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Ocean Habitats:
Students investigate the creatures of intertidal zones. They explore the adaptations species make to survive .
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The Effects of Temperature on Chemical Mixtures
Students explore chemical cahnges and the effect of temperature on chemical mixturees, They make observations of the behavior and appearance of certain chemical mixtures and reactions.
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Tarantula Shoes
Students read a book about Ryan O'Keefe, a young man who wants a pair of basketball shoes promoted by a basketball star. They explore about spending, saving, opportunity cost, and trade-offs as they study Ryan's decisions throughout the...
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The Scientific Search for the Loch Ness Monster
Students gain an understanding of the real world applications of the scientific method. They design their own experiments to prove or disprove the existence of other modern legends, and they design and carry out an experiment to test a...
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Sensational Soil
Fourth and fifth graders explore soil by taking a simulated field trip under the earth. They go to an Internet site that runs a simulation which charges them with finding a source of pollution that could destroy all of Earth's soil, and...
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Lady Liberty
If you're looking for a fantastic cross-curricular lesson on the Statue of Liberty, then this lesson is for you! Learners watch a Reading Rainbow episode which focuses on the Statue, then gather facts about the creation, construction,...
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Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
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The Effects of Temperature on Solids
Students explore the effects that extreme temperatures have on the material properties of solids. They investigate the properties of a material whose state depends on extreme temperatures and witness how it interacts with room...
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A Device That Condenses Water
Fifth graders who are studying water vapor and the condensation process use this worksheet to help them understand the process of condensation. Most of the worksheet is simply a source of information, with a good descriptive paragraph...
Cornell University
Beam Focusing Using Lenses
Explore optics using an inquiry-based experimental approach! Young scholars use a set of materials to design and build a unit capable of focusing a beam of light. They experiment with different lenses to determine the best approach to...
Channel Islands Film
Human Impact on the Food Web of Santa Cruz Island
What happens when a non-native species is introduced onto an island? Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Island chain located off the coast of southern California, provides the perfect laboratory for young environmental scientists to...
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Every Tree For Itself
Fourth graders play a game where they are trees gathering sun, water, and nutrients and CO2 represented by pieces of paper or poker chips. They record their collected requirements and graph how they grew as a forest.
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May the Force Be With You: A Unit on Magnets
Students uncover data about magnets and practice classifying them by amounts of attraction and magnetism as an invisible force is introduced. The unit presents the topic within eight lessons.
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Water Cycle Reading and Writing
After listening to a story about the water cycle, learners create their own versions of this tale. This is a great way to have your class review the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff.
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Ford's Revolution
Industrialization and mechanization of products such as cars have deeply affected the US economy. The class discusses the affects of Ford's assembly line production of automobiles. They watch a video, fill out worksheets, and investigate...
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Properties of Color
Second graders explore the properties of primary color and investigate what happens when primary colors are mixed. They listen to the story The Crayon Box That Talked and list the colors. They experiment mixing primary colors and...
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Strong as the Weakest Link
Students discover the types of stress that materials undergo. They examine how bridges and skyscrapers are built to withhold the tension. They create their own structure out of marshmallows and spaghetti.
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Volcano!-Thar She Blows!
Students describe how volcanoes are formed. They name the types of boundaries where volcanoes occur. They utilize models to illustrate the occurence of volcanoes and earthquakes along plate boundaries. They compare and constrast the...
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Locating Vent Fields Using CTD Data
Students describe the way hydrothermal vents work. Students work on locating vent regions through remote collection of data about water temperature and density. Comparing density and temperatures graphs, students search for indicators...
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Ptolemy, Copernicus, & the Church
Students determine the difference between a geocentric universe and a heliocentric universe.
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Guess Your Best
Students discuss situations when it is useful to know exact weight of object as opposed to estimated weight, estimate weight of various items, weigh them on scale using ounces and pounds, and compare their weights on Guess Your Best...
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Speed me up, Scotty!
Students describe and define chemical reactions. They design a laboratory experiment, collect data and analyze data.
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Chromatography
Students study about chromatography, a process used to separate mixtures.
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Sound And Motion
Students investigate the concept of sound and vibration. They use a tuning fork to make an observation. Students then propose the ideas of different experimental designs to test the concept. The ideas are constructed and then tested.