Building for the Big One

What's the best way to learn how watersheds work? Build one! Combining engineering, the water cycle, and ecology concerns, the activity is the perfect fit for an interdisciplinary unit. Teams construct a model watershed with simple...

Is your current lesson plan for salt and freshwater literacy leaving you high and dry? If so, dive into part one of a seven-part series that explores the physical features of Earth's salt and freshwater sources. Junior hydrologists...

Do you have early finishers asking what they can do next, or any budding scientists eager to learn more about plant and animal cells? Then here is a cell unit for you! The packet provides scholars with everything they need in order to...

Japan is one of only a handful of countries that constructs buildings that are almost earthquake proof. The 13th lesson in the 20-part series challenges scholars to build structures to test against earthquakes. With limited materials and...

Upper elementary schoolers investigate philanthropy and selflessness by reading a children's book. In this ethics lesson, they read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, and research Mahatma Gandhi's troublesome, yet inspiring, life....

By constructing a watershed model and identifying watershed features in it, they discover how water erosion changes the landscape. As with most watershed modeling activities, this one is costly in terms of time and materials. It is,...

Teach a man to let the big fish go and feed him for many lifetimes to come! An engaging video describes the negative effect current fishing regulations have on fish populations. The lesson outlines the rapid decline in average fish size...

As part of a study of earthquakes, groups plot and analyze recent earthquake data, and then design and test an earthquake resistant building. 

How much do you really know about our planet? Middle schoolers build up their prior knowledge about Earth, its placement in the solar system, its composition, and important geological vocabulary with an introductory earth science lesson.

Forget your local meteorologist — build your own barometer and keep track of the weather with an activity that provides directions to build a barometer out of a narrow necked bottle, a glass, and some water. Using their barometer, teams...