Lesson Plan
Curated OER

We're All Passenger

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students examine Passenger Pigeons and why they are now extinct. Through a class discussion, students discover the need to help endangered animals. They consider activities to become involved in assisting animals. Students write a poem...
Lesson Plan
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Stopping Deforestation in the Amazon: A Publicity Campaign

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the environment by designing a group project.  In this ecology activity, students identify the man made threats to the Amazon while reading environmentally conscience vocabulary terms.  Students collaborate...
Lesson Plan
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Water Use and Conservation

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Students discuss the different types of water found on Earth. They discover why not all water is used for drinking and calculate how much water they use. They create their own water conservation plan.
Lesson Plan
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Oceans

For Teachers 1st
First graders recognize that nearly three quarters of the Earth is covered by ocean. They locate the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Antarctic oceans on a map. They describe the difference between ocean water and fresh water.
Lesson Plan
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Good Heavens

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Pupils look at the history of science to identify some of the scientific ideas that different cultures have contributed to science throughout history. They describe using examples ideas developed by different cultures to explain the...
Lesson Plan
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Modeling Day and Night

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students complete a science experiment to study the role of night and day on sleep patterns. In this sleep patterns lesson, students brainstorm about night and day and the causes for the rotations on Earth. Students work in groups to...
Lesson Plan
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Environmentalism: Then and Now

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders examine the history of the conservation movement and how it relates to contemporary issues.  In this Environmental Science lesson, 10th graders research the roots of the environmental and conservation movement and...
Lesson Plan
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Protecting Agriculture's Tools

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Pupils brainstorm which tools farmers can control and why. They discuss how to conserve water, air and soil. They discuss the role of farmers and how they feed the world.
Lesson Plan
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Plate Tectonics: Movin' and Shakin'

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students are introduced to the causes of plate movements and the hazards they present. They plot the location of 50 earthquakes and 50 volcanic eruptions on a map and explore the relationships between plate tectonics, earthquakes, and...
Lesson Plan
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Exploring Building Resonance Phenomenon through a Discrepant Event Demonstration

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders create a model of a city street with various sizes of buildings on it. They use the model to demonstrate the effect of building oscillation during varying degrees of seismic activity.
Lesson Plan
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Ethics of Exploration

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine space exploration and its domination by governments as well as the fact that some private businesses want to explore space too. They investigate the ethical questions surrounding a space exploration through research and...
Lesson Plan
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Voyage of Discovery

For Teachers 5th - 10th
Students develop a sense of the scale of our solar system by creating a one to ten billion scale model. They calculate the relative sizes and distances for the planets and asteroid belt using a guiding worksheet. To create the model they...
Lesson Plan
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Earthquake Epicenter

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students use chart data to determine the location of the epicenter of an earthquake. This task assesses students' abilities to generalize and infer, organize data, interpret data, and apply mathematical concepts.
Lesson Plan
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Soapy Stress

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students investigate the three types of material stress related to rocks. They identify the three types of stress, conduct a simulation by breaking bars of soap using only their hands, and complete a worksheet.
Lesson Plan
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Biogeochemical Cycles

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students demonstrate comprehension of the energy sources of various cycles by completing mini stories. They demonstrate analysis of words by defining individual word parts and combining them to form definitions. Students demonstrate...
Lesson Plan
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Redefining an Earthquake

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders build an "Earthquake Machine" (a manipulative model of a fault line) and use it to explore stick-slip behavior of some faults and to develop a more accurate definition of an earthquake and its causes.
Lesson Plan
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Illuminating Climate Change: Connecting Lighting and Global Warming

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners analyze energy usage and connect energy usage to fossil fuel consumption. In this global warming and pollution instructional activity, students what fuels are used to generate electricity and how much CO2 each fuel produces,...
Lesson Plan
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Too Hot? Gotta Vent!

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students study deep sea exploration and underwater geology, specifically hydrothermal sea vents. They create digital video projects of their own to demonstrate their knowledge, illustrating the discoveries of the explorers of the ocean's...
Lesson Plan
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Exploring Energy with GIS

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Learners examine GIS technology as it is used to locate energy sources. For this GIS lesson, student access an assigned website to locate a series of lessons using the GIS software. They use the maps that are located on the primary...
Lesson Plan
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Dynamic Wetlands

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct and observe a model of two different types of wetlands. In this wetlands lesson, students create a model of a wetland with constant drainage and a wetland that maintains a well-saturated soil. Students observe and...
Lesson Plan
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Fred the Fish -- A River Ran Wild

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
Students apply cause and effect relationships to water pollution in a stream. In this pollution lesson students recognize the importance of clean water in their daily lives. Students accompany "Fred the Fish" as he travels down stream....
Lesson Plan
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The Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF)

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students design an experiment for NASA's STEREO/IMPACT mission to measure the interplanetary magnetic field. This lesson plan includes 3 excellent hands-on and critical thinking activities in which students explore magnetism in the solar...
Lesson Plan
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Electromagnetism

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students explore the generation of magnetic fields from currents in wires and measure the magnetic field directions. They measure magnetic fields in their own environment. They also examine how moving magnetic fields can create currents.
Unit Plan
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Geometry In Space

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students Fulfill the requirements of Texas Standards as it relates to math and science. In this circle lesson, students identify the arcs and angles of a circle as it relates to Pi. They solve real life scenarios using space as an example.