Exploratorium
Seeing Your Blind Spot
Viewers use a small, dimmed flashlight to identify the blind spot for both the right and left eye. It is a simple activity to incorporate into your activities during a lesson on vision and the structure and function of the eyeball.
Busch Gardens
Create an Invertebrate
What better way for young biologists to learn about invertebrates than by creating their very own? Here, students are assigned a set of invertebrate characteristics and are asked to invent an imaginary ocean animal...
Curated OER
Plant Power
Here is an opportunity for your first graders to take a close look at plants: what they need to survive, how they grow, and the names of each plant part. The book, Corduroy's Garden is used to open the activity. Then, youngsters utilize...
Mathematics Vision Project
Quadratic Functions
Inquiry-based learning and investigations form the basis of a deep understanding of quadratic functions in a very thorough unit plan. Learners develop recursive and closed methods for representing real-life situations,...
Curated OER
Room to Grow
Students examine radish plants and compare how they grew based on how closely the seeds were sown. In this life science lesson, students pretend to be growing plants crowded together, then examine how the radishes look based on how much...
Curated OER
The Big Circle
Students explore geography by participating in a mapping activity. In this concentric ring instructional activity, students utilize a poster board, string and markers to identify their current location within the entire world. Students...
Curated OER
Marine Animals on the Move
Young scholars work with partners to track tagged animals using real-time data from satellites. Students gather and analyze data, compile information and conclusions and then prepare a final presentation of their research.
Curated OER
Information Fluency Unit
Second graders create a proposal for the Science Spectrum to have an exhibit of a wide variety of aquatic animals for the children of the South Plains. These students would like to see aquatic animals up close.
Curated OER
Exercise and the Human Heart
Interpret data and learn about the human heart in one activity! After learning about the way blood flows in the body, fifth graders answer two questions about a graph displaying pulse rate. They then take their own pulses to find the...
Curated OER
All About Germs
How do people get sick? Youngsters explore the world of germs and microbes with a lab sheet and science investigation. After identifying the unhygenic practices in a picture of a kitchen, fifth graders conduct an experiment with bread...
National Park Service
Who Grows There?
More than 127 non-native species live in Glacier National Park in Montana and their infestations are growing! Pupils read about and gather samples of exotic plants. Participants create a master book of pressed plants and complete a...
Curated OER
DNA on Stick
Learners experience a "hands-on" activity to get visual evidence of the physical nature of DNA and the process of DNA purification. They explore one method of chromosomal DNA isolation and DNA extraction.
Curated OER
You've Got to Have Heart
After reading an excellent description of the human heart, fifth graders look at a drawing of a human body, and choose the circle they think represents where the human heart is found. There are four circles inside the character's chest....
Curated OER
Sand Explorations
Students experiment with different samples of sand from Maui leeward and windward beaches. They create a sand map to suggest at least one contributing factor for the formation of each beach sample. They test the samples to determine...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
The greenhouse effect is important, for without it, life on Earth would not exist. An activity that includes modeling the greenhouse effect and acting out the Earth's energy balance makes up the first part in a series of seven...
Curated OER
Fish Eyes - More than Meets the Eye
Inform your class about the adaptations in fish eyes: cones, lens size, endothermy, and speed of vision. The adaptations are related to diving behavior. Junior marine scientists compare the adaptations of four different fish species to...
University of Wisconsin
Rain Garden Species Selection
The activity really comes to life within its intended unit on starting a rain garden. Working in groups, participants research native plants and coordinate them with the conditions in the designated garden area. Give the class access to...
Curated OER
Gadget Anatomy
Sure to be a hit with your charges, here is a science lesson that has lots of hands-on activities packed into it. The focus is simple machines, and how they help us perform work. After a discussion and demonstration session, groups of...
Scholastic
Hillary Conquers Everest
If a field trip to the summit of Mount Everest isn't in your school budget, make the trek virtually! An interactive instructional activity allows class members to follow Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's trail up the mountain, and...
Curated OER
The Life Of Bees
Students explore the matriarchal structure of a bee colony. They participate in various activities to identify the structure of a bee colony and the roles of each type of bee plays in the colony. Vocabulary and a worksheet with answer...
Curated OER
Leap! Frog!
Students write a report stating facts and opinions based on frogs. Investigate and understand the changes that take place during the life cycle of a frog. Respond to language, meanings and ideas in different texts, relating them to...
Curated OER
Burnaby Lake Field Trip
Students identify different organisms found in the lake ecosystem. In this life science lesson, students discover the predator-prey relationship through a game. They explain how beavers adapt to the environment over time.
Space Awareness
A View From Above
Analyzing and interpreting satellite data takes knowledge and patience. Through a detailed lab investigation, young scholars learn the process of analyzing this data. They use technology to create color images and maps from real...
National Park Service
It Was a Very Good Year
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park includes whitebark pines that are over 1,200 years old, meaning they have been there since before medieval times. The second lesson of five details how to read tree rings for climate change and...