Curated OER
What's the Difference?
Students discover how volcanic processes differ at convergent and divergent tectonic plate boundaries. They identify three geologic features that are associated with most volcanoes on Earth.
Curated OER
The Rock Cycle
Third graders study the 3 main types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic. They examine samples of these types of rocks and discuss ways to tell what kind of rock each is. They take notes and draw pictures in their science...
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Earthquakes
Students observe the melting of ice. In this phase change instructional activity, students observe ice as it melts. They discuss the process and create a Venn diagram comparing water and ice.
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Design an Island
Learners make a map of an imaginary island using the topographic symbols provided from a worksheet. Students place lakes, dwellins, reefs, etc. in areas where they would logically be located from understanding how the topography of an...
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The Magic School Bus Rocks and Rolls
Students participate in a science experiment to show them the power that water erosion has to sculpt stone. They explore how running water moves earth and creates new landforms.
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A Hydrothermal Adventure
Students analyze hydrothermal vents. In this hydrothermal vents lesson plan, students discover the effects of hydrothermal vents on tectonic plates. Students make model hydrothermal vents to understand how they form and operate.
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Particle Size and Oil Production
Young scholars investigate how permeable different materials are. In this physics lesson, students determine what affects permeability and how permeability relates to oil production.
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Creating Journals
Students take a virtual tour of Yosemite and selects photographs to use in their journal.
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Excavating the Past
Learners discover how palaeontologists conduct a dig for fossils and how they interpret the age of the fossils. In small groups, they prepare a "dig site" consisting of bones, rocks and soil layered in a cardboard box. They switch boxes...
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Why Do We Need Petroleum?
Students learn the many ways petroleum is used in our industrial society, and the advantages and disadvantages of its use. They explore what it would be like to live in a world without petroleum.
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Aquifers and Recharge Areas
Middle schoolers create a model of an aquifer and describe how an aquifer works. They describe how running affects an aquifer and prepare a model presenting to local planners the important aspects of protecting recharge areas.
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Three-dimensional cooperative modeling
Young scholars explore what is present below the surface in order to drill into the ground and record the type of material that the drill brings to the surface. They discuss the benefits and drawbacks of distance communications. ...
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Jupiter's "Monstrous" Magnetosphere
Students explore Jupiter's magnetosphere. In this Jupiter lesson, students examine a diagram of the magnetic field that surrounds Jupiter.
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Science: Trouble in the Troposphere
Students research a NASA Website and record information about an assigned city's tropospheric ozone residual monthly climate. In groups, they graph the information for the past year. They form new groups and compare their city's...
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Plotting Earthquakes
Students plot earthquakes on a map. In this lesson on earthquakes, students will explore recent earthquake activity in California and Nevada. Students will plot fault lines and earthquake occurrences on a map.
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Building for the Big One
Young scholars build and test structures that can best withstand earthquakes. They create their structures from playdough, cornstarch, grape-nuts and popsicle sticks and place their structures on a "shake table."
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Earthquake Proof Structures
Eighth graders build a structure that is able to withstand a simulated earthquake. They research earthquakes, earthquake measurement, and society's preparation for and reaction to them. Pupils build models and present them to the...
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What's In A Name
Second graders read Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. They then discuss where various names come from. They create a individualized biopoem and publish it on word processing software. Their poems are compiled into a class book and presented...
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Carving Mountains
Students explore geography by participating in an illustration activity. In this land-form lesson, students define vocabulary terms associated with glaciers and forests. Students utilize pens, cardboard and pottery clay to draw and...
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Exploring for Petroleum - Modeling an Oil Reserve
Students experiment with locating oil reserves. In this conservation lesson, students use a cardboard box to create sand, rocks, and an oil reserve (water balloon). They use a probe to dig around in the box to find the oil reserve and...
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Science: What Happens to Create the Lode?
Students understand how mineral deposits are formed and why they are not evenly dispersed. They create and describe three different precipitates from four solutions simulating mineral ore deposit formation in sedimentary rock.
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Relative Dating - Telling Time Using Fossils
Pupils use fossil range charts to explain relative dating. They graph for ammonites, marine organisms that went extinct at the same time as dinosaurs.
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Give me Food!
Young scholars study the food guide pyramid and use it to create their own eating program.In this health lesson students visit websites to calculate their BMR, activity level and weight then create a nutrition plan
University of California
University of California Museum of Paleontology: Geology and Geologic Time
This site provides information about the geologic relationships of rock layers, as well as much about geologic time and the history of Earth.