Space Awareness
Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Scientists classify everything from the smallest cells to the largest galaxies, but how do they decide on a classification system? Scholars use 40 pictures of galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to sort and try creating their...
Curated OER
Identifying, Mapping, and Personifying Countries Involved in WWII
Get artsy with this WWII group activity, starting with a whole-class assignment. Create a map of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Pacific using geometric shapes cut from construction paper and placed on the floor. Consider splitting the...
National Park Service
Rock Ranking
Junior geologists sort rocks and soil. They separate a sample of river gravel by size, shape, color, and other characteristics. To include Common Core standards, you could have little ones graph the number of particles in each sample.
National Institute of Open Schooling
Solid State
Crystal comes from a Greek word meaning ice. Activity eight in a series of 36 has class members analyzing amorphous and crystalline solids and further classifying them based on their forces. They then explore solids, learning about unit...
Curated OER
Structure and Function of the Cell/Introduction to the Cell
So, this is not technically a learning exercise, but rather a chapter of reading material, pictures, and diagrams introducing young biologists to the cell. Cell theory, diversity, size, and shape are described. The internal organization...
Biology Junction
Protists and Fungi
It's alive, but what is it? Protists share similarities with plants, animals, and fungi without being classified as any of those three. Learn more about protists and the kingdom fungi with a short presentation. It describes the parts of...
Curated OER
Skulls Tell It All
Skulls tell it all, and with this lesson plan, you will tell it all to your class! Youngsters view animal skulls, analyzing the shape of teeth and the placement of the eye sockets. They associate these adaptations with the types of food...
Curated OER
Historical Air Photo Interpretation
Students identify and analyze land use changes over time with historical aerial photographs. They classify different land use into categories.
Curated OER
The Five Classes of Vertebrates
What a terrific lesson! Learners discuss the animal kingdom, and classify them as vertebrates and invertebrates. They also identify them as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There is even a taxonomic breakdown of popular...
Skyscraper Museum
What is a Skyscraper?
Skyscrapers are amazing feats of architectural design that create the iconic skylines of the world's biggest cities. Young architects explore the defining characteristics of these monstrous towers with the first activity in this...
Curated OER
Grasping Geometry
Young scholars investigate geometric shapes in their environment, make a geometric design, and write paragraphs describing the design.
Curated OER
Dango
Students discuss lines, shapes, patterns, and colors used in Jun Kaneko's piece Untitled (Dango). In groups, they help make a paper Mache replica and demonstrate their understanding of lines, shapes patterns, and colors by painting their...
Curated OER
Examining Geometric Solids
Students explore geometry by completing a math worksheet in class. In this shape identification lesson, students identify the characteristics associated with 15 solid geometric shapes. Students identify patterns between vertices, edges...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
Fifth graders examine different types of rocks and classify rocks by their different characteristics. In small groups they sort their rocks into two categories, then create three categories to sort by on a sorting worksheet. Next, they...
Curated OER
Shoeless Math
First graders sort and classify, and complete a T-chart using Students' shoes.
Curated OER
Angle Comparison to Right Angles
In this angles worksheet, students solve 4 problems in which an angle is analyzed and measured. Students tell if each angle is greater than, less than or equal to a right angle.
Curated OER
Identifying Wyoming Trees
Middle schoolers identify trees based from their leaves. In this leaf lesson plan, students use The Rocky Mountain Tree Finder by Tom Watts in order to identify tree leaves. They look for leaf shapes, veins, and structure.
Curated OER
Solid Figures
Students investigate solids. In this geometry lesson, students use toothpicks and gum drops to solve problems. They create visuals to help them see what is happening to the shapes.
Curated OER
Classifying Candy I
Students explore the observable properties of matter. They develop two binary classification systems using concrete objects. based on two different properties of the concrete objects.
Curated OER
Property Lists for Quadrilaterals
Students establish classifications of shapes by various properties (angles, sides, etc.). They introduce the important properties of common shapes. Students develop an awareness of the wide variety of ways the 2-D shapes can be alike.
Curated OER
To Classify Beans And Peas
First graders record information on a bar graph and interpret the information given. They identify five different kinds of beans and three different kinds of peas. They work in groups of four and sort the beans by size or shape.
Curated OER
Geometric Shapes at the OK Corral
Students explore geometric shapes. In this math lesson, students identify geometric and non-geometric shapes using the computer. Students research geometric shapes in art and architecture.
Curated OER
Classifying Rocks
Pupils classify rocks into groups after they observe the rocks and identify properties that can be used to divide them into groups. They then identify other properties that could be used to classify other objects into groups.
Curated OER
Ship Shape
Third graders experiment with, identify, and follow teacher-directed instruction toward understanding two-dimensional geometric shapes found within the environment. Groups of students utilize geoboards to help them explain geometric shapes.