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Creatures in Torch Lake
Pupils investigate pond ecology. They gather water samples from various sources, add grass, and let it sit for a week. Afterward, using microscopes, they identify the microorganisms present in the sample.
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Life's Big Questions: Where Did Life Come From?
Students explore the life forms that live in the hot springs of Yellowstone. They examine how microscopic creatures can survive in these extreme conditions. Students perform experiments to observe growth samples and demonstrate how a...
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Cells, The Structural and Functional Units of Life
Students observe the general structure and organelles of plant and animal cells. Students prepare microscope slides of elodea, onion, check, and cork and identify the cells by size and shape as unicellular, multicellular, plant or animal.
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Oolitic Sand: An Introduction
Fourth graders investigate the characteristics of different types of sand. They compare and contrast the types of sand by making observations with a dissecting microscope. Then students draw what is seen and include shape, color, and...
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Animals Between the Sand Grains -- Meiofauna
Students begin the lesson by collecting sand at low tide from a local beach. They place each specimen on trays with a tiny amount of seawater. After a week, they can observe the meiofauna present in the sand through a microscope. They...
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Convection Currents
Students explain and understand the circulation of air in the atmosphere. They identify that energy can be carried from one place to another by heat flow or by waves, including water, light and sound waves, or by moving objects. ...
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Secret Agents of Dissolved Oxygen
Students determine the changes in different types of water in a sealed container over time. They investigate how to measure dissolved oxygen, temperature, and carbon dioxide with calculator or computer probe-ware. Students determine the...
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Discovering the Oasis
Fourth graders investigate riverbanks and oxbox ecosystem at the Truckee River. They observe the plants, animals, insects and water organisms located there. Students document water samples, flow and then categorize them in class. This...
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Life in Extreme Environments - Lakes Under Ice
Students collect chemical, physical, and biological data from a local lake throughout the year. In addition, students discuss the design of an experimental structure for water collection at several specific depths as well as assess the...
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Using A Winogradsky Column to Analyze Microbial Communities
Students use easily obtained materials to study ecological succession in a microbiological community. They collect water samples from outdoor sources in plastic bottles to observe and record changes.
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What's the Matter with My Orange?
Students use oranges to informally explore decomposition, dehydration, fermentation, the water cycle, bacteria, yeast, food webs, the needs of living things, and physical vs. chemical change over a period of three or more months.
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Bacterial Transformation
Students explore DNA recombination. In this biology lesson, students observe the growth of microscopic species. They predict the phenotype of the transformed colonies.
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Measurement: Length, volume, and temperature
Students determine the temperature of the water in a cup, measure the length of a piece of cardboard, and measure out an appropriate volume of water. This task assesses student's abilities to perform measurement and reporting skills.
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Palm Use in Biology
Students view bacteria through a microscope. They draw and label the bacteria using microbiology software loaded onto their Palms.
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Creatures That Glow In The Night
High schoolers investigate the different bioluminescent organisms. They use microscopes in order to make observations and draw what is seen. Students demonstrate they have studies the differences between the process of photosynthesis and...
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Ecosystems
Sixth graders perform various labs, create presentations, and do hands on activities to explore the ecosystem.
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Science Trail
Fourth graders explore the concept of ecosystems. In groups, they examine clues to find mystery objects. Once they find the mystery objects, they discuss what ecosystem each comes from. They also look at pond water samples under a...
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Dissolved Oxygen in an Aquatic Ecosystem
High schoolers explain why dissolved oxygen is important in aquatic ecosystems. They evaluate the optimal dissolved oxygen levels for living organisms.
University of Southern California
Mastering Microbes
Small but mighty! Learners explore the role of microbes in a healthy ecosystem. An engaging lesson asks pupils to design an aquaponics system that demonstrates that healthy microbes are necessary to maintain the ecosystem.
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Create a Microbe
High schoolers construct models of microorganisms recognizing size relationships-comparing the size of viruses with the sizes of bacterial and eukaryotic cells. They put into perspective just how small microbes are by comparing the size...
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Dinosaurs 1: Where Are the Dinosaurs?
Students explore dinosaurs and their extinction. In this dinosaur lesson, students view dinosaur websites and videos to gain an understanding of the world long ago. Discussion questions follow. Students create a paper mache dinosaur egg.
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Pond Ecosystem Field Trip
Young scholars investigate the environment by participating in a class trip. In this pond ecosystem lesson plan, students define a list of vocabulary terms associated with ponds such as invertebrate and metamorphosis. Young scholars...
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Crystal Painting
Students investigate crystalline solids. In this crystals lesson, students observe samples of natural crystals and compare and contrast each. They draw pictures with crayons and then paint over their picture using crystalline solids...
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Red Tail Ridge Wetland Study Project
Fifth graders use a real life scenario of the wetlands to gather information on creatures of the habitat. For this wetlands lesson, 5th graders research the interdependence of organisms in a healthy habitat. Students collected...