National Science Education Standards.

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: A subsection of A Private Universe Project, this resource allows students to investigate the earth-moon system and motion of planetary bodies. Using a journal, teachers gain insight into the students' understanding and the learning process....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students use adding machine tape to chart the relative distance of the planets from the sun based on their calculations of astronomical units. Students have various misconceptions about the solar system....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: This resource help students understand that El Nino is caused by changes in the atmospheric and ocean content. In earlier grades, students learned about the atmosphere, weather, and oceans in a descriptive sense....

Projects: Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: This resource introduces students to Earth's moon and the eight other planets in our solar system. Students learn about the geology, composition, and orbits of other planets by planning a trip to another planet....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Three simple explorations help students develop the concepts that air has mass, takes up space, and exerts pressure. Before beginning the exploration students respond to the question "What is air?" in their journals....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Students investigate shadows, using literature-based discussion as well as experiences with manipulating shadows. This lesson is the second part of a series in which students observe the daytime and nighttime sky regularly to identify sequences of changes and to look for patterns in these changes....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Children compare and describe the sun and moon through a variety of activities. This lesson is associated with PBS's Jay Jay the Jet Plane series....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: Children explore daily weather changes through a variety of activities. This lesson is associated with PBS's Jay Jay the Jet Plane series....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The objective of this activity is to describe the forces that keep objects in orbit in the solar system. Following a discussion about gravity on earth, students will compare the weight of objects on earth to the weight on other planets....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The objective of this promising practice lesson is to explore plate tectonics and to understand how mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes are related to the movements of plates. In this lesson, students learn about the idea of continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics to ascertain a fuller picture of how land formations on earth's surface...