Developed for third grade. This experiment will introduce students to one form of ecosystem as well as demonstrate how earthworms and the foods they eat affect the environment in which they live.Biology In Elementary Schools is a Saint Michael's College student project. The teaching ideas on this page have been found, refined, and developed by students in a college-level course on the teaching of biology at the elementary level. Unless otherwise noted, the lesson plans have been tried at least once by students from our partner schools. This wiki has been established to share ideas about teaching biology in elementary schools. The motivation behind the creation of this page is twofold: 1. to provide an outlet for the teaching ideas of a group of college educators participating in a workshop-style course; 2. to provide a space where anyone else interested in this topic can place their ideas.

Students learn where certain crops are grown in Wyoming and hypothesize reasons for some areas being better suited for growing crops than others (water availability, elevation, and topography).

Students learn how rooftop gardens help the environment and the lives of people, especially in urban areas. They gain an understanding of how plants reduce the urban heat island effect, improve air quality, provide agriculture space, reduce energy consumption and increase the aesthetic quality of cities. This draws upon the science of heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation, materials, color) and ecology (plants, shade, carbon dioxide, photosynthesis), and the engineering requirements for rooftop gardens. In the associated activity, students apply their scientific knowledge to model and measure the effects of green roofs.

Students will apply the definition of stewardship in order to identify and understand the importance of considering both visible and invisible aspects of an ecosystem.

Explore the vast library of humanities lesson plans and teacher guides by subject, theme, and grade level. Find lessons on American Heroes, Art and Culture, History and Social Studies, Literature and Language Arts.
Grade Range K-12.

Ever wanted to take your students on an exciting journey? What if you could take that journey from the comfort of the classroom or out-of-school learning environment? Welcome to Mission to Mars!

Over the course of these lessons, you and your students will learn about and plan a mission to Mars. Your students will apply their creativity and science and math knowledge to explore the Red Planet. Not a scientist or engineer? That's okay! You're going to learn everything you need to know while preparing for and conducting these lessons. And you actually already have some engineering skills, whether you know it or not.

In this unit, students learn about Mars, design a mission to explore the planet, build and test model spacecraft and components, and engage in scientific exploration. The unit takes students through seven stages, including learning about the planet, planning the mission, designing the spacecraft, launching, landing, surface operations, and sample handling.

In this activity, students use a paper plate to build a model that shows why lunar eclipses don’t happen during every full moon.

The students will be able to identify concepts that guide scientific investigations, recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models by the end of this activity.

In this lesson, students explore ekphrasis--writing inspired by art. Students find pieces of art that inspire them and compose a booklet of poems about the pieces they have chosen.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about beginning, ending, and elapsed time with clocks - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about beginning, ending, and elapsed time with clocks - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about beginning, ending, and elapsed time with clocks - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about solving for start time, end time, or elapsed time.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fourth graders about finding the time with a timeline.

As part of the engineering design process to create testable model heart valves, students learn about the forces at play in the human body to open and close aortic valves. They learn about blood flow forces, elasticity, stress, strain, valve structure and tissue properties, and Young's modulus, including laminar and oscillatory flow, stress vs. strain relationship and how to calculate Young's modulus. They complete some practice problems that use the equations learned in the lesson mathematical functions that relate to the functioning of the human heart. With this understanding, students are ready for the associated activity, during which they research and test materials and incorporate the most suitable to design, build and test their own prototype model heart valves.

In the film, two co-workers are made to share the same workspace. However, their clashing personalities and differing approaches to work soon create tension. How can they defuse the situation? The lesson explores how the characters express their emotions and the effect that different ways of dealing with conflict will have on them, their work and their colleagues.

This activity is designed for a social studies, politics, civics or citizenship class. It can be used in secondary and elementary classrooms. Here is an overview of the simulation:

Students take part in a quick open-voting process to understand why a secret ballot is important.
Then they take on the roles of political party members or election officers. They run an election on a community or school issue they care about.
Students vote for a candidate, ballots are counted and a winner is announced.
Finally, students reflect on what they learned about their role in the simulation and what makes elections fair.
This simulation is based on the procedures used for Canadian federal elections. The tools and information in the kit are as authentic as possible while still being classroom-friendly.