Pennsylvania Department of Education
Plant and Animal Adaptations
Fourth graders identify behavioral and structural adaptations to plant and animal life. In this unit overview, 4th graders discuss the importance of variation and adaptation in a species survival. This is a unit overview and does not...
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Determination of Phosphates
Students engage in a laboratory lesson in order to increase understanding of the impact of phosphates at the chemical and ecological levels. The lab exercise is completed with the goal of getting them to predict the outcomes and future...
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Evolution: Is It Fact and/or Theory?
Students explore the concepts of evolution. In this biology activity, students read articles from the internet. They discuss the article within the group and answer their handouts.
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What's it Like Inside the Sun?
Learners perform experiment in which they model convection as it occurs in our Sun. They also explain that convection acts where the effect of gravity and heat are present (low density fluids can rise and cool, and high density fluids...
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FOOTSTEPS IN TIME
Students measure and correlate their foot lengths and body heights, then use this data to estimate height of Laetoli hominids. They use metric measurement and graphing to determine these heights.
Global Oneness Project
Deconstructing Consumerism
A short, engaging video provides a critique of the hyper-consumerist mentality that many think have taken over the Western world. After watching the video, pupils reflect on their own habits and use evidence to respond to discussion and...
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Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering: Build a Paper Airplane
Students brainstorm what it is like to fly on an airplane and discuss the parts of a plane. Students construct a paper plane of their own, decorate it, have a competition, and discuss the importance of each part of a plane and the role...
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Water Around Us
Students create a collage of human land use activities around a body of water. Students evaluate the effects of different kinds of land use on wetland habitats, and create a list of pros and cons for each land use.
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Curriculum Activities: Ecological Concepts
Students explore a variety of microclimates to develop an awareness of why organisms live where they do. Moisture, time of day, land cover, and temperature form the basic concepts of this investigation.
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Earthquake
Learners view a video and conduct a problem solving activity to explain the effect different waves have on the earth's structure and what effect they have on different structures.
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Whale Migration - The Long Journey
Marine biology learners examine right whale sighting data from the WhaleNet website. They plot the data on a map and write down the number of adults and calves spotted. Questions accompany the data analysis activity, making this a...
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Nurturing Green Thumbs at School
Incorporating a school garden into the curriculum cultivates many benefits.
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Bird Populations
learners study bird migratory patterns and the methods that researchers use to study them. Students are introduced to the concepts of the study of bird movements.The skill of scientific questioning is used to find results.
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Chromosome Fusion
Students see how patterns can reveal events of the past, thereby merging elements of both experimental and historical science.
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A Scientific Approach to Teaching about Evolution
Students examine fossils and analyzing their significance in relation to theories of evolution. Hand-outs are provided. This lesson could be supplementary to a broader unit on evolution or geology.
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Take a Closer Look
Pupils examine how to determine the species of a tree through the examination of the bark and leaves. They create tree rubbings, match bark samples with trees on a nature walk, match leaves using a tree identification guide, and observe...
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Indiana Tornado Project
Students become familiar with the use of GIS for research, natural phenomena in Indiana, and analyzing collected information.
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Graphing Data - Temperature
Seventh graders measure and record temperature over a given time period. They compare the recorded temperatures to the 40-year recorded normal average temperatures for the same area. Students display and interpret their findings in a graph.
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Dream! (Part One)
Young scholars share with the class what they want to be when they grow up. As a class, they identify what they want to be for Halloween as well. They are videotaped stating their dream and photographed with their mask. Using the masks,...
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John Muir: Long Ago and Now
Learners explore nature objects brought indoors such as rocks, seeds, leaves and shells to identify where the objects came from. They hear stories about John Muir's life and make booklets about nature areas they enjoy.
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White-tailed Deer: Beauty or Beast?
High schoolers use study guides and videos to discuss the positive and negative impacts of white-tailed deer populations. In this wildlife management lesson, students view slides and discuss the natural history and value of deer as a...
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Managing Your Energy Budget
Students experience an inequitable resource distribution and electronically calculate their own Ecological Footprint. The assess their resource use and learn more about sustainable living strategies in a video tour by Penn State...
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Oceanography
Fifth graders study the topography of the ocean floor. They determine its ever changing nature as they examine currents and trade winds. They write paragraph describing how the winds might affect land formations after the discussion of...
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People Interacting with the Environment
Students explore an arctic, temperate, and tropical environment and then decide what people need in each environment to help them live comfortably and what their lives would be like.