Polar Trec
Swan Savvy
Just like so many other birds, swans migrate during the cold winter months. Your class can gain a better understanding of migration and bird life as they act out some of the activities common to the tundra swan. They make a nest, sit on...
Curated OER
Little Auk Survival Challenge
A bird's life is one of danger and intrigue as it struggles for survival in sometimes harsh environments. To understand how difficult surviving in the wild can be, children play a simulation game where they act as little auks, birds from...
Virginia Department of Education
DNA Structure, Nucleic Acids, and Proteins
What is in that double helix? Explain intricate concepts with a variety of creative activities in a lesson plan that incorporates multiple steps to cover DNA structure, nucleic acids, and proteins. Pupils explore the history of DNA...
Curated OER
You Are What You Eat
Students identify healthy food choices from the food groups on the USDA food pyramid. In this nutrition and health lesson plan, students identify and name examples of each food group displayed on the food pyramid. Students...
Curated OER
Design a Colonial Garden
Students explore botany by completing an art design activity in class. In this gardening history lesson, students identify the plants and crops utilized in the Colonial era for both food and medicine. Students utilize geometry to create...
Virginia Department of Education
Moles Lab Activities
Want my name and number? It's 6.0221415 times 10 to the 23rd, and my name is Avogadro. Providing nine different activities, experiments, and labs, this lesson keeps Avogadro relevant to your class all year long.
Virginia Department of Education
Biotechnological Issues and Bioethics
Culminate a bioethics unit with the implementation of a lesson that incorporates the Socratic method to encourage class feedback and participation. Pupils participate in a discussion on bioethics and morality, complete a...
Curated OER
Peace Corps Challenge Game- Water Quality
Students advocate for clean water. In this water pollution lesson, students play the Peace Corps Challenge Game, discuss the effects of polluted water and write a letter to the mayor of Wanzuzu highlighting the situation of the...
Curated OER
Monet's Magical Garden
Students study classic paintings by masters like Monet. In this art history instructional activity, students listen to the story Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert and sing flower songs with the rest of their class. Students examine the...
Curated OER
Wild Horses of the Outer Banks
Students explore animal habitats. In this cross curriculum animal survival and writing lesson, students view a website about wild horses on Shackelford Island and discuss ways in which the horses have changed to this...
Kenan Fellows
Designing and Analyzing Data Collected from Wearable Devices to Solve Problems in Health Care
Wearable devices have become more the norm than the exception. Learners analyze data from a sample device with a regression analysis in a helpful hands-on instructional activity. Their focus is to determine if there is a connection...
Curated OER
Soft Sculpture Birds
Art can mimic life, and animals are always interesting subjects. Learners create large soft sculptures (stuffed) birds using paper, paint, and other basic collage materials. They view images of birds, and discuss bird traits and shapes....
Curated OER
Barrels and Buckets: Access to Water - What Would It Be Like to Live in Africa?
Students compare water access in the United States with that of Africa. For this water access lesson, students located Ghana and Kenya on a globe before reading Peace Corps Volunteer accounts of the difficulty of accessing clean water....
Pulitzer Center
Exploring Downstream: Water Resources
The lack of clean water is a life-threatening plight for millions of people around the world. Through an extensive WebQuest, young environment or social studies classes compare our water availability to that of the cxitizens of Ethiopia,...
California Academy of Science
Academy Seafood Market and Fishery
What fishing method is the most sustainable? Find out through a fun, but meaningful game in which your little fishermen use different techniques to see what they catch. After the fishing activity is over, there are several discussion...
Curated OER
Environment: Clouds of Changing Times
Here is a wonderful activity which has youngsters interview family and local elders about the seasonal history of their local area. They focus on climate change by asking questions about rainfall, temperatures, length of the seasons, and...
Curated OER
Making Models of the Solar System
Students make several models of the solar system to learn the positions of the planets in the solar system as well as relative distances and sizes. Creation of these models will help them identify the planets by size, shape, color,...
Project Oceanography
Fish Shape
A fish's size, fins, and shape can tell us a lot about them! Learners explore fish anatomy to see how species use camouflage, scales, shape, and coloration to survive. The lesson includes advanced vocabulary such as fusiform shape,...
National Wildlife Federation
The Amazing Adventures of Carbon: How Carbon Cycles through the Earth
Here's a stat for your pupils: 18 percent of the human body is carbon! Part 10 in the series of 12 takes pairs on an adventure through the carbon cycle. After a class reading about carbon, pairs read and choose their own adventure...
Curated OER
Speedy Succession
Fifth graders identify how a pond can change into a grassland. An ecosystems instructional activity where learners identify pioneer and climax species, and recognize that ecological succession can take up to 100 years or more. Some...
Curated OER
Student Reading - The Unique Properties of Water
Without water there would be no life on this planet. Biology learners find out why by reading this handout. Create a worksheet of questions to answer after the reading. Follow it up with quick demonstrations or laboratory activities that...
Polar Trec
Family Polar Fun Day
Family fun days are great for connecting home and school life, building strong parent/teacher relationships, and engaging students in a fun and social way. Here are several activity ideas to help you and your class run your own Family...
Polar Trec
Arctic Smorgasbord!
Two blooms of phytoplankton, instead of just one, now occur in the Arctic due to declining sea ice, which will have widespread effects on the marine life and climate. In small groups, participants build an Arctic food web with given...
Scholastic
Hillary Conquers Everest
If a field trip to the summit of Mount Everest isn't in your school budget, make the trek virtually! An interactive lesson allows class members to follow Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's trail up the mountain, and provides...