Ever wonder how honey gets from the bee to the table? Join the Bee Cause Project and avid beekeeper, Ted Dennard, on this immersive 360 video to find out just how those amazing bees do it!  The National Honey Board has created an amazing look into the life of beekeepers and into the hive. We've created a lesson plan full of resources including science lessons, video links, and a full set of step-by-step printable cards for demonstrating the process of how honey is made! 

In this 3rd grade integrated STEM Storyline focused around the topics of climate and weather, we present students with the challenge of designing and building prototype temporary shelters for people in need. The unit launches with a discussion about the importance of shelter for humans. Then, students explore the significance of local weather conditions, the local climate, and how these may affect us. Students continue by exploring climate conditions around the world and how people have designed housing that shelters them from daily weather and climate. This unit culminates with students engaging in a design thinking process (similar to engineering design) where they design and test a shelter for people to use.

Design challenge: Strong, light structures are necessary in constructing buildings (especially in areas with extreme weather) as well as air and space craft.

Explore WWII and Astronaut survival kits, what they contained and culminates with students designing an emergency preparedness kit.

This parent guide supports the creation of an emergency preparedness kit for home along with how to create an entire emergency plan.

During this lesson, students will learn about emergency preparedness during World War I and the Apollo mission, equipping them to participate in a challenge to design their own kit.

In Unit 2 of the Explore the Salish Sea curriculum, students will review the water cycle, learn the parts of a watershed, and the effects of erosion and pollution, then learn ways of purifying these waters before they enter our streams and estuaries to safeguard these ecosystems for marine life and us.
Each unit in this series contains a detailed unit plan, a slideshow, student journal, and assessments. All elements are adaptable and can be tailored to your local community.

This is a 21 day unit on the topic of floods. Students will plan and prepare for what might happen in the event of a flood in our area. We have had floods in the past that have affected the Walterville School, its campus, and the surrounding areas. Using this as a springboard, students will discuss the effects of flooding, do research and interview family members who have experienced flooding, and then discuss possible ways to prevent significant damage on the buildings and surrounding areas. They will then design a barrier that could protect an area from damage for a period of time. Students will need materials to conduct experiments. We have listed these in the lesson plan. We have also included a trip to the Leaburg Dam so that students can learn about dams and their uses. We plan on teaching this unit in the fall.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)* call for students to use the practices, concepts and content of science and engineering to understand phenomena and solve problems that are relevant to their lives. Starting from a student’s own experiences and community makes the science meaningful and increases engagement while helping students understand how global issues like climate change are present and addressable in their lives. In this series we examine how you can use the new science standards and your community to understand and address real world environmental problems and explore together how to integrate NGSS into your district’s classroom science units.Mapping neighborhood assets, opportunities, and problems can engage students more deeply in science and engineering. In this workshop you’ll learn how system models, looking for patterns, and observing change over time can help students investigate and map their community. Local ecosystems, water flow, and community assets are some of many possible areas for your mapping efforts. By the end of this workshop you’ll have strategies to use in mapping your community and ideas for how you can use the information gathered.

The Washington State coastline is a culturally important place and valuable resource for communities of people, animals, and plants throughout Washington and the United States. As coastal flooding from storms and erosion threatens our coastal environments, communities are forced to make difficult decisions about how to protect themselves, their history, and their livelihoods. In this Storyline, students will learn what coastlines are and why they are important to humans and other types of natural communities. Given the specific weather hazard of coastal flooding, they will test materials and design structures that could be used to help reduce the impacts caused by this hazard.

A change in climate over time has contributed to a significant increase of wildfires in our state. In this storyline, students will make the connection between changes in ecosystems and the interconnectedness of all things. Students will gain an understanding of combustion (fire triangle), and observe through data that certain conditions (humidity, temperature, fuel load, etc.) contribute to forest fires (fire environment triangle). 

Warming oceans and melting landlocked ice caused by global climate change may result in rising sea levels. This rise in sea level combined with increased intensity and frequency of storms will produce storm surges that flood subways, highways, homes, and more. In this activity, visitors design and test adaptations to prepare for flooding caused by sea level rise.

This is a mapping activity that uses the student’s schoolyard to investigate how rain/stormwater interacts with different surfaces and where stormwater problems may occur. Students use Next Generation Science Standards’ Science and Engineering Practices in a near-by, relevant place.

This performance assessment aligns with NGSS performance 3.ESS3.1 and is intended to be used as an interim assessment. These assessments can either be used summatively, as an end of learning activity, or formatively, utilizing student responses to identify next instructional steps.

The Third Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, Weather, uses the phenomena of extreme weather events.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

Students learn about tornadoes - their basic characteristics, damage and occurrence. Students are introduced to the ways that engineers consider strong winds, specifically tornadoes, in their design of structures. Also, students learn how tornadoes are rated, and learn some basics of tornado safety.