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Living it up with plants
Have kids in grades K-2 discuss how they know a tree is alive. The instructional activity provides simplistic background information and an observation check list. They check off the ways that they can tell an oak tree is a living thing....
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How Warm is the Water?
Students research how surface sea temperature changes throughout the year. They draw a time series of sea surface temperatures for each month of the year and a depth profile for a summer and winter month using an OceanExplorer Profiler...
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Windmills: Putting Wind Energy to Work
Students review engineering design process and discuss how wind can be used to help get work done. They look at a variety of windmills, focusing on different materials used in construction of windmills.
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(S-1) Sunlight and the Earth
Students discuss the solar heating of the Earth and atmosphere, its heat loss proceses, and the way these relate to weather and climate.
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Climate and Topography, What Is the Connection?
Fourth graders study Neumann's world continent map and explore topography and climate.
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Thunderstorm Outflow I
Students study the characteristics of thunderstorms. They view an animation of radar reflectivity that depicts a thunderstorm and its outflow to locate the thunderstorm's outflow. Afterward, they explain what physical process occurs in a...
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Cloud Observations using GLOBE Protocols
Students observe which of ten types of clouds are visible and how much of the sky is cloud covered. They see that by observing clouds, we can get information about temperature, moisture, and wind conditions in different places in the...
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Tide Pool Discovery
First graders visit the Discovery Pool, where they use their senses to investigate the different tide pool species. They touch different species. Students describe how each one feels, and what they look like in words. They draw the...
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Do They Grow Up or Down?
Students keep a garden journal after planting a garden and discuss environmental stresses put upon the garden for growth. In this garden lesson plan, students plant the plants differently from one another and observe the outcomes.
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Retelling the Tiny Seed
Here is a very age appropriate idea that can be stretched, modified, or used as is. Learners review plant parts, discuss pollination, read the story The Tiny Seed, and write a retell sentence. Their sentences describe to way a seed...
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Rain Shadows and Sea Breezes
Students plot the average rainfall for a variety of cities in the United States. Using the map, they work together to determine patterns on which toxicants are transported through the air. They determine the impacts of various weather...
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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.
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Conditions at Sea
Students examine wave formation. In this wave lesson, students discover how waves are formed and how the weather at sea is predicted. Students study ocean vocabulary and understand the Beaufort Wind Force Scale.
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Ecosystems Connect
Students investigate ecosystems near their school and across the world. They examine both living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) elements of each. They recognize ecosystems from various continents around the globe. The use of computers...
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Fallout!
Young scholars plot the locations of fallout from two disasters that polluted much of the world's air. They plot the ash fallout from the 1980 Mt. St. Helen's eruption to see what the wind patterns in the United States look like overall....
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Air Pollution Over Where?
Students predict the movement of an air borne pollutant using their understanding of air currents. They determine which governments and/or communities should be contacted to be forewarned. They also explore the properties of their...
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Lights Out!
Students examine static and current electricity, and discuss what their lives would be like without electricity. They listen to a teacher-led lecture about electrons and atoms, and explore static electricity using a comb or a balloon...
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Wave Math
Students identify the different factors affecting the size and shape of ocean waves. In this math lesson, students calculate wave speed and wavelength given a mathematical formula.
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Let's Get Carried Away
Students discover how seeds travel from their parent plants in search of water, sunlight, and nutrients, and conduct experiments in which they note characteristics that encourage seed dispersal by means of wind, water, animal carriers,...
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Fahrenheit Follies
Second graders analyze the effects of sunlight on a glass of water by using the thermometer to measure its temperature. They predict and measure the difference between water outside in the sun and shade and inside. They role-play a game...
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Melt Away
Students explore objects before and after heating using their senses. In this matter and energy lesson, students experiment with a variety of objects and use their senses (except taste) to make predictions and record observations...
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Erosion: Natural or Unnatural
Students explore how water has the power to erode, how developing the land (building roads, buildings and parking lots) increases the amount of water reaching our rivers, and how this greater quantity of water increases erosion. They...
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Beach Zonation
Young scholars investigate the characteristics of the beach environment and explore beach zonation. After gathering samples from different areas of the beach, students discuss how the beaches work and the characteristic of each zone....