After reading about the history and science of personal floatation devices, patents, and intellectual property, engineering teams design a life vest for a can of soup. To evaluate which groups considered the need for waterproofing, hold...

Determining whether or not something is living can be more difficult than it seems. Put your young scientists to work defining their own criteria to identify life, then work with three samples to see if they are alive or...

What do you have in common with a fruit fly? About 60 percent of your DNA. The resource, divided into two units, is intended for grades four to eight and another for high schoolers. Both units include eight lessons covering the...

What's life like aboard an ocean exploration vessel? Junior oceanographers examine the important role of communication in ocean research in lesson two of a five-part series from NOAA. The materials introduce the class to life on...

Pupils practice using vocabulary words from life science. They will investigate the ecosystem and the terms that are associated with it. In addition, they will complete a fill-in-the-blank exam using the vocabulary words.

Springboard your fourth and fifth graders into the study geologic time. They will complete 7 activities to learn about geologic time and the topics most often associated with it: astronomy, creation, planet formation, volcanology,...

Energy comes in many forms, but how do living things get the energy they need to survive and thrive? In a simple, controlled experiment with yeast, water, and sugar, groups make observations about how yeast reacts with water alone, then...

Explore the amazing power of glaciers with a hands-on earth science experiment! After first learning basic background information, learners go on to create their very own chunks of frozen water and gravel in order to...

Dive into a lesson on marine ecosystem interactions. Individuals learn about and devise a marine food web. The resource provides organism cards and pupils use article resources to discover interactions before modeling them in a food web.

Fifth graders participate in activities during a visit to Central Park. In this urban life lesson, 5th graders visit Central Park where they explore pond dipping, stream chemistry, and play a native plant Bingo game.

Students discover that science is part of everyday life. In this science lesson, students create a science collage, draw a scientist, and write about science in the news.

Students read and discuss vocabulary words about animal life cycles. In this animal life cycles lesson plan, students use the bulletin board for repeated use in referring to their vocabulary words.

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...

Now is the time to educate tomorrow's citizens to care for the planet, and here is a instructional activity to help facilitate the process. Collect some marine debris and bring it into class. Have your class separate it into types and...

Garbage, recycle, compost: Does it really matter where we put our trash once we are done? By making detailed observations over seven weeks, kids will see which materials break down naturally to become a healthy part of the soil, and...

At first glance, grassland ecosystems might seem dull and uninteresting, but once you start to explore it's amazing the things you'll find! Through this series of engaging lessons, activities, and experiments, elementary students examine...

Students explore oceanography by conducting an environmental experiment in class. In this oil spill lesson, students discuss the human need for oil and what is at stake when we drill for oil in our oceans. Students read a book in class...

Although the instructional activity is specifically about the San Francisco Bay area, it's good enough to be adapted to any local region. Children research what the landscape in San Francisco was like prior to settlement, they consider...

Through a fishing simulation, environmentalists discover consequences of over fishing. Afterward, they discuss how the activity relates to the impact of real-life commercial fishing. They also consider sustainability in the fishing...

Greenhouse gases affect marine wildlife in life-threatening ways. Through experimentation, your classes explore the acidification of water from the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. As they introduce carbon dioxide to water, a pH...

Students discover how coffee is processed from a plant, to a drink. For this life cycle lesson, students study that cells and organisms go through a cycle of growth and change. Students organize picture cards, illustrate how coffee...

Young scientists are introduced to the connections among cells, tissues, organs, and systems in a life science reading comprehension worksheet that asks them to respond to a series of questions based on the passage.

Young scholars learn that heredity comes down to the flip of a coin with this cross-curricular math and science lesson. Using smiley faces as a model, students toss coins to determine which dominant or recessive traits...

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...