Curated OER
Be Water Wise!
Rally your administration and facilities manager to let your class examine the water flow rates in different areas of the school. After the audit, the class researches opportunites for conserving water and writes a report or develops a...
Curated OER
Exploring the Water Cycle
The water cycle is one of earth's most easily observable processes, but demonstrating each step within classroom walls can be a challenge. Through a series of videos and quick demonstrations, cover each aspect of the hydrologic cycle in...
Curated OER
Effects of Oil Spills on Environment and Marine Life
Students explore oceanography by conducting an environmental experiment in class. In this oil spill lesson, students discuss the human need for oil and what is at stake when we drill for oil in our oceans. Students read a book in class...
Curated OER
Yellow Bird and Me
Upper elementary artists create works which demonstrate an understanding of the many elements of theater and the visual arts. This four-day plan combines many wonderful aspects of visual, musical, and theatrical arts into one very...
NASA
Analyzing Tiny Samples Using a Search for the Beginning Mass Spectrometry
Teach the basics of mass spectrometry with a hands-on instructional activity. The fourth in a series of six lessons explores how mass spectrometry measures the ionic composition of an element. Learners then compare and contrast relative...
US Department of Energy
Building the Basic PVC Wind Turbine
Here is a comprehensive and well-written lesson plan that results in learners building a standard wind turbine. Once built, teens can design a variety of experiments to test different factors. This activity is a noble undertaking that...
Science Friday
Microorganisms on the Move
You can't b. cereus until you see this instructional activity! Young microbiologists learn to prepare deep well slides, observe two types of microorganisms, and compare and contrast their physical characteristics in this interactive and...
NASA
Exploration of a Problem: Making Sense of the Elements
When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to best...
Curated OER
Examining Abstinence
Highschoolers investigate the concept of abstinence and how it is considered the safest expression of teen sexuality. Guiding questions are used to help students through the lesson plan. There are many components to this lesson plan...
Curated OER
Transforming Energy
Super detailed, this lesson will educate physical science learners about the flow of electrons. Begin by reviewing potential and kinetic energy with a moving pendulum, and then get them online to observe interactive websites about...
Curated OER
Dining Out With Fishes and Birds of the Hudson
While this lesson focuses on the birds and fish found on the Hudson River, it could be adapted for use in any classroom. Using a vocabulary list, learners explore the meaning of words like adaptation, habitat, barbel, and more. Then,...
Curated OER
Making Active, Healthy Lifestyle Choices
What does the term "lifestyle" mean? What constitutes an active lifestyle? What constitutes a healthy lifestyle? The main ideas in this lesson focus on what an active healthy lifestyle looks like. There are questions for discussion, and...
NASA
Revising an Investigation
Write, edit, and then revise! The fourth lesson in a five-part series asks peers to provide feedback on research. Individuals then use the research to edit and revise conclusions and develop their presentations.
Curated OER
Egg Carton Binary Numbers
Learners take the abstract concept of binary representation and create a more tactile and concrete approach. Using egg cartons, they create a physical representation of binary numbers. The egg cartons become a tool to assist students in...
Carnegie Mellon University
Consumer Preferences in Lighting
What is a watt? This tongue-twisting, mind-bending question and others are answered through this lesson plan on the different lighting options available. With the support of a PowerPoint, teach your physical science class about units of...
University of Colorado
Space Travel Guide
Neptune takes 164.8 Earth years to travel around the sun. In the fifth of 22 lessons, young scientists create a travel guide to a planet in our solar system. They provide tips for others on what to bring, what they see, and their...
University of Colorado
Strange New Planet
The first remote sensors were people in hot air balloons taking photographs of Earth to make maps. Expose middle school learners to space exploration with the use of remote sensing. Groups explore and make observations of a new...
Curated OER
Life in the Crystal Palace
Marine biologists research sea ice communities. Assign some groups to construct paper models of sea ice communities in winter, and some to construct models of them in summer. The lesson is simplistic, but the Internet resources provided...
Curated OER
The Bill of Rights: Debating the Amendments
Provide your class with an opportunity to investigate an important historical document. Without identifying the document, distribute copies of the original Bill of Rights, as transcribed by John Beckley, Clerk of the House of...
Curated OER
Tracking the Salt Front
Using the Hudson River as the focus, learners discuss the difference between salt water and fresh water environments, analyze maps and graphs, and complete addition and subtraction problems. This lesson comes with a wealth of...
Curated OER
Networking the Internet: A Dynamic Research Tool
Learners engage in a lesson that is concerned with the research of finding information to help them develop new science projects. They conduct research using a variety of resources that includes e-mail and discussion groups.
Curated OER
The Web of Life
Students demonstrate the interrelationships of animals and plants. In this ecology lesson, students discuss the things plants and animals need for survival and study the glacier food chain. Students simulate the web of life by using a...
ARKive
Marvellous Mini-beasts – Design a Species
Here is a creative activity that teaches kids how species evolve different characteristics for survival. The lesson begins as the class discusses and examines the adaptive traits of mini-beasts or insects. Then, in small groups, they...
Rainforest Alliance
Get in Touch with Nature
Take a trip to the Colombian rainforest through the sense of touch. Here, class members discover what's inside a mystery box: wood, cinnamon, Brazil nuts, a banana, and orange. Then, the class takes a trip outside for a tree rubbing...