Illustrative Mathematics
What is a Trapezoid? (Part 1)
Challenge your class to construct a definition for trapezoids. Looking at four examples and four non-examples, students individually create definitions and use them to classify an unknown shape. Allow for small group and whole-class...
Biology Junction
Plant Structure and Function: Roots, Stems, and Leaves
Scientists found fossils of plants more than 420 million years old—but plants existed for up to 100 million years prior to these fossils. Learn about the importance of plants to the entire planet. Viewing a presentation helps scholars...
Curated OER
Paper Clay Leaves
Using real leaves to imprint clay, your class will see a natural effect on their individual projects. This is a fabulous way to study leaf anatomy in science. Or, you can focus on mixing colors to recreate the original. These leaves can...
Curated OER
Botanical Discoveries
Sixth graders examine the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In this plant discovery instructional activity, 6th graders put in chronological order the plant discoveries of Lewis and Clark. Students understand the characteristics of leaves and...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: The Cycle of Addiction
Drug addiction, including prescription drug addiction, begins with a reason that's different for every user. High schoolers learn more about the reasons people begin abusing drugs with a set of videos and worksheets that discuss four...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Weather or Not, Seasons Change
Embark on a year long investigation of the seasons with this 10-lesson earth science unit. After being introduced to different types of weather and the tools used to measure it, young scientists perform fun hands-on activities that...
New South Wales Department of Education
Is it Alive?
Interestingly enough, movement is not a characteristic of living things. The first activity in a series of 20 introduces learners to the concepts of living versus non-living things and then focuses on biologists and what they study....
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Viral Lysis and Budding
How do some viruses spread so quickly, and why do they make us feel terrible? Answer these (and many more) questions through a simple yet impactful lessons. Pupils observe demonstrations that show the two methods viruses use to escape...
Curated OER
Name That Leaf
Take a walk through nature with a science experiment about leaves. Third graders use a branching diagram to group attributes of certain kinds of leaves, such as oak, pine, and chestnut. For extra practice, they can collect leaves and...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Seasons of a Plant
The third in a series of six lessons is an engaging three-part activity defines that discusses phenology, focusing on the cyclic seasons of plants. Pupils then observe phenology outside before determining how climate change can...
Curated OER
Tree Identification to Observe Diversity of a Given Nature Area
In this tree identification lesson, 2nd graders read A Tree is Growing, discuss what makes up a forest, brainstorm characteristics of leaves, gather samples of leaves and examine their samples. Students will sort leaves and compare them...
Curated OER
Looking at Leaves Lesson 1
Fourth graders visit an outdoor area and compare/contrast two different leaves using Venn diagrams. They create tree leaf rubbings from their leaves and examine their vein structures or needle patterns.
Columbus City Schools
Get Your Organisms Organized
From large to small, show your class how to organize them all! Included within the guide is everything you need to take their knowledge of classification from the cellular to the species level. The worksheets focus on...
Annenberg Foundation
Masculine Heroes
What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...
Curated OER
Tree Identification by the Use of Leaves
Students explore trees and their leaves. In this tree identification lesson, students observe items and are able to identify them by the five clues they are given. Once the leaves are identified, students in each group sketch the leaves,...
Curated OER
Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly
Students identify the stage of the butterfly's life cycle. In this life cycles lesson, students create a KWL chart about monarch butterflies. Students observe monarch caterpillars in an aquarium and identify the various stages of growth.
Curated OER
Characteristics of Plants
In this characteristics of plants worksheet, students conduct an experiment on how a vascular plant moves nutrients to all its parts. They describe the difference between the celery leaf from sugar water and plain water. Students also...
Curated OER
Civilization
A good start to a larger discussion, this presentation address the qualities and characteristics of a civilization. It briefly discusses the earliest civilizations, leaving your lecture as the next logical step in a world history or...
Project Maths
Trigonometric Functions
From a circle to a cycle! The final lesson plan of a five-part series challenges learners to use points from the unit circle to plot a repeating pattern. The repeating patterns become the graphs of the trigonometric functions....
Curated OER
The Grapes of Wrath: QAR--Question/Answer Relationship
Chapter nine of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath provides the text for an exercise that asks readers to think deeply about the items the Joads left behind and what these items might represent.
Perkins School for the Blind
The Three Basic States (Phases) of Matter
There are three basic states of matter: Solid, liquid, and gas. Help your learners with visual impairments to understand the chemical nature of each state of matter with tactile elements. Marbles are used to model the particles in each...
Illustrative Mathematics
Right Triangles Inscribed in Circles II
So many times the characteristics of triangles are presented as a vocabulary-type of lesson, but in this activity they are key to unraveling a proof. A unique attack on proving that an inscribed angle that subtends a diameter must be a...
LABScI
Catapult: Flight of the Marshmallows
Watch your marshmallows fly. The engaging STEM activity has groups create a catapult to launch marshmallows. After testing their prototypes, they consider improvements and redesign their catapults.
Curated OER
Looking At Leaves
Young scholars investigate the different leaves of Wisconsin. They gather samples of leaves in order to compare to the samples taken from Puerto Rico. They make observations and collect data recording the size, shape, and texture of the...