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In a Giants Garden
Students explore the effect of the earths rotation and its relationship to the suns position and the effect that the longer and shorter amount of daylight has on a pumpkin plant which they have planted.
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Solar Power
Fifth graders create their own solar panel. They use this experiment to see how the sun can be used as a form of energy.
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Cosmic Wheels
Students build a scale model of the Solar System and determine the time other planets take to travel around the Sun in comparison to the time of the Earth's revolution. The velocity of the planets are also determined in this...
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The North (Wall) Star
Young scholars engage in a lesson which shows them that celestial navigation is the art and science of finding one's geographic position by means of astronomical observations, particularly by measuring altitudes of celestial objects -...
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Drama in the Salt Marsh
Students are introduced to the various organisms that live in a salt marsh. They recognize adaptations of organisms that live in the salt marsh. Pupils review concepts of the ecosystem and niche. Students explain the different roles...
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Sky 3: Modeling Shadows
Students will construct models to demonstrate their understanding of shadows. Many questions and suggestions for variants on the activities are presented to allow you to tailor this lesson to your particular needs. It is best to make the...
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Lemon Batteries Revised
Fifth graders investigate how chemical energy in food and batteries is potential or stored energy. They discuss how batteries function, and create a class list of different forms of energy. Students then create a lemon battery that...
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An Environmental Puzzle: The Carbon Cycle
Students are introducced to how respiration and photosysnthesis cycle carbon through ecosystems. They read background information that describes the role of the Sun as Earth's ultimate energy source and explains how the energy...
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The Japanese Military Build-up
Young scholars evaluate the state of Japan's military and their defense strategy under the current Shinzo Abe administration. They watch the film, 'The Raping of Nanking' and read "The Return of Japanese Militarism: Rising Sun" by Joshua...
Marcia's Science Teaching Ideas
Observing the Moon Activity
In this moon worksheet, students observe the moon on three consecutive nights and draw their observations. They answer questions about the phases of the moon and its position in the night sky. They identify the position of the sun, earth...
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Planetary Anagrams
In this planetary worksheet, students practice unscrambling the names of 9 planets and then put the planets into order from the distance they are from the sun.
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The Magic School Bus Lost in Space
Students learn along with Ms. Frizzle's class. In this Magic School Bus lesson plan, students explore outer space as they visit the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars in order to learn about our solar system.
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Gravity and the Planets
For this gravity worksheet, learners read about the solar system and the effects of the gravity of the sun, the planets and the moon on the orbits of the planets. They answer three critical thinking questions about gravity.
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The Solar System
Students construct a sketch of the planets in our solar system using concentric circles and angles. In this solar system lesson plan, students plot the position of each planet on concentric circles using graph paper. The sun is included...
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Transfer of Energy
In this transfer of energy worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer that shows the relationship between the sun, producers, first order consumers and second order consumers. They describe why it is important to understand the...
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Flow of Energy Through An Ecosystem
In this flow of energy in an ecosystem, students complete a graphic organizer and show the flow of energy from the sun to producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and then decomposers. Students define each of...
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SDO: Measuring the Speed of an Eruptive Prominence
In this eruptive prominence worksheet, students read about a plasma ejection from the sun measured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Students solve 3 problems using the given diagrams of the ejection. They determine the scale of the...
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Systems of Equations in Space Science
In this system of equations worksheet, high schoolers solve 2 problems by creating a system of equations for each problem in order to determine the average intensity of flares from the sun and the average power from a satellite transponder.
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A High-Resolution Satellite Photo
In this high resolution satellite photograph worksheet, students observe a photograph taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Tennessee Court House. Students use the photograph to solve 4 problems about the scale of the image,...
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LRO Sees Apollo 11 on the Moon!
For this moon image worksheet, students determine the scale of an image taken by the LRO satellite of the Apollo 11 landing site. Students calculate the sun's angle at the time of the photograph using the shadow of the Lunar Lading...
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Hinode Studies Loopy Sunspots!
In this sunspots and magnetic fields worksheet, students read about the satellite images taken showing 'loopy' patterns from solar gases and the magnetic fields on the sun. Students solve 2 problems including finding the volume of a...
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The Climate Change Skeptic's Argument: Natural Solar Cycles or Human Activity?
Teachers explore patterns in sunspots and total solar irradiance to understand the counterpoint to the human effect of global warming. In this professional development tool, teachers work through a lesson on the sun's natural patterns to...
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Food Chains
Have your class discuss food chains using this presentation. This resource goes through a step by step exploration of plants and the food chain. It talks about the energy of the sun, producers and consumers, herbivores and carnivores,...
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Stained Glass Heart Sun Catcher
Students experiment with the effects of color and light as they are exposed to the basics of working with stained glass: cutting, assembly, soldering and finishing.