Brooklyn Children’s Museum
Rocks and Minerals in Our Lives
Young geologists discover the important role that rocks and minerals play in our everyday lives through this series of hands-on activities. Starting off with a lesson that defines the difference between plants, animals, and minerals,...
Cal Recycle
Conserving Natural Resources
Trying to plan an engaging elementary science unit on natural resources? Conserve your energy! This five-part series of lessons and hands-on activities has exactly what you need to teach young scholars about the importance of conservation.
Curated OER
What on Earth is in the Earth?
Students explore the physical properties of sand, soil, and rocks and sort, classify, compare, and contrast the materials found in the soil. The differences between the living and non-living parts of the soil is discussed.
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Let's Take a Rock Apart!
Learners examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.
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Rock Stories
Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...
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This Mine of Mine
Young scholars explore natural resources by conducting a geology experiment in class. In this mineral mining lesson, students discuss the types of geological material that can be found when mining and the uses for these resources such as...
Curated OER
Making Rocks
Students use their imaginations in order to journey to the center of the earth to find different types of minerals. They create minerals using playdough and create scientific drawings of them. Finally, students create a map to locate the...
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Miners
Students complete various activities related to mining and mining safety. They write an energy sentence, complete a word puzzle, cut and glue safety equipment on a mining character, solve a math code word puzzle, and complete a maze...
SF Environment
Waste-Less Lunch
Is it possible to have a waste-less lunch? Can your class become leaders in conservation? Discuss the importance of reducing waste during lunch time with a fun lesson that can be extended to everyday practices. First the class examines...
Curated OER
The Oil Field Industry
A brief look at natural resources are described, prior to explaining the importance of oil in this 12-slide PowerPoint. Clear and colorful graphics are on each slide to keep viewers interested and more informed. Tip: Ask students how...
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Shake, Rattle and Roll
Students compare the weathering of different-sized materials. Comparisons are made and data analyzed to reach conclusions about the process of weathering. Applications can be made for the higher grades.
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Worm Watching
Students examine the role earthworms play in building soils. They discuss worms and what they do with soil, make predictions and draw pictures, and observe their worms in soil over a two week period.
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Classification
Students gather and classify samples of a given item (rocks, fossils, seeds, etc.) They discuss various ways of classifying and that there are many different ways that are acceptable.
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Exploring Rocks
Students recognize differences in the size, shape, texture, and color of different rocks. In this rocks lesson plan, students also learn and repeat back how a volcano erupts and make one out of a toilet paper tube.
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Rocks Up!
Students will design and build a structure to support a rock. Students will use their knowledge of movement of objects to determine the proper base to be built to support their rock. Students will explore their natural area for...
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Metamorphic Rock: Melting Rocks
Students observe and gain a better understanding of the metamorphosing power of heat. They mix mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips in a bowl and add just enough peanut butter so the mixture clumps together.