Why are living things different from one another? This unit on genetics starts out with students noticing and wondering about photos of two cattle, one of whom has significantly more muscle than the other. Students figure out how muscles typically develop as a result of environmental factors such as exercise and diet. Then, they work with cattle pedigrees, including data about chromosomes and proteins, to figure out genetic factors that influence the heavily muscled phenotype and explore selective breeding in cattle.

This unit is part of the OpenSciEd core instructional materials for middle school.

Antibiotics save people’s lives...and make bacteria stronger and more likely to kill us.  What is the best practice to balance these conflicting issues? In this problem-based learning module, the students will be evaluating real-life medical situations in conjunction with actual staff at those institutions and offering action plans to be ‘implemented’ there.  In order to accomplish this, the science unit will be interlocking with social studies and a language arts unit that will have them identifying target audiences and sculpting a way to present their findings.  This unit has the potential to be a full problem-based unit as well as highly interdisciplinary--it’s connected to full units in social studies and language arts which stand alone but can be fully integrated if desired.

The purpose of this resource is to observe budburst on selected trees at a Land Cover or Phenology Site. All students will learn about hummingbird natural history and ecology. Students will learn how to identify and age male and female Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and to observe migration and feeding behavior. Students will learn how to make connections among hummingbird behavior and weather, climate, food availability, seasonality, photoperiod (day length), and other environmental factors.

This book is intended for use by future teachers, written from the perspective of students who have taken Science Methods II. The student authors gathered and created resources to help prospective elementary cience teachers better understand science and feel confident in your abilities as a future teacher.
This book is divided into five parts which align with the Science Methods II course:

Physics
Space Science
Earth Science
Climate Science
Course Materials and Pedagogy

Within each part, the material is broken down into smaller chapters. Here you will find written explanations, video links, glossary terms, key takeaways, and practice quizzes to help you understand the material. This book is designed to be a flexible resource; use it as much or as little as you need throughout the course.

Objective:  This hands on activity is designed for middle school students to simulate the competition that occurs between organisms within the same ecosystem. Students will play the role of an organism where they will compete for resources (beads).   Students will collect and analyze data as well as answer conclusion questions.   South Carolina State Science Standards: SC: 7-LS2-1, 7-LS2-2, 7-LS2-4  (Preview Image): "Predator&Prey" by Rathika Ramasamy is licensed under CC BY 2.0  retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/28163014@N00/690266517  

The purpose of this resource is to observe plant green-up and report data that will be used by scientists to validate satellite estimates of the beginning of the plant growing season. Students monitor budburst and growth of leaves of selected trees, shrubs, or grasses. Species chosen should be native, deciduous, and dominant in your area.

In this problem-based learning module, students will investigate the importance of genetic diversity will be explored by examining several case studies revealing consequences that can occur in individuals within a limited gene pool and how a variety of genes can lead to the survival of a species. Students will be able to create and interpret information from pedigree charts.

What do Prairie Chickens Need in Order to Survive Today's Prairie?

This middle school unit covering ecosystems, animal behavior and symbiosis was developed through the Storyline approach. Middle school students will be figuring out why prairie chickens have a very unique dance and understand the role cows play to help ensure the dance takes place. Using this approach, students engage in science concepts to help ensure the survival of the prairie chicken.

Looking for a project for middle school-age students? This project-based learning experience will allow students to solve the problem of excess beeswax, a byproduct of honey bees, by developing a useful beeswax product and marketing their product to be sold in a local boutique or farmers market. This is a great way to drum up business and interest with students and the community in preparation for starting your own Bee Club! This lesson has step-by-step instructions and how-to documents to help the educator facilitate the process.  

Mosquito! is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. These Smithsonian Science for Global Goals community research guides use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to focus on sustainable actions that are defined and implemented by students.

Mosquito! is a module broken up into seven parts. Each part contains a series of tasks to complete. Each task contains additional resources to support that task. We have provided a suggested order for the parts and tasks. However, the structure of the guide hopefully allows you to customize your learning experience by selecting which parts, tasks, and resources you would like to utilize and in what order you would like to complete them.

As part of our continued commitment to education, the team at The Bee Cause Project has created this companion document, Educator’s Curriculum Guide, to supplement the Nature’s Partners curriculum.Our Tips from the Hive are designed to add layers of concept extensions, optional digital methods of delivering content, and support to educators that are either brand new or experienced environmental educators. The Buzz Worthy Resource Materials are video links, notable articles, and more printable resources, while the Bee Cause Book Club highlights recommended readings for students of all ages. Several titles have quality read-aloud links as well.

This resource is a phenomenon-based adaption to the Smithsonian's STCMS Genes and Molecular Machines kit. The anchoring phenomenon event features four families (apple, hydra, human and sea star). Students will investigate and explore the genetic causes of why some families look similar and others look different. Students will use models to explain their thinking throughout the intentional sequence of lessons.

Hundreds of scientific articles. Written for middle and high school students. Approved by scientists. Free.

The purpose of the resource is to develop hypotheses about which environmental factors are most important to plants.

In this problem-based, blended learning mondule, students will investigate what is the single - most defining trait that makes  us human? Is it our highly developed speech, our imagination, creativity, or our upright walking posture?  Humans have mastered fire, developed tools, art, music, recorded our history, and accomplished a countless number of other things. In this module, students will explore genetics concepts regarding inheritance, natural selection, biology of the human brain, and our hominid evolution over the last two hundred thousand years. Students will utilize guided research, and independent work to formulate an argumentative essay, and substantiating their claim with evidence from their research. When the argumentative essay is completed, students will create a project from a choice board that demonstrates their understanding of one of the concepts of our humanity.