Curated OER
Digging Into the Past
Fifth graders study fossils and how they are charted. In this fossil lesson plan, 5th graders research the excavation process of discovering fossils, and view fossils. They then do a hands on activity that involves plastic fossils that...
Curated OER
Going in Cycles: The Life of an Aluminum Can
Students investigate the manufacture of aluminum cans and consider the energy and resources saved when the cans are made from recycled material. They explore the concept of closed-loop recycling using charts, worksheets and discussion.
Curated OER
Going in Cycles: The Life of an Aluminum Can
Students explore the life cycle of aluminum cans. In this recycling instructional activity, students review the manufacturing process and how to make a closed loop cycle. Students also have the opportunity to present what they've...
Curated OER
Changing Ways
Third graders examine hard boiled eggs as possible models for the earth's layers.
Curated OER
Candy Quakes
Eighth graders, using a candy bar, gum, and Twizzlers, demonstrate the effects of deformational forces on the earth's crust. They examine the processes of rock and fossil formation.
Curated OER
Pangaea Puzzle
Learners explore plate tectonics and the formations of the Earth's surface and why maps are distorted. In this Earth's surface lesson students complete a lab and answer questions.
Curated OER
Groundwater as Part of the Water Cycle
Ninth graders study the effects of soil and rocks on filtering groundwater. In this groundwater lesson students complete a lab activity that includes sources of contamination.
Curated OER
The Mountain Blows its Top
Learners replicate a volcanic eruption. In this volcanoes lesson, students follow the provided procedures to show and describe how the inflation of a bulge led to the eruption of Mount St. Helens.
Curated OER
SCRUMPTIOUS SOIL
Young scholars engage in investigations that lead to the discovery that earth materials consist of rocks, soils, water, and air. They build models of soil profiles, using breakfast cereal and other edible materials. They observe how...
Curated OER
CUPCAKE CORE SAMPLING
Students explore what is beneath the surface of the earth is one of the jobs of a geologist. Rather than digging up vast tracts of land to expose an oil field, or to find coalbearing strata, core samples can be taken.
Curated OER
Greenhouse in a Bottle
Students create models of the greenhouse effect using recycled 2-liter bottles. They discuss how their models compares to the real greenhouse effect the earth experiences.
Curated OER
Ozone and Temperature Data Analysis, South Pole Antarctica
Students discuss the layers of the atmosphere, and the history of the ozone hole. They discuss the chemistry of the ozone formation. Students compare seasonal data collected with ozonesondes. They compare Antarctic and Arctic ozone hole...
Curated OER
Baseball Challenge - Basic Geography Skills
A fabulous presentation/activity based on geography. The author has designed a "baseball game" where batters advance to the next base if they correctly answer a multiple choice question about geography. Geographic terms are used, along...
Curated OER
Processes of the Rock Cycle
Students explore, predict, and create each major rock form (sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous) with colored modeling clay, discover cycle of rock formation, and examine important relationships of heat and pressure in rock development.
Curated OER
Take a Stab!
Learners construct an experiment to test the rigidity of compressed air and its strength. In this earth science lesson, students are divided into groups, and by putting their thumb over the end of a straw, use the compressed air strength...
Curated OER
The Science of Glaciers
Students identify the contents of a glacier like those found in Patagonia. They construct a mini glacier model in class. Students compare and contrast the classroom model with Patagonian glaciers. They label specific parts of the...
Curated OER
Three-dimensional cooperative modeling
Young scholars explore what is present below the surface in order to drill into the ground and record the type of material that the drill brings to the surface. They discuss the benefits and drawbacks of distance communications. ...
Curated OER
Understanding Lava Layers
Seventh graders trace the lava flow of an erupting volcano. In this earth science lesson, 7th graders experiment using baking soda and vinegar. They record and share their observations.
Curated OER
Examining the Fossil Record
Learners create an evolutionary tree based on fossil morphology and their ages. In this fossil record lesson plan, students are given 23 pictures of fossil. They study their morphology and arrange the fossils by age and structures on a...
Curated OER
Graham Cracker Plate Tectonics
For this plate tectonics worksheet, students use Graham crackers, frosting, water and a paper plate to simulate tectonic processes such as convergent, divergent and transforming plate boundaries.
Curated OER
Environment: Battling for Oxygen
Students construct an interactive ozone depletion model using gumdrops and toothpicks. After analyzing the data obtained from the model, they record it on butcher paper and complete worksheets about oxygen.
Curated OER
Exploring for Petroleum - Modeling an Oil Reserve
Students experiment with locating oil reserves. In this conservation lesson, students use a cardboard box to create sand, rocks, and an oil reserve (water balloon). They use a probe to dig around in the box to find the oil reserve and...
Curated OER
Mountain Building
Teacher prepares four layers of Plasticine stacking layers on top of each other to create a model of how rocks within the earth can be folded creating anticlines and synclines below the surface and mountains and valleys on the surface.
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Heat it Up!
This demonstration of solar ponds can be used in an earth, environmental, or physical science setting. Lab groups set up a solar pond and model how it is able, due to a salt concentration gradient, to maintain heat for future use.