National Science Teachers Association
Adopt-a-Dino
Earth historians research a specific dinosaur, write a paper about the Mesozoic era that it lived in, create an artistic rendition of the environment, and give a presentation in class about what they learned. Be aware that there are...
Curated OER
Earth's Atmosphere
This simple presentation sports a timeline of the last 400 million years. Click by click, the condition and developments in Earth's atmosphere appear along the timeline. This is a nifty PowerPoint that you could use as you teach about...
Curated OER
The History of Life on Earth
Using meters as years, your class works together to map out the geologic time scale on a football field. Plenty of background information is included in this lesson plan as well as several resource links and a student worksheet. Your...
Curated OER
Making The Geologic Time Scale Real
Pupils construct a geologic timeline the size of a football field. They work in small groups to calculate the yardage for significant events in the Earth's history and then as a class pace out all of the events.
Curated OER
Explorations Through Time
In this earth history worksheet, students visit a website and complete 15 fill in the blank and 8 short answer questions based on what they read. Topics include biodiversity, animal kingdoms, evolution, fossils, and extinction.
Discovery Education
The Time of Our Life
Mammals are some of the newest organisms to appear on Earth. Young scholars complete an activity that results in a timeline showing the appearance of different types of living organisms. Provided with a list that spans from prokaryotes...
Curated OER
Diversity of Life: Geologic Time Scale
Students investigate the history of Earth by creating a geologic time scale. For this Earth History lesson, students practice sequencing events in their life as a way to get familiar with creating a time scale. Students complete their...
Curated OER
Earth History Part I
Eighth graders simulate geologic time using toilet tissue capture activity. In this earth science lesson, 8th graders identify the different characteristics of Paleozoic and Precambrian era. They hypothesize how old the Earth is.
Curated OER
Dino History
Students create a timeline of the times dinosaurs lived. In this dinosaur timeline lesson, students research the various periods when dinosaurs lived. Students work in groups to research the dinosaurs of a specific time period....
Curated OER
Mapping of the Earth's Past
Students create a scale model time linen of the Earth's 4.6 billion year history. They calculate a scale that can fit on a very long register tape then label each geologic era. They use text books to annotate each era with major geologic...
Curated OER
Geologic Timelines
Middle schoolers create a timeline of geologic events of the Phanerozoic Eon. In this geologic timeline lesson, students view a handout that shows a timeline of the Earth's history. They create their own timeline of the Phanerozoic Eon...
Curated OER
My Time
Middle schoolers create a timeline of their lives. For this timeline lesson, students discuss relative and absolute time. They use events in their lives to create categories on a timeline. They link this lesson to geologic timelines.
Curated OER
Sandwich Stratigraphy
Two activities are included in this resource. In the first, junior geologists model sedimentary rock layers, apply the Law of Superposition, and demonstrate folding and faulting of the Earth's crust. The model is technically a sandwich....
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
Scientists use ice core samples to obtain temperatures of the earth from 400,000 years ago! The third of five lessons instructs pupils to interpret historical climate data to see changes over time. In part I, participants interpret...
Energy for Keeps
The Energy Times
Extra! Extra! Read all about past and present energy use in a classroom-made historical newspaper. Useful as a cross-curricular assignment between science, history, and language arts, the project is sure to get young journalists...
Montana State University
Meet Mount Everest
Learning about one landform might seem boring to some, but using the resource provided practically guarantees scholar interest. The second in a sequential series of eight covering the topic of Mount Everest includes activities such as a...
Curated OER
Milestones in Human Spaceflight
Students investigate the history and goals of NASA and human spaceflight. In this space science instructional activity, students answer questions about one of seven manned space programs and print pictures from the mission. As a class,...
Curated OER
The Impact of Mining on American History
Students listen to background information about coal and its mining in the United States history. They then construct a timeline using the above article. Illustrate with pictures from the www.coaleducation.org web site.
Curated OER
Mesozoic Murals
Middle schoolers create a mural of one of the Mesozoic Periods. For this geologic timeline lesson, students will research the plants and animals that lived in the Mesozoic Era in order to create a mural to scale that represents one of...
Curated OER
What came first?
Students sequence events in their own lives and assign each a numerical time, students use the same process to sequence actual events in the evolution of life on Earth.
Curated OER
Brain POP - Eclipse
In this eclipse worksheet, students answer 7 fill in the blank questions, 4 matching questions, and complete a timeline table with.
Curated OER
Path Map for the Lake Bonneville Flood
Students use a digital atlas of Idaho to explore the effects of the Lake Bonneville Flood. They become familiar with how floods shape our earth and change landscapes. Students graph a a timeline of the rise and fall of Lake Bonneville.
Curated OER
Satellites
Eighth graders explore the history of space travel and satellites. Through a teacher demonstration, 8th graders observe how a satellite revolves another object. They identify natural and artificial satellites, explore how satellites...
Curated OER
Whose Rock Is This Anyway?
Learners will seek to understand the events at Pipestone Quarry and what may have caused them. Pipestone Quarry in Pipestone, Minnesota, bears the mythic red Sioux quartzite called Pipestone or Catlinite.