These are the student pages for a three part lesson plan in which students investigate a physical model representing a cold and a hot planet. In the second part, the students interact with a computer model that simulates extreme conditions on some planets, and in the third part they will utilize a data source from the internet to determine the average temperature of the earth and specify the characteristics ... Full description.

In this activity, students will explore the influence of microorganisms on geochemical processes. They will describe how microbial metabolism may affect the dissolution of igneous rocks, define and explain the function of siderophores, describe at least two ways in which bacteria may utilize iron, and explain why iron availability may limit biological activity even though it is extremely abundant ... Full description.

This lesson plan 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. Full description.

Adaptation and Speciation is a lesson plan about organisms and how they adapt to their environment. Topics include morphological, physiological, and behavioral animal adaptations; types of animal deception and camouflage; and the geographic, genetic, and reproductive isolation that leads to speciation. The lesson plan provides objectives, skills, time required, content outline, materials, significant ... Full description.

This lesson addresses the environmental importance of coral reefs and the threats to the conservation of reefs. Through the process of gathering geographic information about a place (in this case, the Great Barrier Reef), students will learn how a geographic focus can sharpen their insights about a conservation issue. Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the Center for Educational Resources (CERES), a series of web-based astronomy lessons created by a team of master teachers, university faculty, and NASA researchers. The activities in this lesson are designed to give students solid experiences of observing, organizing, comparing, and describing the movement of objects they see in the sky. Students will also learn how early ... Full description.

The focus question for this lesson plan is, "How can we use instruments to create a topographic map of the sea floor?" It sends students to the Internet to identify and understand the purpose of various types of SONAR and autonomous underwater vehicles which are used to map the sea floor. They must answer investigative questions and prepare a written report on one of the instruments searched, using ... Full description.

In this lesson plan students will learn that although tornadoes are most likely to occur in an area of the United States called Tornado Alley, they can happen anywhere and at any time. Students will read about the basics of tornado safety. They will also learn about the signs that a tornado might be coming and what they should do to protect themselves, their families, and their pets if they ever experience ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the DiscoverySchool.com lesson plan library for grades K-5. It focuses on how scientists have developed theories about what dinosaurs were like by using evidence that they have found. Students work in groups and as a class to discover what a theory is and how it is supported or disproven. Included are objectives, materials, procedures, discussion questions, evaluation ideas, ... Full description.

This lesson plan is part of the Center for Educational Resources (CERES), a series of web-based astronomy lessons created by a team of master teachers, university faculty, and NASA researchers. In this lesson, students analyze characteristics that indicate human life cycles, then apply these principles to various NASA images of stars to synthesize patterns of stellar life cycles. This lesson contains ... Full description.