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Transportation and Environment

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students make an eco-friendly vehicle to help make transportation better for the environment. In this transportation lesson, students learn how transportation inventions are bad for the environment. They then see how engineers have tried...
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The Same, But Different Part II

For Teachers 3rd
Learners characterize a physical change as something that changes to a different size, but retains its basic substance. They measure volumes using milliliters, and perform an experiment that proves that gases expand when hot and contract...
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Microfishing

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Students use a simple method to collect living microorganisms from natural and/or artificial environments and develop skills in microscopy, observation, drawing, speculation, hypothesizing, oral presentation, and raising questions.
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Starting an Indoor Container Garden from Seed

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students create an indoor container garden. In this container garden lesson, students explore seed germination. Students discuss edible seeds.
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Fertilizer Frenzy

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders design and conduct an experiment. They evaluate other's experiments. Students describe relationships between biological systems and the environmental contaminants. They work as a team to solve a problem.
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Dissolved Oxygen and Photosynthesis: 1

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students are taught that plants produce oxygen underwater, and they design an experiment that test this question. They discuss whether plants give off oxygen, and how to measure this. Students measure the increase in dissolved oxygen...
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The Living Environment

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students use a spoon, clothespin, scissors, and toothpicks to simulate how animals get food in their environment. In this environment lesson plan, students learn about the adaptations animals make in order to survive.
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Ziplock Chemistry

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate various chemical reactions when creating mixtures in ziplock baggies. In this chemistry instructional activity, students will recognize various chemical reactions and cite evidence. Safety and assessment strategies...
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Applied Science - Technology (3A) Post Lab

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders discuss how energy is created. In this energy lesson, 3rd graders look at how a city receives energy and how it is made. They create their own generator using a pin wheel and pipe cleaners. 
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Beyond Fossil Fuels

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students can benefit from an education on renewable energy.
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Explore Your Natural Habitat

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students identify habitats and understand why they are important to our environment.  In this environmental lesson students design their own habitat, observe and record data on the impact their habitat has on the environment.
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Insect Homes

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students investigate student homes.  In this insect homes lesson,students observe insect homes. Students visit a campsite and gather information about  insect homes. Students examine and record an insect home on a worksheet....
Interactive
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Basic Troubleshooting Strategies

For Students 10th - Higher Ed
In this circuits learning exercise, students are given 15 different scenarios to troubleshoot using the scientific method. Topics include electrical lights, "network" power cabling, gas pipelines and stereo systems.
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Those Amazing Earthworms- A Worm's World

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students investigate earthworms. In this organisms lesson, students observe earthworms in their environment and record their behavior towards light and how they eat. Students continue on a month long observation.
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Stream Table

For Teachers 3rd - Higher Ed
Students explore channelization, riparian habitats and soil erosion to find out about  the aquatic habitats in Iowa. In this aquatic habitats lesson plan, students define important terms and read an article about pollution. ...
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Let's Take a Rock Apart!

For Teachers K - 12th
Learners examine a crushed rock and sort the minerals they find in that rock by color and other properties.
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Bat Ecology

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students, through hands on games and activities, discover how bats live and how bats benefit ecosystems. They play a game designed to show them how echolocation works and another to show how mother bats locate their young through their...
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Get Your Butt off the Beach!

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students participate in a Beach Field Study in which the analyze the affect pollution is having on beaches and the animals that live there. Students focus specifically on the damage cigarette butts are causing on the environment.
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I Love the Mountains

For Teachers 1st
First graders discuss and define different landforms. They read the book "Our Land", sing a landform song and perform it with motions and then complete a worksheet.
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United States Map- Rivers

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Students learn about rivers. In this maps lesson, students describe rivers and what human activities take place in a river. Students use a map to locate the rivers in the United States.
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How Can You See Which Soda Has More Sugar?

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders weigh regular and diet soda to see which one is heavier and therefore which one contains more sugar. In this soda lesson plan, 6th graders discover that regular soda contains more sugar because it weighs more. 
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Radio Astronomy and Radio Telescope

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Young scholars construct a simple radio telescope. In this astronomy lesson, students explain how this telescope works and what information it collects.
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Heat and Color

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders conduct a simple experiment to explore the ways that color can affect heat transfer. They review the three ways that heat can transfer: conduction, convection and radiation.
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Protecting Habitats and Species

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students recognize that scientists continuously gather and interpret data to understand and predict relationships among natural phenomena. They research various volcanoes and plot the volcano locations on a world map.