Curated OER
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!
Students study the different types of volcanoes and how they erupt. In this volcano lesson students identify where volcanoes are most prevalent and options for predicting eruptions.
Curated OER
You Can Die Here
Students examine Death Valley including the amount of precipitation and winds that it gets. In this climate based instructional activity students explain the reasons for the amount of precipitation and windward patterns in Death Valley.
Curated OER
Bird Brained?
Students identify general abilities that indicate animal cognitive intelligence. In this biology lesson, students create an intelligence testing challenge for ravens. They compare its ability to that of a crow.
Curated OER
Wolves: Friend or Foe?
Students study wolves and their habitat in Yellowstone. In this environment and behavior lesson students create an interactive map of wolves in Yellowstone.
Curated OER
Chain Reaction
Students study animal behavior and how it changes to its environment. In this animal lesson plan students design and conduct experiments.
Curated OER
Striking a Balance
Students simulate animals in a food chain. In this food chain lesson plan, students are identified as grasshoppers, frogs or hawks. Popcorn is spread across a lawn and students are given baggies (stomachs) and colored sashes to identify...
Curated OER
Symbiotic Strategies
Young scholars explore the different interspecies relationships namely mutualistic, commensal and parasitic. In this ecology lesson, students investigate an ecosystem disrupted by humans. They formulate an action plan to save it and...
Curated OER
Testing Your Water
Students perform several water quality tests on groundwater from their area. They use test strips to determine the pH, hardness, alkalinity, nitrates, iron and chloride levels.
University of Minnesota
What's the Deal? Addiction Card Game
Addiction is a big deal! Playing a game of cards helps learners understand the concept of addiction. Through their analysis, they examine the potential for addiction and how it varies for each individual.
Channel Islands Film
Human Impact on the Food Web of Santa Cruz Island
What happens when a non-native species is introduced onto an island? Santa Cruz Island, part of the Channel Island chain located off the coast of southern California, provides the perfect laboratory for young environmental scientists to...
Curated OER
Sizing Up The Solar System
Students investigate and design various models of size and distance related to the solar system. They work together to build a solar system model. The models should focus on distance and scale. They don't include moons or satellites in...
Curated OER
Ozark Karst: A Fragile Landform
Young geologists become familiar with the Karst Topography in the Ozark Mountains. They study how human activity has affected the cave ecosystem. They conduct a simulation in which a large development is proposed in the area, and they...
University of Colorado
Terra Bagga
Earth's magnetic poles switch positions about every 200,000—300,000 years. In the activity, groups create a planet with a magnetic field. Once made, they use a magnetometer to determine the orientation of the planet's magnetic field....
Curated OER
Buying and Selling: Getting Cherries into a Pie
Kids keep score as they take on the roles of buyers and sellers in an agribusiness introduction. They play the game for five rounds, each round is made different by having a new economic element added, a discussion follows. Everything...
Curated OER
What's Your Agricultural Experience?
Consider sharing information about a fast growing career cluster with your class. They'll discuss the careers and higher education associated with agricultural careers. A worksheet, web links, and video links make exploring the world of...
Monroe City Schools
Clouds! Clouds! Clouds!
Here is a beautiful activity on clouds designed for your 1st graders. Learners study three different types of clouds. They construct drawings of cumulus, cirrus, and stratus clouds. The Cloud Book, by Tommie dePaola is used to introduce...
Curated OER
Crowley's Ridge: An Upland in the Lowlands
This clever lesson combines elements of geography, art, literature, and storytelling. Pupils take a close look at the six geographical regions of Arkansas, and pay close attention to Crowley's Ridge - which is one of the six. In groups,...
Curated OER
Exploring Arizona's Biotic Communities Lesson 2: Biotic Communities Vocabulary
Part of a unit on Arizona's biotic communities, this activity focuses on the vocabulary to be used. Terms include biodiversity, topography, desert, hybridization, niche, and more! Youngsters will define these words from contextual...
Teach Engineering
Working Together to Live Together
Whose home is it anyway? Design teams plan a housing development in which they must also protect a native species. The teams consist of a project manager, civil engineer, environmental engineer, and graphic designer. Teams present their...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
You know global warming is real when your squirrel feeder is full of popped corn instead of kernels! Activity two in a series of five allows learners to explore climate change through the eyes of another. After briefly analyzing their...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Food for Thought: Climate Change and Trophic Cascades
Learners examines the arctic food web with a short video about polar bears and an article about bears and warming temperatures. They design an arctic food web and discuss the trophic cascade that could come from climate change.
Curated OER
Will There Be Subsistence Farmers in the 21st Century?: Feeding the World
Students examine the topic of subsistence farming. They research the future of subsistence agriculture, identify the types and locations of subsistence agriculture, and write about subsistence farming in regards to developing nations and...
Curated OER
Boom and Bust in the Ozark Forests
Here is a hard-hitting, cross-curricular lesson on the effects that the deforestation of the Ozark forests in the 19th century had on the people, animals, and ecosystems of the area. The Dr. Seuss book The Lorax is used as a way of...
Curated OER
Arkansas: A Changing Climate, a Changing Land
Here is a lesson on the climate zones and geography of Arkansas. In it, learners look at maps (embedded) of different climate zones found throughout Arkansas. They engage in discussions regarding how global warming and climate change is...