Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
Virginia Department of Education
Permeability and Porosity
Covering both permeability and porosity, scholars perform a hands-on experiment testing various soil types. The material includes a pre-lesson worksheet to help focus pupils on the task at hand.
University of Colorado
Looking Inside Planets
Researchers use scientific data to understand what is inside each of the planets. The first in a series of six, this lesson builds off of that concept by having pupils use a data table to create their own scale models of the interiors of...
NASA
Photons in the Radiative Zone: Which Way Is Out? An A-Maz-ing Model
Can you move like a photon? Young scholars use a maze to reproduce the straight line motion of a photon. The second in a six-part series of lessons on the sun has learners measure angle of incidence and refraction to determine the path...
NASA
The Invisible Sun: How Hot Is It?
It's getting hot in here! The first in a series of six lessons has learners model nuclear fusion with a simple lab investigation. Groups collect data and analyze results, comparing their models to the actual process along the way.
Curated OER
Using a Graphic Organizer to Research a Question
Is Pluto still a planet? Using this popular question, kids are introduced to graphic organizers as a writing tool. As a class, they watch a demonstration on how to use them and work together with a partner to research whether Pluto is a...
Messenger Education
Star Power! Discovering the Power of Sunlight
It takes less than 10 minutes for energy from the sun to travel 90 million miles to Earth! In the first installment in a series of four, groups measure the amount of solar radiation that reaches Earth. They then discuss how this is...
Virginia Department of Education
Solar System Model
How many planets can you name? Did you get all 13 in our solar system, including the dwarf planets, or were you surprised when you read there are 13 planets? The lesson helps scholars understand the scale of the universe including the...
Virginia Department of Education
Isotopes
Lead your class through the amazing world of isotopes as they investigate the various properties they contain and further understand their respective location on the periodic table. They explore half-lives and radioactivity as each...
PBS
Exoplanets through Kepler’s Laws
The majority of all confirmed exoplanets relied on Kepler's laws to discover their locations. Scholars learn how to apply Kepler's laws and then practice using data to discover exoplanets. They benefit from NASA video footage, NOVA...
Curated OER
Space
First graders examine space in this unit of lessons. They create a KWL chart and write in their journals about space. They also examine the phases of the moon and identify the constellations.
Curated OER
Start the Space Flight Time Line
Students research space flight exploration and technology. In small groups, they research a significant event from early time until the start of the space age. A class time line is created from the research groups.
Curated OER
Space Exploration Missions
Eighth graders explore and discuss the various space exploration missions. In this space mission lesson students work in pairs and create a PowerPoint presentation on the contributions of space exploration missions.
Curated OER
A Place In Space
Students work together to create a 3D coordinate system. They plot points that are given to them and asked to find these points in space. They discover how engineers use coordinates in their careers.
Curated OER
Design a Space Station
Sixth graders investigate living in space. In this science lesson, 6th graders discuss what it is like to live in space and create their own space station or space city of the future.
Alabama Learning Exchange
The History of Space Exploration
Young scholars research and identify important events in the history of space exploration. They work in groups of three to four in order to research an important astronaut and record their finding on a poster board and present to the class.
Curated OER
The Lesson: Space Exploration
Learners explore space. In this current events instructional activity, students visit selected websites to learn about NASA, Mars, the Seti Institute, and space exploration terminology. Learners make space glossaries and their own...
Curated OER
Life in Space: International Space Station
Students explore the potential challenges of living in space. In this investigative lesson plan students search the Internet to locate 16 nations that are working together to build the Independent Space Station, then they divide...
Curated OER
Space Exploration Narrative
Fourth graders role-play a space exploration. They read scripts detailing an astronaut's journey on a space exploration. They discuss how it felt to be an astronaut, the emotions, moods and feelings of going on a space exploration.
Curated OER
Moving and Working in Space
Students complete four tasks with certain restrictions. In this astronomy lesson, students explore different ways that astronauts can anchor and maneuver in space. They recognize the challenges they face from day to day.
Curated OER
Voyage to Outer Space
Students design and construct a spacecraft. In this space voyage instructional activity, students read Regards to the Man in the Moon by Ezra Jack Keats and gather materials before constructing their own spacecraft.
Curated OER
NASA, Impact on Space
Students examine the work of NASA. In this space exploration lesson, students watch "1958: Project Mercury Begins." Students then view a PowerPoint presentation about the history of NASA and research each of the manned space programs.
Curated OER
Space Travel Timeline
Learners use the Internet to find events in space history to include in a timeline. They recognize the cause and effect relationships between events that happened in the exploration of space. They see how to use the TimeLiner software.
Education Outside
Our Water Planet
Fresh water is a precious resource. Most kids don't realize how little of the water on Earth is actually drinkable. This lesson will help to illuminate them on this important topic. They discus the ratio of water to land, where most...