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Making a Food Web and Learning About Ecosystems
Third graders examine the difference between a food web and food chain. They also examine the importance of the sun in a food web and food chain. Students understand what happens when you remove parts of the chain.
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Habitat Unit - Day 2
Pupils explore abiotic factors that affect habitats. After a class lecture, students work in groups to answer questions about plant tissue, production and growth. They share answers, complete a crossword puzzle, and create a habitat...
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Leaking Underground/ Storage Tanks
Students engage in a lesson that is about the concept of storage tanks and how they are used. The advantages and disadvantages of them is discussed with the facts given by the teacher during lecture and concurrent discussion.
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Fossil Fuel and the Ticking Clock
Students study energy sources to learn about fossil fuels and environmental concerns. In this energy sources lesson, students watch demonstrations for various energy examples. Students find hidden pennies, make a bar graph on their data,...
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Home on the Biome
Fifth graders study six major biomes, graph temperature and rainfall, and present their findings to the class.
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Insect Unit
Fourth graders study the lives, and features of insects in the series of lessons that make up this unit.
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Hatching Brine Shrimp
Third graders investigate the environment that is considered favorable for brine shrimp hatching. The salinity level is of particular interest in the observations because the optimum level is needed for survival. They make daily...
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Fun with Fossils
Second graders explore the geologic process of fossil formation. In this geology lesson, 2nd graders discuss the job of a paleontologist and make their own model of a fossil. This lesson includes teacher directed questions.
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Food and Fiber: Helping the Environment and You
Fourth graders explore the many uses of corn-based products and the importance of water resources. They consider how biodegradable products help to keep water clean. They perform experiments to observe how corn pellets dissolve while...
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The Weather Classroom: Atmosphere
Students explore the planets and their atmospheres online. They write the story of "Goldilocks and the Nine Planets" to explain how each planet's atmosphere differs from Earth's. They design a viable life form.
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Make a Cast of a Tyrannosaurus rex Fossil
Second graders examine the formation of fossils and list the different types. They make cast model of a dinosaur fossil. They write about conditions that are necessary for fossils to form and create a model of a buried fossil.
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Which Way to Roots Grow?
Second graders explore roots and how they grow. They observe as seeds planted in various directions grow and record their observations. Students discuss the direction in which the roots are growing.
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Science: What Happens to Create the Lode?
Students understand how mineral deposits are formed and why they are not evenly dispersed. They create and describe three different precipitates from four solutions simulating mineral ore deposit formation in sedimentary rock.
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Count Down
Pupils are introduced to useing websites as a data source. Using bird population predictions, they test their predictions from various websites. They record, organize and graph the data and share their results with the class.
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Transmission of Disease
Students provide names of viral diseases that they would possibly like to be infected with today; listing them on the Smart Board. They then come to an agreement about what virus to use and use beakers of fluids to simulate how viruses...
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Earth's Atmosphere and Temperature
Learners explore the layers of earth's atmosphere and conduct an experiment to identify carbon dioxide. They construct models using styrofoam to represent molecules in the atmosphere's layers. To discover how sunlight efffects...
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Oceanography Multimedia Projects
Pupils examine marine life. In this oceanography lesson, students design a multimedia project using PowerPoint or HyperStudio that encompasses research that they do on ocean ecosystems.
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Reconstructing the Squares
Young scholars visit an outdoors area and mark out a square on the ground that they examine, looking for living and non-living things. They make a model or drawing of the findings from the actual square.
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It's A Jungle Out There -Tempera
Sixth graders explore master paintings by Rousseau. They explain how the artist creates depth by overlapping images. They design and create an "imaginary" tropical landscape for a tempera painting.
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Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Students, in groups, create a slide show about the ecosystem and answer critical thinking questions based on their research.
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Plankton
Students explore the attributes of plankton. In this plankton lesson, students read This is the Sea That Feeds Us and discuss food chains. Students discover the differences between phytoplankton and zooplankton as they examine the...
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Predators and Prey
Students explain how the food chain works. They contrast predators with prey and describe their function in nature. Students discuss how the food chain aids in keeping nature balanced. In small groups, they play a game that simulates the...
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Heartfelt/Handmade Activities: Genre Painting
Young scholars examine genre painting. They explore the Illinois State Museum website, identify how genre paintings were composed, analyze the activities of an Illinois farm in the 1850s, and create a genre painting of current everyday...