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This link takes you into the formation of crystals. It gives you an introduction for your students and gives you guiding questions. This lesson also explains how crystals form, what they are, and ask students where you might find them. Crystals are cool, so I have no doubt that students will love this lesson. Also, at the end there are some hands on activities. I would scroll and click on make bath crystals for the activity because looking into that one, it seems like something the students can do and enjoy in class. After this lesson, I believe students will know more about crystals, where to find them in their everyday objects, and enjoy learning how to make them.

This lesson is designed to help students understand that vibrations are responsible for the sounds we hear. This is a lesson that I could modify to use to teach about sounds and vibrations. This lesson has a list of resources that could be used individually. I really liked the activities within the lesson. I don't think I would use this exact lesson, but it does have some great components that I could use to create my own lesson

This lesson provides information on Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. This lesson explains what a scientist does and how Benjamin Franklin's inventions derived from need. This lesson includes a fun matching game, similar to Memory, of Benjamin Franklin's inventions and explanations of why they were invented.

I like this lesson because it includes an activity on how electrical charges attract and repel. While doing the activity using Cheerios, thread, wire clothes hanger, plastic comb, piece of wool, foam cup, and a large nail, students will draw conclusions about the nature of electricity. It must be a good lesson or it would not be posted on the Smithsonian's website!

This website is a couple of different lesson plans that are centered around diversity in organisms, humans, and plants. I selected this website because there are four specific lessons that go right along with plant and animal biodiversity. I would use this resource when I was making my lesson plans for the lesson segment on plant and animal biodiversity because the lessons will give me a better understanding on what the 2nd graders need to know.

This link is to a lesson that helps students understand photosynthesis by engaging in dramatic arts. It also helps students understand the relationship between photosynthesis and decomposers. I chose this lesson because I think it is very creative. I like the idea of having dramatic arts in a classroom, and I think it would be a good way for visual and bodily-kinesthetic learners to remember the material. I would use this resource when discussing photosynthesis in an upper elementary classroom. The lesson allows for the process to take place over a week.

When teaching a lesson about natural disasters, making a vinegar volcano is a great way to keep the students interested and active in the lesson. This experiment would be really great to try with all of my students after a science unit on volcanoes. Using baking soda and Vinegar, the students will also be learning about chemical reactions and how baking soda ( a base) and vinegar (an acid) react to each other and cause frizzing. This lesson would allow my students to get creative in making their own volcano, while learning about what a volcano is, and the cause and effects of the volcano.

remove "science" tag and add something more specific, such as "earth science." The grade level tag should be K-2, 3-5, 5-8, and/or 9-12 to be consistent with other tags. Specify whether this is a lesson, activity, field trip, etc. in the tags.

This lesson deepens students' understanding of the similarities and differences in the life cycles of organisms. The lesson begins with a reading of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar Next, students use a video to study the developmental stages of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. _____________ This lesson plan grabbed my attention because it begins with a book by Eric Carle and we just discussed his books in one of my other classes at McKendree. This is a two day lesson. The lesson plan begins by gaining the students interested by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carl. There is a corresponding video which explains the life cycles of frogs, dragonflies, and butterflies. Then, there is an activity to hand out to the class. In groups they follow the activity to explain their assigned organism, then they explain their findings to the class. I like this lesson plan because it is very detailed. I would use this in my class when studying life cycles.

What I like about this lesson is that it can be used cross-cirricularly if your younger class does not allot enough time for a science lesson. Using a book as the main idea of your lesson is a great engagement tool for younger students. This lesson on wind, energy, and renewable resources is fun and lists a lot of extension activities like building a windmill and figuring out the problem/solution using writing skills.

In this inquisitive and hands-on lesson the students get to learn about heredity visually. Mini "creatures" are made out of craft supplies of different colors, and on the first day students observe and take note of their characteristics. Upon opening the creatures (plastic eggs) up the students find seeds/babies. The next morning when class begins the students go to their creatures and notice the seeds have turned into mini monsters and resemble their parents in many ways. Day three even digs into survival characteristics. I love this lesson, and personally think it would be fun for many different ages. Heredity is often confusing for young students, and by giving them a visual representation that they can see and feel the class can become engaged. I like how this lesson can be easily spread over a three day period, and it would help enhance the heredity/genetics unit as a whole. I would go to the activity at the beginning of each period and let the children explore the new changes as an intro into science for the day.

I loved this 3 day lesson/unit on heredity. This lesson breaks down a complicated concept by using different colored easter eggs and google eyes to create a "species." Students notice similarities and differences over three generations of the species and are introduced to the idea of "traits." What I loved most about this source was that it linked this lesson to three different STEM standards. This way, students are having fun with science and you are still assessing them on the correct skills! -After reading some of the comments on the post, people did bring up the fact that some students could be adopted and not look like the rest of their family. If this is the case for one of my students, I would use that as an opportunity to talk about what makes us all different and special, and how that student is going to pass on a special set of traits.

This is a great website for science lesson plans. I really like how it gives you all of the worksheets you need to use during the lesson. It also shows you different links that are related to the lesson that might be good to supplement your lesson with. There is also plenty of teacher resources such as articles, tips, themes, and printables. I would use this for lesson plan ideas along with supplemental materials.

This site has a lot of resources for lesson plans and worksheets on a variety of topics. For a butterfly unit, I would use the "Introduction to Bugs - What is an Insect?" lesson plan on this page to introduce the unit by explaining that a butterfly is an insect.

This link has lesson plans and activities that would useful in learning about food chains. It also has standards, objectives, and rubrics for the teacher to use. I like this link because it will be useful to guide off of for lesson plans, objectives, and activities. You can use the lesson plans and activities, or you can change them for your liking.

This resource would be used as a lesson. It shows how putting objects in a way of light can make the light bend or go in different angles. I would use the activities in the resource to start off the lesson and ask the students to make conclusions of what they might think could happen.

This resource contains a lesson plan for a fifth grade class. The lesson teaches about the affects people can have on water around them. It involves a five minute video, a hands-on activity, and even a song. I selected this particular resource because it fits the standard to-obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. I really liked the way the lesson plan was written to engage students. I could possibly incorporate this resource, or parts of it, into the lesson plan that I will be writing in this course.

This is a lesson on setting up a weather station in the classroom. Students will be able to construct scientific instruments to measure weather and record data. I like this lesson because it provides a lot of activity.

This unit on weather includes three days worth of lesson plans. Each day corresponds with a specific book about weather. One of the books it includes is "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". Assuming most children saw the movie, I would ask questions to access what they may already know about weather and if the movie is comparable to the weather we experience. These lessons also include weather observation and opportunities to write about their observations. I chose these lessons because they include extensions, assignments, and assessments. I can see myself using this in the classroom with my students because I feel that using literature makes a lesson stronger. It draws the kids in, and enables me to ask questions to access prior knowledge.

This resource is a lesson plan that can be modified and used for either 2nd or 3rd grade about sea turtles. There are listed activities that can be used if you would like to draw out the lesson into a multiple day unit. It has three main activities dealing with this lesson which will help students understand the life cycle of sea turtles, their environments, how sea turtles differ from regular turtles, and sea turtle hatchlings. This resource deals with animal habitat diversity, which correlates to my standard 2-LS4-1. I would use one of the extensions out of this resource which would have the class create a fun facts poster after the lesson, which lists fun facts about a sea turtle's environment.

This site gives lesson plan to make recycled paper. This is a two day lesson where students will be able to create their own paper by recycling old newspaper. I chose this because I think this would be a very neat experiment for the children to do, as I have never done something like this either. I also like that the website is very thorough, including standards, grade level, extension activity, and assessment ideas for this lesson. I believe this would be a great activity to do with the children around earth day and include in a lesson regarding the importance of taking care of our earth.

This resource contains a multiple day lesson plan for a third grade class. The lesson is about composting. It involves instruction by use of a Power Point, an outdoor exploration, and even an assessment. I selected this resource because it fits the standard to- obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. Although this standard is for fifth graders, I believe this resource will still be useful. In order to make the resource at a fifth grade level only a few things need to be tweaked. The lesson plan in this resource could serve as an outline for the lesson plan I will be creating in this course.