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Resources are vital to the existence of people. This resource familiarizes students with the concept of resource distribution and encourages them to think about how people interact with limited resources.

Arthropods make up 75% of invertebrates. Arthropods have several qualities in common: jointed legs, bodies divided into sections, and an exoskeleton, or shell. Some of the arthropods you might know are lobsters, millipedes, spiders, ants, and butterflies.

This resource presents a short slideshow about different invertebrates and their characteristics. The slideshow could be used to introduce students to the classification of organisms as living things, even if the organism does not have a skeleton! After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.

Take a field trip in your own backyard. Backyard Animals, introduces children to animals they might find just outside the back door or in a nearby park. Students click on an animal to learn more about it. 

In this lesson, students will use test liquids on different known powders and observe their reactions. Then students will use these characteristic chemical changes to help them identify an unknown powder.

Students will be able to identify and control variables to develop a test to identify an unknown powder. Students will be able to explain that a substance reacts chemically in characteristic ways and that these characteristics can be used to identify an unknown substance.

In this activity, students discuss the importance of senses and experiment using echolocation as an example. Students will understand that humans, animals, and robots use sensors to collect data from their environment and use that data to make decisions. They will also define the terms biomimicry and echolocation and explain how echolocation and sensors are used to collect data from an environment and can be applied to modern technology, like robots

In this activity, students will discover ways that scientists and engineers can use rovers to explore places where humans cannot go. Students will construct a science rover using the LEGO WeDo 2.0 kit and program the rover using WeDo 2.0 Software or a compatible programming app. Students will also document completion of the programming task and evidence of learning how the rover can help scientists make discoveries. 

This activity was demonstrated during the Exploring Today's Classroom (ETC) Summit.

In this activity, students describe their experiences with beaches, compare and contrast photographs of beaches, and brainstorm how humans living near the ocean affect ocean plants and animals.

Investigate a prairie inhabitant—the bee. Students gather information about a bee’s internal and external parts and use this information as evidence to make a claim about how the bee’s internal and external parts work together as a system to ensure survival. The lesson supports diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by focusing on an insect familiar to learners in most environments and providing contextual definitions for vocabulary as well as illustrations and video, helping learners from areas without prairie to engage with and understand the lesson.

This NET Nebraska student lesson uses the photographs, observation notes, and online blog from the Nature Conservancy’s Science Director, Chris Helzer. Helzer's photography is featured in his book, Hidden Prairie: Photographing Life in One Square Meter.

Students observe waves propagate through deep water in videos and animations showing that waves transport energy, not matter. Students can make observations to describe wave motion through the water. This is a great engaging activity to use to introduce waves. 

In this unit, students are introduced to systems, systems modeling, and systems thinking. The activities provide opportunities for them to explore how systems modeling and systems thinking are used to address complex problems and to apply their knowledge and skills to a challenge in their own lives. During the unit, students build an understanding of real-world systems by analyzing parts of an urban farm system, using an online tool to model a subsystem of the urban farm, developing and modeling an example of a system, and generating ideas for mitigating the negative effects and/or elaborate on impacts to the system.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can introduce students to the concepts of recycling and conservation, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. 

Did you know that at a certain point on a moving wheel there's no motion? It's all relative, right? Prepare to have your mind blown in this episode of Crash Course Physics where Dr. Shini delves into the world of rotational motion!

It’s all about families in this happy lesson full of illustrations, charts, diagrams, and photographs. Learn how inherited and acquired traits make families special. Meet some PURRfectly adorable cat families.

The sound produced for a radio broadcast may take three different forms and travel dozens of miles before it comes out of your loudspeaker. This illustrated essay from A Science Odyssey Web site explains the conversion of electrical signals to radio waves.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to explain why the sun is visible during the day and other stars are visible at night, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson.

Electric current works somewhat like a river. Instead of flowing based on elevation, electric current works a little differently. In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Dr. Shini talks to us about electric current, voltaic cells, and how we get electric charge.

Earthquakes are caused by geologic movement in the earth’s crust. They occur in faults, or cracks, located on the Earth’s surface.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe how and why earthquakes occur at certain locations on Earth. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

In these Hero Elementary activities, children learn about animals’ body parts. This includes humans! Children observe different animals. They notice how animals’ bodies are alike and not alike. They compare animals’ body parts and notice patterns. They find a way to solve a problem by copying how animals use their body parts.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to provide information regarding geologic events that happen over a short period of time, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity includes a StepRead: StepReads are less complex versions of the original article. StepRead1 (SR1) is less complex than the original article, and StepRead2 (SR2) is less complex than SR1. This will allow the teacher to use this learning activity with students of varying ability levels.

Why is e=mc2 a big deal? What about probability? In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Dr. Shini attempts to explain a little more on the topic of quantum mechanics. She explores wave-particle duality, probability density function, and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

Oceans contain 97% of the water on the Earth and are home to a huge number of living creatures. Most of these creatures, about 90% of them, live near the water’s surface, where the pressure is not so great and they can get some light.

The classroom resource provides a slide show that will explain why the ocean is salty and describe different organisms that live in the ocean. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

In this lesson, students think about what might happen to plants and animals if their environment changed and they were faced with conditions to which they were not well adapted. First, students read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry. Then they watch a video about camouflage and learn that praying mantises are well suited for life in the rain forest. Next, students play a predator/prey game to simulate what might happen to the praying mantis if the rain forest were cut down. Finally, they use a Web activity to explore what would happen to living things if the concentration of oxygen in the air changed.