The goal of this collection of lessons is to make middle schoolers more aware of the ways in which they are dependent upon water to maintain their standard of living. Learners compare water use in Lesotho to water use in the United...

Open learners' eyes to the challenge of finding safe drinking water – something we often take for granted in our country. The PowerPoint presentation includes images, graphs, diagrams, and even a video to stimulate discussion on how we...

It may be tricky for a young mind to conceptualize that less than 1% of all water on earth is useable for humans to drink. Simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth by removing measured amounts of water from a five-gallon...

How much plastic do manufacturers use to create water bottles each year? The class explores the number of water bottles used throughout the years to determine how many consumers will use in the future. Class members compare different...

Fourth graders discover facts about rice and how it is farmed. In this rice research instructional activity, 4th graders investigate how much rice is eaten in the United States compared to other countries. Students research countries and...

Write-on! Demonstrate a writing model and support learners as they write an informational essay on a water resource issue of your (or their) choosing. The lesson plan provides a well-scaffolded summative writing...

Learners investigate how the human body needs water by recording their water consumption for a day. They sing a song about drinking water, make and drink Kool-Aid and eat apple slices, and conduct an experiment to determine how much...

What does the ground around your home have to do with water pollution? Young ecologists learn about their local watershed and create their own cause-and-effect models of the hydrosphere.

Students determine the presence of drugs in water. In this chemistry lesson plan, students experiment on water samples using thin layer and column chromatography. They determine the concentration of drugs present using graphical analysis.

Learners explore ways to protect the earth.  In this environmental issues and technology lesson, students investigate the water quality in their community and compare their findings to the water quality in other geographic...

Hook your class up to an online home energy usage calculator so that they can estimate the amount used per month by their families. Then give them Watt meters with which they will measure the power consumption of several small...

It's time to increase the heat! Young chemists demonstrate heat transfer and heat capacity in an activity-packed lab, showing the transitions between solid, liquid, and gaseous phases of materials. Individuals plot data as the...

Is there a correlation between a country's wealth and the extent of its ecological footprint? What exactly constitutes an ecological footprint, and how does one country stack up against the rest? This is a unique lesson to incorporate...

Learners describe how temperature and surface area exposure affect the rate at which fuel is consumed. They explain why engineers want to know about the properties of a fuel when designing rockets. They create a bar graph of result data.

Learners participate in classroom experiment to gain better understanding of type of environment brine shrimp can best survive. Students then explore effects of common saltwater pollutants on survival of animals in sea.

These are four classic activities used for instructing upper elementary electricians. The first involves experimenting with the Van de Graaff generator. The second is a series of hands-on experiences with static. In the third activity,...

Young students are introduced to the complex systems of the Earth through numerous lessons on its natural resources, processes, weather, climate and landforms. Key earth science topics include rocks, soils and minerals, water and natural...