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Create your own thermometer
Learners participate in an activity where they build a calibrated thermometer. In this thermometer lesson students complete this activity and take notes.
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Science: How Tall Are Plants
First graders investigate plant growth and examine what factors contribute to plant growth. They keep a class chart of plant growth and write about and illustrate their conclusions.
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Heat Absorption
Students examine how heat moves from substance to another. In this heat absorption instructional activity students identify ways that heat is transferred and analyze data.
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Global Change — Change and Cycles Where Land, Air and Water Meet
Students participate in an experiment to define a parts-per-billion solution. For this ecology lesson, students select a second substance to create a parts-per-billion solution and observe and record their results. Students work in...
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Exploring Phases of Matter
Students discuss and experiment with the phases of water. In this phases of matter activity, students recognize the different states of matter. Students measure and record changes and understand when the state changes.
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Get to know H2O!
Students investigate scientific concepts and inquire about physical states of matter. The transition of water is considered and is easy to facilitate because of its abundance and often observed physical changes.
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Hess's Law
In this reactions worksheet, students use Hess's Law to calculate the heat gained or lost by different reactions. Students determine if the reaction would occur spontaneously at a given temperature. This worksheet has 9 problems to solve.
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Permafrost: Permanently Frozen Ground
Students explore permafrost. In this 3 states of matter lesson, students identify characteristics of solids and liquids. Students observe water and soil melting and freezing at various temperatures. Students make predictions about a...
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Cotton Seed Planting
Students using scientific inquiry will observe and record in daily journals their findings on cotton seeds. They measure, graph, and then communicate their discoveries about plants to each other.
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Floating Pencil
Students discover how salt water makes a pencil float better than freshwater by measuring and comparing the lengths of the portion of the pencil that floats above the water surface. They then determine if an unknown water sample is...
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Heat Unit
Students define thermal equilibrium. They distinguish between internal energy and heat. Students describe how the quantity of heat that enters or leaves a substance is measured.
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Colored Drops
Students examine the properties of a liquid that contains water and food coloring and a liquid that contains water, food coloring and a liquid detergent. They interpret their data, describe properties, and make reasonable explanations...
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Warming the Earth
First graders investigate how the sun warms the Earth and examine the rotation of the Earth and the sun. They create an illustration of the sun, examine a solar system model, and listen to the book "The Sun: Our Nearest Star." They also...
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Deep Freeze
Students practice various sampling methods for retrieving data under water, ice, and soil. They use the sample material to make temperature measurements, chart contents, and draw their own conclusions as to what is happening in the...
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Energy/Light/Heat/Sound
Fourth graders study the properties of heat in this series of lessons. They discuss sources of heat and experiment to determine its properties. They identify insulators and conductors by measuring temperatures, and graphing their data....
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How Does Whale Blubber Work?
Students perform an experiment to find out how whale blubber keeps whales warm in cold temperatures. They use Ziploc bags lathered in shortening to simulate whale blubber. They put their hands in cold water, both with and without the bags.
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Thirsty for A Liter or Milliliter?
Second graders work with liters and milliliters for measurement.
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Weather Facts
Learners study weather and weather measurement tools. In this weather instructional activity, students read and discuss weather myths and superstitions as well as weather terminology. Learners then work in groups to complete weather...
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Solar Hot Box or Cooker
Students brainstorm about solar energy then construct a solar cooker to test the maximum temperature that materials can reach. In this solar energy lesson, students experiment and record temperature of water in their hot boxes while...
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Rate of Cooling Experiment
Ninth graders measure the insulation properties of different fabrics by immersing cans of water covered with fabric "socks" in an ice bath and measuring temperature changes. They then calculate heat loss and graph the data individually.
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Rain Reasons
Students explore how climatic factors influence the growth of plants. They create an experiment to find how variations in water, light, and temperature affect plant growth and describe how precipitation and geography can affect the...
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Weather
In this weather learning exercise, students review what causes different weather patterns including the more severe weather patterns like tornadoes and hurricanes. Students also calculate relative humidity by using dry and wet bulb...
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Investigating Convection Currents
Students examine how differences in the temperature and salinity of the water help create ocean currents. They perform an experiment which shows how temperature affects the circulation of ocean water.
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How Much Energy Does the Earth Receive from the Sun?
Students explore energy. For this science lesson, students conduct an experiment in which they measure how much energy is produced by the sun. Students build a calorimeter to measure the amount of energy.