Curated OER
Lotto or Life: What Are the Chances?
Though the website does not seem to have the mentioned video, a reding and lottery style games simulate the chances of finding intelligent life somewhere other than Earth. Without the video, this lesson is short, but it can be a useful...
Curated OER
Games on Echolocation
Get a little batty with life science! This fun simulation game replicates how bats use echolocation to hunt moths in their native Hawaiian habitat. After creating blind folds and discussing some basic principles of echolocation, students...
NOAA
Sustaining Our Ocean Resources
Lead young scientists on an investigation of fishery practices with the final installment of this four-part unit. Using a PowerPoint presentation and hands-on simulation, this activity engages children in learning how fish populations...
Curated OER
Teaching Radioactive Decay: Radioactive Half-life And Dating Techniques
Learners generate a radioactive decay table for an imaginary element using a box filled with pinto beans and M&M's. They use their data to plot a decay graph, develop the concept of half-life, and use the graph to "age" several samples.
NOAA
An Ocean of Energy
Young biologists trace the path of the sun's energy through marine ecosystems in the second part of this four-lesson series. Building on prior knowledge about producers, consumers, and decomposers students are introduced to the concept...
Curated OER
Visiting a Marine Sanctuary
Students gather information on a kelp forest and identify species in that ecosystem. In this underwater ecosystem lesson students gather data, give an oral presentation and create a poster.
Curated OER
Marine & Aquatic Habitats Activities - Marine Ecology
Middle schoolers enact the life cycle of a sessile animal and quantify the possibility of survival under the conditions given. They then present to the class a new adaptation which will increase the animals chance of survival.
Prince William Network
The Incredible Journey
Divide your school gym into breeding grounds and non-breeding grounds so that your zoologists can play a game simulating the seasonal migration of shorebirds. Players pick one of the included game cards and follow its directions, which...
Teach Engineering
Processes on Complex Networks
Introduces your class to random processes in networks with an activity that uses information about disease spread using the susceptible, infectious, resistant (SIR) model. Participants determine whether a susceptible person becomes...
Curated OER
Earth's Age: The Dating Game
Students conduct a simulation to determine radioactive decay and half-life. Using pennies, dice or sugar cubes as isotopes placed in shoe boxes simulating rocks, they hold five trials representing 1000 years each to find the theoretical...
Curated OER
How Many Animals?
Students use their math skills to develop estimates for the population of several animal species native to the Austrailian rainforest. It is a simulation that researchers at the Center for Rainforest Studies in Australia perform to...
Curated OER
Social Justice-Water in Developing Countries
Students explore how water shortage affects everyday life. In this social justice lesson, students discuss information about water shortage in Ghana. A water shortage simulation/game is played in which a "Canadian" team starts with a...
Curated OER
Hopping For Candy
Students explore recipes online for different types of candy, and simulate process of making candy to explain how candy makers rely on varied temperatures and basic chemistry to produce perfect sweets.
Curated OER
Meet Geodesy-The Science Behind GPS
Students discover how a datum of reference points are used to to describe a location. In this Earth Science lesson, students will simulate how a GPS accurately determines the location of reference points within a datum.
Curated OER
Digestion Simulation
Pupils study the human digestion system and the functions of the stomach and small intestines. For this digestion lesson students view a demonstration on the process.
Curated OER
Birds, Baths And Oil Spills
Students examine effects of an oil spill on birds and animals that inhabit marine or freshwater ecosystems, and simulate procedures used by rescue workers who rescue and rehabilitate birds and other animals coated with oil.
PBS
Inventions
Use this lesson plan to discuss inventions that have changed your class's world and have impacted society. Middle schoolers investigate important inventions of their time and design an invention in a simulated business atmosphere. Modify...
National Wildlife Federation
Massive Migrations
Turn your students into flocks of migratory birds for this fun lesson on animal migration. Prior to the activity, the teacher creates four different migration routes in the classroom or any available open space, labeling nesting...
Curated OER
Wildlife Sampling-Capture-Recapture
Seventh graders simulate the capture-recapture method of population sampling using beans. For this biology lesson, 7th graders calculate the total population of beans in the bowl. They assess whether this method is reliable or not.
Curated OER
CATCH, TAG and RELEASE
Pupils apply estimation strategies for problem-solving purposes. They become familiar with one aspect of a marine biologist's work.
Curated OER
Law of Large Numbers - Hospital
Students explore concepts of probability and independent events. They develop a formula for deviation percentage.
Curated OER
Coral Reefs: Gardens Under the Sea
Students discover the wonders of coral reefs while listening to a book about them. In a Reading Rainbow video activity, they simulate a dive, check equipment and explore a reef. Role-playing as marine biologists, students uncover...
Curated OER
Wildlife
The centerpiece of this lesson plan is a predator-prey simulation in which colored paperclips represent different species of animals camouflaged against a colored background. Relevant follow-up questions are provided. The activity is...
Curated OER
Is There Life Before 121?
Students observe microbial growth in the lab. In this biology lesson plan, students determine the conditions suitable for bacterial growth. They explain the methods of sterilization and bioburden testing.