Curated OER
Naturally Speaking
Learners identify the Earth's natural resources and classify them as renewable or non-renewable. They simulate the distribution of resources and discuss the fairness and effectiveness of the distribution. They identify ways that they use...
Curated OER
Materials, Let's Do the Life Cycle
Students examine environmental and social impacts of products that consumers buy. For this environmental stewardship lesson, students play a game that requires them to consider real costs of products. Students consider the environmental...
Curated OER
Barnegat Bay Watershed
Students design a model watershed. In this watershed lesson plan, students learn the needed parts of a watershed and how they work. Students evaluate how watersheds effect communities.
Curated OER
Finding the Mother Lode
Students engage in a paper treasure hunt to find a lode deposit of gold using the placer deposit concentrations of metals found in stream sediments. They use topographic maps and metal concentrations to assist them. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
Arsenic Contamination: Natural Disaster or Human Induced?
Students list as a class the sources of arsenic contamination of water. They describe the major health effects of arsenic contamination in a letter. Students identify the regions that are affected by it.
Curated OER
Flood!
Students construct a model of a river system. Students observe the effects caused by water rushing through riverbanks and across plains. They predict what will happen when levees are added to the model. Students test their hypothesis.
Curated OER
WWII Economics
Students simulate a classroom rationing program resembling an environment similar to the coupon/stamp rations conducted during WWII. The simulation last 3 days resulting in an observable outcome in relationship to the coupon rationing...
Curated OER
Sediment Tubes
Students observe how different density soils and rocks behave in wind and in water. They make predictions and careful observations as they explore sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
Curated OER
Introduction to the Barnegat Bay Estuary
Students research estuaries. For this estuaries lesson, students discuss the differences in a bay and an ocean. Students watch a PowerPoint of the properties of the estuaries and geography of Barnegat Bay. Students complete a worksheet...
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Curated OER
Call of The Wild
Prompt your class to interact with Jack London's Call of the Wild. By analyzing the events in the novel, middle schoolers discover how human experiences create who a person becomes. They critique and analyze the reading, focusing on...
Curated OER
Motion in the Ocean
How does the formation of currents and waves in the ocean happen? High schoolers will learn about the primary causes for ocean currents and waves by calculating a wave's amplitude and nautical mile speed. Then they will complete a...
Curated OER
Floods and Flash Floods
Junior geologists, hydrologists, or meteorologists simulate what happens during the flooding of a river and demonstrate factors that contribute to flash flooding. This outstanding resource provides a vocabulary list, online resources,...
Science Matters
Post-Assessment Energy
After nine lessons and activities about energy, here is the final assessment. The 20-questions include multiple choice, multiple choice with justification, short answer, answer analysis, and labeling diagrams to challenge learners.
Curated OER
Swamps, Shrimp, and Tsunamis: A Simulation of Sustainable Development Issues in Coastal Ecuador
Students examine the economic benefits, environmental losses and dangers of the shrimp farming industry on the coast of Ecuador. They read a script, role-play people involved in the shrimp business, and write an essay of the pros and cons.
NOAA
A Laboratory Simulation of Ocean Surface Currents
Stimulate interest in ocean currents with a simulation. The first installment of a five-part middle school series teaches future oceanographers about the forces that interact to cause ocean currents. A simulation shows how wind and the...
American Museum of Natural History
The Ancient City of Petra
Anyone who has seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade will recognize the entrance to the Nabataean city of Petra. Young archaeologists don't need horses or camels to travel through the Sig and tour this fascinating city, however. With...
Curated OER
Put the Title of the Lesson Here
Eighth graders write a Compare and Contrast essay comparing the lives of similarly aged students at different Latitudes. They share their essays with epals, via e-mail. They may include digital photographs in their correspondence as well.
Curated OER
Enduring Patterns: Pre-Columbian Ecuadorean Textile Designs
Students examine Pre-Columbian Ecuadorean design motifs. They view examples of the designs, discuss the motif themes, and replicate the designs on modern fabric using authentic methods.
Poetry Class
Tackling Climate Change
Get your kids thinking about climate change with a series of activities that include creating a ditty box poem for the planet, a poem that identifies concepts or objects they would want to preserve.
Creative Learning Exchange
The Infection Game: The Shape of Change
Encourage the spread of knowledge in your class with this cross-curricular epidemic simulation. Pulling together science, social studies, and math, this lesson engages students in modeling the spread of infectious diseases, collecting...
NOAA
Watching in 3D
Bring the ocean floor to life! Earth science scholars discover the process of deep sea mapping in the third installment in a series of five lessons about ocean exploration. The teacher's guide includes helpful resources, worksheets, and...
Cornell University
Catapults
Ready, aim, fire! Launch to a new level of understanding as scholars build and test their own catapults. Learners explore lever design and how adjusting the fulcrum changes the outcome.
Discovery Education
Perfectly Decomposed!
We all know someone who won't eat the banana with a brown spot, the grape with a dimple, and the apple with a bruise. Scholars use different fruits to explore what happens when fruits really start to decompose. They set up an experiment...