Curated OER
Breathing Victory
Students know that participation in sports requires energy. They comprehend that we get energy form the foods that we eat and the air thta we breathe. Converting food and air into usable energy is defined as celluar respiration. Students...
Curated OER
Volcanoes: Third Grade Lessons Plans and Activities
Discover how rocks are formed from volcanoes during a geology pre-lab activity. Third graders describe the volcanic rock samples and creating a model of Mt. Lassen, located in California. The lesson culminates in...
Curated OER
Name That Leaf
Take a walk through nature with a science experiment about leaves. Third graders use a branching diagram to group attributes of certain kinds of leaves, such as oak, pine, and chestnut. For extra practice, they can collect leaves and...
NOAA
Ocean Primary Production
A cold seep is an area on the ocean floor where hydrocarbons leak from the earth, creating entire unique biomes. Learners explore cold seeps, photosynthesis in the ocean, and its limitations due to loss of sunlight. They further explore...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Are All Plants Created Equal?
Photosynthesis requires energy and produces food, and cellular respiration produces energy and requires food. An interesting lesson analyzes the factors that affect the rates of photosynthesis and respiration. Classes spend one day...
Curated OER
Elements Make Compounds
This presentation starts with safety warnings for an experiment. Students will be introduced to the reaction that happens when magnesium is burned, the chemical background and the energy changes. Excellent examples and labeled reactions...
National Institute of Open Schooling
Chemical Kinetics
Not all chemical reactions happen at the same rate because some, like explosions, occur quickly and some, like rusting, occur over time. Here, learners explore chemical reactions and their rates in the 16th lesson of 36. Through readings...
Creative Chemistry
Fuels - The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Science pupils choose from twelve questions about five different types of fuel: hydrogen, ethanol, crude oil, natural gas, and coal. They construct a table to compare them and then determine the best fuel. Your physical science class...
Curated OER
Land Assessment
Students work in small groups on a problem based learning activity. Students are presented with a problem of buying land to use for educational purposes only and must determine if it is feasible to buy it based on soil analysis and plant...
Curated OER
Lots of Leaf
In this science worksheet, students read and analyze information about leaves. Students will consider the 5 questions: How is a leaf like a cook? How is a leaf like a fan? How is a leaf like a pair of lungs? How does a leaf affect the...
Curated OER
5 Step Food Chain Lesson
Have your class discuss food chains using this resource. Learners watch a presentation on the food chain and how we are dependent on the smallest life forms. They write newspaper articles and create an illustration describing the food...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Third Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Third graders examine plate movements and boundaries with a lab that demonstrates how volcanoes and earthquakes are formed. It presents different types of stresses an object can withstand through a hands-on...
Cornell University
What Happens When We Excite Atoms and Molecules?
Excited atoms lead to exciting lessons! Learners use heat and light to excite both atoms and molecules. They display their learning in the form of Bohr models depicting the excited state of the atoms.
Curated OER
Chemical Consequences of Burning Fossil Fuels
Future scientists are introduced to the chemical consequences of burning fossil fuels, learning that fossil fuel combustion leads to the formation of oxides of three nonmetals: carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, all of which end up in the...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Cloud Sculpting
Dance is a fantastic way to communicate thoughts, feelings, and even science concepts. Make this activity a part of your next unit on weather and clouds. Kids will discuss types of clouds, how they look, and what they do. Then, they will...
International Technology Education Association
Pixel This!
Did the image I drew match the image you saw? By simulating a satellite and a ground station, teams of two transmit data in the form of pixels in order to recreate an image. They use four different levels of brightness, creating slightly...
Science Geek
The Hydrogen Bomb
Recycled Russian nuclear weapons provide 10 percent of the nuclear energy that the United States uses. The short presentation discusses the Teller-Ulam device. It provides a diagram of the parts as well as a description of the four...
University of Colorado
Patterns and Fingerprints
Human fingerprint patterns are the result of layers of skin growing at different paces, thus causing the layers to pull on each other forming ridges. Here, groups of learners see how patterns and fingerprints assist scientists in a...
Curated OER
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.
Colorado State University
What Makes a Gas, a Greenhouse Gas?—The Carbon Dioxide Dance
Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...
Curated OER
FBI
Fourth graders experiment with compost. In this Science instructional activity, 4th graders begin a worm compost as well as an outdoor compost. Students discuss decomposition.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Auroras
Learn the science behind one of the most beautiful acts of nature. A comprehensive lesson explores the causes and characteristics of auroras. The instruction also explains the differences among auroras and what the differences indicate...
Chicago Botanic Garden
What Can Tree Rings Tell Us About Climate?
Tree rings are slightly thicker on the south side of the tree because it receives more sunlight. Part two in a series of five lessons helps learners analyze tree rings to determine the environmental conditions that caused size...
National Institute of Open Schooling
p-Block Elements and Their Compounds – II
Ozone, made of three bonded oxygen atoms, is found 15-30 km above Earth, has a strong smell, is blue, and blocks sunlight from hitting the surface of Earth. The 22nd lesson in a series of 36 specifically focuses on the important elements...