Curated OER
Spineless - YES... Helpless - NO!
Students distinguish between invertebrate and vertebrate organisms while examining the zoological classes of a number of invertebrates. They illustrate a food web of these organisms and investigate the impact of humans on the oceanic...
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Electricity: Series and Parallel Circuits
Fourth graders explore electricity and electrical circuits. They explore series and parallel circuits using Christmas lights. Students pull lights out of each strand of lights. They observe the results when the light bulb is pulled out....
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Simple Machines
Ninth graders are shown a constructed machine and they asked what it is and what it does? They are questioned on type of simple machine constructed. Students are questioned on various parts of machine. They work in groups to design...
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Snow Day
Eighth graders work in small groups to design and build a snow remover while looking at a snow design brief. They combine 2 or more simple machines to form a compound machine following the design brief in order to meet the required...
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The Cantankerous Pathogen
Students explore what factors influence the spread of infectious diseases. They explain how human manipulation of the environment affects the transmission of diseases.
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Creating an Experimental Design
Students research the damage to the environment by certain plant species. They create an experimental design which they test how these species take over certain habitats. They share their information with the class.
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Did a Chemical Reaction "Really" Occur?
Students perform several different experiments to observe signs of chemical reactions and determine if reaction has occurred, use search engine to find Internet sites pertaining to chemical reactions, and write up brief summary of site.
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Velocity and Acceleration
Twelfth graders look at local speed limits and traffic controls and see if they are reasonable. They plot the displacement and time to represent velocity, develop a plan for improving the current system, and organize experimental...
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Hands Off
Middle schoolers perform a handwashing experiment to see if a difference can be detected in the number and types of microbes on our hands after various types of cleaning. They will also demonstrate that they have learned the whys and...
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Great Flathead Lake Ecosystem Mystery
Students analyze data to solve the mystery of what contributed to an ecological disaster at Great Flathead Lake. They read and graph the available data, create a food web of the problem ecosystem, and construct a formal problem statement...
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Electric Field Mapping in 3D
Learners create a 3D vector field map of an electric field. In this physics lesson, students measure the voltage inside an aquarium with water. They present their findings and map to class..
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Separation of Unknowns in a Liquid
Students identify the different components of a given sample using chromatography. In this chemistry lesson, students compare paper and column chromatography. They collect data and construct data tables.
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Carbon Dioxide Heats It Up
Students design an investigation to test whether vegetation in an area helps regulate the ambient air temperature. They make comparisons between the investigation and global changes in climate. In groups, they present their findings to...
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Help! I'm Under Too Much Pressure!
Students play with a ping pong ball sized piece of modeling clay observing what happens to the clay as they play with it and write their observations in their notebooks. They share the results of their observations introducing the term...
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Groundwater Pump Test
Students observe groundwater flowing to a pump, changes in groundwater table as a result of pumping, and the quantity and quality of water in the groundwater system. Students must graph and interpret their data, and quantify orders of...
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"Adopt an Outcrop"
Students "adopts" a different outcrop or road cut, describing and interpreting both the outcrop scale features and hand specimens. They build their confidence in their ability to describe and interpret outcrop geology. Students are...
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Floodplains in the field (with GIS)
Pupils measure a topographic and geologic cross-section across a floodplain by simple surveying and auguring techniques. They consider the spatial context of the field observations, use GPS measurements, and desktop GIS analyses.
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Creating a Thematic Map Using S'COOL Data
Students observe weather patterns, collect data, and make a weather predictions for various locations on a map.
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2D Kinematics w/ String Racers
Students calculate the speed of string racers. In this physics lesson, students measure the time in several trials and get the average. They graph their results using a spreadsheet.
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Separation of Unknowns in a Liquid
Students identify chromatography as method of separating the components of a liquid. Students discover that dyes are composed of more than one component in achieving a particular color in these lessons on paper chromatography.
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Molar Ratio
Students conduct an experiment in which they react sodium bicarbonate with hydrochloric acid to determine the molar ration between the two reactants. Students must write correct formula and a balanced chemical equation and explain how...
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Predicting the Past
Students study how archaeologists record the past. They discuss archaeology and artifacts. They view a list of artifacts discovered by Marquette at the Illinois Village and answer questions regarding them. They complete a test about...
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Names in the Field: A Simple GPS Field Exercise
Students explore basic methods of GPS data collection, uploading the data to a computer, and making simple maps of their data using GIS software. They create a map of the data using GIS software (or Excel)
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Field Experiments on Succession
Student develop a hypothesis regarding the effects of either mowing or fertilizer upon the diversity of plant species in a grassland ecosystem. They set up experiment field plots and measure species richness.