Investigate the fascinating, yet terrifying phenomenon of hurricanes from the safety of your classroom using this earth science unit. Focusing on developing young scientists' spacial thinking skills, these lessons engage...

"Humans have become a geologic agent comparable to erosion and [volcanic] eruptions ..." Paul J. Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning atmospheric chemist. Using Landsat imagery, scholars create a grid showing land use type, such as urban,...

Students are presented with the problems of percentages and focus upon numbers in contrast to 100. They calculate problems with money and are engaged with the use of games as a teaching tool. Students also interpret data as presented in...

Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...

Students investigate maps and data to learn about the connections between hurricanes and climate. In this exploratory lesson students describe and graph the 6 regions where hurricanes happen and discuss how hurricanes have changed over...

Students make and test hypotheses about atmospheric data collected aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown research cruise.

Young scientists track Hurricane Katrina across the Atlantic Ocean as they learn about these destructive forces of nature. Provided with a table of data tracking the location and conditions of Katrina over a one week span, students...

At a depth of 3,000 m in the ocean, the pressure is 300 times that at sea level! In the activity, individuals predict what will happen to Styrofoam cups submerged 3,000 meters into the ocean. They then convert these units to soccer...

The first thing to know about this lesson is that the commercial fisheries data for the activity no longer seems to be available. That being said, there are fascinating links to other websites, some about the comparative odds of being...

How much energy does it take to light a room? Class members calculate the total wattage it takes to light the classroom. Through calculations, responsible scientists determine the cost of energy for the year, then figure out...

Fifth graders look at actual sunrise and sunset times for their hometown to determine a pattern in the amount of daylight. They collect their data in Excel and create a chart to help them identify the pattern, then write an explanation...

Thirty percent of energy used by schools is used inefficiently! Part two in the series of 12 has groups perform energy audits of their schools as part of the Cool Schools Challenge. Each group is assigned a specific room, performs the...

Middle schoolers investigate the correlation between our planet's weather and solar activity. They analyze and discuss data regarding the solar activity cycle, graph annual precipitation and temperature averages over a period of 100...

Students follow procedures regarding scientific data collection. For this scientific inquiry lesson, students investigate inquiry questions through research and data collection. Students use technology tools to create products that...

It's alive! Or is it? Through a series of shared readings, whole class activities, and independent exercises children explore the difference between living and non-living things, creating a pair of printable books...

Genetic variation shows the health of a population, yet cheetahs show very little variation over that last 10,000 years. Scholars learn the importance of genetic variation in populations after viewing an informative presentation. It...

Traveling through space is an amazing experience, but it definitely takes a toll on the body. After reading an article and watching a brief video, learners perform an experiment that simulates the effects of zero gravity on the...

Students compare weather data and draw conclusions. In this climate change lesson plan, students determine whether data collected over a period of ninety years shows a warming trend. 

Students research and collect data regarding temperature changes for a specific location and find the mean, median, and mode for their data. In this climate change lesson, students choose a location to research and collect data regarding...

In this hurricanes worksheet, students use a data table showing the hurricane region and the average number of hurricanes per year to determine if the same number of hurricanes happen in each region by creating a graph. Then students...

Students study how scientists measure diversity.  In this diversity lesson students look at marine communities and look at data to calculate diversity in 3 different ways.

Students, in groups of four,identify and analyze relationships among birds within a population, a community and an urban ecosystem. They fill out, while they're completing their experiments, a Populations of Birds Student Data Sheet.

New Horizons began its journey to Pluto in 2006. Ten years later, it continues its mission. In that time, scholars have surely grown, but how much more will they grow by the time New Horizons reaches its destination? Find out with an...

For this human population growth worksheet, learners create a graph of human population growth and predict future growth using the data given in a chart. Students identify factors that affect population growth.