Curated OER
But Where Is It On This Modern Map? A problem-solving, mind-boggling experience!
Trace Columbus' voyages by locating them on 21st Century maps. Using a navigators lesson, 4th graders will examine the Age of Exploration and trace Columbus's routes accurately on laminated world maps using different maps. Note:...
Curated OER
Digging up the Past
Students explore history through archaeology. In this critical analysis lesson, students work in teams to recreate a model of the archaeological discoveries made in the excavations at Monticello. This lesson is designed to help students...
Curated OER
Eureka! You've Struck
While incomplete, this lesson plan could provide ideas for a lesson plan on the California gold rush. Learners look at a chart to analyze population growth in San Francisco after the discovery of gold, analyze political changes that...
Curated OER
Brown Bag Science
Pupils discover, through the discovery method, how electricity works. They construct a simple circuit and a parallel circuit, make an electrical motor work and add a switch to turn it on and off.
Curated OER
Fossil Hunters!
Students explore the various ways in which geologists create fossil records. Working in pairs, students create a model of a fossil record through a hands on activity. They relate their experience to recent discoveries in geology and...
Curated OER
Tool Shop
Students learn how tools help us accomplish things. In this tool discovery lesson, students review the function of tools. They then make a class chart and categorize different types of tools found in the classroom. Finally, they create a...
Curated OER
Wonders of Weather
Students understand the destructive force of a tornado. They learn the role of a thunderstorm in the creation of a tornado.
Curated OER
Discovery Channels
Students read a New York Times article in order to explore issues about the celebration of Columbus Day. They, working in groups, research the legacy of exploration and colonization. They use the research to create a first person narrative.
Discovery Education
Making Your Voice Count
As learners watch a video on voting, they take notes on a worksheet that lists various voting topics, including electoral and popular votes, early voting, and exit polling. Then, young people research the Internet for their state's...
Discovery Education
It's Getting Hot in Here
Class members engage in a STEM experiment and investigate how materials affect heating in a house by creating models of houses and using different top surface materials. They record the temperature inside the models and consider what the...
Curated OER
Exploring the Sky: Reading Maria's Comet
Discover the science behind astronomy. After reading the book Maria's Comet, which is about a young woman who breaks new ground by becoming a female astronomer, young learners practice reading comprehension with...
Teach Engineering
Imagining DNA Structure
Let's get a closer look at DNA and other molecular structures. The first lesson plan in the series of four introduces a variety of imagining techniques that engineers and scientists use to visualize molecular structures. The resource...
NOAA
Journey to the Unknown
What's it like to be a deep-sea explorer? Tap into the imaginations of your fifth and sixth graders with a vivid lesson, the second part of a six-part adventure. Learners close their eyes and submerge themselves in an expedition aboard...
Curated OER
Inventions Over Time
Explore the inventions of the past with a project on ancient tools. After reading an article about hunting during the Archaic period, the Late Prehistoric period, and the Historic period, kids fill in a cause-and-effect chart about the...
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Water from the Well
How much water does it take to brush your teeth? How about to wash your clothes? Perform an experiment that measures water usage in everyday tasks and compares them to the days before indoor plumbing, specifically the California...
Code.org
Good and Bad Data Visualizations
Good versus bad data. Pairs rate online collections of data representations from good to bad and then suggest ways to improve the visualizations. The class then creates a list of best practices and common errors in data representations...
NOAA
Ocean Exploration
Sea explorers and scientists have found that because of temperatures being two to three degrees Celsius at the bottom of the ocean, most animals are lethargic in order to conserve energy. In this web quest, pairs of learners read about...
Discovery Education
Clutter Cutter
Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...
Curated OER
Early Explorers
Students discover why explorers left their homes to explore and how they played an important part in the discovery of the New World. Students create PowerPoint presentations of a specific explorer's journey and discoveries and the...
Curated OER
Community and Ecosystems
Young scholars complete a unit of lessons on ecosystems. They participate in online activities, create a diorama, write journal entries, and develop a Hyperstudio multimedia project on a selected ecosystem.
Curated OER
Political Cartoons as Part of the Election Process
Young scholars explore the impact of political cartoons on American elections. In this presidential elections lesson, students discuss the election process and then analyze political cartoons that were published during presidential...
Curated OER
What would you take?
Students decide what the most necessary things they should take with them in a survival situation. In this survival lesson students complete an activity while divided into groups.
Curated OER
Freedom Summer
Students brainstorm and discuss what the concept of "fairness" is and how to identify examples of "fairness." They pull from historical fiction and the Civil Rights Movement to explain how individual are affected by, cope with, and...
Curated OER
In the Mix
Students construct a water filter. In this engineering lesson, students discover how to construct a water filtration system. Students work in groups to sort tools by their properties. Students analyze and construct a water filtration...