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Sky and Cloud Windows
Students monitor the weather, clouds, and sky. In this weather lesson, students create a sky and cloud window to focus their sky observations. They write observations in a notebook and include the date, time, cloud cover, types of...
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Non Native Species: English Ivy-Landscape Plant or Deadly Killer?
High schoolers examine an area overrun by English Ivy. They explore how invasive species affect an ecosystem. They also study about the lack of biodiversity and how to measure it out in the field.
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Linkages Between Surface Temperature And Tropospheric Ozone
Learners collect and interpret data to make predictions about the levels of ozone in the atmosphere. Using the internet to collect data students use their collected data to create a line graph for analysis. Learners make mathematical...
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Rock Collecting
Students practice classifying rocks in the categories sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. They bring personal rock collections to school, then correctly label the three types of rocks on posterboard.
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Exploring the Interstellar Medium
Students investigate the Interstellar Medium and the Local Bubble that the Sun is inside. They read and discuss a handout, answer discussion questions, observe a demonstration of light scattering, and conduct an experiment on the...
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Fronts
Fourth graders define cold and warm fronts, explain how they are formed and they ways that they affect the weather.
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Thunderstorms
Fourth graders investigate the attraction between two different charges to explain the concept of lightning in a thunderstorm.
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Ecotourism in National Parks and Wilderness
Middle schoolers research a wilderness or natural area and develop a plan for ecotourism.
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Salmon vs. Dams: The Dam Removal Debate on the Elwha River
Students use roll playing to discuss the merits of tearing down these dams so that the Elwha River can run free. The activity is presented in the form of a council meeting to encourage students to try to build consensus in finding...
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Sun and Temperatures
Students consider the relationship of temperature to environmental conditions and then apply their knowledge to a practical event. The task assesses students' knowledge and application of that knowledge to an additional situation.
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Cold Fronts And Warm Fronts
Students simulate the movement of cold and warm fronts as they listen to a story about the weather and Mr. Sun. They brainstorm the characteristics of each type of front then write about which front they would prefer if they were a...
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Welcome to My World!
Second graders increase their usage of maps and understand how maps are important in their lives. Students define what an atlas is, and to enforce the students' definition of what an atlas is, they also make their own atlas.
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Night Sky
Students discover why stars can only be seen at night. They participate in a read aloud of, "Night Sky" by Carole Stott and, "Switch on the Night" by Ray Bradbury. Using the sky objects described in the readings, they brainstorm and list...
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Economic Use of Public Natural Areas
Students examine the public controversy between the use of public natural areas for economic activities by viewing video clips, researching on the Internet, and calculating sustainable land.
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Threatened Species and Public Policy
Students discuss the Endangered Species Act and its impact on people and the environment. They read the act and watch video footage. They examine why sea turtles are endangered and efforts to protect them. They analyze numerical results...
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Waterwheel Work
Students investigate the history of the waterwheel and common uses for water turbines today. They construct an experimental waterwheel using a two-liter plastic bottle, measure the rate of revolution of a waterwheel, and complete a...
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Making Impact Craters
Students examine images of Moon craters and speculate about what caused them. They create craters using sand weighted balls. Students measure crater sizes and draw ejection patterns to see what effect size, weight, and velocity have on...
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Following Directions
Students explore the way astronauts practice and train to improve their efficiency in completing challenging tasks. They time and graph how long it takes to follow a list of directions. Also, they determine how practice and repetition...
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Pattern
Young scholars describe examples of the relationship between structure and function in living systems, particularly with regard to specialized tissues and organs. They describe examples of biological diversity and adaptation of organisms...
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Warm and Toasty
Learners are introduced to the concepts of specific heat and heat capacity. In groups, they design an experiment to test these two topics on various fabrics. They compare and contrast the amount of heat loss on the different materials...
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Travelers for Trade and Global Peace
Students explore the resources in other countries. In this communities lesson, students examine characteristics of their community to those of other communities. Students examine Canada, El Salvador, and India and their natural resources.
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Identifying Pennsylvania Watersheds
Ninth graders study and identify the six major drainage systems in Pennsylvania. In this watershed instructional activity students read an article, complete an activity and take a quiz on what they learned.
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Reef Attack
Students identify the locations of coral reefs. In this oceanography lesson, students use the Coral Reefs website to locate the coral reefs on a world map and discuss ways to help protect the coral reefs.
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Exploring Big Bang Evidence
Ninth graders study the Big Bang theory. In this big bang theory activity students research the Internet and complete several activities and create a presentation.