Curated OER
Hazards: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Learn about damage associated with earthquakes and materials that best withstand a quake. A lab engages class members in the experimental design and construction of sturdy structures that can endure various earthquake intensities. Groups...
Curated OER
Hazards: Fifth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
After comparing earthquake and volcanic hazards to one another, fifth graders take a closer look at damage associated with a volcanic eruption. They then create a simulation of mudslides due to a volcanic eruption. Using different...
Columbus City Schools
Constructive and Destructive Geologic Processes
Show the class the world as they've never seen it before—from way above! Learners try to unravel the mysteries presented by rich satellite imagery, learn to interpret topographic maps, and study erosion by constructing their very own...
Curated OER
Hazards: Third Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Learners discover hazards related to volcanoes and predict the effects these hazards have on people and land. As blossoming geologists explore various volcanic eruptions, including the hazards associated with them, they create their own...
Curated OER
Earthquakes: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Examine earthquake intensities and ways to measure an earthquake through the comparison of the Mercalli and Richter scales. After completing the pre-lab worksheet, fourth graders compare high and low intensity quakes by testing the...
Science Matters
Up and Down Fault Blocks
The Sierra Mountains in Nevada and the Tetons in Wyoming originally formed as fault block mountains. In order to visualize these fault blocks, pupils use construction paper to create layers of earth. They cut the paper models and form...
Curated OER
Massif Mystery
After reviewing plate tectonic theories and the discovery of both the Atlantis Massif and the Lost City hydrothermal vents, earth science learners complete a worksheet and participate in discussions about what the types of rock found...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonic - Volcanoes
Students watch and learn the different levels of "viscosity" in liquids to explain molten lava after viewing a video of a Hawaiian volcano.
Curated OER
Making Waves: A Study of Earthquakes and Tsunami
Young scholars examine plate tectonics and the causative effect of earthquakes. In this tectonics lesson students differentiate between the types of energy waves that cause earthquakes and tsunamis and how waves travel at different...
Curated OER
The 50 States and its Holidays
Though the format of this ELL lesson plan is confusing (the standards listed are for plate tectonics, yet the objectives are for American geography and holidays), a teacher could glean some ideas from the main idea. Here, pupils complete...
Science Matters
Earthquakes and Volcanoes Post Assessment
The final lesson in the 20-part series is a post assessment covering earthquakes and volcanoes. Twenty-three questions incorporate each of the previous lessons through multiple choice, justified multiple choice, expanded multiple choice,...
Discovery Education
STEM Camp—Urban Infrastructure
Build a bridge to learning in a STEM-aligned unit about urban infrastructure. Young engineers explore the many aspects of civil planning and design in a five-day unit. Content includes the challenging aspects of balancing building with...
American Museum of Natural History
Volcanoes Magma Rising
Get ready for an explosive lesson! Learners read and interact with an online lesson describing the characteristics of volcanoes. They study specific historical volcanoes as well as the science of volcanic eruptions using animations and...
Curated OER
Heat Up the Floating Plates
Eighth graders research the connection between the convection currents within the mantle of the earth and the moving of Earth's plates. A connection to lessons at previous grade levels on the rock cycle and important background...
Curated OER
Magnetometer Extension Activities
Learners observe magnetic fields and locate the position of "ore deposits" patterns using models and maps. In this magnetometer lesson students complete a hands on activity and a reading/writing exercise.
Curated OER
Continental Drift
Learners simulate convection waves using a model. In this earth science lesson, students explain the effect of plate movements to Earth's geography. They use the internet to find answers to graphic organizer questions.
Curated OER
The History of Life
In this history of life worksheet, students review 4 vocabulary words associated with the beginnings of life. Students place these terms into a crossword puzzle and then complete 2 fill in the blank questions.
Curated OER
What's the Difference?
High schoolers investigate volcanic processes at convergent and divergent
tectonic plate boundaries. They read and analyze diagrams, complete a worksheet, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Cruising the Mantle
Young scholars explore the plate boundaries of the earth. Through the use of video, internet and hands-on activities, students examine the types of plate boundaries. They create a model to illustrate the movement and interaction of the...
Curated OER
AdVENTurous Findings on the Deep Sea Floor
Students conduct investigations to observe formations of precipitates, then create models of developing hydrothermal vents. They compare the models with the actual hydrothermal vents developing along the Galapagos Rift.
Curated OER
Mapping Seamounts in the Gulf of Alaska
Students describe major topographic features on the Patton Seamount, and interpret two-dimensional topographic data. They create three-dimensional models of landforms from two-dimensional topographic data.
Curated OER
Science
Seventh graders study the theory of plate tectonics. In this activity lesson students complete an activity to determine how seafloor spreading and volcanoes contribute to solving the plate tectonics puzzle.
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part III), The Geology of Coal
Do not overlook this set of lessons just because your school does not have a data analysis system. There is plenty of material here to administer a complete mini unit on the formation, distribution, and properties of coal. Since it...