It's About Time
The Changing Geography of Your Community
Lead your class in exploring their local communities as well as the general environment. As they determine continental distributions by investigating minerals, rocks, and fossils located in their local region, pupils construct a...
University of New Orleans
Rock Cycle and Rocks Lab
Science rocks! Explore three types of rocks and the rock cycle with an igneous rocks experiment. Pupils discuss textures, composition, and learn how melts are formed from the Earth's crust. They weigh materials using a scientific scale...
Baylor College
What's Is Soil Made Of?
It's time to roll up those sleeves and get a little dirty in the second lesson of this series on the science of food. Investigate where plants and animals get the minerals they need to live in this two-part exploration of soil. First,...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Utah Open Textbook: 4th Grade Science
How does weather affect Earth? Learners understand the characteristics of water and make predictions about weather patterns. They recognize how water and weather affect rocks and minerals through erosion. They also learn about fossils...
Curated OER
The Oil Field Industry
A brief look at natural resources are described, prior to explaining the importance of oil in this 12-slide PowerPoint. Clear and colorful graphics are on each slide to keep viewers interested and more informed. Tip: Ask students how...
SF Environment
Waste-Less Lunch
Is it possible to have a waste-less lunch? Can your class become leaders in conservation? Discuss the importance of reducing waste during lunch time with a fun lesson that can be extended to everyday practices. First the class examines...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals
Students investigate the properties and uses of rocks and minerals. They build towers using only one material from a pile of stones, tiles, wood, etc. provided by the teacher. Students test the hardness of rocks by scratching them with...
PBS
Sea Surface Temperature, Salinity, and Density
Earth's vast ocean is full of mysteries! Science scholars discover the big-picture properties that influence its characteristics at different latitudes using a instructional activity from PBS's Weather and Climate series. After...
Curated OER
Rocks and Minerals Unit
Students test and identify minerals according to their physical properties. In this mineral analysis lesson, students brainstorm ways to identify rocks and list their ideas on chart paper. Students study samples in pairs and identify the...
Curated OER
Rock-forming Minerals
For this mineral worksheet, students use a table of information about rock-forming minerals to complete 10 short answer questions.
Curated OER
Mighty Minerals
For this mineral worksheet, middle schoolers use encyclopedias, the Internet, science catalogs, or magazines to complete research questions about a mineral. Using their research information, they also create a cartoon for their mineral.
Mascil Project
Chocolate Chip Mining
Canada mines more minerals than any other country in the world. Scholars with a sample must determine how to get the mineral out while preserving as much of the rock as possible. They analyze the data and compare methodology while...
Columbus City Schools
Thinking Like A Soil Scientist
Ready to roll up those sleeves and get your hands dirty? Dirty with soil science content, that is! Overcome those "But it's just dirt" objections with a trip outside to collect soil samples for some in-class analysis. Use the variety of...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Sedimentary Rocks
Fascinating photos of sedimentary rocks and formations supply a brief overview for your geology class. By viewing these slides, learners discover that sedimentary rocks are made of tiny bits of rock, dirt, or shell that have settled,...
Curated OER
Detectives in the Landscape
Fourth graders explore landscapes. In this landscape activity, 4th graders investigate different elements of landscapes. Students design a visual presentation using photographs taken during a nature walk.
Curated OER
Properties of Minerals
Students research properties of minerals. In this science lesson, students search the web, create a folder, and store information on properties of minerals. There are many excellent worksheets and study guides embedded in this lesson,...
Curated OER
Uses of Minerals
In this minerals worksheet, students read an excerpt about gold and then respond to the questions that follow. They explain how the weight of gold affected the history of some western states and why gold is expensive.
Curated OER
Rockin' Minerals
Third graders view a clip of the video Backyard Safari, "Rocks and Minerals," and discuss properties of rocks and minerals. They view and discuss a clip on where rocks and minerals are found.
Curated OER
Fairly Simple Mineral Identification Exercise
Students perform simple field tests on a variety of minerals and use their results and a given data chart to determine which mineral each specimen is.
Curated OER
Minerals- the Building Blocks of Rocks
Students investigate how rocks are composed minerals by dissecting rock cookies.
Curated OER
Minerals and You
Students study how mineral are used in everything around us-- from cereal to satellites. After informing the students about minerals they will discuss the ones that are in the area of the students.
Curated OER
Minerals And Their Uses
In this minerals worksheet, learners will review the four physical characteristics used to identify a mineral: streak, color, size, and hardness. Students will also understand the Mohs Hardness Scale. This worksheet has thirteen short...
Curated OER
Mineral Identification
In this mineral identification worksheet, students match 10 terms to their definitions. Terms include types of minerals, tests and characteristics of minerals. They write down the tests used to identify an unknown mineral and they fill...
Curated OER
Minerals Review
In this earth science worksheet, students review the basic characteristics of minerals in the common categories of them all.