Curated OER
Fruit Flowers
Make a fun and healthy snack to celebrate Earth Day! Included are the directions for making a flower out of strawberries, kiwi, mint leaves, and raspberry licorice. Just provide your class with the materials and watch them make edible...
Curated OER
Characteristics of Plants
In this characteristics of plants worksheet, students conduct an experiment on how a vascular plant moves nutrients to all its parts. They describe the difference between the celery leaf from sugar water and plain water. Students also...
Curated OER
Characteristics of Plants
In this characteristics of plants worksheet, students name two things that all plants have in common. Then they describe how the cell walls and cuticles help plants adapt to life on land. Students also explain the difference between...
Curated OER
Weather and Seasons: Mt. Seymour Winter Fieldtrip
Students explore winter adaptations and glare. In this winter weather lesson plan, students discuss the season of winter and how animals and plants adapt to the changing weather. Students discuss the glare off snow and make goggles for...
Curated OER
Unique Ecosystems
Fourth graders explain how in any particular environment, some kinds of
plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all. They research the ecosystem of which each animal or plant is natively a part.
Curated OER
Sunken Millions Animals
This PowerPoint includes a game with ocean graphics in which two teams answer increasingly difficult questions about animals. Topics covered include plant and animal cells, animal adaptation, and similarities and differences between...
Curated OER
Design-A-Weed
Students create a "super weed" that prospers in teh harsh conditions on plant Weediv. They comprehend how weed adaptations give the plants an advantage over native plants. Students define the term adaptation. They give three examples...
Curated OER
Desert Habitat
Learners examine how desert plants and animals are adapted to life in the desert. They listen to the book, "Seasons of Saguaro," conduct experiments to demonstrate plant succulence, and create and draw an animal or plant that...
Curated OER
Smarty Plants
Students examine plants and pollinators. In this plant biology instructional activity, students read The Power of Pollinators and identify the parts of the plant and the pollinators. Students design their own imaginary plants.
National Wildlife Federation
Power Pellets! Nuclear Energy in the United States
Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the energy generated in the United States. The seventh activity in the series of 12 tackles nuclear power. After sharing what they know about nuclear energy, scholars complete a...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Seed Dispersal in Tropical Forests
How do seeds get around? It's not like plants can control seed dispersal—or can they? Dig deeper into the amazing mechanisms of seed dispersal observed in tropical plants through interactives, a video, and plenty of hands-on data...
NOAA
Climate, Corals and Change
Global warming isn't just an issue on land; deep ocean waters are also showing troubling signs. Young scientists learn more about deep water corals and the many recent discoveries researchers have made. Then they examine data related to...
NOAA
It's a Roughy Life
Scientists recently discovered several previously unknown species at the Bear Seamount off the coast of New England. Scholars research these new species — benthopelagic, benthic, and seamount fish — and find out what makes them...
Curated OER
Mealworms
Crawl into the world of the darkling beetle with this scientific investigation. Watch as the insects move through the larval, pupal, and adult stages of life, recording observations along the way. Discuss the necessities of life as young...
University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Do You See What I See?
Can art play tricks on your eyes, and can a still painting really appear to vibrate? The second lesson in a four-part series discusses the way our beautiful brains translate visual images. It highlights the style of optical art and...
University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Step Inside the Brain
Before digital microscopes, scientists hired artists to draw the things visible in the microscope. Through training in neuroscience and art, Cajal revolutionized the way we view the beautiful brain. The third instructional activity in a...
University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Brain Inspiration
"Neuroscientists consider Cajal as important to their discipline as Einstein is to physics." The first of four lessons has scholars view Santiago Ramon y Cajal's drawings of neurons. They reflect and respond to the art through writing...
University of Minnesota
Beautiful Brain: Strangest Dream
Do words change or add meaning or interest to a work of art? The final lesson plan in a four-part series on the beautiful brain as a work of art focuses on art analysis. Scholars write a story about exploring art from the inside....
Michigan State University
Friend or Foe?
What one person thinks is a pest may not be a pest to someone else. Here, scholars examine the characteristics of living things and pests through grand conversation and a variety of activities. Class members play a game of pest or not a...
Agriculture in the Classroom
Roll of the Genes
Animal reproduction in sheep and cattle is explored with the help of Punnet squares. Scholars employ tools using probability to conclude the color of wool a sheep's offspring will have. Acting as animal geneticists, pupils then take...
Curated OER
Caterpillar Camouflage
Students list animals, plant parts, and reasons for caterpillars to camouflage themselves. In this animal and plant adaptations lesson plan, students also play a game where they use colors as camouflage.
Curated OER
Evolution: Adaptation
Tenth graders practice new skills and apply them. The skills of research should motivate them to want more knowledge. The concept of adaptation is used as a context for the lesson of practicing research skills.
Curated OER
Learning From Leaves: Adaptation Scavenger Hunt
Students participate in an adaptation scavenger hunt at. They obtain various plant specimens, and sort the plants based on whether they came from a desert, tropical rainforest, or wetlands.
Curated OER
Unique Plants of the Biomes
Students examine how the earth is divided into different biomes that are characterized by a distinctive climate. In this earth's surface lesson plan students identify adaptations of plants in specific biomes.