Curated OER
Germs and Your Body
Students study germs and ways your body fights against disease. In this germs instructional activity students complete an activity that demonstrates where germs can get into your body.
Curated OER
Mapping Where Animals Live
What type of reptiles live in New York State? This lesson gets the class thinking about what factors determine where particular animals live. They analyze the Hudson Valley environment, identify specific reptile and amphibian...
Curated OER
What's Up at the Rim?
Students are sent on a scavenger hunt to find as many plants as they can in nature.
Curated OER
What Is Your Explanation for the Evidence?
Students encounter an interactive computer program activity designed as a diagnostic of student beliefs related to the theory of evolution. Students process the Hypercard cascades structured around a set of biological topics related to...
Curated OER
Happiness is A Warm Puppy
Students investigate dog breeds and write a short story from a dog's perspective. In this dog research and writing lesson, students watch the film, "Dog: The Early Years. They apply critical thinking skills to determine which type of dog...
Curated OER
The Value of Behavioral Variation in Homo sapiens
Learners look at the behavioral characteristics of their peers from a historical perspective, and realize that, in the larger scheme of a community, these behaviors do have some value, and that a society as complex as ours does need the...
Curated OER
Camouflage and Protective Coloration: A Model of Natural Selection
Students collect data and compare whether protective coloration or camouflage provides better biological fitness in a given environment. They simulate predator prey interactions of two different species and use gene frequencies to...
Michigan Sea Grant
Food Web II
A food web consists of complex food chains and the more complex the web, the better likelihood of survival. Learners compare and contrast food webs and food chains and discuss concepts like the predator-prey and consumer-producer...
Teach Engineering
Bubbles and Biosensors
Bubbles aren't just for children. In the third installment of a seven-part series, teenagers use bubble solution to create bubbles and observe patterns of refraction on the bubble surfaces. Application of this concept to thin films in...
Education Development Center
Integer Combinations—Postage Stamps Problem (MS Version)
Number patterns can seem mysterious. Help your learners unravel these mysteries as they complete an intriguing task. Through examination, collaborative groups determine that they are able to produce all integers above a certain...
Teach Engineering
Weather Forecasting
According to the Farmers' Almanac, the weather will be nice today. Class members examine how weather forecasting plays a part in their lives with a resource that provides information on the history of forecasting, from using cloud...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ebola: Disease Detectives
How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Hospitality and Tourism 1: Safety and Sanitation
Math and science come alive in this career-related instructional activity on sanitation. Along the way, learners explore bacterial growth rates using exponential notation and graphs. A link to a very brief, but vivid video shows just how...
Knoxville Art Museum
Lee Walton: Codes in Drawings
Familiar with the systems-based sports drawing of experimental artist Lee Walton? If so, this drawing exercise if for you. Young artists observe an activity over time, develop a coded language for the activity, and then draw a...
Curated OER
Cloud Poems
First graders make daily observations about clouds, write in their cloud books, make cloud charts, and make a poem about clouds.
Curated OER
Environmental Studies: The Environment Rocks!
Rock exploration, so exciting! After reading the book Everybody Needs a Rock, the class makes sandwiches to better understand that the Earth is made in layers. They then use a description of the 3 types of rock to conduct an observation...
Curated OER
Exploring Hawaiian Mountain Zones
Fourth graders watch a video that describes the climate and vegetation zones of Hawaii. They describe the different physical conditions that create vegetation zones from the sea to the mountains. In groups, they create an illustrated...
Curated OER
Curricular Correlations
An interesting instructional activity on different types of soils is here for you. In it, learners discuss what soil is, and consider three piles of soil - clay, sand, and loam. During the rest of the instructional activity, third...
Curated OER
Animal Tracks Program
Entice your learners with this lesson on animal footprints. After reading the story Footprints in the Snow by Cynthia Benjamin, they use photos to identify animals and their footprints. Then they participate in an activity to classify...
Curated OER
Seasons and Cloud Cover, Are They Related?
Students use NASA satellite data to see cloud cover over Africa. In this seasons lesson students access data and import it into Excel.
Curated OER
The Solar System
Looking for a cross-curricular project for language arts and science? Use this lesson to reinforce knowledge of the Solar System, as well as expository writing skills. Elementary and middle schoolers choose one aspect of the Solar System...
Curated OER
Temperature and the Tomato
You will need a photovoltaic system and monitor at your school in order to obtain all of the data required to thoroughly implement this lesson plan. Your class monitors daily temperature and insolation amounts over a two week span of...
Curated OER
The Mussels Are Coming
Students work together to identify and describe the various types of mussels. Using a color-coded system, they plot the arrival date of zebra mussels in North American waters. They discuss the increase in their population with the class.
Curated OER
Making Weather-Tracking Tools
Learners build tools to help track the weather. In this weather lesson, students follow directions to build a rain gauge, barometer and hair hygrometer.