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"Where Do The 'Fungi's' Hang Out?"
Tenth graders engage in a lesson looking for the ideal conditions for microbial growth. The lesson is to be given once they have background knowledge about microbes. Students set up a lab in order to grow cultures over a period of two...
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Under The Sea
Second graders study how a tsunami is formed by underwater events such as earthquakes, volcanoes or landslides. They discuss what they knew about living and non-living things in the ocean.
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Cave Formation Age Estimation
Students investigate growth rates of flowstone formations. They view a virtual field trip and discuss how flowstones form. They observe the cave fieldtrip and predict the growth rate for a cave formation. They graph growth rates and...
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Changing Faces: A Study of Solar and Planetary Rotation Rates
Students determine rotation rates of a variety of solar system objects using images and the Internet.
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GMOs: Should We Grow Them?
Students examine the ethics of biotechnology and genetically modifying various organisms. They complete various activities and labs on GMOs and then write a position paper regarding their individual opinions on the subject.
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Characteristics of Living Things
Students discuss the criteria for living things with their groups. They come to a consensus on at least five or more characteristics of a living thing. They determine if the lab samples are living, non-living, or other.
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Science Lab Safety Procedures
Eighth graders watch a Lab Safety video and discuss particular questions related to lab safety. Lab equipment is then distributed and the students inspect the equipment and record their finding in their journal. Finally, in groups, 8th...
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Sundials: Keeping Time Like Native Americans
Students explore the use of sundials. They observe the shadows cast by the sun and record the times at various points throughout the day. They create sundials and record the location of the shadows and the time of day. They view a...
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Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
Students brainstorm the campus links to global warming. Students pick topics for individual or group research. Students develop a research plan. Students keep good records and report their progress. Students report findings both...
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Natural Resources
Fifth graders begin the lesson plan by identifying the different types of natural resources. As a class, they discuss how environments are destructed and how the loss of one natural resource can affect the economy. Using a map, they...
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Biotechnology: Monster or Miracle
High schoolers explore biotechnology. In this scenario-based lesson, students take a survey on what they know about genetic engineering, view a PowerPoint, and conduct a web quest. High schoolers will then be placed in groups, and...
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Trees: Recorders of Climate Change
Students study cross sections of trees or tree "cookies" to discover how the rings on tree sections give clues to the climate during the time the ring was produced. They study simulated cross sections of trees to determine the climate...
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Pond Life Identification Kit
Young scholars explore ecology and biodiversty. They use the wet-mount procedure to make several slides to view using the microscope and draw what they see.
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Science: Trouble in the Troposphere
Students research a NASA Website and record information about an assigned city's tropospheric ozone residual monthly climate. In groups, they graph the information for the past year. They form new groups and compare their city's...
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"Arsenic and Old Waste": Groundwater Activities Using Modeling
Students develop models of groundwater and pollution flow. They research information using the Internet and develop models of groundwater flow in Stella and Excel.
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The Gene Scene
Young scholars investigate the concepts of micro and macro evolution. They also research the effects of mutations in the process of genetic adaptation to different environments. They develop a hypothesis of how the environment can...
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Jelly Bean Math
Students estimate, measure, compute, and create patterns using jelly beans. In small groups, they solve various calculations, place jelly beans into groups, invent a new flavor, create a pattern, and complete a worksheet.
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"Water, Water Everywhere and None to Drink"
Ninth graders research the importance of maintaining an unpolluted water source in their community. They work together in groups and brainstorm ideas on what they can do to help. They can also write their local politicians.
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Molar Ratio
Students conduct an experiment in which they react sodium bicarbonate with hydrochloric acid to determine the molar ration between the two reactants. Students must write correct formula and a balanced chemical equation and explain how...
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A Town in Trouble
Young scholars identify and describe the parameters and analytical techniques used to characterize water contamination in a class presentation. They identify the consequences of high contamination levels in the water supply during a...
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Testing Foods
Students perform an experiment using brown paper bags to determine which foods have oil in them. This task assesses student's abilities to make simple observations and inferences from them.
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Mystery Boxes
Students make observations about Mystery Boxes that their teacher has made up and describes the motion of the object inside the box and hypothesizes it's shape based on their observations.
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Color Dots 3
Students make simple observations, test mixtures, and make generalized inferences from their observations. They observe bleeding of colored inks with water.
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The Measurement of All Things: Atmospheric Detectives
Young scholars identify the characteristics of aerosols. Using remote sensing, they participate in an experiment in which they determine how the sun's radiation and elements in the atmosphere interact with one another. They also...