Colorado State University
What Makes a Gas, a Greenhouse Gas?—The Carbon Dioxide Dance
Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...
Curated OER
How To Build a Planet From The Inside Out!
High schoolers read about the Spitzer Space Telescope and the technology used to learn about planet composition. They calculate the radius of a planet, the size of a planet, the average density of a planet and the likely core composition...
Forest Foundation
Forest Watersheds
Where does the water we use come from? To understand the concept of a watershed, class members study the water cycle and then engage in an activity that simulates a watershed.
Curated OER
Rocket Me into Space
Learners engage in a lesson that reinforces rockets as a vehicle that helps us explore outside the Earth's atmosphere by using the principles of Newton's third law of motion. Also, the principles that engineers deal with when building a...
Curated OER
Feeling Pressured
Students explore pressure in our atmosphere. They examine the relationship between pressure and depth. Students construct an experimental apparatus and take measurements. Students evaluate the impact of pressure on the lungs.
Curated OER
Water Pollution
Young scholars explore the causes of water pollution. For this environmental lesson, students conduct experiments with natural filtration systems.
NOAA
Why Should I Care?: Show How Increased Carbon Dioxide Makes the Ocean More Acidic
How does a change in pH affect the ocean ecosystem? Scholars explore the idea by making an acid-base indicator in part seven of the 10-installment Discover Your Changing World series. First, they explore impacts of carbon dioxide in...
American Museum of Natural History
What Is Climate Change?
So many factors show that climate change has arrived. Learners read through an online resource that explains the data and the consequences of climate change. They also review strategies for slowing or even reversing the global influence.
Colorado State University
What Is a "Model"?
Model the transfer of energy during a typical 24-hour period. Young scholars use a game-like approach to learning the patterns of heat transfer through the day and night. Groups of four exchange different tokens as the energy...
NOAA
Ocean Currents
Go with the flow! The eighth installment in a 13-part series has earth science students dive in to the world's system of ocean currents. The interactive illustrates the different types and depths of currents, how wind and gravity...
Curated OER
Latent Heat and Clouds
Young scholars explore latent heat and how it relates to clouds in the atmosphere. In this earth science lesson students investigate how clouds are formed. Young scholars examine clouds and the water cycle.
Curated OER
Driving Currents
Young scholars conduct a variety of investigations to see how water, heat, and salinity affect the flow of the world's ocean currents,as well as, explore many factors that affect the flow of the world's ocean currents. They also describe...
Curated OER
What's in the Air?
In this air instructional activity, students will choose the correct definition for atmosphere, troposphere, stratosphere, and pollutant. Then students will complete a concept map showing what components make up air. This instructional...
Curated OER
Movement of Air II
In this movement of air instructional activity, students determine the deflection of air masses that result from Earth's eastward rotation. Then they describe what winds provide for different trades. Students also identify and describe...
Curated OER
Biosphere Socratic Questions
High schoolers examine the origin of life on Earth and its evolution through geologic time by participating in a whole class discussion. They respond to prompts that lead them to conclusions about the interactions among the biosphere and...
Curated OER
What Makes you Hot?
Learners manipulate different variables in a model and make inferences about the temperature on Earth. In this heat lesson students calculate the blackbody radiation of an object at a certain temperature.
Curated OER
The Effect of Rain on Morning Temperatures
Eighth graders study the effects of the water cycle. They create a graph of the air temperature versus solar radiation on a rainy and clear 24 hour period using data from a provided link. Afterward, they answer questions to determine the...
Curated OER
Oceans
Learners use their prior knowledge to being their examination of the water cycle. In groups, they complete an experiment in which they can see water evaporating and coming back to the ground. They discover the ocean's water evaporates...
Curated OER
Planet Protectors
Students explore ways to protect the earth. In this environmental issues and technology instructional activity, students investigate the water quality in their community and compare their findings to the water quality in other...
Curated OER
The Rain Maker
Second graders work in small groups with a cup each of several materials. Students layer the gravel, sand, and water into a resealable bag. They draw a picture of this bag in their water journal. Students place their sealed bags in a...
Curated OER
Understanding Cloud Formation
Students view a demonstration that simulates cloud formation. They read a poem about clouds, participate in a class demonstration using warm water and ice and write a paragraph summarizing their observations.
Curated OER
The Inner Planets
In this planets worksheet, students review the characteristics of the inner planets: Mars, Venus, Earth, and Mercury. This worksheet has 15 multiple choice questions.
Curated OER
Academic Raceway 500: Weather
This weather PowerPoint features a game in which students advance to the finish line with a race car as they answer questions related to weather. Topics include types of clouds, weather instruments, the water cycle, and various weather...
Curated OER
How Pollution Disrupts Our Natural Environment
Students conduct experiments to illustrate global warming. In this air pollution instructional activity, students first examine how a layer of greenhouse gasses might impact the earth's atmospheric temperature, then evaluate how the...