Curated OER
Spinning into Space
Students, through hands-on activities, teacher demonstrations, pictures, and informational books, complete a unit on the Earth and its place in the Universe. They make mobiles of the Milky Way and watch demonstrations of lunar and solar...
Curated OER
Tides, Eclipses, Day and Night, and Seasons
In this earth science worksheet, students use the clues given at the bottom of the sheet to complete the crossword puzzle on tides, eclipses, day and night, and the seasons of the year. There are 17 clues to solve in the puzzle.
Curated OER
Lunar Lollipops
Demonstrate the lunar cycle to youngsters using flashlights and lollipops. The procedure is somewhat vague, so it will need to be modeled for them before turning them loose to try it. The questions that follow the activity are not...
Curated OER
Bouncing Sunlight
Third graders use flashlights and balls to demonstrate how the light bounces off of the sun and reflects onto the moon. They record their observations in a journal.
Curated OER
How Far Away is SOHO?
Students create a scale model of the Earth and the sun that demonstrates where the SOHO satellite is in relation to the Earth.
Curated OER
Sky Watching
Middle schoolers explain how our knowledge of the sky has been enhanced by telescopes. They make their own night-sky observations, diagram and describe what they see, and examine pictures taken by telescopes.
California Academy of Science
Sorting the Solar System
Scientists are always sorting and classifying objects based on their characteristics. In a hands-on learning activity, young space explorers work together to categorize solar system cards based on their properties. It is up to the...
Curated OER
Learning Lesson: Moonlight Serenade
Students complete experiments as they act as the earth. They observe how different angles affect the phases of the moon seen by us. They discuss the differences in light and dark.
Curated OER
Investigation 3 - What is Moonlight?
Third graders observe a demonstration explaining that the moon reflects sunlight in ordr to shine.
Curated OER
Your Day as a Cycle
Fourth graders investigate several cycles such as life cycles, and the moon cycle. They examine the sequences and patterns that are associated with daily life by keeping a daily journal for three days, and comparing it with others....
Curated OER
Six Insect Legs
Learners observe and discuss the sun's position in the sky. They explore the number six, read various number books, and create the number six page for a counting book.
Curated OER
Astronomy
Students explore space science by utilizing education software. In this moon cycles activity, students discuss the importance of the moon and the different phases we observe from earth. Students demonstrate the earth's orbit by creating...
Curated OER
Day and Night
Fifth graders investigate the Earth's rotation and revolution and the moon's orbit around the Earth. They participate in a class discussion about how night and day occur, and take notes. Next, they watch a video about the solar system...
Curated OER
Sky 2: Shadows
Students explore space science by participating in a shadow experiment. For this sky observation lesson, students identify how the sun creates different sized shadows by moving across the horizon. Students utilize yard sticks, markers,...
Curated OER
Water and Ice
Students explore water and ice. In this 3 states of matter lesson, students work with a partner to observe, illustrate, and describe the characteristics of an ice cube in a cup. The ice cube is observed again in 15 minutes and changes...
Curated OER
Lunar Cycle
Students become familiar with repeating patterns in nature, namely the phases of the moon.
Curated OER
Solar and Lunar Eclipses
Young scholars complete a WebQuest in order to better explain solar and lunar eclipses. They observe images and videos of eclipses from around the world.
Curated OER
Sky Watching
Students complete night-sky observations to understand how our knowledge of the sky has been enhanced by telescopes. Students complete a timeline worksheet giving the history of telescopes. Students then then make their own observations...
Curated OER
Your Day as a Cycle
Fourth graders examine a variety of cycles. They take a look at life cycles of plants and animals, the cycle of the moon and tides, and other sequences of events in their daily lives. An interesting part of the lesson plan is how kids...
Curated OER
Timing the Tides
Young scholars collect data and describe how and why the high and low tides change from day to day. In exploring tides lesson students study tides by taking notes, recording data and analyzing their findings.
NASA
Star Brightness
In this brightness of stars activity, high schoolers answer 7 questions about the apparent magnitudes of stars, the sun, and the moon. They compare the brightness of stars, galaxies, astronomical objects and the sun.
Curated OER
Sky Watchers: Ancient Astronomers
Students close their eyes and picture the sky. They are asked to brainstorm things they may see in the course of a night and day, such as the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. Students work in groups to coduct their research. They...
Curated OER
Gravity Gets You Down
Students investigate the force of gravity and how it effects different objects that are put into acceleration when applied the experiment of free falling. They drop different objects that have a variety of masses and some that cause air...
Curated OER
Scientist Tracking Network
Students correlate surface radiation with mean surface temperature of several geographic regions. They observe how these parameters change with latitude and construct an understanding of the relationship of solar radiation to seasonal...