Curated OER
Transportation Fuels: The Future is Today
Assign each group of 3-4 upper elementary engineers to a different type of transportation fuel. A background information page is provided to get them started with researching their assigned fuel. Each group then produces an exhibit...
Endangered Species Coalition
Endangered Species Day Art
Albrecht Durer created a highly textured stamp or print of a rhinoceros. To better understand which animals are near extinction, upper graders create similar prints of endangered animals they've researched. The six-day lesson plan...
Peace Corps
Celebrating Our Connections Through Water
Water is vital for survival, but how does it help global cultures flourish? Elementary and middle schoolers learn about the different cultures around the world that celebrate water and incorporate it into their festivals or traditions.
Curated OER
Fighting Corrosion to Save an Ancient Greek Bronze
Study corrosion on bronze statues with a hands-on lesson. As pupils place a penny in water with salt, they observe the changes in the penny throughout a period of a week. They then analyze the pre-conservation and the...
Curated OER
What Makes a Cat a Cat?
Students investigate the lives of pets by videotaping them. In this animal life lesson, students videotape a cat and other pets using school cameras in a computer lab. Students review the footage from the cat and other...
Curated OER
Panther Exam: Writing a Play
Students demonstrate their knowledge of panthers by writing a play on the subject. In this animal life lesson, students view a slide-show on school computers of a veterinary exam of a panther. Students utilize this...
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
Butterfly Lesson Plans
Students study the life cycle of the Monarch Chrysalis. In this butterfly life cycle lesson, students study the monarch butterfly life cycle and focus on the fourth stage of the life cycle. Students draw a picture about the fourth stage...
Clean Up Australia
Why are Batteries Harmful to the Environment?
Open this lesson by reading together about primary and secondary batteries (such as nickel-cadmium cells), problems they can cause in the environment, and how humans can minimize the damage. Afterward, little ones examine a collection of...
Michigan State University
Gases Matter
Young scientists learn that seeing isn't necessarily believing when it comes to the states of matter. After performing a fun class demonstration that models the difference between solids, liquids, and gases, children complete a series of...
NASA
Cleaning Water
From their sweat to the water vapor in their breath, astronauts recycle every possible drop of water while in space. After watching a short video describing the different ways materials are recycled and reused in space...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Fish Morphology
Life comes in all different shapes and sizes, and fish are no exception. Here, young scientists create fish prints as they learn how specific characteristics allow different species to survive in their particular habitats.
Education Outside
Creature Jeopardy!
After conducting research on a given scientific animal name, group members take a walk around their school and look for the specified animals in that classification. Then, they come back to their worksheets and create five creative clues...
Curated OER
Made from Animals
Here is a terrific lesson for elementary schoolers on products that come from animals. In it, pupils discover that we get a lot more than just food from animals. After a class discussion and teacher-led demonstration, learners utilize...
Curated OER
Planetary Jeopardy!
Space Science can be so much fun, especially when you play Planetary Jeopardy! This game tests students on what they know about Roman Gods, the planets and moons in our solar system, and the Earth's rotation.
Curated OER
Physical Changes and States of Matter - One
Third graders study the three states of matter and identify the physical changes that take place between them. There is an initial teacher-led demonstration followed by a meaningful whole-class inquiry. These two activities should lead...
Curated OER
A Horse of a Different Color
Elementary schoolers explore the wide variety of horse coat colors and reproduce an existing color as well a create their own horse coat color. There are two fine worksheets embedded in this plan that learners use to crete these coat...
Curated OER
Suncsreen
This is a terrific resource for practicing the scientific method or for examining the claims of different sunscreens when learning about electromagnetic radiation. You may have to improvise, however, as it was written to accompany a...
Virginia Department of Education
Mystery Iron Ions
Young chemists perform an experiment to determine if a compound is iron (II) chloride or iron (III) chloride. Then they determine the formula, balance the equation, and answer analysis questions.
Virginia Department of Education
Properties of Compounds and Chemical Formulas
Young chemists have unknown compounds they need to sort. Performing three different tests on each, the chemical behaviors they observe become the basis for data analysis.
Curated OER
Edible Numbers
Believe it or not, this is a 76-page series of lesson plans published by the California Commission on Agriculture which is designed to teach upper-elementary learners about agricultural practices and products in the state. There are two...
American Chemical Society
A Dissolving Challenge
After collecting carbon dioxide bubbles from a cup of club soda, learners attempt to make their own lemon soda while preventing the loss of carbonation. They do so by creating a syrup before mixing the substances into the club soda....
Curated OER
Human Body Series - Digestive System
With articles entitled, "What's Puke?" and "What is a Fart?" this digestive system lesson is sure to be a gas! Elementary anatomists do a belly dance to illustrate how food moves through the digestive system and then design a board game...
Curated OER
Dinosaur reports-4 blocks guided reading & focused writing (Elementary, 4 Blocks)
Students read books about dinosaurs for book club groups and then participate in focused writing. In this reading and writing lesson, students work together over the course of three days to produce a group story about a dinosaur.