Omaha Zoo
I Like to Move It
What do lemurs do best? They move! Lemurs like to jump, run, hop, and climb and it's your class's job to document seven fun lemur behaviors. The class starts by discussing why lemurs are considered primates, and then they isolate seven...
World Wildlife Fund
Bar Charts & Pie Charts
Learn about life in the Arctic while practicing how to graph and interpret data with this interdisciplinary lesson. Starting with a whole group data-gathering exercise, students are then given a worksheet on which they analyze and create...
Curated OER
Planet Data
Sixth graders use various resources to locate information for a database (name of planets, diameter of planets, etc.). They enter the data onto a prepared data grid. Use of Access to sort data is accented within this lesson. Students...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan Outline for Rainbow Science
Young scientists study light reflection and refraction as they determine the critical angle, the rainbow angle, and color separation in rainbows. Teams record the data they collect in a shared spreadsheet and discuss results with the class.
PBS
Investigating Daily and Seasonal Weather
Talking about weather isn't just for making conversation. Young scientists gather evidence from an interactive activity to make connections between daily and seasonal weather. They analyze data from different areas and compare the...
Curated OER
Interpreting Data and Building Hypothesis
Students define the term species, and graph species data together with previously collected data at the National Zoo. They interpret graphed data and recognize patterns in the streamside quadrant versus hillside quadrant. Students use...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Are Global CO2 Levels Changing?
According to the Mauna Loa observatory, carbon dioxide levels increased by 3 ppm in our atmosphere between 2015–2016. Individuals analyze carbon dioxide data from around the world and then share this with a home group in lesson...
Curated OER
Air Pollution: What's the Solution?
This air pollution worksheet provides a step-by-step process for gathering data about the ozone and weather. Amateur meteorologists enter data for 3 days including the air quality, the temperature, the wind speed, any particular events...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
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...
Curated OER
Valentine Candy Count
Here is an imaginative take on a classic lesson! Young scholars discover what color Valentine Candy is found more often than any other in a standard bag of Valentine Conversation Hearts. They observe, predict, sort, and classify the data...
Cornell University
Hydrophobic Surfaces—Deposition and Analysis
Couches, carpets, and even computer keyboards now advertise they are spill-resistant, but what does that mean? Scholars use physical and chemical methods to coat surfaces with thin films to test their hydrophobic properties. Then they...
Curated OER
Cross Cultural Transportation and Resources Exchange
Students examine various modes of transportation. They explore regional transportation options and discover options available in their area. Students survey types of transportation people use in their area. Using spreadsheet data,...
Curated OER
Student News And Weather Channel
Fabulous! Your 5th graders should love this project. As an ongoing lesson throughout the year students use temperature probes to record outside temperature and then document their data using spreadsheets. They use their weather data and...
Curated OER
Weather, Data, Graphs and Maps
Students collect data on the weather, graph and analyze it. In this algebra instructional activity, students interpret maps and are able to better plan their days based on the weather reading. They make predictions based on the type of...
Messenger Education
Can You Hear Me Now?—Communicating with Spacecraft
Radio signals transmitted to Pluto take five hours to reach their destination! In these two activities, young scientists explore data communication in space. In activity one, pupils learn how data is gathered and sent back to Earth....
Curated OER
Trends of Snow Cover and Temperature in Alaska
Students gather historical snow cover and temperature data from the MY NASA DATA Web site. They compare this data to data gathered using ground measurements from the ALISON Web site for Shageluk Lake. They graph both sets of data and...
NASA
Discovering the Milky Way
What do you call a tiny collection of galaxies? A puny-verse! Young scholars graph data gathered by scientists studying Cepheids. They attempt to identify a relationship between the variables through standard and logarithmical...
Cornell University
Forensic Science: Case of the Missing Diamond Maker
Someone stole a diamond-making machine. Who done it? Scholars use forensic science at six different stations to determine the culprit. They analyze fingerprints, use their senses, and complete chemistry experiments to determine the...
Curated OER
What's in a Graph?
How many yellow Skittles® come in a fun-size package? Use candy color data to construct a bar graph and a pie chart. Pupils analyze bar graphs of real-life data on the Texas and Massachusetts populations. As an assessment at the end...
University of California
Heating and Cooling of the Earth's Surface
Scholars collect data from heating sand and water before forming testable hypotheses about why sand heats up faster. Afterward, they develop and run experiments to test their hypotheses.
Curated OER
Digging Up Dino Data
Third graders use the Internet to research a specific dinosaur. They work in pairs and individually to browse dinosaur websites, take notes on pertinent information, write, edit and illustrate reports. They post their work.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Weather or Not
What is the difference between weather and climate? This is the focus question of a lesson that takes a deeper look at how weather data helps determine climate in a region. Using weather and climate cards, young scholars decide...
Virginia Department of Education
Energy and ATP
Take charge of your biology class by using this exciting analogy to relate the ATP process with batteries. Pupils use batteries and rubber bands to simulate the phosphate bonds between molecules in the body. They measure the distance in...
American Institutes for Research
Digital Smiles
Explore metric measurement, recording data, and creating an electronic spreadsheet displaying results with your math class. Scholars will measure the length of their smiles, record the measurements, and represent the results on an...