Curated OER
"Wet" Your Appetite: Conserving Water
Students investigate how water is utilized in producing food. In this agriculture activity, students examine how much water goes into the creation of their daily menu. Students create a new menu that can conserve water and cut their...
Curated OER
Where in the World Is Mexico?
Students practice map-reading skills as they locate Mexico and its cities on a world map. By creating a puzzle out of a map of Mexico, students engage in a meaningful hands-on activity to help them explore that country's geography.
Curated OER
California Crops
Students explore agriculture by researching the native food crops of California. Students define a list of agriculture vocabulary terms and analyze maps of California which explain which foods come from which area. Students write a...
Curated OER
Mapwork: A Place In the News
Students determine how to find geographic information about places they read about in the news. For this geography lesson, students look at political and physical maps to determine the difference. They access maps online to find the...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Can We Absorb Nanoparticle Pollutants?
Just because we can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there! A growing concern for environmental scientists is toxic nanoparticles in our air and water. Young scholars conduct an experiment to demonstrate how these particles can cross our...
LABScI
Botany: The Plant Dissection Lab
Study everything about plants! The 12-part series of lessons continues with an examination of many aspects of plants. Components of the laboratory activity address the growth and structure of plants by evaluating familiar plants. The...
Curated OER
Conserving Resources by Watering Efficiently
Learners determine a watering schedule that promotes healthy grass growth. In this plants and natural resource conservation lesson plan, students plant grass seed in liter bottles and follow two different schedules that include "more...
Curated OER
Locke and Walnut Grove: Havens for Early Asian Immigrants in California
Students use readings, maps and photos to examine the life of Japanese-American immigrants in Locke and Walnut Grove in the early 1900s. They discuss their research findings, role-play the lives of immigrants and write responses.
Curated OER
Sustainable Livestock
Students investigate healthy eating habits by researching livestock. In this food sustainability instructional activity, students research the negative impact factory farming has on our environment due to pollution. Students define...
California Department of Education
My Future Lifestyle
Mortgage, insurance, car payments...how much money will your learners need to support their desired lifestyle? Part three in a six-part college and career readiness lesson plan series tasks young job seekers with creating a monthly...
Channel Islands Film
Restoration Channel Islands Debate
Introduce learners to the debate format with an activity that uses the National Park Service's controversial Channel Islands restoration program as a topic. Class members learn how to generate provocative debate questions, how to prepare...
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Work Problems – Bar Models
Why do we have to do so much work? Scholars learn how to set up bar models to represent a situation involving work. They use these bar models to help set up equations with rational coefficients to solve the problem situation.
Curated OER
Geography: Why Is the Sacremento Valley a Good Place to Grow Rice?
Third graders locate the Sacramento Valley in California where rice is grown. In this rice growing location lesson, 3rd graders locate the Sacremento Valley, California on a map, and color the mountain ranges and terrain that is around...
Curated OER
Water Cycle
Students identify and define evaporation, condensation, precipitation and also, how these interact to complete the water cycle. They identify that water moves in a contimuous cycle, which is powered by the sun. Finally, students name...
Curated OER
Saving the Bay
Learners investigate water pollution prevention. In this ecology wastewater lesson, students activate prior knowledge about sewage, then view a video explaining the waste water sewage system used in the San Francisco Bay area. Learners...
Curated OER
Measuring Water Quality
Learners are introduced to the various methods of measuring water quality. In groups, they test various water samples using the different methods, writing them down for pH, oxygen, salinity, and nitrate levels. They use their data to...
Curated OER
Traveling/Mapping
Pupils examine routes to gold. In this California gold rush lesson, students map land and water routes to California. Pupils use maps to copy the routes that they want to market to gold diggers.
Curated OER
Water Features - Lesson 2 - U.S. Political Map Grade 4-5
Students locate water features on maps. For this geography lesson, students complete worksheets that require them to identify water features on a U. S. political map.
Curated OER
Monterey Bay
Students read background information about Monterey Bay, California, and conduct related experiments. In this ocean in motion lesson, students read information about the location, wildlife, and characteristics of Monterey Bay. They...
Curated OER
Postcards from California: A Unit on Geography, Social Studies, History and California's Resources
Fourth graders examine patterns that influence population density in the various regions of California. The unit's three lessons utilize graphic organizers for the interpretation and presentation of data.
University of Southern California
Wave Erosion Lab
Using a stream table, erosion enthusiasts examine how the density of sediment and how the slope of land contribute to the amount moved by waves. You will not be able to use this entire resource as is; there are teachers' names and...
Curated OER
Floods: Rising Waters and You
Students examine the relationship between human-made structures, flood waters and the increasing population through video clips, websites and a lab experiment.
Curated OER
Watershed Landscape
Students demonstrate how water flows by building a human watershed using themselves. In this ecology instructional activity, students compare and contrast point-source and non-point source pollution. They write what they have learned...
Curated OER
Sea Otters--Funny Mammals of the Sea
In this sea otters activity, students read a 2 page article on sea otters, define 12 vocabulary words from the article and answer 7 comprehension questions in complete sentences.