What do cereal, fog, and space shuttles have to do with newspapers? A collection of science investigations encourage critical thinking using connections to the various parts of the newspaper. Activities range from building origami seed...

Young scholars reach out into the community and learn about different environmental science careers in this inquiry-based instructional activity. Beginning with a short research assignment, children gain background knowledge about...

Something’s fishy! Assign each of your pupils an individual sea creature and investigate the oceans. Young oceanographers utilize Kidspiration software to research a creature, illustrate an image, and create fact cards about their...

For as long as there has been life on earth, animals, including humans, have used migration as a means of survival. This collection of activities supports young scientists as they learn about this behavioral adaptation, encouraging them...

Students research sea life using laptop computers. In this sea life lesson, students participate in a field trip to the beach and enter observations into their laptop computers. Students classify shells and sea life.

Students examine marine archaeology. In this archaeological data lesson plan, students see how archaeologists use data to make inferences about shipwrecks. Students read data and make their own inferences, write about marine life and...

Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...

Middle schoolers explore the careers of prominent African Americans in science, mathematics, and technology. They use The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences website, which includes profiles of past and present African...

Alphabet insects! Who has ever heard of such a thing? Get ready because your class is going to research insects that start with a specific letter of the alphabet. In small groups, they'll use the Internet and reference texts to locate...

Concept muraling helps learners improve their comprehension of a text by giving them a way to organize their understanding of the key concepts in that text. Introduce readers to this process with a carefully scaffolded instructional...

Students research marine ecosystems by creating class presentations.  In this oceanography lesson, students research the different locations of marine sanctuaries by identifying them on a transparency map in class.  Students...

Students investigate threats to our oceans by investigating items found on a beach.  In this environmental safety lesson plan, students examine several items found on a beach and identify them as natural, harmful, organic or...

Students discover new ways to preserve the ecosystem by completing graphic organizers.  In this environmental instructional activity, students read an article from the Natural Inquirer in small groups and fill out a graphic...

Students differentiate the characteristics of living and nonliving things. In this life science lesson, students compare and contrast robots and living things. Given an object, they decide whether it's is living or not and defend...

Describe how plate tectonics account for various land formations. Learners discuss different marine sanctuaries and create a poster about tectonic activity in these areas. They share their posters with the class.

What evidence supports the big bang theory? Individuals analyze scholarly resources about the the theory and develop arguments backed by evidence. They brainstorm, share ideas, watch a video, and read articles to complete a graphic...

Learners explore animal habitats.  In this cross curriculum animal survival and writing lesson, students view a website about wild horses on Shackelford Island and discuss ways in which the horses have changed to this...

Students explore coral reef ecosystems.  In this ecosystems science instructional activity, students research coral reef ecosystems to determine the major functions the participating organisms must perform.  Students construct...

Third graders explore the world of inventions by describing their impact on their own lives.  In this technology lesson, 3rd graders practice writing descriptive paragraphs about different inventions that they find...

Students investigate the wilderness by reading magazine articles and discussing with their peers.  In this wild life lesson, students read a page from the Natural Inquirer magazine and examine photographs online of wilderness...

Third graders keep and report records of investigations and observations of ladybugs utilizing tools like journals, charts, graphs and computers. They discover and study the life cycle of ladybugs and complete a KWL chart about ladybugs.

Students explore multiple types of energy. In this energy lesson, students prepare a science fair project through completing a WebQuest. Students investigate radiant, thermal, and biochemical energy.

Students use an interactive web-based food web game to gain familiarity with tropic levels and interactions. They already understand that in an ecosystem there are four basic tropic levels: producers, primary consumers, secondary...

Ninth graders create a large scale model of a eukaryotic cell. In this biology lesson plan, 9th graders identify the different parts and function of the cells by using a robot to navigate through the cell models. They create a video...