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The Students will create an undersea environment in their classroom while researching interesting facts about their favorite sea creatures. Materials may be used such as crayons, colored pencils, markers, crepe paper (blue, green, red, yellow, pink), paper plates, construction paper, index cards, or books/magazines with pictures or illustrations of fish. Throughout the following week the class will all work together to turn their classroom into an undersea environment, and teach one another more about the creatures that live in the sea. I chose this source because it is an exciting way to jump into a unit about the ocean wildlife, and by choosing their favorite creature the students will get a chance to use creativity. Ocean animals are exciting to learn about because they are often unseen to the human eye, and decorating the classroom is a fun way to bring the underground waters to life. In the classroom I would use this lesson at the beginning of a biology unit to get the class excited, and allow them to work on something fun throughout the week. Displaying their work in the classroom will make the atmosphere bright and cheery!

This activity uses skittles, warm water, and cold water. Skittles are dropped into warm water and cold water at the same time to see what dissolves first. I chose this lesson because I think it is a simple but great way to introduce the scientific method to students. Students tend to understand better with visuals and lecture. I would use this activity to introduce the scientific method to students. We would observe, make predictions, observe again, analyze, record our results. We would be able to use this with our science journals and record our observations and results in our journal.

In this lesson, students learn about the varying sizes of ocean waves, what causes the variation, and where to find giant waves. Students will learn the parts of a wave, and discuss wave height, wavelength, and wave period. They will experiment with creating waves on the National Geographic Wave Simulator and discuss how geography affects waves. I like this lesson because it gives students rural country areas (areas without oceans) insight into our oceans. This lesson could be paired with a lesson about ocean currents or temperatures (and temp. change). In addition to using the on-line program, I would bring in a giant aquarium with toy boats to show what happens with waves.

Great lesson idea for teaching about plant and animal cells. Watch this video for an overview of this biology lesson and how you can bring it into your classroom. Lesson plan print out is also available. This lesson helps students see a cell in a way that they can understand, which involves food! I think that when students make something they are more likely to understand what they make.

This is a slideshow that explains weathering, erosion, and deposition. There are 31 informational slides. The slideshow explains in depth what each word means and how it affects the world and landmarks around us. I chose this slideshow because I thought it would help visual learners and it would be a nice introduction to the topic. Sometimes it is better to actually see what erosion does to a rock rather than just talk about it. I also liked that it gave real life pictures of erosion and weathering. I would use this resource to start my lesson on erosion. I would start with the slideshow and discuss all the important details and then break the students into groups to do an activity dealing with erosion and weathering.

In this activity, students are put into small groups to construct 3D candy landform maps. To begin, students are given a blank outline of the United States on a large piece of paper and a landform map. Students must then map out where all of the major rivers, deserts, mountain ranges, plains, and oceans are. Next, students are given various candy, yarn, and paint with which to construct their map and key. I chose this activity for three main reasons. For one, it allows students to work with their peers to create a product. It also provides them with a link between social studies and science. Finally, students are very likely to be engaged in the project because both candy and painting are involved. I could see myself using this project in my classroom as a conclusion to a unit on landforms because it is a culmination of many different types of landforms as well as an application of what has been studied to an actual map of the United States, thus making a real-world connection.

This is an activity in which students use slices of bread to create replicas of various landforms. After introducing the varying types of landforms to the class, the teacher will provide students with slices of bread with which they can create different land types (such as islands, peninsulas, gulfs, straits, and isthmuses) in a hands-on, memorable manner. After the students have created the landforms, they can glue them to a piece of paper, or simply eat them as a snack! This activity caught my eye because I feel as though it would be engaging for the entire class. I also thought it was cost-effective and simple to execute. This activity would be an excellent way to introduce a unit on landforms because it gives the students a chance to become acquainted with the topic in an appealing, memorable way.

A foundation in geography begins with an understanding of the terms geographers use to describe the features of Earth. Help students grow their vocabulary and learn to recognize common landforms such as islands, lakes, peninsulas, gulfs, straits, and isthmuses in a hands-on lesson using soft and squishy slices of bread! I love this because the students get to visually make the landforms when learning about them. It keeps the students involved in the lesson. I would use it when first learning about the landforms to help the students better remember them.

This little demonstration is so simple and cheap! All you need is a clear glass, water, and a pencil or straw. Place the pencil in the water. Does it look like it may be broken? I would do this at the beginning of a lesson that is covering light. With having a discussion about the topic and the students having a visual in their head, it should help them remember the topics discussed.

There are many ways to integrate art into your Science lesson plans and here is a great lesson. This is a lesson on balanced ecosystems that brings in art in a fun and educational way. This video shows a lesson that would be great to use in the classroom when discussing the ecosystem. A teacher can incorporate art into the science curriculum. When schools do not have enough time for fine arts, they can add them to other subject matters.

This activity could be used at the end of a unit on rocks, minerals and the layers of the earth. Students build their own structures made out of mini marshmallows and toothpicks. The students then place their structure on top of the jello that's sitting in an aluminum pan. The students then shake the pan to see what structures survive the "earthquake". I chose this activity because I thought it would be a great hands on experiment for students to see the damaging effects of what can happen to buildings after an earthquake. Another plus to this activity, is possibly sparking the interest of future architects.

An engineering design challenge!

This is super interesting. It has many visuals and simple notes to explain the movement of objects.This could easily be a replacement for a power point for the day. There are also quizzes and games students can play or work through after the lesson to help assess their learning.

What do you mean "power point for the day"? Where in your instruction would this be used?

This app allows students to watch videos and then they are able to answer questions about the videos. I like that this app includes multiple subjects besides science, so it is more effective. I also like this app, because the students can watch the videos as much as and as long as they want so that they will be able to understand the material. I also like that the app allows the students to answer questions about the videos they watched.

Is there a specific video you would recommend for a particular science topic?

The purpose of the lesson is for students to understand and sequence the life cycle of a frog, beginning with the frogspawn and ending with the frog. The website also says that this lesson is designed for kindergartners. The students will make observations of a tadpole and then read the story, Life Cycle of a Frog by Angela Royston. The students will then complete a graphic organizer of the story. I like that this lesson requires the students to determine important information in the story and then complete a graphic organizer using that information.

The heart rate lab is a classic Life Science activity for the circulatory system. It is also a fun way to collect data and to analyze results. Materials for the lab are all available at this website. The function of the heart has always been a fascinating topic for me, and by incorporating this lab while teaching a unit on the human body would be an engaging way to get the students up and moving and recording data!

The students are studying Animal Classification Systems they will make a "foldable" that would help them practice seeing and using the 8 levels of classification. After teaching the students about the 8 different levels of classification, I would have the students each choose a mammal and have them fill out this "foldable" to help them see and use the classification system because there are scientists out there who have the job of classifying animals in real life. This is a great way for the students to be little scientists and take this boring concept and make it their own!

This resource takes Newton's Laws of motion and applies them to concepts that we see everyday in our lives. Also, it uses the popular app Angry Birds that will appeal to the middle school students. I chose this lesson because it has real life applications and is a fun way to discuss the different laws and properties of motion in the classroom. I envision utilizing this source in the classroom as an introduction of a Force and Motion unit.

This is a PDF of a science lesson that includes lessons on sound , light., and energy. It includes objectives and instructions for the students. I think this is a great example of a lesson that will be great for students in class to learn about energy and how it is produced. I would use this site as a resource for teaching mu students about energy.

This site provides videos about energy, light, sound, and heat. Students can click on a link and watch a cartoon video that explains what each one of the above subjects are and how they work. After the video is complete, students can take a quick test to test their knowledge of the subject. I would use this source in class as a pretesting measure or as an exit ticket to see if students truly understand the subjects or if they need further explanations.

In this experiment, students will create their own terrarium. Creating a mini-habitat is a great way for the students to learn what it takes to make an ecosystem work. Not only do the students learn about ecosystems, they also get a sense of responsibility when it comes to keeping their ecosystem alive. I chose this resource because it was something that I did when I was in elementary school and I still remember what I learned from it to this day. I would use this experiment throughout a unit on ecosystems.

This video is SO COOL! This would be a great start into a lesson on gravity. It starts with some prior knowledge that students should have. Then it goes into teaching about gravity with the example of an apple falling from the tree. To keep students accountable, I would have them write down words that they may not understand or have them write a short paragraph on what they learned about gravity after this video. If they write down words they don't know, we could go through them as a class before getting in depth to our gravity lesson which could include more videos or an activity later on.