This lesson plan is designed to introduce students to the concept of pollution prevention (P2). Instead of trying to clean up pollution after it has been created, P2 focuses on reducing the generation of pollution and waste by changing or modifying plans, practices, or habits. P2 also includes activities that protect natural resources through conservation or more efficient resource use. Pollution ... Full description.

In this project, students will pretend to be experts called on to describe the acid precipitation problem in the fictitious city of Ramford. Their presentations will cover the following: the types and causes of acid precipitation; the trends over time for pH levels of surface-water and precipitation in Ramford County; the point and non point-source contributors to acid precipitation for Ramford County; ... Full description.

This lesson will examine the conflict between development and the environment, and the attempts for a sound compromise while still helping the earth sustain the economic growth, expansion, and pressure we are exerting on its natural resources. Using estuaries as a case study, students will be encouraged to consider the interaction between environmental and economic demands, and to seek a balance that ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades 9-12. It focuses on how astronomers use light properties, and the doppler-effect (redshift), to determine that stars are moving away from the Earth and the universe is expanding. It includes objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, performing extensions, suggested readings, and vocabulary. ... Full description.

This contrived natural selection simulation has students build and modify simple paper airplanes (Origami Birds). They demonstrate that: mutations occur randomly; selection is based on the immediate needs of the organism; inherited characteristics (whether mutated or not) are contingent; divergent evolution may occur when sub-populations face different environments; convergent evolution may result ... Full description.

This Classroom Connectors lesson plan for kindergarten students is designed to teach about rocks as part of the composition of the Earth. Students will explore characteristics, uses, and classification of rocks. This site provides goals, objectives, an outline, time required, materials, activities, and closure ideas for the lesson. The Classroom Connectors address content with an activity approach ... Full description.

This lesson introduces students to the building of cladograms as evolutionary trees showing how "shared derived characters" can be used to reveal degrees of relationship. Given some groups of organisms and some of their distinguishing characteristics, the students will construct a cladogram. Given a cladogram, the students will properly interpret and analyze that cladogram in terms of recognizing ... Full description.

The purpose of this lesson is to integrate the mathematics of statistics with the ecological and biological sciences. Students use a quarter of a square-meter quadrant in an area near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia to determine: population density, relative density, frequency, and relative frequency, as well as calculate a diversity index and establish a correlation of association between ... Full description.

In this activity, students gather data and compare the shaking intensities of the 1906 San Francsico and 1989 Loma Prieta earthquakes. They compare shaking intensity maps from the two earthquakes using the Modified Mercalli Shake Intensity, examine the lengths of fault ruptures, and examine seismograph traces from each earthquake. Links to additional information and to lesson plans that use these ... Full description.

This Antarctica lesson has students locate the continent on a globe and on a map, describe and illustrate major Antarctic ecosystems, and explain relationships between those ecosystems. They will also construct a rough map of Antarctic ecosystems and explore relationships among the creatures that populate them. This lesson can be adapted to focus on other regions, including the one in which students ... Full description.