Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Earth Day Lesson

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students analyze Earth science by answering environmental study questions. In this Earth Day lesson, students read the book The Lorax and identify the themes within it. Students define several recycling vocabulary terms and create an...
Unit Plan
Smithsonian Institution

Water/Ways: The Poetry of Science

For Teachers 1st - 12th Standards
Water is the source of life. It appears in poetry in both peaceful and torrential descriptions; it appears in earth science in its liquid, gaseous, and solid states. Combine these interpretations of our planet's most precious and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Watershed Protection

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore environmental care by participating in an Earth science activity. In this clean water activity, students discuss what a watershed is, how they become polluted, and how it affects the overall quality of drinking water....
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Seepy Sandwich

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore Earth science by participating in a pollution activity. In this water infiltration lesson, students utilize a water sprayer, food coloring and slices of bread to simulate how pollution can spread into our drinking water...
Activity
Curated OER

Google Earth Landforms

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this lesson, Google Earth Landforms, students research a landform that has been studied in class. Students explore Google Earth and record everything they find about their landform. Students have the opportunity to extend their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Landslides!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students discover soil and Earth movement by experimenting in class.  In this Earth Science lesson, students utilize a stream table, soil, graduated cylinder and water to create a re-enactment of a landslide.  Students simulate...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Willie the Worm

For Teachers K - 2nd
Young scholars explore Earth science by participating in a compost activity in class. In this worm lesson, students discuss the importance of worms in the creation of plants. Young scholars cut out pieces from a print out to assemble a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make a Windmill

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore Earth science by conducting an energy experiment in class. In this windmill lesson, students identify how wind has been used to pump water throughout history and the latest developments wind energy has produced. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weather, Climate and Atmospheric Process

For Teachers 6th - 7th
Students explore Earth science by completing a could identification activity. In this weather lesson, students discuss the different forms of measurement for the weather of Earth. Students discuss global warming and examine a list of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solar Sweet Tea

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd
Students study the sun. In this heat energy lesson plan, students use the sun's warmth to make tea. They place a few jars with tea bags and water in the sun and discuss what the sun is doing to the water while they wait for the tea to...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make a Solar Oven

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students build a solar oven. In this Science lesson, students construct a functional solar oven. Students design the oven and explain the energy concepts involved.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Litter From Lunchtime

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd
Learners explore environmental care by participating in a litter identification activity. In this food trash lesson, students discuss the destruction litter causes in our environment and ways we can avoid littering ourselves. Learners...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Swimming with Crabs

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore Earth science by completing several graphic organizer activities in class. In this oceanography lesson, students research ocean inhabitants such as blue crab and oysters. Students complete graphic organizers about the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mr. and Mrs. Cress Head

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students explore Earth science by completing a plant art project. In this botany lesson, students utilize tights and soil to create a furry, grassy puppet style animal from cress seeds. Students cut off the excess cress after several...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Notes: Characteristics of Stars

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Learners investigate stars and the solar system by completing a worksheet.  In this space science lesson, students complete a fill in the blank worksheet based on the stars and components of the cosmos. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Science Fiction Stories

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students review the story writing process and the elements such as prewriting, drafting, editing, revising, publishing, and assessment. Next students write a science fiction story that contains a title, the requested number of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

This Mine of Mine

For Teachers K - 4th
Students explore natural resources by conducting a geology experiment in class. For this mineral mining lesson, students discuss the types of geological material that can be found when mining and the uses for these resources such as...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Renewable Energy Sentences

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Learners construct sentences using nouns and verbs from a "renewable energy" word bank. In this cross curriculum ecology and sentence structure grammar and mechanics lesson, students listen to the book Our Earth: Clean Energy by Peggy...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Moon Phases - Finally Making Sense of Them

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students investigate the different phases of the moon.  In this lunar cycle instructional activity, students create models of the sun, earth and moon and investigate why we observe the moon the way we do.  Students observe a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Weather Tools

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students explore Earth science by participating in a weather identification activity. In this scientific instrument lesson, students identify several weather related tools such as the weather vane, thermometer and rain gauge. Students...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How's the Weather?

For Teachers K - 12th
Students explore earth science by researching the Internet. In this weather pattern lesson, students utilize the website weather.com to analyze the weather in different geographic locations. Students view charts and graphs based on...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Dinosaur Detectives

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students write a report about a paleontologist. In this paleontology instructional activity, students research and write a report about a noted paleontologist. They discuss the importance of technology to paleontologists and how...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Off to the Future

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students read a handout and predict the position of the San Andreas Fault far in the future. In this future world lesson, students use a map worksheet to demonstrate the path of the Pacific Plate millions of years from now.
Worksheet
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

Pesky Plastics: The Problem with Plastic

For Students 2nd - 4th Standards
What can happen to the environment if plastic continues to pollute it? Learners read about the implications of plastic on health, water, and nature in a two-page reading passage. After they finish reading, they work on six comprehension...