Teach Engineering
Protecting Our City with Levees
Teams use the design process to design, build, and test a model levee to protect the town from a wall of water. A handout provides a price list for the materials learners can use to build their levee within a budget.
NASA
States of Matter
Water, one of the basic needs of humans, is found in all three states of matter on Earth; no other planet—that we know of—possesses this quality. Here is a unit that allows learners to explore through experimentation what it...
Curated OER
Analyzing Tree Rings to Determine Climate Change
Students examine how to locate and access data sets. For this climate change lesson students import data into Excel and graph it.
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Landforms of Illinois
Fifth and sixth graders are introduced to the primary landforms of Illinois and discover how they were created. Landform cards are made for each pupil. They use the twenty-questions format until they have identified each one. Then,...
American Museum of Natural History
What Do You Know About PaleontOLogy?
Believe it or not, some dinosaurs are not extinct. Discover this and other interesting facts about dinosaurs in a 10-question online quiz. As individuals answer questions, the resource provides them with feedback and additional facts...
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Moon Phase Flip Books
What better way to study the moon phases than to see them in action? The directions on the handout only have kids cut out and tape on the moon phases to make the flipbook, but it would be even more powerful to include the name of each...
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Life Beyond Earth
Students investigate the solar system and what makes a planet habitable. They complete an online Webquest, simulate a NASA training program online, take an online quiz, answer discussion questions, and locate newspaper articles about the...
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Delta, Delta, Where is the Delta?
Pupils explore several images of Earth from space. They identify parts of deltas. They observe, label, and measure delta images, taken from space. They consider how deltas form and why they differ in shape.
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Space, the Final Frontier...
Students study a common theory on how the solar system was formed and examine the relative scale of the size and distances among the bodies of the Solar System.
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Organisms and Their Environment
Young scholars explore Earth's biosphere. For this biosphere lesson, students participate in group activities regarding biotic and abiotic factors, population density, and species' habitats.
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How Clean is the Water?
Students read about and discuss water and how it is used as a resource and how engineers use technology to preserve it. In this water lesson plan, students look at a picture of water treatment and tell what is wrong with the picture.
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The Expanding Universe
In this expanding universe worksheet, students create a universe with balloons, clothes pins, markers, and more and see what this means for the distance between the Earth and stars. Students follow 6 directions and answer 3 questions.
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LCROSS Moon Mission
Students read to discover the sequence of events of the LCROSS moon mission. In this space science instructional activity, students read an article about the LCROSS moon mission and the events that took place. After reading,...
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Problems With Space Exploration-Reading Comprehension
In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read a passage about problems with space exploration, then complete a set of comprehension activities, including writing 2 paragraphs about a given topic.
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My Place In Space
The purpose of this unit is for students to make the rich set of connections between astronomy and the rest of science and technology, language arts, cultural studies (social studies), math, art, and music.
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Energy and the Environment: What Can We Do?
Students consider the impacts of global warming and brainstorm ways to help decrease their contribution to the problem. In this climate change lesson, students are exposed to facts concerning global warming and think of ways to...
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Minerals, Crystals, and Gems
Students discover the relationships between minerals, crystals and gems. They bring in rocks that they find at home, in the schoolyard, etc. and examine them and attempt to identify them. They set up a classroom exhibit that includes all...
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Surfing for Earthquakes and Volcanoes
Students search the Internet for data pertaining to the world's volcanic and seismic activity.
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Solar and Lunar Eclipses
Students examine eclipses. In this eclipse lesson, students investigate solar and lunar eclipses. Students complete a WebQuest and write a descriptive summary of eclipses. Lesson references a WebQuest, but does not include a link.
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Soil Water Worksheet #1
Drawings of four groups of soil particles of varying sizes are displayed across the page for soil scientists to examine. As they complete the worksheet, place a set of similar soils at each table for hands-on experience. In this way,...
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The Great Hubble
Middle schoolers explain how Hubble telescope captures images from space. In this space science lesson, students use the internet to view space photos. They debate on an issue raised by the teacher.
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TE Activity: Northward Ho!
Students design a simple compass. They examine how the Earth's magnetic field has both horizontal and vertical components. They determine how a compass works and work with cardinal directions.
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Chesapeake Scramble
In this environmental science worksheet, students identify the different animals that live and visit Chesapeake Bay by completing 6 word scrambles.
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Destination Red Planet
Students explore reasons why people are interested in exploring other planets. After reading an article, they identify developments in the mission to Mars. Using the internet, they research the history of exploring Mars and create a...