+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth Science Lesson Plans on Geologic Time

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Springboard your fourth and fifth graders into the study geologic time. They will complete 7 activities to learn about geologic time and the topics most often associated with it: astronomy, creation, planet formation, volcanology,...
+
Lesson Plan
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science

The Dating Game

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learn about the human's ancestors through the (carbon) Dating Game. Use the script to have your high schoolers act out one round of the game. Once they have the idea, they will research another human ancestor and play a second round the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Geologic Age

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Learners investigate radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time and how geologists use this information to determine the absolute age of rocks or minerals.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dinosaur Eggs Discovered! Unscrambling the Clues

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Just a heads up: this lesson is based on a book, Dinosaur Eggs Discovered! Unscrambling the Clues. If you do not have or do not want to purchase the book, you may still find the other activities and worksheets useful in your earth...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Dawn of Humanity

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students investigate recent archaeological challenges to theories of human origins. They research the history and geography of various African regions to create proposals for future excavations.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Becoming Whales: Experiencing Discoveries of

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students experience, through a "dig," the historical discovery of fossils which increasingly link whales to earlier land-dwelling mammals. They encounter the intermediate forms which show changes that lead to the modern whale.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Investigating Evolutionary Questions: Bats, Whales, Reptiles, Birds, Animal Classification

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed
Students are guided through a process in which three questions are addressed by retrieving beta hemoglobin sequences from online databases, and using online tools to compare those sequences in student-selected animals.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interpreting Paleoenvironments With Microfossils

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed
Students gain a better understanding of how scientists can use foraminifera to interpret past environments. Specifically, students have the opportunity to explain one of the basic tenets of geology - the present is the key to the past.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Draw T. rex

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students explore how scientists determine what prehistoric animals looked like based on their bones. They draw a picture of the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex by copying an image from an overhead or book.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weighing a Dinosaur

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students role play as paleontologists who make inferences about the weight of dinosaurs. They use models and the density of water to make these inferences.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dinosaur Tracks: From Stride To Leg Length To Speed

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students determine the relationship between leg length, stride length, and speed in humans and bipedal dinosaurs. They collect data and graph these human characteristics then use actual data collected from dinosaur track pads and fossils...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Comparing Fossils

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students explore early hominid evolution as they analyze bones that share characteristics of both apes and humans. Students compare and contrast key skeletal differences between chimpanzees and humans. In groups, they sort and group a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rocks, Minerals, and Erosion

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students identify and describe rocks that contain records of the earth's history and explain how they were formed. They formulate questions about and identify needs and problems related to objects and events in the environment, and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil Formation Fun

For Teachers 4th
Students compare the three types of fossils: preserved organisms, mineral replacement fossils, and impression fossils. They create a model of amber, sponge fossil, and make traces of fossil.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Basin Filled With Time

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use fossil leaves and a mathematical formula to study climate change. In this climate change and fossil lesson plan, students determine the differences in temperatures during two different times during the Cenozoic era using...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Identifying Fossils

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Learners create model fossils.  In this fossils lesson, students view pictures of fossils and compare and contrast these fossils.  Learners read about fossils and create a database chart with the facts they learn.  Students construct...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mud Fossils

For Teachers K - 4th
Students observe real fossils. In this science lesson, students make their own mud fossils by pressing material into the mud and letting it dry in the sun for 3-4 days. Students then get the fossils out displaying their mud fossils.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fossil History

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Learners examine the similarities and differences between living organisms and fossils.  In this fossil activity students reenact the process of creating a fossil.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Extinction

For Teachers K - 2nd
Students peruse illustrations of living things and extinct life forms, which they compare and categorize as living or extinct.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Interview with Meriwether Lewis

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers ask questions and prepare responses to Meriwether Lewis and his expedition. In this journal instructional activity students present their questions to the class.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fabulous Fossils

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders investigate how fossils are formed and discuss how scientists determine the appearance of ancient plants and animals. They make fossils of everyday objects for others to identify. They make spreadsheets to display fossil...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dinosaur Prints

For Teachers K - 1st
Learners examine dinosaur footprints and compare them to the shape of elephant footprints and to the size of their own footprints.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Why Cladistics?

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners explore how biological classification is intimately associated with evolution.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Jurassic Park Debate

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students research behavior, phsyiology, and ecology of dinoaurs. Students role-play as scientific specialists such as geneticists and ecologists. They present their research findings in a research paper.

Other popular searches