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Volcano Lesson Plans
Volcano and earthquake lessons can provide a great way to link science instruction to current events.
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TE Lesson: Tsunami Attack!
Young scholars examine how earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides can trigger tsunami waves. They determine how engineers use sensors to detect the dangerous wave, and how they help design building that will survive the wave force and...
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The Motions of the Oceans
Students examine the topics of ocean waves, currents, and tides. They locate and label ocean currents on a world map, conduct experiments, analyze key vocabulary, view demonstrations and record the data, and complete handouts.
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Faulty Movement
Students discover the faults throughout the Earth. They describe the different types of faults and how they are related to earthquakes. They build models of the faults.
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Tightrope Trials
Learners research the concepts of center of mass and how to make different things balance. They make symmetrical cut-outs of different "creatures" and experiment with how they balance on a tightrope of string.
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Shake It Up with Scatterplots
Students identify how to use a scatterplot to compare two sets of data to determine if they are related. Then they identify and describe the definition of regression line (the "line of best fit"). Students also identify how scientists...
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Mapping Plate Boundaries
Students discover plate boundaries based on the uneven geographic occurrence of geologic hazards. After discussing geologic hazards, students plot different sets of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on maps.
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Getting Fired Up
Students explore first-person accounts of volcanic eruptions throughout time and use second-hand information about volcanoes. They use both types of accounts to write news articles covering the events of a historic volcanic eruption as...
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The Dynamics of Plate Tectonics
Simple lab and modeling activities can help your students understand the movements of the Earth's crust.
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Waves Interference
Students identify different wave types and their characteristics. In this wave lesson students complete activities by activating tuning forks and interpreting data.
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"Going Green": How We're Building a Better World
Students can learn about "green" building with these lessons and activities.
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Waves Lesson Plan
Students demonstrate an understanding of tsunamis and possible causes. In this investigative lesson plan students view a video and explore earthquakes and movement of tectonic plates.
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Building A Topographic Model
Pupils visualize, in three dimensions, features represented by contour lines on a topographic map. They see that the different elevations shown on a two dimensional topographic map can be used to build a 3-D model.
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Let's Take a Rock Apart
Students take a crushed rock and sort the remains of the rock minerals into different categories based on the different properties. In this sorting lesson plan, students learn what makes up a rock and how to sort something into categories.
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The Day The Earth Shook
Pupils explore structural engineering through three design challenges. They examine information about some architectural features that work and those that don't during an earthquake. Students build and test their structure and record...
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Natural Disasters
Ninth graders write a description of a natural disaster. They list as many natural disasters as they can think of. The class discusses any natural disasters individuals have witnessed first hand. They watch a brief clip of a film that...
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Making News
Students explore the news media. In this social studies lesson, students discuss what the definition of news is. Students write a newspaper article about positive activity that students at their school are involved in.
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Plate Tectonics
Students examine plate tectonics and landforms. In this plate tectonics lesson plan students complete an activity. Students practice drawing maps that show different fault lines and the land formations that were caused.
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Agents of Erosion
Fourth graders explore the agents of erosion. They observe rocks that are rough and unweathered and record observations. They investigate rocks rubbed with sandpaper and ones that are not and the effects that the sandpaper has on the...
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It's Really Heating Up in Here!
Students create and observe a greenhouse effect model and discuss the implications of global warming theory for engineers, themselves and the Earth. They discover that Global warming is becoming an increasing concern as we learn more...
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Leaning Tower of Pasta
Students experiment with different structures to determine which ones are able to handle the greatest amount of load using spaghetti and marshmallows. They discuss how engineers design buildings, construct their buildings and complete a...
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The Magic School Bus Kicks Up a Storm
Young scholars learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students discover small updrafts by making wind spirals.
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Plate Tectonics
Curious kids examine plate tectonics and give examples of their movement. They recognize how plates change the Earth through video, and web-based articles. In small groups, they receive complete a tectonics puzzle by silently switching...
Teach Engineering
Projectile Magic
What do the movies October Key and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone have in common? The fourth installment of a five-part module presents equations regarding projectile motion and how to rearrange them. Scholars view video clips...