Curated OER
Thermal Pollution
In this pollution instructional activity, students read about thermal pollution and how hot water affects wildlife. Then students complete 1 short answer question.
Curated OER
Coffee Cooling
High schoolers explore the factors that affect how long coffee stays hot. They develop a question and a testable hypothesis for one factor such as initial temperature or size of opening of the container. Then they design and conduct an...
Curated OER
How Effective is Perspiration at Cooling?
Students collect data on the cooling of water in two different test tubes, one that is wrapped in wet newspaper and one in dry newspaper. They then relate this cooling effect to the body's perspiration.
Curated OER
Kingdom Fungi
In this kingdom fungi worksheet, students conduct an experiment creating and observing dough. They describe what happened to the dough while they observed it and name the type of fungus is the yeast added. Students also explain what...
Curated OER
Lake Effect
Fourth graders explore some of the effects Great Salt Lake has on Utah's local weather/temperature moderation, lake effect storms, and temperature inversions. They observe the differences of specific heat between soil and water and...
Curated OER
Carbon Dioxide Heats It Up
Students design an investigation to test whether vegetation in an area helps regulate the ambient air temperature. They make comparisons between the investigation and global changes in climate. In groups, they present their findings to...
Curated OER
Cell Energy-Bubbling Plants
Middle schoolers discuss the process of photosynthesis in plants and that oxygen is produced as a by product. They observe underwater Elodea plants "breathing" in a hands-on activity. After setting up the experiment, they observe the...
Curated OER
Saving Energy Through Ecological Landscape Design
Students are able to transcribe to scale the plant features of a common landscape. They determine true north and south and collect and record data on a table. Students calculate a rating for and describe a definition of insulation and...
Cornell University
Atomic Bonding
Explore the connection of surface area to bonding within atoms. Learners complete lab investigations to model changing surface area with different sizes and concentrations of atoms. A flour fireball demonstration follows the labs to...
National Wildlife Federation
The Tide is High, but I’m Holding On… Using ICESat Data to Investigate Sea Level Rise
Based on the rate of melting observed from 2003-2007 in Greenland, it would take less than 10 minutes to fill the Dallas Cowboys' Stadium. The 17th lesson in a series of 21 has scholars use the ICESat data to understand the ice mass...
National Wildlife Federation
Is It Getting Hot in Here, or Is It Just Me?
Currently, only 2.1% of global warming is felt on continents, while over 93% is felt in the oceans. The fourth lesson in the series of 21 on global warming is composed of three activities that build off one another. In the first...
Curated OER
What is Temperature?
Students examine how temperature is the measure of the average kinetic energy of the molecules of a substance.
Curated OER
What is Temperature?
Students study the effects of temperature and air expansion. In this temperature lesson, students discuss temperature and participate in a role play of low energy and high energy molecules. Students then discuss their activity and...
Curated OER
Combustion
In this combustion pre-lab worksheet, students determine the chemical equation for the reaction, define combustion and exothermic, and describe the molar heat of combustion. This worksheet has 14 short answer questions.
Curated OER
How Green Are We?
Students identify and interpret the importance of energy efficiency in connection with air pollution. They communicate with families and peers about ways to more effectively contribute to the reduction of air pollution. Finally,...
Curated OER
What The Peanuts Say: Catabolism and Calories
High schoolers investigate the energy released by a peanut and a piece of a walnut. For this catabolism and calories lesson plan, students burn a peanut and a piece of a walnut and measure the temperature of the water before burning and...
Curated OER
Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Students explore the variety of ways to use solar energy. They investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design. They explain how passive solar...
Curated OER
Cooler in the Shadows
Students explore Earth science by creating a scale model in class. In this shadow lesson plan, students research the impact the sun has on Earth shadows and complete a space science worksheet. Students create models of the Sun and Earth...
Curated OER
Temperature in the Sun or Shade of the Desert
Third graders use thermometers to measure the air temperature in several
places around the school and then return to the classroom to record the data. They create a bar graph and discuss their findings about the air temperature in the...
Curated OER
Rising Water!
Students observe water change from a liquid to a gas state when heated and then return to its liquid stage when cooled. They learn that gas molecules move faster than liquid molecules. They discover physical properties that describe how...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Calorie Connection
Students calculate the calories in a Brazil nut and the calories needed for daily intake. In this calories lesson plan, students use calorimetry to measure the change in water temperature heated by the burning of a Brazil nut. They also...
Curated OER
Conduction, Convection, Radiation, Oh My!
Learners draw a line graph, and use graphing as a tool to discover more about conduction, convection and radiation. They should design their own experiment using heat sensitive paper to show they explain these 3 processes.