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Lesson Plan
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If Peter Pan Can Fly, Why Can't I?

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Students redesign a human, using data in research, so that s/he can fly. In this flying lesson, students examine the characteristics and adaptations of groups of animals that can fly.  Using this research, students work...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Snack Attack: Food Packaging Activity

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students design and create packaging material for food. In this snack attack lesson, students design a package to protect a food item from heat and water. Students consider costs of materials, design, and test the package to see if it is...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

IceHunters: Welcome to the Cryosphere!

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students complete an online exploration mission assigned by their teacher. In this ecology lesson, students write a newspaper article about their polar mission following certain criteria. They create a PowerPoint presentation that they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Naturral Born Robots: Robots Have Feelings Too

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students explore robotics. They design a simple device that simulates a human arm lifting a mass. Students test the strength of their arm. Students discuss artificial intelligence.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Boomerangs Keep Coming Back

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Learners investigate the flight of paper boomerangs. In this flight instructional activity, students examine the flight variables of paper boomerangs, which they make, by investigating the concepts of lift and drag. They examine what...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making Cladograms

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Learners construct cladograms (evolutionary trees), showing how shared derived characters can be used to reveal degrees of relationship. They interpret and analyze cladograms, and determine where unclassified vertebrates would fit on a...
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Lesson Plan
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Designing Babies

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze current and emerging techniques used to select specific characteristics in offspring. They examine specific case studies and make ethical decisions based upon the Ethical Decision-Making Model.
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Lesson Plan
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Controlling Flight: Rudders, Ailerons, and Elevators

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders create paper gliders and check for flight distance and time. In this flight lesson, 5th graders create a paper glider from the attached worksheet and adjust the rudder, aileron, and elevator. They see how these adjustments...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Day in the Life of a San Francisco Native Animal

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students write from an animal's perspective. In this writing instructional activity students explore the landscape of San Francisco prior to the arrival of the explorers. Students research animals indigenous to the area.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

Weather Lessons: Explore the Possibilities

For Teachers 2nd - 5th
Looking to the sky isn't just for day dreamers.The weather is a fascinating way to explore science and history.
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Lesson Planet Article
Curated OER

You do! We do! We all Scream for Haiku!

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Haikus offer a way to explore new ideas for teaching poetry, science, and math.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

VARVES: Dating Sedimentary Strata: Geology, Paleontological Patterns

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students count the number of varves (annual layers of sediment) in shale billets, taken from the Green River Formation in Wyoming. The count is then extended to reflect the entire 260 meters of sediments where the billets originated.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bridge Building

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students design and build their own balsa wood model bridges. The technological development of bridges, the science principles that apply to bridge building, and the construction techniques and skills necessary for creating a bridge be...
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Lesson Plan
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Growing Your Own Snow Crystals

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students grow snow crystals in your classroom with a few materials and a two-liter bottle!
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Lesson Plan
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Time Machine: Evolution, Geology

For Teachers 8th - 11th
Learners are taken on a simulated "voyage" backward in time, to the beginning of our planet. They "witness" that beginning, the origin of life, and a number of key events from then to the present.
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Lesson Plan
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Electronic Components

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students review new terminology and computer circuits and the value of a resistor. They complete three experiments, "Resistance Activities," Transistor Activities,"Diode Activities" and enter data, results and their findings on Student...
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Lesson Plan
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Scooting Along!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students investigate how Newton's Third Law affects vehicle design. In this Newton's Third Law lesson, students use a web site to research Newton, his third law, and how to design a vehicle that uses a balloon for power. They sketch and...
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Lesson Plan
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Reducing the Impact of Drought

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
Students study the impact of drought and improve their writing skills. In this reducing the impact of drought instructional activity, students investigate various matters pertaining to drought. They share their findings and build...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Last Great Race

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders identify and discover why the Iditarod race is done each year. They explore the historical significance of the Iditarod. Students also use web sites to research related topics, i.e. diseases (diptheria), geography of...
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Lesson Plan
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From Rags to (Paper) Riches: Explore Colonial Papermaking

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students explore Colonial papermaking.  In this Colonial America U.S. history lesson, students analyze two poems written in the 1690s about the Rittenhouse paper mill to learn about papermaking.  Students produce their own...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ways of Thinking

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Learners explore all the different avenues of the concept of different ways of thinking by involving the views of several great minds of history to thinkers of Western Civilization. They assess questioning, life, work, skepticism,...
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Lesson Plan
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Neoclassical Influences

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze neoclassical art. In this art history lesson, students listen to their instructor present a lecture regarding the details of the art produced during the Enlightenment.
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Lesson Plan
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Early Explorers

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders study early explorers. In this World history lesson plan, 5th graders draw an outline of a map labeling each part, build geographical features out of dough, and paint each of the land and water features.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cloud in the Classroom

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students watch a video about wild stallions and conduct research about wild horses and wildlife photography. Students explore the relationships between animals and humans and conduct Internet research about the treatment of wild horses...