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Astronomy
Students examine a medieval manuscript on astronomy and create their own books based on modern discoveries in astronomy. In this astronomy lesson, students compare astronomy knowledge in the middle ages to today and research modern...
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Strong Chemistry
Young scholars research and create a poster about a gemstone. In this mineral properties lesson, students view a video about diamonds. They discuss the properties of minerals and choose a gemstone to research and create a poster.
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Graphing Sunspot Cycles
Students explore sunspots and then graph them to analyze the data. In this sunspot cycles lesson students complete an activity sheet and complete questions.
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Plotting Sunspot Activity
Students explore how to graph sunspots using a solar graph. In this sunspots lesson students investigate sunspots and complete and evaluation worksheet.
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Tracking an Active Sunspot Region
Eighth graders plot the location of a single active region for 12 days. In this sunspot lesson students track an active region across the face of the sun.
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Materials: Hidden Costs, Mapping the Source and Cost of Raw Materials.
Students map connections among raw materials. In this environmental stewardship lesson, students design strategies to minimize the use of raw materials and discuss how to use more sustainable materials.
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How Does Preserving Wilderness Enhance Forestry
Students identify events of the environmental movement in the United States. For this environment lesson students study Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir, who had a great impact on the environmental movement.
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Salty Sea Water
Learners conduct an experiment to find out if there is salt in the ocean. In this scientific inquiry lesson, students pour a cup of salt water onto an aluminum plate and observe the changes over a few days. Learners complete an included...
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How Things Fly
Students explain basic principles of aeronautics such as gravity and lift. In this How Things Fly lesson, students visit the interactive, hands-on How Things Fly gallery at the Smithsonian. Students perform three experiments that...
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Extinction
Students peruse illustrations of living things and extinct life forms, which they compare and categorize as living or extinct.
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Figures, Joints and Movement
Learners paint a piece of art based on the linear style of Keith Haring to create figures showing movement and how they bend. They emulate Haring's use of bright color.
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Relative Dating - Telling Time Using Fossils
Students use fossil range charts to explain relative dating. They graph for ammonites, marine organisms that went extinct at the same time as dinosaurs.
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Tracing the Origins of Man
Students discuss Hominid evolution through various websites and other resources. They examine online fossil skulls, discuss the use of tools by ancient man, and look for examples of sophisticated tools built by man.
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The First Farmers
Students investigate how constant irrigation, with repeated evaporation of water eventually ruined farm land in southern Mesopotamia. They discuss the development of irrigation.
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Create an Astrolabe Instructions for Teachers
Students, who are teachers, make an astrolabe using the given pattern. They examine the uses of an astrolabe and apply the worksheets in their classrooms.
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Marine & Aquatic Habitats Activities - Diversity and Adaptations
Students analyze biozones and how to identify and diagram them. They also research which organisms can adapt to different biozones.
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The Unknown Secrets of the Rain Forest
Young scholars explore the rain forest and where they are located. Students examine why the rain forests are important and what is happening to them. They investigate the water cycle and life cycle of a frog. Young scholars build a rain...
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Sunflowers, The Circle of Life
Students investigate and observe plants and animals in nature. They find out how life cycles are present in much of nature. Students use appropriate graphic organizers for information gathering. Students use sequence life cycles of...
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Happy Birthday, Earth!
Students visualize the Earth's ecosystem at a specific time period and how Earth has changed over time. They create a detailed journal entry for a specific time period and create a birthday card to Earth.
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Introduction to Pinning Insects
Students are introduced to how to properly pin insects by reviewing insect morphology, insect orders and recognizing that the second and third thoracic segments contain large locomotor muscles that bind to the pin.
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Sand & Water: Shape Search
Students act as amateur archaeologists as they participate in their own "dig" to explore and record unusual shapes. In this shape exploration lesson, students use trowels and shovels to dig, and learn to sift the dirt with screens to...
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Pitch
Students experience sounds with different pitches. In this pitch lesson, students use open pipes as they are introduced to pitch, then make Straw Pan Pipes.
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Water Exploration Station
Students explore the characteristics of water. In this water exploration lesson, students participate in various learning centers to inquire how water drains and how to increase the flow of water. Students use estimation and measurement...
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What Can You Make of It?
Students investigate the various uses of a paper cup. In this scientific inquiry lesson, students investigate various ways to use a paper cup by identifying its characteristics. Students sketch their discovery.