Lesson Plan
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How to Recycle a Rock

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders explore the rock cycle and explore how rocks are made, changed, destroyed and recreated. They create representations of these processes with hands-on activities.
Lesson Plan
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Getting to Work and Making Money

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain how geography and climate play a role in the professions that are unique to their city. They explain how geography and climate influence the forms of transportation in their city.
Lesson Plan
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Barrier Islands

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders explore how barrier islands work. For this erosion lesson, 3rd graders create barrier islands in stream tables and simulate wave action to see how it affects their island.
Lesson Plan
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Greenhouse Effect: Pop Bottle Experiment

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students explore global warming by conducting a weather experiment. In this greenhouse gas lesson, students define the greenhouse effect and the impact on our ozone layer. Students utilize a soda pop bottle, floodlight bulb, thermometers...
Lesson Plan
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Weathering Rocks

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate what natural events cause rocks to break apart and differentiate between erosion and weathering. They conduct an experiment with plaster of paris to observe why some rocks are hard and others break, and...
Lesson Plan
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Applied Science - Science and Math Lab

For Teachers 4th - 11th
Students investigate topology. In this Applied Science lesson plan students explore higher, more abstract mathematics using tangles. Students make topologically related shapes.
Lesson Plan
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Model Volcanoes

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students represent volcanoes with models and sketches. They research volcanoes and plan how to build a model. They, in groups, build a model volcano and cause it to erupt making observations before and after the eruption.
Lesson Plan
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A Comparison of Land and Water Temperature

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students examine NASA satellite observations of surface temperature and investigate the seasonal changes of land and water temperature.
Worksheet
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Biochemical Cycles

For Students 7th - 12th
When learning about several different processes at a time, it can be difficult to differentiate between them. In the resource found here, you can see what your kids know about some of Earth's systems including the carbon, hydrologic,...
Lesson Plan
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Weather Lesson 1

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students describe and compare the layers of the atmosphere. They explain how to measure the temperature of the atmosphere. They also explain what causes the atmosphere to heat up in some places more than in others.
Lesson Plan
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Soil Runoff Challenge

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Students find ways to decrease soil runoff for an African Village as a part of a Peace Corps project. In this soil runoff lesson, students play a soil runoff challenge online. Students complete online activities and view a slide show to...
Worksheet
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Natural Similarities and Opposites in Two Poems by Joseph Ceravolo

For Students 5th - 6th
In this antonyms and synonyms instructional activity, students look in two short poems by Joseph Ceravolo to find opposite or contradictory statements that express many sides of a feeling. Students answer 25 short answer questions about...
Lesson Plan
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Mapping Ancient Coastlines

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Most of this instructional activity is spent working on the "Bathymetry Worksheet." It includes a graph of the changes in sea level over the past 150,000 years and a bathymetric map of changes in an imaginary coastline over time....
Lesson Plan
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The Rock Cycle: The Story of a Rock

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students describe the changes undergone by rocks during the rock cycle and develop an understanding of the interconnectedness of the rock cycle.
Lesson Plan
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The Hudson's Ups and Downs

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Even rivers have tides. Older elementary schoolers will discuss the Hudson River and how weather, water craft, and the ocean cause tidal fluctuation. They will examine a series of line graphs that depict tidal fluctuation, then analyze...
Lesson Plan
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Water Monitoring Vocabulary

For Teachers 7th - 12th
As the title implies, this is a list of vocabulary terms relating to water monitoring. If your ecology class is learning about how to test water quality, this will be an appropriate reference sheet for them. As a bonus, if you live in...
Lesson Plan
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Structure of the Earth

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explain the difference between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. They identify the stages in the rock cycle. They discover the origin of rocks as well.
Lesson Plan
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Plate Tectonics: Surface and Subsurface Processes

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders explore the geological process of plate tectonics. In this plate tectonic lesson, 8th graders design, construct and present a working model of a plate tectonics concept. This lesson includes a rubric, worksheets, and 2...
Lesson Plan
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Great Blobs of Jelly!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain how zoo-plankton have an impact on the global process.  In this ocean zoo-plankton lesson students calculate carbon flux and plankton densities. 
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A Moving Experience

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Learners visit Time Machine's San Francisco Earthquake Era. They understand how the Earth's layers interact to cause changes in the Earth's surface. They review information about earthquakes and Earth's layers.
Lesson Plan
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Make it Rain!

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students describe how water exists on earth in three states. They trace the path that rain water follows after it falls. Students describe various forms that water takes on the earth's surface and conditions under which they exist....
Worksheet
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Science Word Search

For Students 9th - Higher Ed
In this science worksheet, students locate and identify various vocabulary terms related to earth science. There are 44 words/phrases located in the puzzle.
Lesson Plan
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Weather Whys- Cloud Watching Journal

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Pupils examine how natural processes change the earth by identifying their local water cycle. Individual students complete a cloud journal over a specific period of time. They observe clouds daily and take photographs of the clouds...
Lesson Plan
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Rock Sorting Activity

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students organize rock samples according to their properties. In this earth science lesson, students predict whether they are igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary. They compare their prediction with the actual type.