Curated OER
Crystal Growing
Students explore the different phases of a crystal. In this mineral instructional activity students grow their own sugar crystals using a sugar recipe.
Curated OER
Simple Sequencing
Fourth graders play a stand up version of musical chairs to find their sequencing partners. In this music and language arts lesson plan, 4th graders enjoy a game that requires them to organize a series of three pictures, then write...
Curated OER
Music: Caterpillars, How They Grow!
Put on some music and get moving as a way to represent the life cycle of a caterpillar. Kids listen to the story The Very Hungary Caterpillar, discuss the life cycle, then create vocal expression that represent each stage of the cycle....
Curated OER
I'm a Weather Watcher Watching plants grow by......my,my,my
Students investigate how weather affects how plants grow. They collect data on weather and plant growth for a week and display the data on a graph. For a culminating experience they design a movie using software that shows plant growth...
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
Cell Division
Searching for simple ways to teach mitosis to high schoolers? Using colored chalk and onion root tips, pupils visually demonstrate what they view when looking through the lens of a microscope. There are also various ways to expand the...
Curated OER
How Fast Does This Tree Grow?
Young scholars work together to determine how fast trees go. They make predictions and complete simple measurements. They answer questions to end the lesson.
Science-Class.net
Rock Candy Crystals
Candy is one of my favorite words, and it's an even better word when it relates to science. Yes, candy science can happen when you grow rock candy crystals with your class. The entire process for growing these edible wonders of nature is...
Curated OER
Temperature and the Tomato
You will need a photovoltaic system and monitor at your school in order to obtain all of the data required to thoroughly implement this lesson. Your class monitors daily temperature and insolation amounts over a two week span of time....
Curated OER
Planting Wheat with Little Red Hen
Students discuss the cycle of growing wheat, and then plant their own in foil pans. After the wheat grows for a couple of weeks, students participate in a story retelling activity reinforcing the concepts of the process.
Curated OER
Growing Rock Candy
Students observe the growth of rock candy. In this crystal growth lesson plan, students make rock candy and measure the crystal growth over five days.
Curated OER
Fractals, An Inquiry: Day 4
Students put their growing understanding of the scientific inquiry process to work. They use paint to implement their plans to experiment with how changing one aspect of the fractal making process influences their appearance.
Curated OER
Color Dots 2
Students develop simple observations. They observe bleeding of colored inks with water, to understand mixtures, and to make generalized inferences from their observations.
Curated OER
Leaf Identification
Students identify different leaf types. They examine their patterns, shapes and colors. They complete a worksheet to end the lesson.
Curated OER
Tree Identification to Observe Diversity of a Given Nature Area
In this tree identification lesson, 2nd graders read A Tree is Growing, discuss what makes up a forest, brainstorm characteristics of leaves, gather samples of leaves and examine their samples. Students will sort leaves and compare them...
Curated OER
Color Dots 3
Students make simple observations, test mixtures, and make generalized inferences from their observations. They observe bleeding of colored inks with water.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Survival of the Fittest - Variations in the Clam Species Clamys sweetus
It's not often that you come across a clever laboratory activity that is both imaginative and comprehensive! Using M&M's and Reese's peanut butter candies to represent two different clam species, young biologists test for "relative...
Curated OER
Gumdrop Crystal Models
A great way to learn about molecular structures is to make a model. Gumdrops and toothpicks are used to construct crystal models. The models are based on theories of crystal shapes that occur because of positive and or negatively charged...
Curated OER
How Trees Contribute to the Water Cycle
In this water cycle instructional activity, 3rd graders conduct an experiment where they observe and calculate how water transpires in different types of trees. Students engage in a class discussion and use Venn Diagrams to compare...
Curated OER
Factors Affecting Plant Growth
Students determine the physical and chemical factors that affect plant growth. In this biology lesson, students explain the role of hormones in plants. They investigate how competition with other plants affect their growth.
Curated OER
What is Drought?
Students explore and conduct an experiment on the effects of drought on the environment. They define what drought is and the impact that a shortage of rainfall can have on agriculture, municipal water supplies, tourism, recreation, etc.
Curated OER
Living or Nonliving
Third graders brainstorm a list of the characteristics of living and nonliving organisms. Individually, they find four nonliving and living items and the characteristics that make them fit into one of the categories. To end the...
Curated OER
The Miracle Fish: Learning to Design an Experiment
Young scholars develop procedures to explore the behavior of fish. In this scientific experiment lesson students from a hypothesis, write a question, identify different variables and controls in their experiment.
Curated OER
Frog Metamorphosis
Students play 20 Questions with animal characteristics and then view an animation of how a tadpole changes into a frog. They consider the importance of camouflage to frogs and write out the story of a frog from tadpole to adult.