Curated OER
Water, Water Everywhere
Students study the location of Earth's water and study the water cycle using a terrarium. In this water study instructional activity, students study a model globe for the Earth and find Alaska. Students locate the bodies of water and...
PHET
Planet Designer: Retro Planet Red
What does the atmosphere on Mars look like? This fourth lesson in the series of five is designed for high schoolers. Scholars apply previous knowledge to add atmosphere to Mars in an online simulation. This comprehensive lesson includes...
Curated OER
What Are We?
Students list and describe three types of surface water pollutants. They observe the effects of various water pollutants on algae growth. Three causes of each surface water pollutant is listed.
Curated OER
Fighting Corrosion to Save an Ancient Greek Bronze
Study corrosion on bronze statues with a hands-on lesson. As pupils place a penny in water with salt, they observe the changes in the penny throughout a period of a week. They then analyze the pre-conservation and the...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
How Dry am I? Exploring Biomimicry and Nanotechnology
Help your classes feel like they can walk on water! An engaging inquiry-based lesson has young scholars experiment with different surface coatings. They make observations about their properties and how they relate to the surface tension...
Cornell University
Atomic Bonding
Explore the connection of surface area to bonding within atoms. Learners complete lab investigations to model changing surface area with different sizes and concentrations of atoms. A flour fireball demonstration follows the labs to...
Curated OER
Investigating the Climate System: Energy, A Balancing Act
Earth science explorers design an experiment to demonstrate that the albedo of a surface affects its temperature. They test to find out if moisture on the surface affects temperature. They discover whether or not concrete or asphalt heat...
NOAA
Graphing Temperatures
Battle of the hemispheres? In the fourth installment of a five-part series, young oceanographers use the NOAA website to collect temperature data from drifters (buoys), one in the Northern Hemisphere and one in the Southern Hemisphere....
Mr. E. Science
Erosion and Deposition
Get an in-depth look into erosion and deposition with a 23-slide presentation that details how gravity, water, waves, wind, and glaciers cause changes to the Earth's surface. Each slide consists of detailed images equipped with labels,...
NOAA
Ground-truthing Satellite Imagery with Drifting Buoy Data
Ground-truthing ... is it even a word? The last installment of a five-part series analyzes how scientists collect sea surface temperature data. Scholars use government websites to compare temperature data collected directly from buoys...
University of Southern California
Design and Test an Air Lift Siphon
Build an air lift siphon using your mad physics skills! Learners first investigate the importance of circulating water in aquaponics systems. They then use density to their advantage as they engineer an air lift siphon
Nuffield Foundation
Effect of Size on Uptake by Diffusion
Cell size is limited by the surface area to volume ratio, but why is this true? Scholars measure the surface area and volume of cubes before placing them into liquid. After a set amount of time, they measure the uptake by diffusion for...
National Institute of Open Schooling
Adsorption and Catalysis
Adsorption, not absorption, is when atoms stick to the surface of an object, like water sticking to a grain of sand. An informative lesson delves into adsorption, teaching physical and chemisorption and the factors that affect them....
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Lab 2: Nanocatalysts Clean Your Car Emissions
Surface area certainly surfaces as a variable for chemical reaction rates. Scholars perform an experiment to discover how the size of catalysts affect the rate of a chemical reaction. They record their results in tables and graphs to...
Curated OER
Liquid Rainbow
Students develop their own techniques for drawing a small sample of solutions into a straw. They hypothesize ways to increase the density of water, and discuss how salt-free rainwater tends to float on top of salty seawater.
Curated OER
Build a Model Watershed
Collaborative earth science groups create a working model of a watershed. Once it has been developed, you come along and introduce a change in land use, impacting the quality of water throughout their watershed. Model making is an...
Discovery Education
Motion in the Ocean
How do temperature changes affect ocean currents? Scholars explore convection currents by demonstrating the flow of water in a baking dish. They use ice, heat, and food coloring to see currents. Then, they draw conclusions about their...
Curated OER
Drip... Drop... Raindrops
Students demonstrate the steps of evaporation, cloud formation, and precipitation within the water cycle. They make and demonstrate how to use a hygrometer to record daily humidity and describe how rain, snow, and sleet form.
Curated OER
Sequence of Events: The Watershed
Class members simulate a watershed with a painters drop cloth, placing objects underneath to create landscape variation, making "rain" with a watering can, and using red drink mix powder to track the path of precipitation. They observe...
University of Chicago
Don't Be Too Flaky
Snow, ice, and water are all composed of H2O. Does that mean they all have the same volume? Discover the ways that the densities of these substances determine their volumes, and how they change based on their current states of...
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Pesky Plastics: The Problem with Plastic
What can happen to the environment if plastic continues to pollute it? Learners read about the implications of plastic on health, water, and nature in a two-page reading passage. After they finish reading, they work on six comprehension...
Curated OER
Labeling Forces Correctly!
Define six common forces: propulsion, air resistance, water resistance, friction, gravity, and upthrust. A picture of a Smart Car is displayed with arrows showing all of the forces acting on it when it is motion. A picture of a rubber...
Port Jefferson School District
Climate Patterns
Young climatologists explore the factors that contribute to a region's climate in this two-part earth science activity. To begin, learners are provided with a map of an imaginary planet and are asked to label global wind and...
Curated OER
Where in the World Is All the Water?
Students investigate the distribution of the earth's water. They conduct a demonstration of water distribution, and create a pie graph to display the results.