Alive or Not

Determining whether or not something is living can be more difficult than it seems. Put your young scientists to work defining their own criteria to identify life, then work with three samples to see if they are alive or not. 

Interestingly enough, movement is not a characteristic of living things. The first activity in a series of 20 introduces learners to the concepts of living versus non-living things and then focuses on biologists and what they study....

Creating an ecosystem is as simple as baking a cake. Well, maybe not, but using a recipe analogy helps learners realize that ecosystems consist of different components that come together in unique ways. Offer this worksheet as an...

Cephalopods, including squid, use their color-changing skin for both camouflage and communication. A video explains how squid camouflage themselves in the open ocean with nothing else around. It shows how they mimic the interplay of...

Have you ever wanted to lay inside a cave and look up at thousands of stars twinkling? Caves in New Zealand have glow worms that mimic the night sky in order to confuse their prey. This allows the worms to trap their prey and eat them...

All humans alive today descended from the same woman who lived just 150,000 years ago. A thought-provoking video explains this concept as part of a larger biology playlist. It lists the location where the woman lived as well as where our...

Young ecologists explore the Aswan Dam in Egypt via the internet. Each collaborative group is assigned a specific article about the ecological impact of the dam. Then they prepare a presentation to share with the rest of the class. Some...

We all know that the brain is responsible for our thoughts, actions, memories, and emotions, but it's far busier than we can possibly imagine. Watch this short video as it explores how life as we know it is made possible...

Students engage in an activity that demonstrates whether something is alive or not.  In this physiology lesson students divide into groups and sort cards into categories. 

Young scholars create a KWL chart about food. In this chemistry lesson, students differentiate physical and chemical changes. They explain how microorganisms are used in food preparation.