Students will understand the problem of sanitation in North Carolina communities and will be able to make comparisons with current issues and problems facing our state and local communities. This lesson utilizes documents from the North Carolina State Government Publications Collection.

Students will work in groups to determine whether air quality is better today than it was in 1970. Students will complete a KWL chart and make suggestions to improve air quality today. This lesson utilizes documents from the North Carolina State Government Publications Collection.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores the tundra and how it can illustrate ecological concepts, relationships, and changes.

This free, standards-based website developed for elementary teachers provides hand-picked, reviewed, on-line resources to enhance teacher content knowledge regarding reasons for the seasons.

Students will be able to describe the ocean based on information presented in class, learn the basic geography of the oceans, recall information they learned while listening to stories and poems with oceanic settings, research various forms of sea life, and understand the elements of poems and stories written about the ocean.

This article describes how polar scientists collect ice cores from ice sheets and glaciers and how they use these cores to learn about Earth's past climate.

The purpose of this activity is to teach writing in a science context using the text structure of cause and effect.

This article discusses the strategy of using discrepant events in elementary science instruction. It includes links to four video clips of the sun's path in the Arctic or Antarctica.

This activity demonstrates how to import data from the Internet and make EXCEL graphs. The instructions included were provided by a classroom teacher who used these instructions with high school students.

This article explains how organizing a rock swap between classrooms across the country or around the world can help elementary students investigate geographic and geologic diversity.

This article provides ideas and lessons on how elementary teachers can integrate webcams from the Arctic and Antarctica into their teaching. Five webcams are highlighted as well as three lessons on writing poetry and observing animal behavior.

Students will explore gravity and the affects of gravity using a VR immersive experience and other additional activities in stations. FULL Lesson Link

Students will observe and learn more about the different types of erosion by rotating through 4 different VR stations.Lesson Link

Students will explore the International Space Station in the VR headsets and then use this and other researched information to write a letter that includes interesting facts they learned in their exploration. Lesson Link

Students will compare and contrast related organisms and discover their survival advatage. Students will examine photos of two related organisms and list physical characteristics that are similar and unique among the organisms. After a class discussion on how variations give organisms a survival advantage in their environments, students will participate in shared writing assignments.

Students will learn about the position of the sun and moon in the sky to develop an understanding of relative distances, the appearance of movement across the sky, and relate it to day and night, Earth's orbit, the spin of the Earth, and the visible shape of the moon.

This article explains how hands-on science activity can support vocabulary development and links to two books and six web sites that provide more information.

This article highlights hands-on and inquiry-based science lessons that teach about the water cycle and provides lessons that integrate literacy skills with the science investigations.

This article describes ways to supplement a science unit on the water cycle with the book Water Dance by Thomas Locker. Ideas for art, writing, poetry, and creative movement are included.

In this issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explore what the polar regions can teach us about the water cycle and the states and changes of matter. Find lesson plans about the many forms of water, ice, and snow found in the polar regions and how to use science notebooks to integrate literacy and science.