Lesson Plan
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Change or Adaptation

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners identify the adaptive forces in the life cycle of plants, animals, and humans, isolate and identify the role that change and adaptation play in extreme environments and research and write a short term paper using MLA citations.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Make Your Own Recycled Paper

For Teachers K - 2nd
Paper Lesson Plan - Students discover how paper is made. Working together, they make their own paper. This activity introduces students to recycling; what it is and its importance. Students study the process of how paper is made, and...
Lesson Plan
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The Lorax

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders identify environmental problems. In this natural resources lesson students participate in several activities that support critical thinking about the environment and natural resources. The students write, list, and verbally...
Lesson Plan
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Niches and Adaptations

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students present information about a species, its niche, and adaptations. For this lesson on animal environments, students explore how surroundings can affect a given population resulting in adaptation.
Lesson Plan
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Climate Change Effects on Organisms and Ecosystems: You are the Experts!

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders research about the effect of climate on different ecosystems. For this life science lesson, 7th graders present their research by creating a poster, infomercial, skit or song. They discuss how organisms adapt to climate...
Lesson Plan
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Clay Ants: Insect Anatomy

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students examine anatomic structures in order to identify insects from other living organisms. They gain a level of comfort from anxiety when observing and handling live and pinned insects. They create clay models of an insect.
Lesson Plan
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Ecosystem Interactions in Refuges

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders, using national parks as models, illustrate the energy flow in ecosystems. Working in groups, they use murals, flow charts, or other visual displays to record their findings. Students represent the food chains and webs...
Lesson Plan
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Exploring the Great Salt Lake

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders participate in a scavenger hunt, looking for things that are unique about the ecosystem in and around the lake. They observe and describe a variety of habitats and distinguish living and nonliving elements of...
Lesson Plan
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Water Conditions

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Young scholars investigate the importance of water in an environment with living things. in this water conditions lesson plan, students soak radish sees in water, vinegar, soap and alcohol. Young scholars remove the seeds, store them for...
Lesson Plan
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Land as a Valuable Resource

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate why the soil is important to our lives. In this natural resources lesson, students have a farmer as a guest speaker. Students begin to understand how farmers use and protect our natural resource. Students write...
Lesson Plan
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Drama in the Salt Marsh

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students are introduced to the various organisms that live in a salt marsh. They recognize adaptations of organisms that live in the salt marsh. Pupils review concepts of the ecosystem and niche. Students explain the different roles...
Lesson Plan
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Understanding Space Travel

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers study the unique environment of the moon and Mars. In this space science lesson, students design a city located in the outer space. They create a computer aided design, models or drawings of their cities and share them...
Lesson Plan
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Woodland Animals and Their Habitat

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Students explore the natural environment through a video and nature sounds tape. They keep journal's of the unit's activities and vocabulary terms. They play a web of interdependence game and compose a list of forest animals and write...
Lesson Plan
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A Study of Vertebrates

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate the characteristics of each vertebrate group. They take notes in a science journal, and in small groups create a HyperStudio slideshow presentation to present information about a specific vertebrate group.
Lesson Plan
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What Is Life?

For Teachers 8th - 9th
For this life characteristics worksheet, students answer 16 questions about living things, Redi's experiment, basic needs, growth and development.
Lesson Plan
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Mesozoic Murals

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers create a mural of one of the Mesozoic Periods. In this geologic timeline lesson, students will research the plants and animals that lived in the Mesozoic Era in order to create a mural to scale that represents one of the...
Lesson Plan
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Beach Zonation

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Young scholars investigate the characteristics of the beach environment and explore beach zonation. After gathering samples from different areas of the beach, learners discuss how the beaches work and the characteristic of each zone....
Lesson Plan
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Freshwater Habitats

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers take samples from local freshwater sources and examine them for macroinvertebrate life. They take samples from both shallow and deep freshwater environments, measure temperatures, and classify organisms found in their...
Lesson Plan
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Here It Goes Again!

For Teachers 1st
First graders work on patterns in nature and to recognize how different living things adapt to different environments such as the rain forest.
Lesson Plan
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Digging into the Past

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discover how fossils are found and how they help scientists reconstruct the past. They examine how they shed light on what kinds of animals and plants lived over the years, when they lived, and under what environmental conditions.
Lesson Plan
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Lunch in Outer Space!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore the challenges astronauts face while eating in outer space. In small groups, they design and construct an original model device to assist astronauts eat in a microgravity environment.
Lesson Plan
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Mystery Creek

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders are introduced to the Riparian Ecosystem. They define the following terms: riparian and riparian ecosystem. Students take a trip to the creek, where they make observations about the environment around them. They are...
Lesson Plan
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Topography of Africa

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students study Africa's diverse landscape and investigate how these features impact the available water supply, food sources, and population distribution of the continent. They compare topographical features and their affect on each...
Lesson Plan
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Camouflage

For Teachers 1st
First graders learn how plants and animals adapt to their environments.  In this camouflage lesson, 1st graders watch a movie that explains animal camouflage, design a butterfly that blends into a classroom habitat, create a mini...