Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Think Green

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students experience and practice compositing and recycling through hands-on-activities. They distinguish between which items from their trash can be recycled, composted and reused. The process for making recycled paper is also covered in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Current Interactions

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students design an experiment to see how wind, temperature, and salinity work together to influence ocean currents and present it in a report format. They explain to their classmates how experiment findings relate to ocean currents.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Selecting Soil Organisms in Compost

For Teachers 12th - Higher Ed
Learners conduct an experiment to demonstrate that many of the enzyme systems needed to break down society's wastes exist in nature among the decomposers in a compost pile. They culture compost bacteria on starch agar to examine the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Selecting Soil Organisms in Compost

For Teachers 12th - Higher Ed
Students demonstrate that many of the enzyme systems needed to break down--and therefore clean up-society's wastes already exist in nature among the decomposers. They select the best starch-munching organisms by altering the environment...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Day and Night

For Teachers Higher Ed
Students using experiments try to demonstrate how observations can be affected by the cycles of night and day.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Seeds and Similarities

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use the scientific inquiry method to identify the changes in a plant's life cycle. In groups, they plant different types of plants and use a chart to compare and contrast their growth rates. They share their conclusions with...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Can Fun Gus Help Plants/Trees Grow?

For Teachers K - 5th
Pupils participate in an experiment in which they test the growth of different types of plants. They discover how growth rates vary using inoculum. They draw pictures and are read books about plants to end the lesson.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Does Climate Affect Our Shelter Needs?

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate how weather influences shelter choices. They explore the concept of insulation and discuss some traditional Native American shelters. They discuss the shelters used by the Okanogan people during the various...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Population Dynamics of Growth of Drosophila

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners experiment with Drosophila to determine if density of female flies, food sources, temperature and light affect the population dynamics of growth. Students graph their data and compare their results to the number of human...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Clouds and Rain

For Teachers 4th - 9th
Students study how clouds form, what different types there are and what rain is.  In this atmospheric lesson students make a cloud and create evaporation.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ziplock Chemistry

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate various chemical reactions when creating mixtures in ziplock baggies. In this chemistry lesson, students will recognize various chemical reactions and cite evidence. Safety and assessment strategies are included in...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Solid Waste Recycling

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students seek scientific and technological solutions to envrionmental problems. They record class activities in a journal. They identify relationships among living things and their environments.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Marine Communities

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Students view a video and then complete lab exercises to help them explain marine communities and animals in them.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Magnetic Discovery Bottle

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students examine how to conduct simple investigations and use simple equipment to gather data.  In this magnet lesson students decide what types of objects are attracted to magnets. 
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mosquito Bytes

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students investigate mosquitoes. In this mosquito bytes lesson, students consider reasons why mosquitoes transfer disease and ways to combat them. Students read an article, discuss, and complete a quiz.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Youth Engagement

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students examine and then discuss opposite sides of controversial issues such as neighborhood curfews, lowering voter age, etc. They learn civic responsibility and cultivate tolerance for others' opinions.
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating the Water Cycle: Using Plants to Study Evaporation

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this science activity, students investigate the water cycle by testing the water evaporated from leaves (transpiration). They investigate concepts of evaporation and the movement of water through the different states of the water...
Lesson Plan
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College

Serc: Investigating the Water Cycle: Evaporation

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
In this water cycle activity, students investigate the evaporation process by participating in an outdoor evaporation experiment held on the school grounds. Students will determine where evaporation takes place the fastest and how nature...
Unit Plan
Utah State Office of Education

Utah Science: Where's the Water?

For Students 2nd - 8th
Discover the ins and outs of the water cycle through this collection of experiments and activities.
Lesson Plan
National Association of Geoscience Teachers

Nagt: Demonstrating Climate Change and the Water Cycle

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Demonstration of the greenhouse effect and its role in climate change, discussion of the phases of water and the water cycle, and a hands-on experiment to investigate the role of temperature in phase changes of water.
Lesson Plan
Alabama Learning Exchange

Alex: The Water Cycle

For Teachers 6th - 8th
This is a hands applied lesson plan to help young scholars experience the water cycle on a smaller scale. Because of the hands-on nature of the lesson, it works well to help students with a language barrier understand complicated...
Lesson Plan
ArtsNow

Arts Now Learning: Be One With the Water [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders will explore states of matter and the water cycle by bringing water to life with their bodies. By enacting the changes that water molecules experience, 4th graders will learn scientific information kinesthetically.
Lesson Plan
American Geosciences Institute

American Geosciences Institute: Earth Science Week: Earth's Hydrologic Cycle

For Teachers 1st - 9th
For this experiment, students create a model of the water cycle and learn about its crucial role in moving water around the Earth.
Activity
US Environmental Protection Agency

Epa: Thirstin's Water Cycle Activity [Pdf]

For Students Pre-K - 1st
This resource presents a simple set of instructions for building a model of the water cycle in a lidded jar.