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Can You See What I See?
Young scholars gain an understanding of the methods used to explore the earth's surface. Students create a time line leading to the first satellite image of the Earth that includes the various methods utilized to observe the earth's...
US Department of Energy
Geothermal Energy
With Earth Day quickly approaching, as well as many science fairs, why not challenge your class to investigate geothermal energy or other renewable energy resources? There are five driving questions explored in depth here, as well as...
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Settlement Exploration: Then and Now
NASA has crafted an imaginative and memorable series of lessons, "NASA and Jamestown Education Module." This lesson is one of the five components. In it, middle schoolers connect history and science by comparing the settlement of...
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How Does Flowing Water Shape a Planet's Surface?
Students investigate how flowing water influence landforms. In this earth science lesson, students observe water behavior as it flows from the stream table at various inclinations. They discuss whether water shaped Mars landforms or not.
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Your Own Backyard
Students study Earth's features and their local environments. In this Earth's features lesson, students take a field trip to observe a natural environment and students sketch their observations of the nature. Students watch videos about...
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Interplanetary Travel Guide
In groups of six, middle school space scientists create an imaginative travel brochure for attracting visitors to the planet Mars. Information must include surface features and atmospheric conditions. Although time-consuming, this is a...
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Edible Rocks
Students create meteorite models using candy bars. In this earth science lesson, students describe the physical features of a meteorite. They sketch it and write a short description about it.
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Deep Blue Sea
Elementary schoolers identify the ocean floor in a geological sense. They create a presentation that highlights the key features of the ocean floor. This terrific lesson plan has excellent streaming video segments embedded in it, and the...
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Exploring Mars
Young scholars, working in small groups construct scale models of the planets and solar system. They examine images of Mars and discuss what might have caused the features. They record facts about their planetary research in their...
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Modeling the Solar System
Students build a scaled model of the solar system. In this space science lesson, students arrange them according to their distances from the sun. They analyze each planet's unique features such as density and relative gravity.
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Mud Splat Craters
Students simulate crater formation using mud. In this earth science lesson, students identify the features of a crater. They explain how the force of impact affect the crater's appearance.
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Polygons, Pingos, and Themokarst! Oh MY!
Students complete activities to learn about the common land features in Alaska. In this land study lesson, students study an overhead for permafrost features. Students define ice wedge polygons, thermokarst, and pingos. Students also...
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Village Children in Northern Pakistan
Student use maps to answer geographic questions. They analyze Earth's surface by using a map to identify physical features that lead to different transportation routes. Student create a collage to show geographic insight into the topic...
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Chinese Landscapes
Learners explain some of the topographical features of China's landscape. They view a Chinese landscape and discuss their view of the harmony between man and nature, then create their own karst mountain scene.
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Stressed to a Fault!
Eighth graders describe how stress builds up in the Earth's crust by the movement of tectonic plates. In groups, they relate the three types of stresses to the types of plate movements and explain how the stress causes faults to form. ...
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Early Explorers
Fifth graders study early explorers. In this World history lesson, 5th graders draw an outline of a map labeling each part, build geographical features out of dough, and paint each of the land and water features.
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Astronomy and Me: Moons Over New Haven
Third graders study the features of different moons orbiting the planets. In this astronomy lesson, 3rd graders explore the different phases of the moon using an interactive online website. They compare and contrast the features of the...
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How do living and non-living structures affect coral reef habitats?
Students create model coral reefs showing surface area and including examples of communities. In this coral reef lesson, students research and explore the functions or benefits from a coral reef. Students design a benthic...
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The Wonders of Bacteria
Students explore the evolution and features of bacteria through a series of activities. In this biology lesson, students collect data and graph bacterial growth. They design a brochure about bacteria's role in society.
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The American Trail System
Students research a trail system. They create a display board of the trail system, generate a map of the trail system, and develop a commercial advertising of the trail system. They design a display board featuring facts about the...
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Building a Topographic Model
Students explore the features of a topographic map. They make paper models that portray, in three-dimensions, features represented by contour lines on a topographic map. Students demonstrate different elevations shown on a...
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Plotting the Ocean Floor
Fourth graders plot points on a graph, connect the dots to make the ocean floor profile and label the topographical features. They utilize a worksheet and a website imbedded in this plan to plot the ocean floor.
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I Am A Rock, I Am An Island: Describing Landforms and Bodies of Water
Students identify common landforms and bodies of water from descriptions of distinguishing features. In this landforms and bodies of water lesson plan, students describe the features they see in the pictures given to them.
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Australia: the Land Down Under
Pupils give a solid history and geographic explanation of the country of Australia and explain why it is important. They use some creativity in designing their own island, by using the physical features of this particular country.