Third graders role-play various organisms from a food chain to illustrate how a food chain works. In relay style, 3rd graders fill their cups (stomachs) and, in turn, fill a larger organism's cup (stomach) to visualize the importance of...

Fifth graders research and write a pen pal letter about the geography of a Canadian town. Students create a script for a phone call with their pen pal and perform it with a friend for the class.

I used to hate filling out job applications when I was younger. Make a tedious task painless for your job-minded upper graders. They practice their written communication skills and get ready to search for employment by filling out...

Geneticists of the future identify heterozygous and homozygous genotypes, describe phenotypes, and use Punnett squares to solve problems and determine characteristics of offspring. A total of 15 questions make this a compact quiz or...

Students describe and compare the layers of the atmosphere. They explain how to measure the temperature of the atmosphere. They also explain what causes the atmosphere to heat up in some places more than in others.

Pupils examine the importance of the environment including the setting, lights, sound, costumes, and props for a play or story. They visualize the appropriate environments and practice applying the techniques.

Seventh graders investigate what pesticides are and why people use them. They examine the effect of pesticides on prairie grasses and what alternatives can be used.

Eighth graders interview a person who explains the lifestyles of people who lived on the prairies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They examine how today's lifestyles impact the environment and write up what they learned.

Second graders observe images of prairie ecosystems and discuss the needs of living things. They create a prairie habitat in a closed jar to observe the water cycle and plant growth.

Sixth graders explore the animals that live on the prairie and identify differences between amphibians and reptiles and the adaptations each have made to live on the prairie.

Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.

Don't twist and turn looking for a resource. The first installment of a six-part series teaches young engineers about the five fundamental forces of compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion. These forces help explain different...

What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits...

Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.

Students create and discuss works of Impressionism in this lesson plan for the elementary classroom. Emphasis is placed on Monet's "Water Lilies" and the Bridge or Gardens at Giverny.

Students explore the flora and fauna of temperate forests and rainforests. They examine the environmental conditions that allow certain plants and animals to live in the rainforest.

Have your class practice measuring the perimeter of various objects using this resource. Fifth graders place various-sized polygons in order (from largest to smallest). They use non-standard measuring tools to estimate the distance...

Learners are arranged into groups and are given a map or globe. Students select a location on the map. Learners as yes and no questions to guess the specific place that was chosen.

Fifth graders investigate possible solutions to a word problem. They explore properties of polygons and right angles. Students demonstrate proper angle measurement. Students discover patterns.

Fourth graders use triangle paper to design patterns using geometric figures and find the areas of those figures by counting units. Students are assessed by determining which figure has the greatest area and explaining their reasoning.

Here is a brief outline of facts on various Chesapeake Bay fish species. Use it as an example of what kind of information you want your life science learners to collect when you assign them a specific species to research. Another way to...

Learners discuss how groundwater becomes polluted. In groups, they design and create models of groundwater pollution sources. They demonstrate to the class how the water may become contaminated from local and nonlocal pollution sources.

Students read and discuss several Pourquoi tales--legends that explain why certain natural events occur. They complete a variety of activities surrounding each tale and then write their own Pourquoi tale.

An internet investigation leads learners to discover whether or not weather and light house location are related to the locations of shipwrecks on The Great Lakes. They work in cooperative groups to plot the locations of light houses and...