Curated OER
Desalination: Creating a Solar Still
To better understand how solar power can aid in creating desalinated drinking water, the class creates a model still. They will build a model of a solar still, make observations, and discuss how the process works. While the idea behind...
Curated OER
Does the Introduction of Pesticides and Fertilizers Alter an Aquatic Ecosystem?
Learners conduct an experiment using a small sample from a local water source. They introduce fertilizers and pesticides, separately, and carefully examine the results in their simulated aquatic ecosystem.
Curated OER
Natural Gas: An American Treasure
Do your fourth graders need extra practice with evaluating fact and opinion? An informative resource provides two reading passages in which learners distinguish sentences as fact or as opinion. Additionally, they determine how the...
Science Matters
That’s An Otter Story
Young scientists discover how sea otters' habitats have changed due to human impact. Through conversation, video observation, and story reading, scholars identify how human interactions change a specific ecosystem in both positive and...
Bethel School District
Observations and Inference
What's the difference between qualitative and quantitative observations? Learners make observations, inferences, and predictions about their environment with a set of questions and activities that are applicable to either language arts...
Colorado State University
What Is a "Model"?
Model the transfer of energy during a typical 24-hour period. Young scholars use a game-like approach to learning the patterns of heat transfer through the day and night. Groups of four exchange different tokens as the energy transfers...
Curated OER
Getting the "Yuck" Out
Students examine various types of household materials for their usefulness as filters. They work together in teams to design a filtration system that produces the cleanest water in the shortest time.
Curated OER
Women in Science
Students study the roles that women have played in science throughout history. They work in small groups while visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Curated OER
Responsible Stewardship: The Saving of the Great Lakes
Students devise a plan to protect the Great Lakes. For this environmental lesson, students conduct research to identify nonprofit groups that help protect the waterways. Students write letters to the Congressman or a nonprofit...
Curated OER
From the Farm to Your Table: Where Does Our Food Come From?
Students discover where the food they eat comes from. Using maps, they identify the agricultural areas of the United States and the products that are grown in each area. Using the internet, they research how food gets to America from...
Curated OER
Particulate Matter: The Lorax
Students investigate how dirty air is outside. They read and discuss the book, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss. They investigate using jars and lids to compare the dirt left each day as they remove the lids. They observe the lids and discuss if...
Curated OER
Science: Making Career Connections
Students explore careers in oceanography. They compare and contrast requirements for careers in the field, and determine what high school courses would help to prepare them. Finally, they create a computer-based project related to...
Curated OER
My Hometown
Learners identify the basic requirements needed for survival and identify the resouces needed for survival that are found within their own community. They use craft materials to create a model of it and then. create a color key to...
Curated OER
An Underwater Sediment Slide?
Students explore the proximity of the Hudson Shelf Valley and the Hudson Canyon to one of the Nation's most populated areas. They study that from 1987 to 1992, two dumpsites in the Hudson Shelf Valley and Hudson Canyon, one 12 miles
Curated OER
Bean and Ozone Project
Students performed an experiment in which they grew beans in an ozone chamber and some in regular air in order to see if the ozone causes damage to the plants.
Curated OER
Teaching about Rain Storms, Land Use, and Lake Turbidity
Students investigate the impacts of major rainfall and subsequent runoff on turbidity in lakes. They, in groups, develop a presentation of their research and/or write a paper summarizing their investigation.
Curated OER
Groundwater Pollution Site Assessment
Students study how a geologist examines a hazardous waste spill using an actual site. They use site data to map the spill, find its source and determine how fast the spill is spreading.
Curated OER
Water Trash
Students examine how plastic waste affects the marine environment. They describe techniques that reduce plastic waste in this environment after examining plastic waste that accumulates in their own homes.
Curated OER
People Who Work in the Woods
Students study the types of jobs that people can do in the forest. They examine those who study the forest, harvest the trees, and plant trees to renew the forest.
Curated OER
Outdoor Survivors
Fifth graders complete a survey to decide what are most popular plants among the class. They test the water quality in a nearby pond. Studnts test the quality of soil samples taken from their homes. Different plants are moistened with...
Curated OER
Erosion
Fifth graders study what erosion is, what causes it, and ways to slow its progress. They complete an experiment that depicts soil moving down a slope as water is poured on it to show how moving water erodes land. Next, they observe...
Curated OER
Erosion
Students discover the meaning of the word erosion and discuss effects of rocks and sticks upon the soil. They then work in small groups to construct a model of erosion to make observations and then write them in their science journals.
Curated OER
Help! Someone Has Destroyed My Home!
Fifth graders use a mystery bag to discover ways in which humans endanger the life of animals by changing their habitat. In this animal habitat lesson, 5th graders work with a partner to design a solution to the problem of habitat...
Curated OER
Trash City
Students work together to build a trash city. They collect items that would go into a landfill to help them build their city. They discuss ways to cut down on garbage.