Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a activity highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
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Daily and Seasonal Cycles
First graders identify the sun as a source of heat and light. They identify features of houses that help keep use sheltered and comfortable throughout daily and seasonal cycles. Students are told that summer is the best season to...
Virginia Department of Education
Changes in Ecosystems
How does water pollution affect the environment? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question as they learn about eutrophication and ecosystem changes. Over two weeks, they simulate the effects of pollution on the...
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Modeling the Seasons
Junior geologists become the force that makes the world go around! With a lamp on the floor in the middle of the room to represent the sun, volunteers hold a globe, revolve, and rotate. Observers notice how the light hitting the globe...
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Science: Daily and Seasonal Cycles
First graders use their observations to describe daily and seasonal cycles. through a demonstration using a suspended ball and flashlight, they determine the time of day in various locations. Next, 1st graders participate in a...
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The Science of Changing Seasons
Students explore basic principles of seasonal change, ponder the mechanisms that drive these changes, and perform experiments that show what causes the earth to heat differently during different seasons.
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Weather "Whys" Lesson 2 Seasons
Students explore seasons. In this cross curriculum weather and seasons lesson, students identify characteristics of the four seasons and sequence related pictures. Students listen to poems and stories about trees in different...
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The Climate Change Skeptic's Argument: Natural Solar Cycles or Human Activity?
Teachers explore patterns in sunspots and total solar irradiance to understand the counterpoint to the human effect of global warming. In this professional development tool, teachers work through a lesson plan on the sun's natural...
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Climate Change
Students focus on the production of maple syrup in Northern New England as they study the effects of climate change. They investigate other environmental factors on the forests of Northern New England.
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NIGHT AND DAY: DAILY CYCLES IN SOLAR RADIATION
High schoolers examine how Earth's rotation causes daily cycles in solar energy using a microset of satellite data to investigate the Earth's daily radiation budget and locating map locations using latitude and longitude coordinates.
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The Earth's Atmosphere and Temperature
Students describe and compare the layers of the atmosphere. They explain how to measure the temperature of the atmosphere and discover what causes the atmosphere to heat up in some places more than in others.
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Measuring Shadows
Learners determine the pattern (length and direction) of shadows cast by sunlight during several month period, and develop interpretation of daily and seasonal patterns and variations observed.
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Charting Seasonal Changes
Students research the Earth's patterns of rotation and revolution, create a chart and graph of these patterns and use them to explain the causes of night and day and summer and winter.
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Reasons for Seasons
Students investigate a model of the tilt of the Earth in its relationship to the Sun during the different seasons of the year. They study the solstices and equinoxes, while determining how sunlight hits the Earth with different angles in...
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Four Seasons
Students investigate the four seasons in a year. In this seasons lesson, students explore the weather during each season. Students illustrate each season with pictures.
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What's Your Favorite Season?
Students explore earth science by creating illustrations in class. For this four seasons lesson, students identify the four different types of weather that take place during the year and read the books Harvest Year and Snow Comes to the...
Virginia Department of Education
A Salt Marsh Ecosystem
What a web we weave. Pupils use yarn as the primary resource to create a web depicting the intricacies of a salt marsh ecosystem. They participate in a question and answer session, which leads to an in-depth facilitated discussion...
Virginia Department of Education
Evidence of Evolution
What an impression fossils make! In this activity, aspiring paleontologists view fossils and construct a timeline to further understand how the lack of natural adaptation caused historical organisms to become extinct. While they...
Virginia Department of Education
Owl Family Natural Selection
How do genetic mutations within a population lead to future variations? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question and more upon completing an activity on natural selection. The entire class participates in a...
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The Four Seasons
Students examine four paintings by Robert Harris and identify the season portrayed. Using the characteristics for each season, they write a poem and create a drawing of their own. In groups, they describe the different types of...
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What is Weather?
Students identify different types of weather and explore the weather for each season of the year. They complete a class seasonal weather chart, listen to the book "Oh Say Can You Say What's the Weather Today?," and create a magazine...
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Water 1: Water and Ice
Students examine the changes as water goes from solid to liquid. In this states of matter instructional activity, students observe and record the changes to water as it changes from solid to liquid and back to solid.
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Teach it to me - Seasonal Calendar
Students document the weather. In this seasons instructional activity, students study the weather, record the temperature outside and photograph what the weather conditions look like. All information gathered by the students will be made...
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Knowing North: Understanding the Relationship Between Time and The Sun
Students determine how to find North using a watch and their shadow. In this finding North lesson, students go outside on a sunny day and work with their shadow and a wrist watch to find out which direction that North is. They examine...