In this lesson, students discover the impact that flooding has on people's lives, and how science and technology can mitigate its effects and help find potential solutions. Working in teams, students design and build a model of a flood-proof home for their family on the fictitious isalnd of Watu. They will consider how flooding affects the whole community and work out where the best place for a home would be.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This video explores the pros and cons of desalination. A set of discussion questions and post-viewing activities are provided.
Material Type: Demonstration
In this unit, students develop an appreciation of the global, dynamic, and complex nature of the water cycle and explain how human activities can impact the functioning of the water cycle.
Material Type: Unit of Study
In this lesson, students will use a dichotomous chart to identify five trees. They will then identify the environment in which each tree is growing and the climate for the area. After conducting research to identify the conditions needed for success of the five trees, they will determine if the trees are placed appropriately. Students will write a paragraph for each tree summarizing their findings.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this 3-4 day investigation, students go outdoors to explore their local water body, using sampling techniques to discover the plants and animals.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this activity, students discuss how methods of fishing have changed, then play a game to explore the idea of sustainable fishing practice. They simulate fishery activity using increasingly sophisticated technology, in different ocean areas. As students progress through the fishing seasons, they will likely overfish their part of the ocean and will have to migrate to other places in the ocean to meet their basic needs. Most groups will eventually create a total crash of fish stocks in the ocean. After discussing the game and its meaning, students will propose new rules for the game, to make fishing sustainable.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Categorize sections of the oceans and understand their importance. GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.
Material Type: Lesson
Students explore a bay ecosystem and how the different organisms of the ecosystem compete with one another for resources.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this activity, students dissect a chocolate-covered candy and then create a labeled diagram to describe how each layer of the candy relates to an Earth layer.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students explore plate tectonics and understand how mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes are related to the movements of plates.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this series of activities, students explore the volcanoes of Mars in comparison with Earth, learn what they tell us about what is happening inside Mars, and review its history.
Material Type: Unit of Study
This interactive resource provides video clips of actual earthquakes to help students better understand the Richter scale and the Mercalli Intensity Scale.
Material Type: Interactive
In this lesson, students complete water quality tests such as pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrates, phosphates, and salinity for a water sample. After following these activities, students should understand the purpose of these tests, know how to run accurate water quality tests, and see how these parameters relate to the quality of the water in an estuary.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students will make a food diagram of the hydrothermal vent community and show the flow of energy and materials in this ecosystem.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This resource explains what happens as the crustal plates move.
Material Type: Reading
This lesson plan demonstrates how microorganisms normally found in environments, such as the bottom of warm freshwater ponds and lakes can cause illness when they enter the human body. Students engaged in this lesson plan will learn about N. fowleri (the scientific name of the brain-eating ameba), where it lives, how it can cause infection, and how persons can protect themselves from this infection.Students will also have the opportunity to identify other organisms living in local freshwater reservoirs, such as ponds and lakes. At the end of the lesson, students should have an enhanced understanding of the environment's role in disease transmission and ways to reduce the risk for contracting waterborne infections.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
In this activity, students demonstrate three faulting actions using their hands.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this lesson, students determine the particle size and composition of a sample of soil. Soil composition determines many characteristics of soils, such as infiltration rates (the rate at which water moves into a soil), percolation rates (how fast water moves through the soil), settling rates (how fast sediments sink to the bottom of a body of water), oxygen content, and the ability of the soil to support plant and animal life.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This resource is a colorful inforgraphic on the benefits of biotech crops. The infographic gives students details on increased crop productivity, conserving biodiversity, reducing agriculture's eco-foodprint and mitigating climate change.
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration
This tutorial describes soil as a natural resource and what we can do to protect it.
Material Type: Interactive
