This ThingLink provides links to several OERs curated from various repositories (oercommons.org, sharemylesson.com, curriki.org, app.partcipate.com) that all deal with teaching the states of matter to upper elementary students.  There is a full lesson plan from Ohio State University that deals with the water cycle, and specifically, with storage of fresh water in glaciers and snow.  There is a lot of information regarding student misconceptions and how to teach the content, as well as literacy resources and student engagement activities.  There is also a link to a full unit plan of labs and investigations, including PowerPoints and lab sheets for students.  Linked on this ThingLink, you'll also find an introduction video from PBS and a song about matter on YouTube.  Please feel free to add resources to remix!!

Learn about the connections between the arts and the Earth. Make art at home using natural and recycled materials, travel the world to see some of the planet’s oldest paintings (in caves!), and check out an Earth-friendly music video featuring primary school students in Mamelodi Township, South Africa.

Lesson Length: 1-2 hoursGrade Level: 6-8Students will explore population interaction and impacts on an ecosystem through a breakout box activity grounded in engineering design thinking. Students will learn about how bees are interrelated within an ecosystem by solving clues to save a hive from a breakout box and they will engineer a plan to incorporate bees into a community that addresses concerns, benefits and trade offs for the bees and the humans.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Lesson length: 2-4 hoursGrade level: 6-8Students build models of four different biomes: forest, tundra, grasslands, and dessert. Student groups build a biome and then model climate and weather in the biome, as well as the impacts of human development and engineering mitigations in the biome.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Lesson Length: 1-2 hoursGrade Level: 6-8Students build a water filter with a variety of natural and commercially produced materials. First they test the materials and then choose which to layer together themselves based on material performance. Students learn about water resources and engineered supports for the earth’s water systems and the impacts on environmental and human health. Engineering connections are highlighted throughout the lesson. Special thanks to Giles County, VA STEM Coordinator, Christina Martin, whose unit on The Global Water Crisis was the inspiration for this lesson. Also thanks to the NASA Water Filtration Challenge (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teach/activity/water-filtration-challenge/) that helped guide Christina in the development of her lesson.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Lesson Length: 1-2 hoursGrade Level: 6-8Students will explore the carbon emission impacts of different lifestyle choices. The activity is grounded in engineering design thinking as it relates to a family's carbon footprint and options to shift that footprint to make change (trade offs). Students will understand carbon impacts, work in teams (families) to negotiate lifestyle adjustments, and brainstorm opportunities for engineered improvements to decrease carbon emissions.This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1657263. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

This resource is a remix of https://goopenva.org/courses/the-water-cycle-game. The water cycle game helps you learn how water molecules move through various places including rivers, the ocean, the earth’s surface, the atmosphere, and clouds. Actions such as evaporation, runoff, condensation, precipitation, soil absorption, and groundwater expansion move water from one zone to another.Modifications: This game can be played in cooperative groups or use as part of a personalized or blended learning playlist. This game has a lot of visuals and would help for those visual learners to better understand the water cycle process. Another modification would be to ask students to write a reflection about the water cycle in their own words and create a vocabulary bank. This encourages literacy in curriculum allowing students to use complete sentences with appropriate grammatical usage. 

In this lesson plans students create a augmented reality (AR) model of the water cycle.  They will use an IPad and AR Makr app to create a 3d model to explain this natural occurance.  To incorperate Computer Science into this lesson we look at the Data and Analysis section of the Grade 3 Computer Science standards.  Specifically CS SOL 3.13, this standard drives many of the questions inside this lesson plan.  

This should be used as a teacher demonstration to give students a visual representation of the amount of water available on earth and where it is located.

A model is used to demonstrate what a watershed is and students go on a watershed walk to identify the path water travels within their school community and neighborhoods.  Students will document their neighborhood walks and create a watershed model to share with the class. They will note areas of concern (erosion, deposition, etc.) and present a solution.  Students will create and implement a plan to address the area of concern and analyze results. 

Day OneHelp the students to choose the types of weathering and erosion for their project and then make like groups: Ice, water, and wind. After looking at several photos for inspirations the students will sketch the landscape depicting their chosen weathering and erosion.  Remind the students to think about their landscapes and choose colors and details that would help the audience understand the erosion that is taking place in the picture.Discuss painting techniques and how to create shades and tints of color to add depths and shadows to their paintings. 

 OVERVIEWThe Purpose of this lesson is to help students understand the concept that white light is a mixture of all of the wavelengths of the visible spectrum in roughly equal amounts. You can see beautiful colors everywhere you look! There is a lot of science behind the colors that you see. Color is the property that our eyes visually perceive and is derived from the spectrum of light. White light is a blend of all the spectrum colors which include red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Individual colors of white light can be seen by using a prism which separates the colors and, in turn, white light can be seen when the spectrum colors are combined in such a fashion as a spectrum spinner.  Each student will construct a spectrum spinner colored with the colors of the visible spectrum in order.

Mike Sammartano Youtube Videos

Teachers:

I use several videos published by an 8th grade teacher Mike Sammartano to intoduce or reinforce a Geologic topic. This short lesson on Minrals was one of the first I saw. I use it every term.

This site summary below is posted on Mr. Sammartano YouTube site. I am a subscriber!

Hi there, and thanks for visiting my channel! Most of my videos are flipped classroom videos used in my 8th grade Earth Science classroom. You can find the videos, along with the associated worksheets and diagrams at science.mikesammartano.com. I have also created quite a few educational technology videos including many tutorials on using Apple Keynote in the classroom. Enjoy - and don't forget to subscribe!

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a7p1NFn64s