Related: Earth Science

LESSON PLANS AND ACTIVITIES

Click on a lesson plan or activity name to learn more about it

  • Global Climate Change and Sea Level Rise

    / California Academy of Sciences

    Students will learn via experimentation that ice formations on land will cause a rise in sea level when they melt, whereas ice formations on water will not cause a rise in sea level when they melt. Students will learn that ice is less dense than water and that ice displaces water equal to the mass of the ice. For more information: http://www.calacademy.org/teachers/

    Grades: 3-5, 6-8

  • Self Contained Gulf Oil Spill Kit

    Cynthia Cudaback / The Ocean and You

    A kit you can create to help your students understand the impacts of the Gulf Of Mexico oil spill. Easily contained in a box so clean up is easy...as compared to oil spills in real life! For more information, please see http://OceanAndYou.com

    Grades: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12

  • Prince William's Oily Mess - A Tale of Recovery

    / NOAA Ocean Service Education

    How does an ecosystem recover from a major one-time insult such as an oil spill?

    As you will learn from this Discovery Story, the answer is not simple. It isn't easy to determine whether a particular area of shoreline has recovered from oiling during a spill, or how to expect it to look when it has.

    This lesson includes links to many other oil related lesson plans. For more about NOAA Ocean Service Education, see here: http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/welcome.html

    Grades: 6-8, 9-12

  • Introduction to Latitude and Longitude

    / National Geographic Xpeditions

    This lesson introduces students to latitude and longitude. They will look at lines of latitude and longitude on a United States map and discuss the reasons why these lines are helpful. Students will also discuss the ways that temperatures vary with latitude and will explain the clothes they might wear at specific latitudes.
    For more information: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/

    Grades: K-2

  • Biomes: Wild Arctic

    / Discovery Education

    This lesson investigates the plants and animals that live in the Arctic. Students will learn key terms, including food web, zooplankton, and sea ice. They will also devise food chains found in the Arctic, these will then be expanded to food webs, showing the connections among all Arctic life.
    For more information: http://discoveryeducation.com/

    Grades: 6-8

  • Where Have All the Glaciers Gone?

    / NOAA

    Students will describe how climate change is affecting sea ice, vegetation, and glaciers in the Arctic region, explain how changes in the Arctic climate can produce global impacts, and will be able to provide three examples of such impacts. Students will also explain how a given impact resulting from climate change may be considered ‘positive’ as well as ‘negative’, and will be able to provide at least one example of each.
    Hands-on activity: Make a photocube showing changes in glaciers.

    For more information:
    http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

    Grades: 6-8

  • Potential role of Arctic methane deposits in climate change

    / NOAA

    In this activity, students will be able to identify the natural processes that produce methane, describe where methane deposits are located in the Arctic region, explain how warmer climates may affect Arctic methane deposits, explain how the release of large volumes of methane might affect Earth’s climate, and describe how methane releases may have contributed to mass extinction events in Earth’s geologic history.

    For more information:
    http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

    Grades: 9-12

  • Social, economic and environmental consequences of Arctic climate change

    / NOAA

    In this activity, students will be able to identify and explain at least three lines of evidence that suggest the Arctic climate is changing, identify and discuss at least three social, three economic and three environmental consequences expected as a result of Arctic climate change, identify at least three climate-related issues of concern to Arctic indigenous peoples, and identify at least three ways in which Arctic climate change is likely to affect the rest of the Earth’s ecosystems.

    For more information:
    http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

    Grades: 9-12

  • Trophic relationships in Arctic marine ecosystems

    / NOAA

    In this activity, students will be able to describe how ratios of stable nitrogen isotopes can be used to study trophic relationships between marine organisms, make inferences about trophic relationships between organisms and habitats, and compare and contrast organisms in sea ice, pelagic, and benthic communities in terms of feeding strategies and consequent stable nitrogen isotope ratios.

    For more information:
    http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov

    Grades: 9-12