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Solar System
Students research the nine planets on the internet using the provided links. They also search for pictures of each of the nine planets and use these pictures to create a PowerPoint slideshow. Finally, they prsent their slideshow report...
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Impervious Surfaces
Middle schoolers comprehend impervious surfaces. They recognize the problems caused by impervous surfaces. Students observe how land use can influence impervious surfaces. They chose four of the seven basic land surface, middle schoolers...
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Analyzing Tree Rings to Determine Climate Change
Students examine how to locate and access data sets. For this climate change lesson students import data into Excel and graph it.
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Landforms of Illinois
Fifth and sixth graders are introduced to the primary landforms of Illinois and discover how they were created. Landform cards are made for each pupil. They use the twenty-questions format until they have identified each one. Then,...
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Weather Dance
Students study weather and focus on specific dance concepts. They are introduced to different ty es of clouds and how they are formed. Next, they study wind and why it occurs.
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Radiation Budget
Learners examine the radiation budget and the launching of the Budget Satellite. They role-play as designers of the satellite and construct one with a power source, instruments, and sensors. they explain how their satellite functions...
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The Coriolis Effect
Learners will determine the direction of Earth's rotation as viewed from the north and south if they were suspended out in space. They will model how the rotation of the Earth causes currents to be deflected in different directions for...
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Solar System Hall Model
Not novel, but fun, this lesson gets your space science learners to model the size of the planets and the solar system along your school's hallway. Scaled measurements as well as actual distances are provided for both planet diameters...
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Dark Matter In The Universe
Middle schoolers investigate the concept of dark matter and how it occurs in the universe. They conduct research using a variety of resources. Students use the information by reading at least two articles about dark matter. They also...
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Life Beyond Earth
Students investigate the solar system and what makes a planet habitable. They complete an online Webquest, simulate a NASA training program online, take an online quiz, answer discussion questions, and locate newspaper articles about the...
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Delta, Delta, Where is the Delta?
Pupils explore several images of Earth from space. They identify parts of deltas. They observe, label, and measure delta images, taken from space. They consider how deltas form and why they differ in shape.
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Explore! Fun with Science
Learners explore the challenges of living in space by designing a facility that can provide everything required to support humans and can protect them from the harsh environment of space.
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What's The Weather?
Students explore the role that remote sensing plays in predicting our weather. Students investigate weather websites, and read about the three kinds of clouds. Students record and draw their observations in science journals.
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The Role of the Atmosphere and Greenhouse Effect in Determining the Surface Temperature of the Earth
Pupils complete research and solve problems that show the factors that determine the temperature of the earth's surface including the effect of greenhouse gases. They look at the relationships between solar energy, atmosphere, and how...
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Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation with Simple Machines
First graders engage in a lesson that is about Newton's Laws Of Gravitation while conducting research in order to perform an information search. They sing a song about the Law of Gravitation and play a game of Ring Around The Rosie. Then...
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Space, the Final Frontier...
Students study a common theory on how the solar system was formed and examine the relative scale of the size and distances among the bodies of the Solar System.
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Science: What Is a Barometer?
Fourth graders discover how barometers help to predict the weather. Using newspapers, they examine the weather forecast and determine the meaning of high and low as they pertain to pressure. After making cluster diagrams, 4th graders...
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Organisms and Their Environment
Young scholars explore Earth's biosphere. For this biosphere lesson, students participate in group activities regarding biotic and abiotic factors, population density, and species' habitats.
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Cloud Observations using GLOBE Protocols
Students observe which of ten types of clouds are visible and how much of the sky is cloud covered. They see that by observing clouds, we can get information about temperature, moisture, and wind conditions in different places in the...
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How Clean is the Water?
Students read about and discuss water and how it is used as a resource and how engineers use technology to preserve it. In this water lesson plan, students look at a picture of water treatment and tell what is wrong with the picture.
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Ecology And the Conservation of Natural Resources
Students study Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift and how the continents were connected in one large land mass called Pangaea. They examine plate tectonics and the theory that the earth's surface is composed of large moving...
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Wide Open Spaces
Students examine the problem of groundwater pollution. In groups, they develop a solution to solve the problem of a local polluted water source. They also practice measuring the space between sediment particles and the rate of water flow.
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Our Ever Changing Earth
First graders discover plate tectonics. They observe the forces of erosion. They observe the forces of weathering. They state three ways the earth changes. They record observations and make conclusions about their observations.
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The Magic School Bus Lost in Space
Students identify the planets by making two models of the Solar System. They create a model that shows the order of the planets and a model that shows the planets sizes as compared to one another. They may write about the planet they...