Why settle for autumn leaves as classroom decorations when you could use autumn poetry? After taking a nature walk and collecting fall artifacts, including seed pods and fallen leaves, learners demonstrate the movement of the season with...

Test the efficiency of your memory! Scholars test each other's memory as they explore factors that affect memory retrieval. Through experimental analysis, they discover there are different types of memory, which has an impact on the...

What natural resources are available in your area? Your learners can consider this question after reading a brief passage about natural and renewable resources. After reading, class members respond to five questions related to the reading.

Discover how much your young scientists know about biotic and abiotic factors with a two-question formative assessment that requires them to observe, list, and describe. 

Thirteen short-answer questions follow a brief food web activity in a formative assessment designed to test knowledge of ecosystems and the energy that flows through them.

Students research the evolution of a volcanic island from origin to erosion. They determine the relative ages of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands given their position in the archipelago.

After a lesson on the human skeleton, hand out a worksheet that requires learners to identify the pelvis, rib cage, skill, spine, and thigh bones. They draw a line from the name of the bone to its location on the skeleton. Tip: Instead...

Focusing on the wildlife in their area, learners identify endangered and threatened species and what these animals need to survive. While this lesson involves animals in the Long Island area, it could be adapted for use with any area.

Using data related to the fish in the Hudson River area, learners calculate distance, elapsed time, and growth. They learn about migratory fish, the life cycle of a fish, analyze a map, and answer questions.

Emerging scientists research weather-related vocabulary terms, and map out where wildfires are most likely to occur. To bring this lesson to life, you could demonstrate what happens to a fire when you cool or remove the fuel, or cut off...

Pretend you are exploring a newly discovered species of fish in the Galapagos. Your budding marine biologists access FishBase Database's list of marine/brackish fishes and choose one to research. The link through this website does not...

There are three separate lessons within this resource that can be used together, or that can each stand alone. In the first, five simple activities allow junior scientists to examine the amazing properties of water. In the second, they...

Students investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability.  In this model construction instructional activity, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first.  Students compare and...

Fifth graders visit the playground to look for signs of life. They search for insects, birds, animal tracks, feathers, nests, trees, soil, etc. They then compose a class list that shows all findings in the schoolyard and post it in the...

The first thing to note is that this lesson was written for use in a parochial school. Even if you are in a non-religious setting, however, the website exploration of galaxies and the accompanying worksheet make for an engaging...

Here is a lesson outline that prompts elementary students to graph and analyze data regarding fish caught along the Hudson River. They will review vocabulary and complete 2 worksheets which can be accessed by clicking on the provided links.

Upper elementary and middle schoolers use their observation skills to group different kinds of candy by similar characteristics. They debate whether or not we should classify objects. Finally, they learn that biologists have developed a...

Students define conservation, identify actions that conserve habitat and those that reduce habitat, and generate ideas about how one can practice conservation in everyday life.

If you are looking for a lesson about invasive species to ocean habitats, you have arrived! Introduce the concept to learners and have them read an article about marine invasive species. Vocabulary, relevant web links, and a cute...

Fifth graders brainstorm a list of animals that live on the prairie, and classify them as predators and prey. They conduct interviews where they ask the animals what they need to look out for to sustain life on the prairie.

The introduction to the instructional activity mentions a sailor's limited capacity to store drinking water on his ship. Pupils then set up an overnight experiment to remove freshwater from salt water by distillation. There is a math and...

Fifth graders explore the life cycle of butterflies. In this butterfly lesson, 5th graders use their research skills to create a PowerPoint presentation featuring the butterflies of North America.

Open this lesson by reading together about primary and secondary batteries (such as nickel-cadmium cells), problems they can cause in the environment, and how humans can minimize the damage. Afterward, little ones examine a collection of...

Write dear old Peter Rabbit a letter with this lesson. First, youngsters listen to the story Peter Rabbit and analyze the story elements. Then they complete a story map graphic organizer in order to write a letter to Peter...