In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine the nutritional content of different foods and learn about the health benefits and risks associated with the food choices they make.

This is a classroom activity in which students observe and describe cells in stages of division. They share observations about what they see in the cells, then formulate questions and do research concerning the changes that take place in cells during the process.

Learn how snowfall happening later in the year than usual is impacting cultural practices in this video segment about climate change adapted from the College of Menominee Nation.

A short video on the causes of ocean acidification and its effects on marine ecosystems.

In this classroom activity, students access sea surface temperature and wind speed data from a NASA site, plot and compare data, draw conclusions about surface current and sea surface temperature, and link their gained understanding to concerns about global climate change.

This video highlights research conducted at Woods Hole on how heat absorbed by the ocean and changes of ocean chemistry from human activities could lead to a tipping point for marine life and ecosystems. Includes ice bath experiment that models the tipping point of Arctic sea ice.

This unit allows students to investigate past changes in Earth's climate. Students first explore relationships in climate data such as temperature, solar radiation, carbon dioxide, and biodiversity. They then investigate solar radiation in more depth to learn about changes over time such as seasonal shifts. Students then learn about mechanisms for exploring past changes in Earth's climate such as ice cores, tree rings, fossil records, etc. Finally, students tie all these together by considering the feedbacks throughout the Earth system and reviewing an article on a past mass extinction event.

This lesson guides a student inquiry into properties of the ocean's carbonate buffer system, and how changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels may affect ocean pH and biological organisms that depend on calcification.

This math meets ecology lesson provides hands-on experiences with mixing oil and water, provides surface area information about the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and gives learners opportunities to estimate small oil spills of their own making. This lesson guide includes questions for learners, assessment options, extensions, and reflection questions.

This interactive Flash game helps students practice counting, subitizing, and grouping by 10s, as they transport Okta the Octopus and his friends to a safe ocean. The goal is to select given numbers of Oktas as quickly as possible before the timer runs out. Then users count the total number of Oktas "saved" and identify that number on a number line. Students choose from three levels of difficulty, which vary according to time limit, range of target numbers, and whether visual target cues appear. These settings are customizable. Users who count incorrectly are given the option of visual help in recounting.

This narrated slide show gives a brief overview of coral biology and how coral reefs are in danger from pollution, ocean temperature change, ocean acidification, and climate change. In addition, scientists discuss how taking cores from corals yields information on past changes in ocean temperature.

This curriculum guide contains pacing, instruction, prior knowledge, and assessment guidance to accompany the OpenSciEd unit 7.5 Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity. For schools who use Fisher and Frey's The Teacher Clarity Playbook, you'll find student-friendly learning intentions and success criteria for every lesson (indicated by a number and letter, ie: 4b), drawn from the OSE three dimensional performance expectations. These can be posted on slides or boards in classrooms to make learning visible for students and help design assessment criteria.   

In this biology activity, students will first brainstorm how humans use their hands. They will then conduct a short experiment to determine the importance of the opposable thumb to humans and how it is an important adaptation.

Did you ever imagine that you can use light to move a microscopic plastic bead? Explore the forces on the bead or slow time to see the interaction with the laser's electric field. Use the optical tweezers to manipulate a single strand of DNA and explore the physics of tiny molecular motors. Can you get the DNA completely straight or stop the molecular motor?

This 3-part interactive and virtual lab activity examines the life cycle of the sea urchin, and how the increasing acidity of the ocean affects their larval development.

Have we overstepped Mother Earth's boundaries? What are the consequences? In this video segment adapted from Haskell Indian Nations University, hear a Native perspective on our relationship with the natural environment.

This Java tool is used to strengthen student understanding of equality and computation of numerical expressions. The applet also helps students understand that equality is a relationship, not an operation. After entering an expression in both the red and blue pan, the pans will move up and down depending on which expression is greater. When the expressions are equivalent, the pans will balance and the full equation will be entered into the Balanced Equations table. Instructions and exploration directions and questions are included.

This Java applet allows children to explore a balancing tool and thus build their algebraic thinking about equivalency. By placing shapes on each side of the balance and finding equivalent sets of weights, students discover the weight of each shape in one of six built-in sets or a random set.

In this unit, students investigate fractional parts of the whole and use translations, reflections, rotations, and line symmetry to make four-part quilt squares. Students have a practical context for using the mathematical terms associated with divisions of the square, transformations, and symmetries. Suggestions for implementation and extensions are included.