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Reflect and Refract
Students explore light. In this properties of light lesson, students define the terms refract, reflect, and diffract after listening to the teacher's description. Students listen to the book Light Magic and observe a spoon in a glass of...
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Government for the People
Seventh graders read about the three branches, the balance of power an the system of checks and balances. They analyze current events in terms of which vranch of government is responsible for addressing issues. Students create a poster...
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Science Under Control
Students investigate and assess scientific issues for which government regulation has been or might be enacted. Using their research, students write letters to lawmakers supporting or contesting related legislative efforts.
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Probability: The Study of Chance
Students practice the basic principles of probability by conducting an experiment, determining if a game is fair, collecting data, interpreting data, displaying data, conducting analysis, and stating and applying the rule for probability.
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Make a Nature Mobile
Students take nature walks to collect items from the environment such as leaves, shells, branches, feathers, and seeds. Working in groups, they assemble their items into mobiles and display them in the classroom.
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Living in a Tree
Young scholars explore animals that live in trees. In this nature and biology lesson, students go outdoors and make observations about animals and their unique body parts that help them to live in trees. Young scholars create drawings as...
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Where Growth Meets Growth
Students discuss fire risk factors for a property located near a wildland area. In this science lesson, students identify, number, and provide reasons for areas of increased risk on a worksheet they think should be changed. Students...
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Electrical Circuits
Students compare series and parallel circuits. In this electricity and circuits activity, students roleplay as a "wire" passing an energy ball to demonstrate how a series circuit works and how the circuit can be broken. Students...
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What is a Tree?
Students identify and define types of trees. In this tree identification lesson, students complete a KWL chart on trees and read the book ABCedar: An Alphabet of Trees. Students complete a tree word scramble.
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Tree Talk
Students discuss trees, leaves, and the growth process In this 1st - 3rd grade lesson plan, students identify various types of leaves, recognizing the differences in size and shape. Students create tracings of various leaves to...
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Small Pond Creatures
Learners complete a unit about the different creatures that can live in a small pond habitat. They create a glossary, create a class Small Pond mural, develop a Frog Fact File, read a variety of books, and conduct research for a report...
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Egg to Butterfly
Students examine the life cycle of the butterfly through literature. In this butterfly life cycle lesson, students listen to a read aloud of Eric Carle's, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and discuss the life cycle shown in the story. They...
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Chocolate Asphalt Cookies
Students make no-bake cookies to learn basic engineering principles, road construction and material science. They experience properties and changes in matter.
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My Tree Book
Students "adopt" a tree and throughout the year record and examine its characteristics and the changes that it goes through.
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Animals Active at Night
Learners identify animals that are active at night and the reasons why. They examine the features needed to be a nocturnal animal. They create a representation of one of the animals.
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"Where is My Food?"
Students investigate the monarch's searching behavior and ability to find food. They determine whether or not a caterpillar can find food in a simple Y-shaped maze. They record and graph or chart the data from several attempts using...
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Using a Spreadsheet to Solve Gas Law Problems
Students use a spreadsheet to solve gas law problems. In this gas laws lesson plan, students use the Express Calc program to load a spreadsheet for the gas law problems. Students compute volume, temperature, or pressure according to the...
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An Apple a Day
Students explore the Johnny Appleseed story. In this service learning lesson, students sequence the life cycle of apple trees and recognize how Johnny Appleseed worked as a philanthropist.
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Forest Activity: Leaf Collection and Creating a Herbarium
Students identify and categorize leaves. They collect leaves from trees, research the leaves using field guides and the Internet, press, label, and display the leaves, and discuss how the leaf reflects adaptation to its environment.
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Heredity And Environment
Learners complete a pre-test on the relationship between heredity and the environment. As a class, they write down descriptions of themselves and identify which traits can be changed and not changed. In groups, they determine which...
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Quick Concept Demonstrations
Students research the nervous system. Demonstrations on how to pick up keyed information in text is shown daily and weekly. Reviewed for content is Nerve Impulse, Polarization and Depolarization and perception. A spreadsheet will graph...
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Now You Have It, Now You Don't
Young scholars compare shipping peanuts made from corn and made from Styrofoam. In this corn based peanuts lesson, students understand why to use eco-friendly materials for packing. Young scholars participate in an experiment to compare...
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Weave an Aquatic Food Web
Young scholars explore organisms that are part of interconnected food webs. In this food web lesson, students choose an animal and research what the animal eats. Young scholars begin with the food chain and branch out into...
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Birds of Wisconsin
First graders explore the job done by ornithologists. They role play identifying the characteristics that make a bird a bird. They discuss what makes each bird species unique. Students are introduced to Wisconsin's most common and rare...