Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Connect the Spheres: Earth Systems Interactions

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Is everything really connected? Take your class on a walk outside, where they will make observations and write them down on a worksheet. Once they are back in the classroom, learners will work to determine if and how things like birds,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Learners participate in multiple hands-on activities to explore reproduction and pollination. In groups, using a cotton swab and powder, students simulate being pollinators and plants. They name the parts of the flowers and the function...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students bring rocks and minerals from home to investigate in the classroom. In this rocks and minerals lesson plan, students observe all the rocks and minerals brought into the class and answer 7 questions about the features of the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lift and Drag: Principles of Flight and the Soaring Imagination

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Learners construct models of early gas balloons and gliders. In this balloon and glider lesson, students create models of early gas balloons and gliders, discover how the forces of lift and drag effect aircraft in flight, and put on...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Many, Varied, and Unusual Places and Things on Earth

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students discover how energy flows through communities because of the relationship between producers, consumers and decomposers. Examining various ecosystems, they identify the materials that cycle continuously through them. They label...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Minerals, Crystals, and Gems

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
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...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pollution is Not a Solution

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students explore the environment by completing science worksheets in class. In this water conservation lesson, students identify ways water is used in our society and how we abuse the privilege. Students discuss methods to reduce water...
Lesson Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Watching Crystals Grow

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Amazing science can sometimes happen right before your eyes! The class gets cozy as they watch crystals grow. They use Epsom salts, rocks, and food coloring to create crystals. They'll observe the entire process, documenting every step...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark: The Language of Discovery

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars replicate some of the trailblazing methods of Lewis and Clark on a fifteen-minute "writing journey" through the school or neighborhood.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Animaters and Lego Mania!

For Teachers 2nd - 7th
Learners use various technology elements to storyboard and create an animal animation story based on a nonfiction story they've read. In this animation story lesson, students work in groups and read nonfiction animal stories. Learners...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Musical Plates

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders engage in a study of the plates and how they are part of the formation of the ever changing landscape of planet earth. They access web sites that have applications for observation and conducting different activities. The...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Playing Historical Detective: Great Grandmother's Dress and Other Clues to the Life and Times of Annie Steel

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students draw conclusions about an mystery person based on documents and artifacts provided. In this drawing conclusions instructional activity, students become detectives by reading and analyzing evidence provided. This instructional...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Under the Spell of Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students examine spiders. In these spider lessons, students will view spider images and live spiders to determine physical characteristics, habits, and habitats. Students will examine fantasy and folklore about spiders to create and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Westward Movement

For Teachers Pre-K - 8th
Students study the westward movement through examining stamps. In this westward movement lesson plan, students draw conclusions, determine cause and effect relationships and examine the westward movement of the United States by...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical Rainforest,...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Facts, Feats and Folklore: Spiders

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students review and discuss a variety of sayings, folklore and superstitions about spiders. They discuss this information and choose either an interesting fact or appealing foklore tradition to illustrate.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Day and Night

For Teachers K - Higher Ed
Students discuss why day and night occur after visualizing a teacher-led demonstration.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Extraterrestrials

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students discuss the possibility of intelligent life in space. In this space science lesson, students decipher a radio message electronically transmitted in space. They create their own extraterrestrial welcome greeting.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

NOT WASTING

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students brainstorm and analyze creative ways to not waste materials and recycle more as an individual. The theory and importance of conservation is also stressed within this lesson plan. In addition, silent sitting is exercised, story...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dinosaurs Here Yesterday Gone Today

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students take a pre-test to show their prior knowledge of dinosaurs. Using the internet, they reasearch the time period in which they roamed the Earth. Focusing on the area of Connecticut, they compare and contrast the large and small...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life In Space

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students figure out how to design their own space station. They take a tour on the International Space Station to see what living there is really like, and how lessons learned on the ISS help pave the way for future space tourists.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar System

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students create and present PowerPoint presentations on certain aspects of our Solar System. The Nettrekker search engine is used for researching the information. Students can then add music and graphics to enhance their presentations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mobile Phones

For Teachers 5th - 11th
Investigate how mobile phones impact their lives through this technology lesson that has students discuss the history of the cell phone and research how cell phones are being used in third world countries. Students create a blog for new...