Curated OER
So Much Water, So Little to Drink
Students explore salt and fresh water. In this water lesson plan, students investigate the amount of Earth covered by water. Students compare the amounts of salt water to fresh water. Students create a visual representation to aid...
Curated OER
Exploring Density with Salt and Fresh Water: Part 5
This particular lesson was written by the National Earth Science Teachers Association, but density is a concept that you can teach at the beginning of the school year in your life, physical, or earth science classes. It would be fun to...
Curated OER
Water Ecosystems
Freshwater and Saltwater ecosystems are the focus of this Earth Science PowerPoint. Presentation is full of interesting facts, photographs, and maps. A slide with review questions appears at the end of the presentation. Very nice!
Curated OER
Floating on Salt Water
Mixing substances together causes their properties to change. This resource illustrates that concept for fifth graders by having them consider four questions that have to do with buoyancy and boiling point. Learners begin to understand...
Curated OER
Tracking the Salt Front
Using the Hudson River as the focus, learners discuss the difference between salt water and fresh water environments, analyze maps and graphs, and complete addition and subtraction problems. This lesson comes with a wealth of...
Curated OER
Oceans of Fun
Here is a great hands-on activity that should lead to a greater understanding of salt water, why the ocean is salty, and how ocean waves are formed. This terrific, old-school lesson plan has clearly described activities, and all of the...
Curated OER
Environment: Water & Air
The introduction to the lesson mentions a sailor's limited capacity to store drinking water on his ship. Pupils then set up an overnight experiment to remove freshwater from salt water by distillation. There is a math and map activity to...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Aquatic Ecosystems
Mia's friends are fish-sitting while she is away on vacation. Zoe divulges to Sam that different animals need different habitats, and that there are both freshwater and saltwater ecosystems. Examples of the kinds of organisms found in...
Curated OER
Salinity Lab
In this salinity learning exercise, students simulate conditions of salt and fresh water mixing and observe the various densities of these solutions based on their salinity.
Biology Junction
Water Biomes
Water covers more than 70 percent of Earth's surface. Scholars learn about both freshwater and saltwater biomes in a simple presentation. They compare and contrast the differences in oxygen levels, food sources, and sunlight to better...
Curated OER
Freshwater/Saltwater "Eggs-Periment"
Students explore water properties by conducting a class experiment. For this buoyancy lesson, students utilize freshwater, saltwater, plastic cups, hard boiled eggs and food coloring to experiment with the floating capabilities of salt...
Curated OER
Earth's Water: A drop in your cup
Students complete activities where they observe the amount of freshwater in the world as a fraction of the actual amount of water using different mixtures. For this freshwater lesson plan, students brainstorm on how to preserve freshwater.
Curated OER
Salt Water Wedge
Students conduct an experiment to observe the properties of both salt and freshwater. They explain why freshwater will stay at the surface while salt water will travel up a river bottom because of density. Students also research the...
Curated OER
Saltwater Science
Students conduct an experiment that shows them how salt water allows things to float. In this salt water lesson plan, students mix ingredients together to create salt water and observe how it makes the oceans dense. They then interpret...
Michigan Sea Grant
Water Quantity
It may be tricky for a young mind to conceptualize that less than 1% of all water on earth is useable for humans to drink. Simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth by removing measured amounts of water from a five-gallon...
Curated OER
Floating Pencil
Students discover how salt water makes a pencil float better than freshwater by measuring and comparing the lengths of the portion of the pencil that floats above the water surface. They then determine if an unknown water sample is...
Centers for Ocean Sciences
Ocean and Great Lakes Literacy: Principle 1
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...
Curated OER
Aquaculture
There are many important facts about raising water animals commercially in this PowerPoint. Fish, alligators, crayfish and bullfrogs are considered, and the special conditions that each require is also included.
Curated OER
Freshwater Habitats
Young scholars take samples from local freshwater sources and examine them for macroinvertebrate life. They take samples from both shallow and deep freshwater environments, measure temperatures, and classify organisms found in their...
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Desalination: Turning Salt Water into Fresh Water
How does San Francisco supply its citizens with enough water, even during a drought? Learn about reservoirs and why desalination could be a good solution with a reading passage about water conservation. After kids finish the...
Education Outside
Our Water Planet
Fresh water is a precious resource. Most kids don't realize how little of the water on Earth is actually drinkable. This lesson will help to illuminate them on this important topic. They discus the ratio of water to land, where most...
Curated OER
Sunken Millions
This PowerPoint provides a game show format with multiple choice questions about fresh and salt water. Topics include sources of water, water geography, uses of water, and the water cycle.
Curated OER
Do Salt Water Fish Drink?
Students conduct an experiment with potato cores and a sucrose solution to investigate how salt water fish process water. They develop a lab report of their experiment.
Curated OER
Biomes: Freshwater & Seawater
Middle schoolers observe organisms behavior and adaptations. In this biomes lesson students conduct fieldwork to determine water quality and answer questions about the differences between different habitats.