Curated OER
Genes and Inheritance
Young scholars explore genes and inheritance. After listening to a story describing a rare genetic disease, students discuss inheritance and how living things pass on traits to their children. In groups young scholars, students...
National First Ladies' Library
The Play's the Thing...or Two
Students explore melodram as a form of theatre. They write about lucid and factual news accounts and about sensationalism. Students gain experience in relating one time period with another and with doing historical research.
Curated OER
Living in Extreme Environments: Havens on the Deep Sea Floor
Students identify the characteristics of an extreme environment in the deep ocean and consider what organisms need to survive in these elements. They research sampling and data collection methods in this environment.
Curated OER
What Lives in the Forest?
Students investigate nearby forests and record their interactions with trees as well as wild life. For this ecology lesson, students read the book, In the Woods: Who's Been Here?, and attend class observational field trips through their...
Curated OER
What Is That Thing?
Could your class identify an old-fashioned can opener? What about a rotary phone, or a VCR? Learners take a look at several gadgets and devices to infer the name and purpose of each item.
Curated OER
Are You One Of Us?
Students discover how to classify things based on their similarities and differences. Students give the characteristics of insects and create a classification list. Given examples of various types of insects, students classify them...
Curated OER
Are You One of Us?
Learners compare and contrast insects and arthropods, identifying characteristics of each. In groups, they sort pictures of arthropods into the five different classes of arthropods. They also sort pictures into insect and non-insect piles.
Science Matters
Island Fox Outreach
Off the coast of California lives a wild animal called the Island Fox. Experts discuss the importance of the Island Fox to the Channel Islands and the balance the fox creates within its ecosystem. The lesson concludes with a reading of...
Curated OER
Hardware Sort
Students classify various hardware items using the attributes of the objects. In this classification lesson, students group objects based on their attributes and explain their classification key.
Wild BC
Carbon - The Short and the Long
For this complex game about the carbon cycle, the playing field is divided into air, living, and earth zones. Children are assigned to be either plants or animals, and collect carbon tokens as they proceed from zone to zone. While the...
Curated OER
Pick a Pet
Students design informational materials to educate people on the importance of matching a new pet to the family's lifestyle and living arrangements. Students use critical thinking skills to make a decision on the appropriate choice for a...
Curated OER
Froggy Fun
Students are introduced to the concept of life cycles. They discover how many species go through their lives in a series of stages from birth or hatching to adulthood. Such stages make up the life cycle. Students investigate the life...
Curated OER
The Wonderful World of Slugs
Examine a slug? Of course, what else would a 2nd grader do with it? Pupils use clues and go on a slug hunt, read a slug story, or make a cooperative group mural of a slug's habitat. While older learners catalog slugs, go on a slug hunt,...
Curated OER
Prairie Predator and Prey
Fifth graders brainstorm a list of animals that live on the prairie, and classify them as predators and prey. They conduct interviews where they ask the animals what they need to look out for to sustain life on the prairie.
Curated OER
What If There's No Light?
students discuss the importance of light and the consequences of living without it. Using a plant as a demonstration, students predict and observe what happens to a plant when it does not receive enough light. In groups, they experiment...
Curated OER
Bears of Banff
Students pretend they have just entered a national park. They imagine that the park borders are all impassable mountains, and students will play the role of grizzly bears. Students list three things every animal needs to survive, in this...
Curated OER
Soil Scrolls
Third graders examine soil samples and explore the what happens in each layer of the subsoil. They work in cooperative groups to create a scroll that shows what takes place in each layer, and discuss why much of the activity is in the...
Curated OER
Land Use Change Introduction
Students discuss the major changes that have taken place in the Hudson Valley over the past 400 years. They use aerial photos to describe major trends in Dutchess County. Students view a PowerPoint presentation. They work in small groups...
Curated OER
What Role Does Light Play Within the Vision Process?
Students are introduced to the relationship between light and vision. In groups, they participate in experiments to discover how different wavelengths are divided in the visible spectrum. They record their answers and discuss their...
Curated OER
Food Chain
Fourth graders use a database on animal diversity to complete the lesson. Using the information, they discover how organisms are linked to one another by their dependence on each other for food. In groups, they develop their own food...
Curated OER
Is Anyone Out There? Examining Astrobiology and the Value of SETI
Blow their minds with a lesson on the search for life outside of our planet! A brief video proposes the question of how to define life. A couple of articles investigate the possibility of alien existence. Finally, the class is divided...
Curated OER
If They Had Lived
Students research the impact on society when someone dies from gun violence. They discuss the dangers of guns. They work together in groups to predict what a person might have done had they not been killed.
Curated OER
My How Things Have Changed
Eighth graders discuss the impact geography had on hunter-gatherer societies, their toolmaking. They work in groups to create a Web page that links pictures of artifacts to explanations about what the artifact tell us about the lives of...
Curated OER
What Was It Like To Live in Tudor Times?
Students compare and contrast the lives of the rich and poor people in Tudor times. Students observe photographs of Tudor life. They investigate word clues describing the lives of the people. Students create a presentation on their...