Seasons Simulator
From the good folks at Khan academy comes a valuable Seasons Simulator that will show your students everything you’ve been…
Category: Earth & Space Science Lessons
Climate Change
Teaching Climate Change? If so, and you’re not thrilled with how your textbook handles it, this lesson might be for…
Sea-Floor Spreading
Sea-floor spreading- a process that looks initially too complex for any school-aged student to understand is actually a fascinating phenomenon that…
Ocean Surface Currents
Every good lesson is centered on a powerful visual. This lesson exemplifies that with a NASA video clip that is…
How Mountains Form
It’s hard to believe, but just 200 years ago people really had no idea how mountains formed. We’re now to…
Sun, Earth, Moon Model To Scale
This lesson starts with the assumption of the sun being a basketball. If that’s true, then how big would earth…
Geology Squeeze Box-Mountain Formation
This lesson uses the Geology Squeeze Box made by Ward’s Science to tell the story of one particular spot on…
Solar System Formation Cause-And-Effect Flow Chart
The purpose of this graphic organizer is to get your students to analyze and interact with information that, by itself…
5 Characteristics Of Soil-Texture, Color, Chemistry, Pore Space, Soil Fertility
We all (sort of) know what dirt is, but how many main characteristics of soil are there? And, what can…
6 Ancient Astronomers
When you get into the beliefs of early astronomers like Aristotle, Kepler, and Copernicus, you find out quickly there’s a…
Resources-Renewable versus Non, and Materials versus Energy
When you begin teaching about Earth’s resources, this graphic organizer will help students understand concretely the two kinds of ways…
5 Ways Fossils Form
After a little folding, cutting, coloring, sketching, and describing (in their own words), your students will end up with a…
Sea Breezes & Land Breezes graphic organizer
Sea breezes and land breezes may seem like a mystery, but like everything else, they happen for a reason, which…
What Causes Wind
Students start with a blank sheet of paper, then 35 minutes later, after some drawing, note-taking, and discussion, have a…
Weather Elements
Introducing weather? Then your goal on day 1 is to get your students to understand and remember the 6 elements…
Thunderstorm Cause and Effect Chart
So what’s the cause of thunderstorms? Just 1 or 2 conditions? Hardly. In this lesson your students will dig into…
Stream Table
Finally, an uncomplicated way for your students to get their hands (and eyes) on a water erosion lab. (Still messy…
QNI Venn
Find out how well do your students truly understand Earth’s 5 spheres (geosphere, hyrdosphere, cryosphere, atmosphere, biosphere) with this “quite-nearly-impossible”…
Moon Phases graphic organizer
Teaching the moon phases? This graphic organizer cuts through all the distractions and simply illustrates why the moon keeps changing…
Mineral Identification Lab
Tired of mineral ID labs that are confusing and don’t work? Look no further. Handout and Notes
Mineral Identification
An easy way for students to learn, and remember, the 7 ways to identify minerals. Use just before your students…
Mineral Properties
A simple and straightforward intro to the 5 properties of minerals- naturally occurring, inorganic, solid, definite crystal structure, and definite…
Heating Rates Of Different Earth Substances
A fun and memorable way for your students to learn, by their own design, which type of earth substance- dirt,…
Endless Ecosystems
Ever see those Russian dolls? Once your students make this graphic organizer (in that same format), they’ll completely understand these…
Earths 5 Spheres
A graphic organizer that’s a full introduction to Earth’s 5 spheres-Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Cryosphere, Atmosphere, & Biosphere PPT
Earths Compositional & Physical Layers
Yes, it can be very confusing to look at the inside of Earth 2 different ways. This graphic organizer will…
Causes of Earths Day Night Year & Seasons
A neat little graphic organizer summarizing Earth’s motions and their effects. Includes Day/Night (cause- rotation), Year (revolution), and Seasons (revolution…
Earths Driven Plates
A lesson on how the layers of earth-core, mantle, and crust- interact with each other, beginning with the heated interior,…
4 Layers of Earth’s Atmosphere
Use this handy little graphic organizer to introduce the Earth’s atmosphere, and you’ll find it causes great retention in the…
History Of Orbiting Theories
A fascinating look back and how the greatest minds wrestled with the concept of the earth’s place in the universe.…
Interactive Notes-Plate Tectonics
In this set of interactive notes students: 1.compare the shell thickness of a chicken egg with the earth’s crust, 2.mark…
Measuring Geologic Time
In one class period your students will go from complete puzzlement to near complete understanding of the common geologic units…
Interactive Notes-Conserving Earth’s Land, Water, & Air
In this set of interactive notes students will: 1.build a simple water filter, 2.observe a bubble levitating on a greenhouse…
Biomes Precip Graph
A different way to explore the biomes- drawing a beautiful bar graph that compares the temperature and precipitation for each…
Seasons – 2 Reasons for the 4 Seasons
Using a flashlight and a globe students will see with their own eyes what causes Earth’s seasons, even before you…
Biomes Summary
A simple but powerful handout. After filling in a temperature and precipitation table, students color the map. Handout, Notes, and…
Plate Tectonics Scavenger Hunt
When was the last time your students actually had fun digging through their text book? Has it ever happened? If…
Layers Of Air
Students go from hardly noticing there is an atmosphere to knowing there are 4 layers, their order, names, composition, and…
Drop of Ocean Water
What exactly is in ocean water? In this fun activity students color in 1,000 squares based on the composition of…
Solar System To Scale
As close as we’ll get to understanding the vast distances and diameters of what’s in our solar system. (“Oh, that’s why they…
Moon Phases
What causes the moon phases- is it clouds? Earth’s shadow? No, and no. After this lesson, your students will wonder…
Living Solar System
Get ready to think big! We’re going to turn your classroom into a “living” inner solar system. Best part- students…
Comets & Asteroids-What They Are, Where They Are, They And Us
Comets and asteroids capture our imagination with their unbelievable size (did you say a 50-mile-wide flying ice cube?!?!), and terrify…
Earthquakes-Plotting Recent Activity
In this 2-day activity your students will set up a World and U.S. map and then plot earthquakes that happened…
So What Is Soil Anyway?
Now there’s no excuse to not thoroughly enjoy a unit on dirt. Well, that might be overstating things, but maybe…
Earth Clock -Timeline From Past To Present
Is Earth history fun? Yes! This lesson reaches back to the beginning of earth and presents its entire life, up…
99.86 Measuring Our Sun’s Mass
Our sun, with a mass that consumes 99.86% of everything in our solar system, is beyond enormous. But how do…
