This lesson uses centers to reinforce the five senses incorporating backyard science in the wonderful world of nature.
This role playing game allows students to explore the issue of habitat loss and its effects on animal populations.
In this field exploration, student teams (consisting of 3 students) will investigate whetherincandescent, fluorescent or a no light situation will attract the most nocturnal insects.
This is a field investigation on diversity of life where students count the number of kinds organisms in two locations. Students report their results on posters and propose reasons why there might be difference in diversity between the locations.
In this life science field investigation students will study golden rod gall populations within a patch of goldenrods.
The use of new technological motion sensing cameras creates a motivation for students in this life science lesson.
In this video adapted from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, learn about carnivorous plants that act as both producers and consumers in an ecosystem. See sundews and blatterworts capture and digest insects.
This video segment from the Earth Operators Manual summarizes how fossil fuels are made, provides a comparison of how long it takes to store energy in coal, oil and natural gas, and discusses how fast we're using them.
Students learn how paper is made. Working together, student teams make their own paper. This activity introduces students to recycling; what it is, its value and benefits, and how it affects their lives.
In this video segment adapted from Navajo Technical College, meet a dendroclimatologist who studies the relationship between precipitation and tree growth in the Navajo Nation.
This class introduces the multidisciplinary nature of archaeology, both in theory and practice. Lectures provide a comparative examination of the origins of agriculture and the rise of early civilizations in the ancient Near East and Mesoamerica. The laboratory sessions provide practical experience in aspects of archaeological field methods and analytical techniques including the examination of stone, ceramic, and metal artifacts and bone materials. Lab sessions have occasional problem sets which are completed outside of class.
The overarching goal of this exercise is for students to explore the early anthropogenic hypothesis, which claims that early agriculture had a substantial impact on greenhouse gases and global climate thousands of years ago (Ruddiman, 2003). Students compare changes in greenhouse gas concentrations that occurred thousands of years ago to more recent changes that occurred over hundreds of years. Students also relate changes in greenhouse gas concentrations to warming. The exercise is completed over a 1.5- to 2-week period as the class covers a chapter on climate change.
(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)
The goal of the fifth grade Forests: Forest Ecosystem Benefits storyline is to build on students’ previous knowledge of plant/animal needs, ecosystems, and protection of Earth’s resources. In this storyline students develop an understanding of forest ecosystems, tree benefits including carbon sequestration, and what trees need to grow/gain mass.
This field investigation allows students to collect and observe earthworms using liquid extraction to help develop background knowledge at the start of a new earthworm unit.
This Nature video segment focuses on the four foods most important to the grizzly bears' survival, and it describes the threats to the supply of each of them.
This activity is a field/classroom activity where students collect soil samples, form inquiry questions, devise a sorting method, make observations of the contents, record information, share information, and draw conclusions about their findings. Students will generate other inquiry questions related to soil for future learning opportunities.
Students use information from Project Drawdown to learn about the sectors where climate solutions are being implemented to help slow down climate warming. Students construct a plan for using specific solutions to reduce and remove the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and make a claim describing how their plan could work to keep global temperature change below 1.5 ÂC.
Global populations have for decades migrated more and more to coastal regions. This colonization of the coast has resulted in large areas of what was formerly rocky shores, salt marshes, and mudflats becoming built environment for people. What’s more, as sea levels rise more, coastal defenses are being put in place to protect towns and cities from the oceans. These coastal defenses are also replacing natural habitats that play a vital role in the life cycle of fish, including spawning locations, nurseries, and sources of planktonic food. This, in turn, is affecting the fish stocks in the oceans. During this lesson, students will gain a basic understanding of the idea that specific habitats are essential in the lifecycle of some species. Students will work through the engineering design process to build a ‘bio-block’ solution to make sea walls a more nature-friendly solution for flood protection.
Students research electricity, its sources, how energy grids function, how to make grids most efficient, and how to bring different types of energy generation together to diversify grids. Students debate the costs and benefits of moving to a modernized Smart Grid.
The Challenge Question of the Legacy Cycle draws the student into considering the engineering ingenuity of nature. It will force him to analyze, appreciate and understand the wisdom of these designs as the student team focuses on meeting each of the challenge's requirements. The student is asked, with his team members, to envision a sustainable design for a future guest village within the Saguaro National Park, outside of Tucson, Arizona. What issues need to be addressed to support the comforts of park visitors without compromising the natural resources or endangering the endemic species of the area? A deeper scope of application will reveal extensions of this design in the incorporation of urban planning and systems design. It also strengthens the concept of manufacturing and building without producing waste or pollution.