Lesson Plan
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Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students describe the complementary relationships between pollinators and the plants they pollinate, identify adaptations that flowers have developed to "encourage" pollination, and create and draw their own "designer" flowers.
Lesson Plan
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Create a Classroom Exhibit: Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students bring in rocks and minerals from home. They observe them and describe them carefully, completing a worksheet. Finally, a classroom exhibit is created.
Lesson Plan
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Scrambled Eggs Anyone?

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students listen to Nursery Rhymes highlighting GRAVITY, pull ropes during a Rope Pull Activity and even drop eggs from a height during a Gravity Contest. This is a fantastic lesson which highly motivates Students!
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Welcome to Love Canal

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students engage in a variety of activities that address the ethical issues surrounding the Love Canal case study.
Lesson Plan
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Get into the Flow with an Interactive Volcano

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students research the structural elements of a volcano. They make a PowerPoint slide that contains five facts which will be added to a whole class slideshow. They add an interactive table of contents using action buttons.
Lesson Plan
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Plants and Animals, Partners in Pollination

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students participate in multiple hands-on activities to explore reproduction and pollination. In groups, using a cotton swab and powder, students simulate being pollinators and plants. They name the parts of the flowers and the function...
Lesson Plan
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Rocks and Minerals

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners bring rocks and minerals from home to investigate in the classroom. In this rocks and minerals lesson plan, students observe all the rocks and minerals brought into the class and answer 7 questions about the features of the...
Lesson Plan
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"ART ZOO 'Blacks in the Westward Movement', 'What Can You Do with a Portrait', and 'Of Beetles, Worms, and Leaves of Grass'"

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students study black history, examine portraits and portrait making and create their own portraits, and  investigate their natural environment. This humanities lesson provides a text that can be used to teach lessons in black...
Lesson Plan
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How Size Shapes Animals

For Teachers Pre-K - 3rd
Learners investigate how size affects large and small animals differently. In this animal lesson plan, students determine how size affects different animals by constructing their own animal out of marshmallows. Once learners create...
Lesson Plan
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Fossils Footprints Across Time

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine fossils to understand how they are formed and how they give information about geological history. In this fossil lesson, students research and write about fossils and make models of different fossil types.The PDF...
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Going...going...gone? Tropical Rainforests-How They Work, What They Do for Us, What's Being Done to Them...

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical Rainforest,...
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An Uplifting Experience

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders conduct flight experiments.  For this uplifting experience lesson, 5th graders build an airfoil and place in a variety of conditions to observe the results of lift and force in flight, as well as angle of attack....
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Floodplain Modeling

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars simulate the impact of fluctuating river volumes on structures and landforms. They experiment with table top-sized riverbed models and water. Students consider how human design can help mitigate the effects of a flood.
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Let the Sun Shine!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students investigate how the sun can be used for energy. They read a handout, discuss the pros and cons of passive solar building design, develop flashcard questions, and identify jobs that can be helped by solar energy.
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Newton Gets Me Moving

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discuss Newton's laws of motion. The conduct motion experiments by building "Newton Rocket Cars" from assorted materials. They propel the cars with rubber bands and wooden blocks and record the distance traveled on data sheets.
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Powerful Pulleys

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore the building of a pyramid and how pulleys were used to change the direction of applied force. They demonstrate the mechanical advantage of using a pulley and apply it to modern engineering.
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Engineering - Solid Rock to Building Block

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students role-play as engineers designing wedge tools. They devise methods for shaping quarry rocks into pyramid blocks. Following a teacher demonstration, they use materials such as soap, clay, and foam for blocks and wood, plastic,...
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Wheeling It In!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students use everyday materials (milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy) to build a small-scale transportation device that incorporates the wheel and axle and the lever. They race their carts/trucks, measure distance, time...
Lesson Plan
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Thar She Blows!: Wind Power

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners examine how wind energy is transformed into electrical energy. In pairs, they build miniature wind turbines and measure how much electrical current they produce. They asses the importance of design and position in energy...
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TE Lesson: Renewable Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students examine renewable energy sources such as solar, water, and wind. They experiment to determine how renewable energy is transformed into electricity. They investigate the role of engineers who work in the field of renewable energy.
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Capturing the Sun's Warmth

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explore the variety of ways to use solar energy. They investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design. They explain how passive solar...
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Energetic Musical Instruments

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students apply the principles and concepts associated with energy and the transfer of energy in an engineering context through the designing and making of a musical instrument. After the accomplishment of the design, students must...
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Falling Water

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling water can...
Lesson Plan
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TE Activity: Hot or Not

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students examine how the human immune system responds to germs and explain what a fever is. They design a thermometer in order to further explore temperature before completing a temperature conversion worksheet. They detail the work of...