This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based activities and two environmental STEM challenge activities have been field-tested by kindergarten students and families of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science during Safer At Home orders. These activities encourage students to use natural areas around their homes and in their neigbhorhoods as they improve their science observation and reasoning skils as they explore the science of pushes and pulls in nature. The materials used are ones generally available at home and the activites require little preparation on the part of caregivers. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school (as well as those of the students' homes).  Each section of this resource is an individual activity. While each activity builds on the previous ones, it is possible to use them individually.The title image was used with permission and is courtesy of Joe Riederer.

This activity is a group activity where students investigate leaves and sort them based on established criteria.

Introduction to "soft" consumer research methods, useful for getting quick customer input into decisions on product design and development, strategic positioning, advertising, and branding. Covers interview techniques, observational methods, Voice of the Customer, focus groups, and analyses suitable for qualitative data. Introduces new information-gathering methods in development at MIT.

This activity is an introduction to a magnifying glass as a science tool.

The activity is a field trip to Minnehaha Falls where students will observe and record their findings in a science notebook.

Author: Ned Dorff, Teacher, Aldo Leopold Community School, Green Bay Area Public SchoolsUnit Title: Nature Journaling Indoors and Outdoors for the Primary GradesGrade Level: 1st and 2nd gradeContent Area(s): Writing, ScienceStudents learned how to nature journal in the classroom during the late winter and then used our skills to head out into our neighborhood for outdoor journaling experiences. With the aid of an eagle cam, we were able to explore science concepts of life cycles over the period of several months. Our practice indoors also allowed us to transfer knowledge to what we were seeing outside.

Content Area(s):Environmental LiteracyWisconsin Standards for Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Addressed: ELS.C1: Students develop and connect with their sense of place and well-being through observation, exploration, and questioning.Context: Individual children participated in observing nature outside the public library (or online or natural exhibits inside the library). Observation Experiences:1) Daffodils2) Painted Lady Caterpillars and Butterflies3) Tree frogs4) Mosquitoes5) One Square Foot Observations

This activity is a hands-on lesson that shows how air resistance affects how things move and how air is all around objects.

Students will raise questions about the natural world and seek answers by making careful observations about the weather. Students will measure, record and describe weather conditions using common tools, like thermometer, anemometer, rain gauge and possibly, light meter.

Quantum mechanics is said to describe a world in which physical objects often lack "definite" properties, indeterminism creeps in at the point of "observation," ordinary logic does not apply, and distant events are perfectly yet inexplicably correlated. Examination of these and other issues central to the philosophical foundations of quantum mechanics, with special attention to the measurement problem, no-hidden-variables proofs, and Bell's Inequalities. Rigorous approach to the subject matter nevertheless neither presupposes nor requires the development of detailed technical knowledge of the quantum theory.

Students will compare and contrast adult plants and seedlings/young plants using pictures, journaling, growing plants in the classroom and comparing experimental plant growth with natural plant growth to learn why plants survive and where.

This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based activities and one STEM challenge have been field-tested by secong grade students and families of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science during Safer At Home orders. These activities encourage students to use natural areas around their homes and in their neigbhorhoods as they improve their science and engineering skils relating to plant and animals interdependence. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school (as well as those of the students' homes).  These lessons were created to take place during the spring. However, some of the lessons could be conducted during the fall. Cut flowers from a florist may be used in place of ones found living outdoors.The title image was used with permission and is courtesy of Joe Riederer. The observation protocol "I Notice, I Wonder, It Reminds Me Of, I Think Maybe" has been adapted from that of the BEETLES Project.

The following six OERS for grades K-5 are designed for teachers to use the outdoor spaces around their schools for learning with the goals of connecting students with their sense of place and well-being. Together, the six experiences comprise a school-wide mini-unit in which each grade level explore an Investigative Question.  Collectively, each Investigative Question leads the entire student body in considering the Essential Question of the mini-unit.  A school leadership team identified the Wisconsin Standards for Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (ELS) to be addressed at every grade level and developed an Essential Question to be explored.FIELD Edventures educators provided teachers with an introduction to outdoor, place-based inquiry learning, unpacked ELS, and met with grade level teams to co-create inquiry questions (called Investigative Questions in the lessons that follow) for their students to investigate outside each quarter. These OERs were co-taught with teachers and FIELD educators and were refined during co-reflection.

This seminar is intended to help students in the MIT/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Joint Program develop a broader perspective on their thesis research by considering some aspects of science in the large. The first part of the course challenges students to develop a thoughtful view towards major questions in science that can be incorporated in their own research process, and that will help them articulate research findings. The second part of the course emphasizes science as a social process and the important roles of written and oral communication.

This is an interactive presentation from the American Chemical Society about braces. The presentation gives a history of braces, and how metal is heated to make thin wires. The presentation includes some explanations about how heated atoms move, and how braces nowadays use nitinol. The interactive also includes short explanations about each concept discussed. Other resources are included on the page related to teeth: flouride, blue lights, teeth strength.

This is an activity in which students use their senses to describe their garden. This is a guided inquiry lesson.

Students will examine clues about animals such as nests, leaves, feathers, fur, tracks that allow some conclusions about the identity, physical characteristics or behavior of the animals. Students will study the characteristics of animal tracks.

Introduces students to basic properties of structural materials and behavior of simple structural elements and systems through a series of experiments. Students learn experimental technique, data collection, reduction and analysis, and presentation of results.

Spiders are endlessly fascinating and a great school subject because they offer plenty of teachable topics that span the curriculum. We've tried to provide some of those topics here in these lessons, as for all their amazing physical features and unusual habits, spiders, with just a few notable exceptions, pose little threat to humans and are creatures deserving of understanding and respect. It's our hope that, as you work through the activities, your students will gain a new appreciation for spiders.