Smithsonian Institution
Weather Widget
What's so difficult about predicting the weather? Scholars work collaboratively to build a device that models how meteorologists use computers to forecast weather. Team members collect and interpret data while working together to...
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A Guide for Community Living
Students use photography to help them become more knowledgeable about their communities, and to make a "community survival" book in which problems are solved by going to the right community agency.
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Community Search
Students, as a class, brainstorm a list of possible jobs in the community to explore. Working in teams of two (writer and photographer), students choose their interview assignments-e.g., preacher, principal, basketball coach, postmaster,...
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What Are Ecosystems?
Third graders recognize and examine ecosystems. They observe and describe habitats within ecosystems and observe and identify organisms with similar needs that compete for resources.
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Populations and Ecosystems
Sixth graders define terms prey, predator, and scavenger, describe predator-prey relationship, discuss effects of a lack of predators in an environment, and separate the role of the scavenger from that of the predator.
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Food Webs
Students investigate the concept of an ecosystem and how they are interconnected according to a hierarchy. Students are exposed to the "Lion King" as an example of a food chain and this is very relevant. They answer several key...
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Let's Create An Ecosystem
Seventh graders create ecosystems in a jar which they observe over the course of the school year.
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Let's Create an Ecosystem
Seventh graders discover how an ecosystem works by creating one in class. In this Earth science lesson, 7th graders study vocabulary terms associated with ecosystem and read environment handouts. Students create an observatory...
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Prairie Tic-Tac-Toe
In this prairie organisms worksheet, 8th graders name the role of 18 prairie organisms and tell if they are a biotic or abiotic factor. The organisms include plants and natural forces such as wind and fire.
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Prey or Pray? Could YOU Escape a Cheetah?
Tenth graders estimate the size of an adult cheetah by research and measurement of a picture. They determine the approximate distance and speed of the cheetah from a filmed chase and compare that to their own running speed.
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Collecting Compost
Students observe a composting box. In this soil lesson, students create a composting bin by using a bin, newspaper, worms, and food scraps. Students create a composting food web.
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Everybody Needs a Little Sunshine
Three activities introduce upper elementary ecologists to photosynthesis and food webs. In the first, an experiment is set up to determine how plants respond to different types of light. In the second, they connect organism cards with...
TerraCycle
What Can Nature Teach Us about Sustainable Design?
Talk about Velcro®, Gecko Tape, WhalePower turbine blades, and other innovations that mimic nature to inspire your STEM or engineering class. This set of worksheets gets them thinking about imitating nature in terms of sustainable...
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Puberty
Eighth graders participate in a whole group discussion about their thoughts and feelings surrounding puberty. Students watch a video and view slides in order to describe the bodily changes that occur during adolescence.
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Behind the Camera
Scholars, in groups, gather information relating to community health care. Using video and digital cameras, they interview members of a health center staff. They then compile digital images, select music, and narrate a story about their...
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World Oil Reserves and Trade Routes
Students analyze the global distribution of natural resources to determine the relationship of resource availability to international problems and issues. They explain how the uneven distribution of resources can result in global...
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Food Chains
Learners describe food cahins and the role of organisms. Using a set of organism cards, they color code the organisms on their cards by their role in the food chain. Once a complete chain is identified, they glue it on a sheet of paper.
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You Are Smarter Than The Ads
Fourth graders examine advertising techniques and create original designs for advertisements in this three day, 4th grade art/social studies lesson. The lesson includes assessment ideas, resource information, and learning objectives.
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Stoichiometric Relationships
In this reactions instructional activity, students learn how to solve stoichiometric problems based on the mole ratios of a balanced equation. Then students complete 7 problems.
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Water and Land Ecosystems
Students investigate the differences between a land and aquatic ecosystem. They use the information in order to present it in an assessment. There are target questions that can be used to guide research, lead a classroom discussion, or...
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The Kindness Company
Students organize themselves into a simulated company complete with applications, interviews and training. They identify a community need they can fulfill related to cooking or sewing and work to make and deliver the designated product.
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Ag Pays
Second graders understand that may jobs relate to agriculture. In this agriculture lesson, 2nd graders role play several agricultural jobs and the goods associated with them. Students may contact a community member with that job.
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Science Videos
Students plan, practice, and act in a 2-3 minute videotaped production about a specific topic. Students from a local high school give presentations pertaining to seasons, earth rotation, and moon phases. Students analyze the...
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The People's Design Award
Young scholars analyze, critique, and evaluate information from various sources and learn about the design process. In this design lesson, students critique work submitted to People's Design Award and create a design of their own to...