Berkshire Museum
Nature Journaling: Experience the Outdoors Through Writing and Drawing
Step into the great outdoors and develop young scientists' skills of observation with a nature journaling lesson. Given a specific focus or goal, children practice making and recording observations of nature through written descriptions...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Building Ideas and Making Connections: "Monkey See, Monkey Do"
Reading a scientific article about cross-species synchronization may sound like a yawner. But "Monkey See, Monkey Do" is a fascinating tale that just happens to be about yawning, within and across species. After a close reading, class...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
Cell Phone Use and Cancer
The cell phone you're using is making you deaf: news at 11:00. Oftentimes, the media uses fear tactics and other techniques to increase its audience base. In an intriguing look at the difference between scientific journals and...
Curated OER
Growing A Coral Skeleton
Students research the growth of coral. For this coral polyps lesson, students simulate the growth of coral by using available materials to grow crystals. Students record observations in a scientific journal.
Curated OER
Monet's Japanese Bridge -A Scientific Journal
Fourth graders design a bridge and answer critical questions about scientific inquiry and enterprise in a Science journal.
California Academy of Science
What Would Happen?
Nothing says classroom fun like an invertebrate and a magnifying glass! Snails, earthworms, and roly-poly bugs become the center of attention as pint-sized investigators hone their inquiry and observation skills. They are...
Curated OER
"Finding Your Sweet Tooth"--An Introduction to the Dichotomous Key
Sixth graders classify candy according to observable characteristics. They use a dichotomous key to identify their bag of "treats." Thus, describe how dichotomous keys help to the identifying of organisms. Design a self-generated...
Curated OER
Sunny Delight
First graders explore completing experiments through the scientific method.
Curated OER
Does Soap Float?
Students form hypotheses and carry out an investigation in order to answer a central question: Does soap float? The focus of this lesson is on scientific inquiry, but it incorporates scientific topics such as sinking and floating.
Curated OER
What's the Fizz Factor
Students as a class create a fountain using both coke soda, and mentos candy. In this science instructional activity, students test which combination of coke and mentos products produce the tallest fountain. Students use the scientific...
Curated OER
Human Fingerprints: No Two the Same
Sixth graders explore scientific observations by analyzing a group of data. In this fingerprint identification lesson, 6th graders identify the reasoning behind fingerprinting and create their own ink fingerprints. Students discuss the...
Berkshire Museum
Adopt a Schoolyard Tree
Help young scientists connect with nature and learn about trees with a fun life science lesson plan. Heading out into the school yard, children choose a tree to adopt, taking measurements, writing descriptions, and drawing sketches of it...
Curated OER
The Life Cycle of the Mealworm
Fourth graders provide a habitat for live mealworms and observe their life cycle. In this animal life cycle and scientific inquiry lesson, 4th graders create a habitat for a live mealworm and observe and record related data as it grows....
Curated OER
Rusting and the Scientific Method
Pupils observe the oil can scene with the tin man from a clip from "The Wizard of Oz" and answer the question, "What can we learn about rust from this scene?". They take 2 tubes and 2 nails, adding 1 salt packet to 2 ml of distilled...
Illustrative Mathematics
Growing Bean Plants
Plant growth experiments offer rich, cross-curricular learning opportunities that can really excite and engage young learners. For this series, children work in pairs planting, measuring, and comparing the height of bean plants in order...
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Meet the Heros
Vaccine development is the focus of a lesson that explores its history, timeline, and how the scientific method aids the process. Following a discussion about Edward Jenner and Small Pox, learners answer questions in their journals then...
Curated OER
Scientific Scenes
Students discover how the public's perceptions of science have changed throughout recent history; then research scientific and technological breakthroughs in a variety of areas. They then create plays that allow scientists to encounter...
Virginia Department of Education
Three Types of Rocks
Rock out with the second installment of a five-part series on earth materials and processes. Your budding geologists make observations of given rock samples and posit classification systems for rocks. They then learn about the...
EngageNY
Determining Author’s Opinions, Reasons, and Evidence: Signs of Hope and Progress for African Americans in the 1920s (Promises to Keep, Pages 14–15)
Caption this. Readers look at the text features in Promises to Keep and pay special attention to the photographs and captions before adding to the Features of Informational Text anchor chart. Learners then answer questions about life in...
Curated OER
Weather Journal
Sixth graders write in a journal using weather observations as the focus, they develop writing techniques in addition to scientific observation skills.
Curated OER
It's Up In the Air
Learners examine a variety of tools that are used to collect scientific data. They conduct an experiment that reveals what type of particles is in the air at their school. Students report on their findings.
Curated OER
Creek Restoration Project
Students gather and analyze scientific data from a local creek. Over weeks or months, students observe their local environment, collect water samples, and evaluate test results. Extension activities are suggested for evaluating...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Botany Scavenger Hunt Where's the Ginkgo?
Learners use a science journal to log plants that are native to Alabama. In this plant lesson plan, students identify characteristics, describe environments, and classify the plants that they find.
Curated OER
Plant Propagation
Students successfully start a new plant by any means of vegetative propagation. They select a propagation method which is appropriate for the plant and keep a laboratory journal of the treatment and progress of the new plant.