Curated OER
Exploring the Sun's Role in Living Systems
Students create graphic organizer webs that illustrate their thinking about seasonal physical and biological changes caused by changes in sunlight. They identify the central role of sunlight in living systems.
Curated OER
Earth's Energy Balance Performance Standard
Students examine how Earth-Sun relationships affect Earth's energy balance and the pattern of world temperatures. Students study a Surface Temperature Regions map and write a paragraph describing the temperature pattern from the Equator...
Curated OER
Wet Weather, Wet Climate
Students discover the differences between weather and climate in this long-term lesson introduction. They create rain gauges and practice reading rainfall measurements, view a website showing the cloud cover in their location and draw...
Curated OER
How Much CO2 Gas Can Sea Water Hold?
Pupils explain the relationship between water temperature and gas concentration. Using a graph, they describe how sea surface temperature changes along with the seasons. They develop a hypothesis and test it by graphing and analyzing...
Curated OER
Here Comes Winter!
Students investigate winter behaviors in animals. They describe winter and write about the characteristics of the season by drawing and labeling a winter picture. Students then conduct research on a chosen animal and create a chart. ...
Curated OER
Our Desert Backyard
Students make observations of their own backyard. In this environment activity, students keep records of the plants and animals they see in their home or school yard. Students make notes of how the weather and environment changes over...
Curated OER
Seeds, Miraculous Seed
Students investigate relationships between plants and animals and how living things change during their lives. In this life cycle lesson plan, students split different types of seeds apart to see the beginning life stages of future plants.
Polk County Education
Winter Survival/Hike
Hibernation isn't just about staying fed, it's about staying warm. Young environmentalists explore the importance of staying warm in the wilderness with a short lesson about surviving in the wild. Using gelatin to represent warm-blooded...
Curated OER
Blooming Thermometers
Young scholars study phenology, or the study of climate change. They research the Japanese springtime festival of Hanami and plot and interpret average cherry blossom bloom date data from the past 1100 years.
Curated OER
Tracking El Nino Conditions
Young scholars identify major changes in ocean temperatures during an El Nino season. For this climate lesson students complete an Internet assignment using datasets to determine periods of El Nino.
Curated OER
Arctic Microclimates
Pupils identify, measure, and average micro-climatic temperatures in a particular region. They draw a small-scale map of an area to be sampled (classroom, playground, park, backyard) and identify potential locations for...
Curated OER
Taking In The Heat
Students discover that different textured materials can absorb more heat than others. Students work with thermometers, clocks, and graphs.
Curated OER
Hurricanes
Students listen to a transcript of an interview about an upswing in hurricanes with Stanley Goldenberg, a researcher with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. students participate in a series of discussion questions.
Curated OER
Weather Conditions
Students list and name various kinds of weather conditions occurring in their city. Using the newspaper as a resource, students answer questions relating to written weather reports. This lesson is intended for students acquiring English.
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Wonderful, Wild Weather
Young scholars study the different types of weather, how it affect what they wear, and how it is related to the seasons. They compare the seasons and tell how they prepare for the change in seasons. They design a creative presentation...
Curated OER
Mapping a Refuge
Learners record observations gathered while at a national wildlife refuge. In this instructional activity on wildlife refuges, students choose an observation spot and record seasonal changes throughout the year.
Curated OER
The Science of Weather: Hurricanes
Students use this USA today activity to learn about hurricane season. In this hurricane lesson, students study the map of the earth and hurricane science. Students complete discuss questions. Students draw a map of the United States and...
Curated OER
Bearly Any Ice
Students participate in a prey-predator game. After reading background information, they discover the impact from the changes global warming presents to the polar bears and ringed seals. They role play the role of either the seal or...
Curated OER
Water Quality and Dissolved Oxygen
Students investigate the relationship between dissolved oxygen and organic materials and aquatic organisms. This is a 3-lesson plan series in which students explore dissolved oxygen and then design an experiment testing the effects of...
Curated OER
Plop! Plop! Fizz! Fizz!
Fourth graders study physical and chemical weathering. They explain how the processes of weathering and erosion change and move materials that become soil. They create a K-W-L chart to show what they know and list what else they would...
Curated OER
What Will I Wear to School Today?
Students describe the day's weather and observe their responses as they are written on the board. They brainstorm all different types of weather and how differences in weather determine what types of clothing we wear to school each day....
Curated OER
Alaska the 'Poster State" For Climate Concerns
Students read an article on Alaska and its climate concerns. In this research lesson students create a poster that contrasts Alaska then and now that pertains to climate change.
Curated OER
Squigly's Spring Crossword
In this spring crossword activity, students read 18 clues pertaining to nature changes in the spring. Students fit the answers in a crossword.
Carnegie Mellon University
Bathtub Model
Using a colorful infographic handout and a guide sheet, hold a class discussion about how a bathtub can serve as a model for the greenhouse effect created by Earth's atmosphere. Participants will understand that as energy or matter is...