Assess your young scientists' understanding of the difference between observation and inference with this 20-question multiple choice quiz. It reviews a variety of physics and astronomy concepts, such as solar eclipses and sunspots, the...

Forests, through sequestration, capture excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and store it, aiding in climate change. The third installment in a four-part series on how climate impacts forests explores carbon sequestration....

Compare surface temperatures when the solstice occurs in the different hemispheres. Young scientists draw conclusions from their investigation of data collected using spreadsheets and a globe.

Glaciers may seem distant and stationary, but they are huge deposits of moving ice that have made changes to the earth's surface. Your pupils can learn about the different types of impressions left by glaciers by reading the short...

While this is not the traditional, step-by-step lesson plan, it is chock-full of material that you can easily incorporate into your earth history unit. Its main purpose is to serve as a guide to using a three-part film, The Day the...

Climate models mathematically represent the interactions of the atmosphere, oceans, land, sun, surface, and ice. Part two in the series of four lessons looks at the role greenhouse gases play in keeping Earth warm and has participants...

What did Earth look like 4.5 billion years ago, and what was the climate like then? Scholars explore a view of Earth throughout history. They observe continents moving, temperatures fluctuating, and huge changes in ecosystems. A activity...

Now you see it, now you don't. Our moon seems to pull a disappearing act from time to time—but why? Take your seventh grade scientists above and beyond to discover the truth about the moon and the role it plays in Earth's little...

This packet, the first in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units on our earth, contains enrichment activities for learners who have mastered the basic concepts of the lessons. Kids...

Teach the basics of mass spectrometry with a hands-on activity. The fourth in a series of six lessons explores how mass spectrometry measures the ionic composition of an element. Learners then compare and contrast relative abundance and...

Show the class the world as they've never seen it before—from way above! Learners try to unravel the mysteries presented by rich satellite imagery, learn to interpret topographic maps, and study erosion by constructing their very...

A food web has no organism higher than a tertiary consumer because there wouldn't be enough energy left to sustain them. The fourth installment in a seven-part series begins with a nature walk to get pupils thinking about their...

There's more to fluids than meet the eye—they include gases, liquids, and polymers, too! Scholars complete three hands-on activities exploring different properties of fluids. They explore viscosity by measuring the resistance, or...

Human impacts on the environment can sometimes be difficult to measure, especially under water! An activity centered on ocean acidification gives science scholars the opportunity to examine the effects of carbon dioxide on marine life....

Turn up the heat! Young mathematicians develop models to represent different climates and collect temperature data. They analyze the data with regression and residual applications. Using that information, they make conclusions about...

Parades are a great way to celebrate. Get young historians into the festivities by asking them to create an informational float for a Freedom Parade. Picking a topic from the provided list or suggesting one of their own, class members...

Plasma is the most common phase of matter in our universe. Scholars explore the change of energy as molecules change phases of matter. They rotate through stations, graphing the changes in energy level.

If your class's knowledge of the Ice Age is limited to animated movies, use this lesson plan to strengthen their knowledge. After sharing what they know about the Ice Age, young readers explore a news article seeking to dispel...

Students explore the water cycle and associated phase changes. They predict what happens to the mass of an ice cube in a Ziploc bag, discuss and act out phase changes and diagram the water cycle.

The second of a three-unit lesson plan, this focuses on how human-made structures affect watersheds. Using watershed models that were built during the first unit, junior geologists now place buildings, dams, or levees into the models and...

Students explore climate changes. In this climate changes lesson, students research what causes changes. Students search the Internet, summarize reports they find and create a poster with the information.

Sixth graders conduct a controlled investigation to determine the length of the sun's shadow on a fixed object (i.e., flagpole, telephone pole, etc.) over a three-day period (one day in the fall, one in the winter, and one in the...

Students examine the atmospheric data for CO2. In this web-based atmospheric instructional activity, student follow instructions to examine and plot on-line scientific data about the CO2 levels in our atmosphere and analyze the changes...

Students explain the impact of glacial melting to global climate change. In this environmental science lesson plan, students design an experiment to investigate the effect of salinity change to melting glaciers. They share their results...