Curated OER
Mystery of the Megaplume
Read through the extensive background information and then lead your geology or physical oceanography class through an investigation of actual temperature anomaly data from the Juan de Fuca ridge. They translate the data onto a plot,...
Curated OER
Soil Porosity, Moisture Content, pH, and Density
This lab activity does not have to be done with AP environmental scientists. It can also be done with middle to high school earth scientists. The procedures aren't complex. Learners determine the density of dry and wet sand in order to...
Curated OER
What's down there?
students analyze how oil is formed and where in the Earth we find it. Students take a core sample to look for oil in a model of the Earth. They analyze their sample and make an informed decision as to whether or not they should "drill...
Center Science Education
Paleoclimates and Pollen
Demonstrate for your earth scientists how plant pollen of the past has become part of sedimentary deposits, providing clues about ancient climates. Then give them simulated sediment layer samples to analyze for different types of paper...
Curated OER
Geologic Age
Students investigate rocks. In this geologic age lesson, students conduct an experiment to determine absolute age as one would for rock layers. Students graph data and problem solve using results.
Curated OER
Weather Lesson 1
Students describe and compare the layers of the atmosphere. They explain how to measure the temperature of the atmosphere. They also explain what causes the atmosphere to heat up in some places more than in others.
Curated OER
Types of Faults
This set of black-line diagrams of the three different types of faults can be used with your upper elementary earth scientists. Simply have them color the layers to show where the land once lined up. Another use for this resource would...
Science Matters
Up and Down Fault Blocks
The Sierra Mountains in Nevada and the Tetons in Wyoming originally formed as fault block mountains. In order to visualize these fault blocks, pupils use construction paper to create layers of earth. They cut the paper models and form...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Second Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Second graders explore convection currents and how they relate to the movement of tectonic plates. Then, young geologists reconstruct Pangaea with a worksheet and pinpoint plate boundaries on a map...
Curated OER
Hazards: Third Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Learners discover hazards related to volcanoes and predict the effects these hazards have on people and land. As blossoming geologists explore various volcanic eruptions, including the hazards associated with them, they...
Curated OER
Hazards: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Learn about damage associated with earthquakes and materials that best withstand a quake. A lab engages class members in the experimental design and construction of sturdy structures that can endure various earthquake...
Curated OER
Earthquakes: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Examine earthquake intensities and ways to measure an earthquake through the comparison of the Mercalli and Richter scales. After completing the pre-lab worksheet, fourth graders compare high and low intensity quakes by testing...
NOAA
Water Cycle
Be water wise! Science scholars learn the water cycle on a global scale in part seven of a 13-installment series. The hands-on interactive allows them to explore Earth's water storage, types of precipitation, and the cycling of water...
Curated OER
Rock Sorting Activity
Students organize rock samples according to their properties. In this earth science lesson, students predict whether they are igneous, metamorphic or sedimentary. They compare their prediction with the actual type.
Curated OER
Pangaea Puzzle
Students explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted. In this Earth's surface lesson students complete a lab and answer questions.
Curated OER
Stratospheric Ozone
Students explore about the structure of Earth's atmosphere and about the stratospheric ozone. They discuss how it is produced and destroyed, where it is located, why it is important, and how it is changing. Students investigate about...
Curated OER
The Mountain Blows its Top
Students replicate a volcanic eruption. In this volcanoes lesson, students follow the provided procedures to show and describe how the inflation of a bulge led to the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Curated OER
Digging Into the Past
Fifth graders study fossils and how they are charted. In this fossil lesson plan, 5th graders research the excavation process of discovering fossils, and view fossils. They then do a hands on activity that involves plastic fossils that...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Science at 100,000 Feet
Take your class up, up, and away with an engaging weather balloon simulation! Individuals get hands-on experience in creating and launching their own airborne labs to study how temperature and pressure affect substances at 100,000...
University of Wisconsin
Rain Garden Maintenance
Maintaining a garden is an ongoing responsibility. This resource follows a series of activities in a unit that resulted in the planting of a rain garden. What you will find here are general instructions for watering, weeding, pruning,...
Curated OER
Earth's Atmosphere and Temperature
Pupils explore the layers of earth's atmosphere and conduct an experiment to identify carbon dioxide. They construct models using styrofoam to represent molecules in the atmosphere's layers. To discover how sunlight efffects...
Curated OER
Happy Birthday, Earth!
Students visualize the Earth's ecosystem at a specific time period and how Earth has changed over time. They create a detailed journal entry for a specific time period and create a birthday card to Earth.
Curated OER
Basin & Range Faulting
Students identify that the crust of the earth is constantly moving and that with the exception of faults accompanied by earthquakes, this rate of movement is far too slow to notice. Then they print a copy of cross-section map A and...
Curated OER
Earth's Plate Tectonics
Students identify the different layers of the Earth. In this earth science instructional activity, students create a model of the crusts and continents. They explain how plates movement cause earthquakes and volcanoes.