Curated OER
Subsurface Contamination of Groundwater
Students watch a demonstration with a balloon filled with water being buried in a milk container that has been cut length wise and filled with sand. Students are told that there is an underground storage tank filled with a contaminate...
Curated OER
Playful Pinwheels
Students examine the advantages and disadvantages of wind energy. As a class, they follow specific instructions to make their own pinwheel. They decorate pinwheel as they choose and practice using art supplies correctly.
Curated OER
Sand Painting
Students design and create Navajo Sand Paintings using sand, powdered tempera paints, and basic art supplies in this Art lesson for elementary classrooms. The history behind sand paintings can be included with this lesson for a complete...
Curated OER
What is Air?
Students investigate air by participating in a class experiment. In this matter measurement lesson, students identify air as a gas which consists of mass. Students utilize a windsock or balloon to measure oxygen and explore it's true...
Curated OER
Arsenic Contamination: Natural Disaster or Human Induced?
Young scholars list as a class the sources of arsenic contamination of water. They describe the major health effects of arsenic contamination in a letter. Students identify the regions that are affected by it.
Curated OER
Endangered Species- Florida Panther
Students investigate the concept of the conservation of the Florida Panther and examine the effects of the Everglades water restoration project. They conduct a web based activity that includes the following: Listing what they know,...
Curated OER
Sediment Tubes
Pupils observe how different density soils and rocks behave in wind and in water. They make predictions and careful observations as they explore sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
Curated OER
What Goes On Down Under?
High schoolers explore the sources for recharge and discharge of groundwater. They research the connection between surface water and groundwater. Students construct a model of an aquifer and explore recharge and discharge of the aquifer.
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
Sunlight and Heat
Students brainstorm about the sources of heat. They discuss that sunlight is one of those sources. Students complete a lab about cold water and warm water. They record the temperatures from each thermometer and discuss which container...
Curated OER
African Safari
Sixth graders gain an appreciation for the different cultures that inhabit the Earth by focusing on the people of Africa
Curated OER
A Cosmic Cafeteria
Learners indentify and differentiate between transit and surface food systems. Students measure energy that is released by various foods. Learners compare and contrast cooking with solar energy on earth and what they might have learned...
Science Matters
Eruptions and Volcano Types
The Mammoth Lakes area regularly releases warnings to hikers and skiers to be careful because melting snow releases trapped gases from volcanic vents. The 17th lesson plan in the 20-part series opens with a demonstration of carbon...
Curated OER
Ecosystems
Sixth graders perform various labs, create presentations, and do hands on activities to explore the ecosystem.
Curated OER
Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Resources
Here's a fine lesson plan on renewable and non-renewable sources of energy for your 5th graders. In it, learners list a number of natural resources on the board, then try to sort the resources into appropriate categories. This helps them...
Forest Foundation
Forests, Carbon & Our Climate
To conclude their examination of forest ecosystems, class members consider the role forests play in the carbon cycle and how forests can offset climate change.
National Wildlife Federation
When It Rains It Pours More Drought and More Heavy Rainfall
Which is worse — drought or flooding? Neither is helpful to the environment, and both are increasing due to climate change. The 16th lesson plan in a series of 21 covers the average precipitation trends for two different climates within...
Curated OER
Predicting the Growth of Microorganisms
Students determine where microorganisms might be found around their school. In this scientific investigation lesson, students collect cultures from various locations and place these in petri dishes. They incubate the cultures to see if...
Curated OER
Dirty Decomposers
Students explore the ecosystem by conducting a ziploc bag experiment. In this recycling lesson, students identify decomposer organisms in our environment and how they speed up the recycling process. Students utilize a ziploc plastic bag,...
Curated OER
Renewable vs. Non-Renewable Resources
Fifth graders, after brainstorming why conservation of resources is important, distinguish between renewable and non-renewable resources. They make a list of different types of natural resources on the board and then sort them into two...
Curated OER
Planting Seeds Around the World
First graders discuss the book The Lorax and research what living things need. In this environmental lesson plan, 1st graders investigate how humans affect the growth of plants. Students conduct an experiment with sunflowers.
Curated OER
Parts of an Ecosystem
Fourth graders study the Great Salt lake and the ecosystem that encompasses it. They study the relationship between an individual of a species, a population of that species, a community that includes that population, and the...
Captain Planet Foundation
Rotting Away
What happens at the end of a plant's life cycle? Show kids the natural way that plants show that they're decomposing, as well as the importance of compost, with a lesson about living organisms. After reading Log Cabin by Anne Schreiber,...
Curated OER
Acid Rain
Simulated acid rain, a dilute sulfuric acid solution, needs to be prepared for this demonstration. After a condensed lecture on acid rain, you will apply the solution to a sample of granite and a sample of limestone. Your young...