Lessons

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  Erupting Volcanoes!

  K-2  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson students explore volcanoes by building a model of one.
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  Rock Hunters

  K-2  |  Hands-On
  Students will observe rocks and, through their observations, begin to develop an understanding that there are many types of rocks with a multitude of different attributes.
• 

  Sampling Rocks

  K-2  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students will collect and analyze a sample of rocks from the schoolyard.
• 

  Wonderful Waves

  K-2  |  Hands-On
  This lesson is designed to allow students to create a wave model using two different types of simple models.
• 

  Measuring Cloud Coverage

  3-5  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students review what clouds are and then use fractions to describe cloud coverage.
• 

  Model Volcanoes

  3-5  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students will explore volcanoes through drawings and building models.
• 

  Shape It Up

  3-5  |  Interactive
  This lesson explores how the earth’s landscape features change and always have through forces of nature such as wind, water, glaciation, and volcanism.
• 

  The Water Cycle

  3-5  |  Hands-On
  This lesson will help students understand the continuous cycle that water undergoes as it changes form.
• 

  Earthquakes

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students examine how earthquakes follow the natural plate boundaries and how these boundaries help us predict where earthquakes are most likely to occur.
• 

  Great Rivers 1: The Nature of Great Rivers

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students are shown the basics of the water cycle. They are introduced to the concept that flowing water carries materials such as silt, plankton, leaves, and wood. They also learn how rivers and the materials that they carry define how they look and act.
• 

  Great Rivers 2: The Ups and Downs of River Flooding

  6-8  
  This lesson focuses on flooding, both because of its importance to human history, and because it is often misunderstood.
• 

  Great Rivers 3: Great Rivers, Great Givers

  6-8  
  This lesson consists of a variety of brief sketches that illustrate for students how rivers have influenced human history from the dawn of civilization.
• 

  How Sedimentary Rocks are Formed

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  This lesson will help students answer a central question: How are the stripes of sedimentary rocks formed?
• 

  Models of the Water Cycle

  6-8  |  Interactive
  In this lesson, students develop an understanding of the water cycle by building and evaluating two different physical models.
• 

  Oceans

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  This lesson helps students obtain a better perception of earth's oceans and to understand earth's water cycle.
• 

  Deep Oil: The Technology, Risks, and Benefits of Offshore Oil Drilling

  9-12  
  This lesson focuses on examining the role of technology in managing societal risks and benefits of obtaining a highly valued—and politically charged—asset: oil deposits buried deep below the ocean floor.
• 

  Soil Erosion

  6-8  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students explore and verify that soil erosion is affected by the makeup of the soil using plant roots, rocks, and the slope of the land as experimental factors.
• 

  Abrupt Climate Change

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students explore how scientific knowledge changes in the context of abrupt climate change.
• 

  Environment, Technology, and Culture of the Chumash People

  6-8  
  In this lesson, students develop an understanding of the interrelatedness of technology, culture, and environment as illustrated by the Chumash culture.
• 

  Air Masses

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students develop an understanding of air masses and the role they play in weather and climate.
• 

  Technology and Oil

  6-8  |  Interactive
  This lesson demonstrates how much our society depends on petroleum products and shows how advances in technology have allowed us to find, obtain, and transport oil more efficiently.
• 

  Earth Movers

  9-12  |  Hands-On
  In this lesson, students explore plate tectonics and to understand how mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes are related to the movements of plates.
• 

  Searching for Oil: The Role of Science and Technology

  9-12  
  In this lesson, students explore how geoscientists use technology and computer modeling to find oil and natural gas.

Tools

• 

  Exploring Caves

  K-5  |  Teaching Aid
  Exploring Caves is an interdisciplinary set of materials on caves.
• 

  Animated guide: Hurricanes

  3-8  |  Website
  Animated guides: Hurricanes is one of three animated guides to the world’s most devastating phenomena found on the BBC website.
• 

  Shape It Up!

  3-8  |  Interactive
  This interactive from Kinetic City provides students with the opportunity to experience how mountains, rivers, and canyons were formed.
• 

  The Water Cycle at Work

  3-8  |  Website
  This animated illustration serve as an introduction of the water cycle.
• 

  The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc

  6-12  |  Website
  This resource is devoted exclusively to Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave, located in the south of France at Vallon-Pont-d’Arc (Ardeche), northwest of Marseilles.
• 

  Oil Refining: A Closer Look

  9-12  |  Video
  This resource contains a video and an interactive explaining how petroleum was formed and how it is processed.

Science Updates

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  The Core

  6-12  |  Audio
  In this Science Update, hear about a proposal to send a robotic probe to the rim of the earth's fiery core.
• 

  Cyclone Drift

  6-12  |  Audio
  Cyclones have been peaking in intensity closer and closer to the poles over the last 30 years.
• 

  Earth Simulator

  6-12  |  Audio
  Learn how scientists are using the Earth Simulator, the most powerful supercomputer on the planet, to model Earth's climate.
• 

  Globetrotting Swells

  6-12  |  Audio
  Scientists are learning how weather around the world is interconnected.
• 

  Gold Mine Quakes

  6-12  |  Audio
  Studying small earthquakes earthquakes in gold mines can help scientists learn more about major earthquakes.
• 

  High Pressure

  6-12  |  Audio
  Learn how models help scientists study difficult environments like the earth's interior.
• 

  Hurricanes

  6-12  |  Audio
  Hurricanes cycle through long periods of high and low activity.
• 

  Ocean Plastics

  6-12  |  Audio
  Scientists are getting a better handle on how much plastic we put into the oceans and what effects it’s having.
• 

  Predicting Earthquakes

  6-12  |  Audio
  In this Science Update, learn how a master model of Southern California geology can help predict earthquakes.
• 

  Quake Side Effects

  6-12  |  Audio
  In this Science Update, learn why days are now 3 millionths of a second shorter because of the earthquake that caused the tsunamis in southeast Asia.
• 

  Raindrop Fossils

  6-12  |  Audio
  Fossilized raindrop impressions, preserved for 2.7 billion years, may reveal new information about Earth's history.
• 

  Traveling Dust

  6-12  |  Audio
  In this Science Update, hear how microbes can travel from country to country on clouds of dust.

Videos

• Science of a Tsunami

  6-12  |  Video
  Studying the science of tsunamis will hopefully provide better understanding and a better warning system