigate tides and the land submerged under them. In this intertidal field trip, Students visit the intertidal zone and observe the habitats and animals that live there. Students view the pools under rocks where lobsters...
Curated OER
Forces in Action
Students investigate questions centered around force and motion by going through the scientific process and creating fair tests and experimentation. For this lesson about forces-in-action, students diagram their findings and explore...
Curated OER
What is a Karst
Students investigate landforms by holding a class experiment. In this topography lesson, students define the word "karst" and discover why sinkholes are created on the surface of the Earth by completing worksheets. Students create a...