National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: The Great Debate—Bottled Water vs. Tap Water in Our School
Should bottled water be sold in schools, or should they only provide tap water? The summative unit in the six-part series encourages scholars debating this topic. The lessons teach how to build an argument, how to gain background...
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Reading the Dna Code: Making Protein
Students study DNA decoding and protein synthesis. They use the amino acid table to translate DNA, break DNA strands into three nucleotide codes, and translate nucleotides into amino acid protein codes. They research the importance of...
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Water Pressure Blaster
Third graders complete an experiment to introduce them to the concept of water pressure. In this water pressure lesson plan, 3rd graders create pressure in a water bottle and observe the force of water that is created.
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Exploring Mars
Students, working in small groups construct scale models of the planets and solar system. They examine images of Mars and discuss what might have caused the features. They record facts about their planetary research in their journals and...
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Backyard Bacteria
Students demonstrate safe ways to handle bacteria, prepare agar plates, and grow bacterial cultures. They identify different kinds of bacterial colonies, and devise a controlled experiment.
Kenan
Respiratory System
Explore the respiratory system with a model. First, pupils build a set of lungs to experiment how they inflate and deflate. Then, they delve deeper into the topic with a web quest to discover new information about the nose, trachea, and...
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The Five Classes of Vertebrates
What a terrific lesson! Learners discuss the animal kingdom, and classify them as vertebrates and invertebrates. They also identify them as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There is even a taxonomic breakdown of popular...
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Calling All Owls
Learners research various types of owls. In this owls lesson, students observe owls and discuss their characteristics. Learners go to an owl habitat and listen for the call of an owl. Students read The Owl in the Shower and...
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The Great Jellybean Hunt
Students explore natural selection and its influence on the populations to fine tune traits and characteristics. The acquisition of traits developed out of need is examined through a game played in class.
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Hot Air Balloon Design Lesson Plan
Sixth graders discuss what they know and what they want to know about hot air balloon using a KWL chart. They then use a wide array of materials to design a hot air balloon that will lift successfully in cooperative groups referring to...
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Whale Watcher Game Lesson
Students participate in an online whale watching game. They identify the reasons for migration and describe the route. They make predictions on what would happen if the ways did not migrate.
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Exercise and Heartrate
Fourth graders experiment to find the effects of exercise on the heart rate. In this exercise and heart rate lesson, 4th graders create questions about exercise and heart rate. Students use the scientific method to test and analyze...
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Insect Monitoring
Students practice the scientific method in the classroom, either in preparation or as a substitution for real-world field experience. They examine a simulated biodiversity research situation, using a "mini-plot" or
sampling square...
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Where are all the Animals?
Students view animals that camouflage at the Shedd aquarium website. In this camouflage lesson, students recognize that there are different types of camouflage, cryptic coloring, counter-shading, warning coloration and mimicry. Students...
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Predator Protector Game
Learners take on the role of an Ocean Adventures expedition volunteer member and are charged with protecting three species of sharks from danger in order to defend the balance of nature in the ecosystem. They play an online game which...
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The Colors of Seasons
Students observe each season and and mark the colors they see. In this colors of the seasons lessons, students read The Mystery of the Missing Hummingbirds and compare their results and note variations of colors in the different...
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Natural Inquirer Ecosystem Article Lesson
Young scholars discover new ways to preserve the ecosystem by completing graphic organizers. In this environmental lesson plan, students read an article from the Natural Inquirer in small groups and fill out a graphic organizer...
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Stomata: Microscopic Openings that Let Plants Breathe
Students participate in a lab experiment to observe and measure the opening and closing of stomata. They focus on photoperiod, locate and identify stomata on a leaf and explain the role of stomata in the daily functioning of a plant.
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Inference By Analogy
Learners infer the use or meaning of items recovered from a North Carolina Native American site based on 17th-century European settlers' accounts and illustration.
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Call to Arms
Learners explore how scientists build robotic arms that move similar to humans. In this robot lesson, students examine how scientists make robots. Learners design and construct a mechanical arm that moves like a human arm. Students...
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Ocean Grazers: Class Field Trip
Students explore biology by participating in a field trip. In this oceanography lesson plan, students define the survival characteristics of bottom dwelling creatures also known as ocean grazers. Students attend a class field trip to a...
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Gravity, Angles, and Measurement
Students relate math to real life scenarios. In this geometry lesson, students launch a ball tracking each launch using a graph. They analyze their data for speed, angles and distance, trying to improve on each launch.
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Hot Cans and Cold Cans
Students investigate the physics of heating and cooling through conduction, convection, and radiation. Working in groups, they determine the best way to cool a can of water and warm a can of water. Temperature is taken at five minute...
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Energy in a Clean Environment
Students identify and describe the different types of energy and how it is transferred. In this energy lesson students complete several activities including how to calculate joules, adding up wattage, and create a presentation on...