Curated OER
Make Your Own Biodegradable Plastic Stuff
Students identify the four basic natural resources. They distinguish bettween renewable and non-renewable resources. Pupils recognize that all natural resources are needed by living plants and animals. Students list consequences for...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Splitting Atoms
In a simple activity, physical scientists model nuclear fission using a droplet of oil. This can be used alone in a unit on different types of energy, or as part of the energy conservation unit produced by the Texas State Energy...
Curated OER
Recycled Paper
Sixth graders keep track of the amount of paper they consume on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. The goal of the instructional activity is to have them all find ways to reduce the amount they use. Everyone creates recycled paper from...
Curated OER
SIZING UP SOL
Ninth graders produce a projected, pinhole image of the sun and from measurement of the image and projection distance, calculate the actual size of the sun. They estimate the sun's apparent brightness from different planet.
Curated OER
Mass-Mass Relationship
High schoolers investigate mass-mass relationships in the lab. In this mass-mass relationship lesson plan, students mix sodium carbonate with hydrochloric acid to produce sodium chloride, water and carbon dioxide. High schoolers use the...
EduGAINs
Go Eco! Ecosystems
How is a movie theater like a desert biome? Compare systems to ecosystems with a set of activities that focuses on accessing multiple intelligences and building upon knowledge. As learners discuss the ways elements of an ecosystem depend...
New South Wales Department of Education
Photosynthesis
Venus fly traps photosynthesize and consume insects because the soil they live in does not provide enough nutrients. Scholars analyze historical scientific experiments to learn how scientists discovered photosynthesis. From their...
Consortium for Ocean Science Exploration and Engagement (COSEE)
Arctic Smorgasbord
Though the walrus spends roughly one third of its time on land, it eats organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. The first in a series of five, the instructional activity uses a variety of plant and animal cards to have scholars...
Curated OER
Marine Ecosystems
Students identify producers and consumers and construct a food chain from four marine ecosystems. They describe the delicate balance among organisms in each environment. In groups, students discuss the human activities that upset the...
Curated OER
A Day Without Agriculture
Second graders define and create a list of agricultural products. In this producers and consumers lesson, 2nd graders participate in a contest to find as many types of agriculture as they can. The student who comes up with the best...
Curated OER
Agriculture Pays
Second graders role play one of the jobs related to agriculture and explain their role in getting one of the five "f's" of agriculture to the consumer. In this agriculture lesson, 2nd graders are assigned a role and a commodity. Each...
Curated OER
Ecosystem Game
Students examine the ecosystem by playing a game. In this ecosystem lesson plan, students are put into groups of decomposers, consumers, and producers. Students create a list of animals that fit into each group and items that represent...
Curated OER
Biodiversity in an Estuary
Students investigate the biodiversity in estuaries. For this estuary lesson plan, students use Google Earth to explore the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. They produce a biodiversity concept map and portray the life of a...
Curated OER
Interdependence and Adaptation
Fifth graders construct a food web to illustrate how animals and plants are interdependent. In this interdependence lesson, 5th graders identify how consumers, producers, herbivores, carnivores and predators are related in a habitat....
Curated OER
Science Videos
Students plan, practice, and act in a 2-3 minute videotaped production about a specific topic. Students from a local high school give presentations pertaining to seasons, earth rotation, and moon phases. Students analyze the...
Curated OER
Cycles of Life in an Urban Habitat: Changes in Biodiversity
Second graders compare and contrast animate and inanimate objects. In this environmental science instructional activity, 2nd graders create simple food webs. They observe their environment and create a collage about it.
Science Matters
Formative Assessment #3
Thirteen short-answer questions follow a brief food web activity in a formative assessment designed to test knowledge of ecosystems and the energy that flows through them.
Virginia Department of Education
Solution Concentrations
What happens when you combine 6.022 times 10 to the 23 piles of dirt into one? You make a mountain out of a mole hill. Scholars use dehydration to obtain percent composition and then calculate the molarity of the original solution.
Virginia Department of Education
Thermochemistry: Heat and Chemical Changes
What makes particles attract? Here, learners engage in multiple activities that fully describe colligative properties and allow the ability to critically assess the importance of these properties in daily life. Young chemists conduct...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Creating Chains and Webs to Model Ecological Relationships
The sustainability of an ecosystem depends on many factors and changes constantly. Young scholars consider these factors as they use a set of cards to create food webs. They review key scientific vocabulary such as predator, prey,...
Curated OER
Ocean Life Food Web
Students construct a food web representative of the Gulf of California. They use pictures to depict all of the organisms in the appropriate level of the web (producer, primary consumer, etc.)
Curated OER
Name that plant!
What is a dichotomous key? When your kids ask, hand them a learning exercise like this one, to explain it. They use the key to identify four different trees, based on the budding twigs they've produced. Tip: Have learners extend this...
Curated OER
Energy Flow and the Food Chain
Students complete discussions and worksheets about the Hawaiian food chain. In this food chain lesson plan, students research decomposers, consumers, and producers.
Curated OER
Composting
Using 2-liter bottles, junior ecologists create composting tubes in which they place nitrogen-rich and carbon-rich materials. They observe what changes occur over two weeks' time. Provide more specific direction to your class as to what...