Disney
Where Do Brown Bears Live?
What do brown bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park need to survive? Pupils explore the unique habitats, diet, and survival needs of this animal. They predict the consequences of removing any integral part of the bear's survival,...
Curated OER
Where Is Japan? How Are We Alike And Different?
First graders use literature, maps, and globes to explain how physical environments in various parts of the world are similar to and different from one's own, and that certain areas have common characteristics and can be called regions.
Curated OER
Strawberry Girl: Lesson 3 - Trains, Sails, and Trails
Learners read two chapters of Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski and complete activities about Florida's transportation history. In this literacy and economics lesson, students read two chapters of the book, talk about their journal entries,...
Curated OER
Native American History
Fourth graders use a previous and current map of the state of Michigan to compare cities and roads. They look for names that come from the Native American culture. They participate in a class discussion to compare findings.
Curated OER
Creating a Map
Third graders examine the process of creating an accurate map, and create a map of their playground.  They identify what objects are on their playground, and discuss what is found on a map.  Students then draw a map of their playground...
Curated OER
Mapping My World
Students are introduced to simple maps and view a map of a classroom and compare distances of items shown.
Curated OER
Latitude and Longitude
Fifth graders study latitude and longitude. They estimate the latitude and longitude of their hometown and find the latitude and longitude of other cities using a map. They use a website to find out the cities' actual latitude and...
National Constitution Center
Explore Rights Around the World
How has the American Bill of Rights influenced the rest of the world? An interactive web activity helps individuals see the similarities between countries' bills of rights. A text-to-text tool compares the American Bill of Rights to...
Curated OER
The Solstices
Compare surface temperatures when the solstice occurs in the different hemispheres. Young scientists draw conclusions from their investigation of data collected using spreadsheets and a globe.
California Polytechnic State University
Australian Geography Unit
At the heart of this resource is a beautifully detailed PowerPoint presentation (provided in PDF form) on the overall physical geography of Australia, basic facts about the country, Aboriginal history, and Australia culture and lifestyle.
Teach Engineering
Earthquakes Living Lab: Locating Earthquakes
There are patterns in nearly everything — even earthquakes. Pairs research current earthquakes to see if there are any patterns. They determine the mean, median, and mode of the earthquake data, along with the maximum and...
Curated OER
Finding Meaning in the Badge
Children who are three to five years old study two rank badges from the Qing dynasty to develop an understanding of social rank, language skills, and symbolism. The lesson is discussion-based and requires learners to compare and contrast...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
You know global warming is real when your squirrel feeder is full of popped corn instead of kernels! Activity two in a series of five allows learners to explore climate change through the eyes of another. After briefly analyzing their...
Curated OER
The Gold Rush
Learners identify the routes involved in the Gold Rush on a map. In this map skills lesson, students use a United States map to locate the routes used to travel to California during the Gold Rush. Learners demonstrate how to use the map...
Curated OER
Fractile vs. Equal
Young scholars compare and contrast methods of categorizing data. In this data collection lesson plan, students complete worksheet activities that require them to note the differences between equal and fractile intervals. Young scholars...
Curated OER
Volcanic Activity in the U.S.
Students locate and map ten volcanoes in United States, create chart comparing volcanoes by last eruption, type of volcano, location, and interesting fact, and create Powerpoint slide show describing basic
information about volcanoes and...
Curated OER
World Projections
Young scholars identify map projections and examine polar maps. In this map skills lesson, students use a flat world map to identify various projections and calculate the distances between locations by using a map scale.
Curated OER
Uncharted Territory
Students examine what were preconceived perceptions of the areas Lewis and Clark explored.  They compare and contrast past and modern maps of North America.  They accurately place route and site information on the map.
Curated OER
Are We There Yet?
Students estimate the time needed by the Corps of Discovery to complete its expedition.  They problem solve and estimate the distance covered by the Corps on its expedition.  They compare their findings to the expedition's actual rates...
Curated OER
Biomes: Islands and Evolution
Middle schoolers discover how islands form, how plant and animal species get there and what the term means.  In this biomes activity students prepare a presentation that describes the life forms and geography of an island. 
Curated OER
Lesson Ten: Direction
Learners explore the concept of relative location. In this map lesson, students read I Hate English by Ellen Levine and consider how maps and globes help people to familiarize themselves with an area.
Curated OER
Snow Cover By Latitude
Students create graphs comparing the amount of snow cover along selected latitudes using data sets from a NASA website.  They create a spreadsheet and a bar graph on the computer, and analyze the data.
Curated OER
Exploration of Scale Models
Students consider the concept of scale models. In this scale lesson, students compare the sizes of various every day toys to the sizes of the larger objects they represent.
Curated OER
Expedition Diaries
Students select an expedition to research, form expedition teams, keep individual diaries and compare diaries at the end of the simulated expedition. A variety of source documents are utilized in this lesson.