Curated OER
Dimming The Sun
Students review the meanings of global warming and global dimming. While watching a video, they take notes on different aspects of the issue. In groups, they develop a list on what can be done to reduce global dimming. They...
Curated OER
Time and Cycles - Dendrochronology
Students investigate the lives of trees by examining ring cycles. In this plant life lesson plan, students identify the field of study known as dendrochronology and discover its history. Students investigate a simulated tree ring and...
Curated OER
Go Fish!
Students are introduced to the culture of the Kumeyaay. Using their text, they discover how they used their native flora and fauna in San Diego. They participate in a matching game and examine the types of organisms who make their home...
Curated OER
A Long Winter's Nap
Students explore the process of estivation, hibernation and torpor and the ways that frogs adapt to seasonal weather changes.
Curated OER
Sustainable Livestock
Students investigate healthy eating habits by researching livestock. In this food sustainability instructional activity, students research the negative impact factory farming has on our environment due to pollution. Students define...
Curated OER
World Hunger - Causes And Solutions
An online Sim City type game from the BBC website guides students to complete a World Food Programme mission. They investigate the causes and of hunger in different parts of the world and then research a particular region's hunger...
Captain Planet Foundation
Adopt-A-Plant
Note the way that plants change during the season by adopting a plant on your school campus. After your class chooses their plant, they research the plant's needs, how it differs from other plants, find ways to support their plant's...
Curated OER
The Great Depression and Everyday Life
Examine everyday life during the Great Depression, as well as the effects if the Depression on American population, society, and economy. Learners write who, what, where, when, and why summaries of a person who relocated to California...
NASA
Observing Monsoon Weather Patterns with TRMM Data
Follow a fabulous slide show on how monsoons form and how satellite technology is being used to observe the phenomena, explaining why they occur. Afterward, visit the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) website to access actual...
Curated OER
Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson plan on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
Desert Discovery
Saguaro Seasons
Elementary schoolers take a look at how the saguaro cactus adapts to the four seasons of the year. This amazing plant has distinct flowering and fruiting cycles within the summer season, and other cycles during the other seasons. Your...
Curated OER
Weather Watchers
Students identify basic weather instruments and how they are used to record weather data. Students define several vocabulary terms as stated in lesson. Students use basic instruments to record weather data in their area. Students use the...
Curated OER
Comparing the Effects of El Nino and La Nina
Students examine the differences between an El Nino and La Nina year. For this investigative lesson students create maps and graphs of the data they obtained.
Curated OER
Introduction to a Unit on the 1930's Depression in America
Students view and discuss photographic images of the Dust Bowl by Dorothea Lange. They discuss who Dorothea Lange was and why she took the pictures, the conservational factors that contributed to the Dust Bowl and migrant workers and the...
Curated OER
Herbert Hoover and the Dust Bowl
Shanty towns made by Dust Bowl migrants were called Hoovervilles for a reason. Examine the policies Herbert Hoover put in place to help victims of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. You'll find he didn't do much and the result was...
Curated OER
Building on the Land
Ninth graders study how cities affect the environment and design an ecologically-sound city. They focus their study on the benefits and constraints of life on the Northern Great Plains.
Curated OER
Wind and Wildfire
Emerging scientists research weather-related vocabulary terms, and map out where wildfires are most likely to occur. To bring this lesson to life, you could demonstrate what happens to a fire when you cool or remove the fuel, or cut off...
Curated OER
Dating a Volcanic Eruption
Students discover the various ways in which tree rings can give information. After a brief disucssion of concentric tree rings, they use cross section cut outs of tree rings to identify the time and type of various naturally occuring...
Curated OER
Wet World in Danger
Students investigate the reasons why wetlands are threatened especially by people. They study the wise use of water to preserve wetlands.
Curated OER
Habitats: must live with them....cannot live without them.
Young scholars conduct an internet study regarding habitat, ecosystem, biome and the region they live in. They observe the habitat by visiting a State Park and observing the organisms in their habitat. In addition, they create their own...
K12 Reader
The Great Depression
Try out this reading passage when teaching your class about the 1920s and 1930s. After reading the text, which provides an overview of some major events in these years, learners respond to five related questions.
Carnegie Mellon University
Bathtub Model
Using a colorful infographic handout and a guide sheet, hold a class discussion about how a bathtub can serve as a model for the greenhouse effect created by Earth's atmosphere. Participants will understand that as energy or matter is...
Curated OER
Using a Concept Definition Map
Students define "natural disaster" by offering examples and charting them to discover what a concept definition map is. Then students create their own maps using the word "city".
Curated OER
Land of Plenty, Land of Want
Students view a video about the state of the environment. They discover the topic of sustainable agriculture. They identify problems and how to solve them.