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Aquatic Ecosystem Exploration
Students visit a local stream, pond, creek, or river and collect macroinvertebrates. They sort macroinvertebrates and identify each species using a dichotomous key. Students decide on trophic levels and construct a possible food web for...
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What If There's No Light?
students discuss the importance of light and the consequences of living without it. Using a plant as a demonstration, students predict and observe what happens to a plant when it does not receive enough light. In groups, they experiment...
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Runoff: Intro to Watersheds
Students are taught that a watershed is, what types of basic land cover are impermeable and permeable to water. They trace the flow of water around their school and around their home. Students determine what watershed their school is a...
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Water Chestnut Graphing Activity
Students are taught how to format and enter data into an Excel spreadsheet. They make a graph and interpret graphed data. Students discuss possible impacts of water chestnut invasion. They graph data on water chestnut. Students report...
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Wastewater
Students discuss what happens to their wastewater. They read about the wastewater treatment process. Students are asked what types of things get flushed down toilets or goes down drains in sinks and showers. They are taught what happens...
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Hudson Valley Rocks
Students identify each of the rocks provided and locate where in the valley they are found. They explain why the rocks came to be as they are in each location. In addition, they relate the exercise to how the Hudson Valley's geologic...
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Glacial Groundwater
Students study glacial deposition and groundwater in Dutchess County, new York. They identify the permeability rates in different glacial deposits and relate this information to ground water capacity of sediments found in Dutchess...
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How Much Water is in That River?
Students practice measurement using the Hudson River. They calculate the discharge measurement at a location on the Hudson River using ingenuity and a topographic map.
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Globalization
Students explore the impact of technology around the world. In this globalization lesson, students read the noted articles about the effects of technology on day-to-day activities. Students then participate in a classroom discussion of...
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Lead Poisoning and Environmental Health
Students explore issues surrounding lead poisoning. They investigate how and why government agencies and laws were established to protect the public. Students examine the national EPA Elimination Plan. Students design a campaign to...
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Effects of Lead Poisoning on the Human Body
Students research where lead can be found in homes and industrial job sites, and the effects of lead on the human body. They conduct Internet research, develop a lead checklist to be used in the home or at work, and write a three-page...
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Bioethics And Fetal Tissue Research
Students are introduced to the topic of fetal tissue implantation. In groups, they examine a case study and share information with the rest of the class. Then they do a reflective writing assignment to assess understanding of the ethical...
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Disease and Epidemics
Students explore how disease and epidemics have the potential to shape communities. They examine their impact on culture and specifically the literature of the time. Students investigate how trade routes accelerated the movement of...
National First Ladies' Library
Leeches and Spiders and Toads, Oh, My! The Emergence of Modern Medicine
Students explore the basic ideas and beliefs about medicine in the 18th and 19th centuries. They write a news account to be published in a "medical journal" developed by the class. Each "article" in the journal should be dated...
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the Potential Consequences of Climate Variability And Change
Students analyze the consequences of changing variables on a system. Changes in a model are measured and recorded and conclusions drawn based on the data provided in this six lessons unit.
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Air Pollution: A Local and Global Problem
Learners work together to solve the problem of air pollution. Using the Internet, they research the pollution problem in one city. Using the data, they develop their own solution and pitch it to the class. They must identify the...
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ToxMystery Lesson Plan 1: Introduction to Common Household Chemical Hazards
Pupils participate in ToxMystery, a computer game, where they discover potential environmental health hazards in rooms of a common household. In this lesson plan on household safety, students first brainstorm possible hazards in the...
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A Body Dilemma
Learners explore the pros and cons of the selling of body parts in this lesson. A discussion of how personal value systems impact science and research is developed.
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TE Lesson: Out of Breath
Young scholars study the parts of the human respiratory system while examining the gas exchange that takes place in the lungs. They make a model lung. They look at how the respiratory system is affected by spaceflight.
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Genetic Research: Decisions to be Made
High schoolers examine the genetics involved in the human genome. They brainstorm the advantages and disadvantages to this discovery. They research different experts opinion and write a case study which addresses an ethical dilemma.
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Health Care
Students analyze information and draw conclusions about the reality of human life expectancy; the battle between health care technology and our own internal time clocks. Students answer questions such as "Why does aging occur and can...
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Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?
Interesting! Have your high schoolers watch this 13-minute clip from the documentay, "Are We Scaring Ourselves to Death?" It examines the fear we have as a culture about death and whether or not the media increases those fears. The focus...
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The Beagle Brigade
Middle schoolers develop an understanding of animal behaviors through reading a case study about detector beagles. They explore the interaction of innate abilities and learned behaviors.
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Requiring HPV vaccine
Students research the HPV vaccine and discover what it is supposed to do. In gropus, they consult with doctors and local health officials to discover the possible side effects of the vaccine and presents their findings to the class. They...