US Geological Survey
The Water Cycle for Schools: Beginner Ages
Explore a day in the life of a water droplet. An interactive infographic helps scholars learn how water cycles work from precipitation all the way around to condensation. Learners hover over each step of the cycle to read more as they...
Curated OER
Free Fall Graphing Exercise
Twelfth graders practice their graphing skills in an exercise about acceleration due to gravity. Lesson opens with a demonstration of acceleration due to gravity and a brief discussion. Students complete a worksheet and go over answers...
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Science Surprises: Penguins
In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read a 3 paragraph selection about penguins and then respond to 3 short answer questions.
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Fire Triangle in the Forest
Students investigate the physical properties of fire by creating storyboards. In this elements lesson, students view a video clip of forest fires and identify the cause. Students create large storyboards defining the three...
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Autumn
Take a walk through the forest as the leaves change color and fall from the trees, making way for a new ecosystem cycle to cycle through. An inquiry-based lesson plan examines how the process of decomposition eliminates tons of...
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Fall Slumbers
Students observe changes in a selected tree leaf near their homes during the fall. Twice each week students record changes in the leaf using words, pictures, and numbers.
CK-12 Foundation
Newton's Cannon
Gravity does more than keep our feet on the ground — it holds a satellite in orbit, too. Help learners understand the effects of gravity on an orbiting object through a simulation activity. Individuals adjust a launch speed and watch as...
Curated OER
Producers -- Focus on Trees
Students examine the needs of trees and plants. In this forest ecosystem lesson plan students use seedlings to investigate the basic necessities of plants. They discuss the consequences of these basic needs not being met.
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Pigment Puzzles
A hands-on chromatography lesson brings science to the magic of changing autumn leaves. After collecting plant samples, young scientists use paper strips, two liquids, and coffee filters to separate the pigments, then...
Curated OER
Nature Walk
Students participate in a mini field trip around the neighborhood to observe nature and changes that are occurring during fall. They collect leaves of various colors, shapes and sizes on their trip. Upon return to the classroom, they...
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Autumn Colors Shine Through
Pupils create colorful stained-glass Autumn window decorations. They shave crayons with scissors, melt the crayons in wax paper with an iron, and cut out a leaf pattern to display on windows.
Curated OER
Biochemical Cycles
When learning about several different processes at a time, it can be difficult to differentiate between them. In the resource found here, you can see what your kids know about some of Earth's systems including the carbon, hydrologic,...
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Fall Leaves
In this leaf press worksheet, students glue or draw a picture of a tree in the left column. Students then press a leaf between sheets of newspaper and heavy books. When dry, students glue the leaf in the right column. Students than...
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Signs of Autumn
Second graders study photosynthesis and explore how chlorophyll is important to leaves and why leaves change colors in the fall.
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Observing Trees
Students create a timeline of a tree in a given time span. In this life cycle lesson, students observe one particular tree at the beginning of the year, and continue their observations for several weeks to create a timeline of the...
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Weather and Seasons: Mt. Seymour Winter Fieldtrip
Students explore winter adaptations and glare. For this winter weather lesson, students discuss the season of winter and how animals and plants adapt to the changing weather. Students discuss the glare off snow and make goggles for their...
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Amazon Water Cycle Role Play
Students participate in a role play where they play clouds, the ocean, rain drops, and more in order to learn about the water cycle. For this water cycle lesson plan, students have discussions and learn vocabulary.
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The Four Seasons
In spring the flowers bloom, summer is hot, fall is full of colorful leaves, and winter is cold and snowy. If this sounds like your area of the country, then this presentation would be great for helping you describe each season and its...
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Why Are Plants Green?
Pupils smash plant parts and wait for visibility of chlorophyl to show why plants turn green. In this green plants lesson plan, students use acetone and filter paper for this experiment.
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The Human Impact on the Environment
Despite the typos and formatting issues, the Word document found here has some great potential. There are two questions that ask learners to put several events in a logical order; these could easily be made into a card sort activity....
TerraCycle
What Can Nature Teach Us about Sustainable Design?
Talk about Velcro®, Gecko Tape, WhalePower turbine blades, and other innovations that mimic nature to inspire your STEM or engineering class. This set of worksheets gets them thinking about imitating nature in terms of sustainable...
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The Work of Waves and Wind
This is not revolutionary, but it is informative. Earth science viewers in grades 7-12 get carried away with wave and wind erosion. They view diagrams of how waves impact ocean shorelines. They see examples of the different types of sand...
Curated OER
Harvest!
A visually entertaining PowerPoint on farming is here for you. Specifically, the presentation takes you and your pupils through the harvest of corn and soybeans. All of the machinery used in harvesting, storing, and sending the products...
Curated OER
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf
Young scholars discuss the differences between a storybook and an information book. Students use various materials found in nature to make a nature collage. Young scholars make a nature dictionary using pictures and their own definitions...