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The Hand Drill: An Example of a Screw
Students examine how a screw works as an inclined plane and a hand drill works as a screw. In this physics instructional activity, students complete two hands-on activities working with simple machines including screws and hand drills....
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Amazon Rainforest Conservation, Brazil
Students explore the concept of understanding the effects of disturbances in an environment. In this life science lesson, students use the game Jenga to help capture the idea of environment disturbances. Students discuss the...
Virginia Department of Education
Weather Patterns and Seasonal Changes
Get your class outside to observe their surroundings with a lesson highlighting weather patterns and seasonal changes. First, learners take a weather walk to survey how the weather affects animals, people, plants, and trees during...
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Inside the Egg, Hatching Chickens
Pupils conduct an egg candling activity to show the life inside a fertile egg. Students discuss the needs the egg has of the hen, as well as similarities and differences between plants and animals. Pupils complete a life cycle wheel...
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A Rainbow Under the Sea: How Do Animals Survive in the Ocean?
Second graders, with adult help, create a PowerPoint presentation on a selected ocean animal.
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Vermicomposting
Fourth graders explore insect life by viewing a soil presentation in class. In this composting lesson, 4th graders read assigned text about the process of composting soil and the necessity of soil in plant life. Students view video clips...
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School Forest
Sixth graders explore the concept of biodiversity. In this biodiversity instructional activity, 6th graders discover a variety of planets and animals that live in forests, and how a rotting log benefits that environment. ...
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Garbage Plants
Students create plants out of garbage. They identify items that can be recycled and discuss natural resources. They share their creation with the class.
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Living vs. Nonliving
Young scholars explore the characteristics that distinguish living things from nonliving things. Students examine video clips and still photographs to gather evidence and develop criteria to decide if something is living or nonliving.
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Making Cents of the Senses
Students explore sight and hearing. In this senses lesson, students read Brown Bear Brown Bear, discuss how eyes are used for sight, and chart the eye color of the students in the class. Students discuss how hearing is important, take a...
Curated OER
Amazon Rainforest Conservation, Brazil
Students explore rain forests. In this rain forest lesson plan, students participate in a "BioBlitz" of their schoolyard, observing and recording every living thing in a designated area. Students visit websites about rain...
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Characteristics of Snakes and Turtles
Students examine the characteristics of snakes and turtles and compare/contrast reptiles with mammals. They watch a video, answer discussion questions, complete information charts, conduct Internet research, and create a habitat diorama.
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Allelopathy Experiments
Students explore how allelopathy works in plants. In this botany lesson, students explain how this phenomenon affect other organisms. They read and analyze an article about allelopathy and discuss its flaws.
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What Plants Need in Order to Survive and Grow: Air
Students conduct an experiment to determine whether plants need air in order to survive and grow. They discuss natural resources, analyze slides, and observe and record data from the experiment.
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Learning About Plants- Flowers for a Special Occasion
Students explore the parts of plants and discover that plants need to grow. In this plant lesson, students discuss the parts of the plant and plant petunias. Students can share their plants with friends or families.
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Adaptable Mandibles
Students define adaptation and highlight example of adaptation in birds and other animals. They study feeding techniques of seabirds and investigate the effect that trash has on wildlife.
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Mellowing With Age, A Closer Look
Students realize that aging is a "natural, continuous process" and develop sensitivity to the needs, desires, and capabilities of the elderly by interviewing elderly community members and photographing age related things.
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How Does a Green Plant Grow?
Students of all ages can explore the question "how do seeds grow?", design an experiment to answer the question, predict the outcome of the experiment then conduct the experiment.
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Learning From Leaves: Adaptations To Differing Light Levels
Students, in groups, examine plants with different light levels. They are given plants from a tropical and desert region. They write a hypothesis at the beginning of the experiment.
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Bats, Bats, Everywhere!
Students research information on bats while working in cooperative groups. They design posters with the information from their research.
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Bean There, Done Plant
Students explain that events in nature follow an orderly progression when they plant seeds and observe the development of the seeds. They count seeds and find the likenesses and the differences of many seeds.
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Fungus
Learners study fungus, its reproduction and uses. For this eukaryote lesson students complete several fungal experiments.
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The Long Road to Coffee
Students organize picture cards of the sequene of how food gets from a farm to their home. They then sequence cards of how coffee grown in Colombia gets to their home comparing the differences.
Curated OER
How Does a Green Plant Grow?
Students examine how a seed grows, and design an experiment to explore this concept. They make predictions, conduct the experiment, record the results, and interpret the results.