This activity is designed for a primary classroom (outdoors & indoors) investigation where students collect and investigate soil samples and describe the soils, looking for similarities and differences. Students develop a method of recording the data colleted and can present the information gathered.

This final project uses the 52 Minute Challenge to allow students a chance to pitch a real idea to create a more environmentally friendly school.

A remix of https://goopenva.org/courses/52-minute-challenge.

This final project uses the 52 Minute Challenge to allow students a chance to pitch a real idea to create a more environmentally friendly school.

A remix of https://goopenva.org/courses/52-minute-challenge.

This final project uses the 52 Minute Challenge to allow students a chance to pitch a real idea to create a more environmentally friendly school.

A remix of https://goopenva.org/courses/52-minute-challenge.

This unit on metabolic reactions in the human body starts out with students exploring a real case study of a middle-school girl named M?Kenna, who reported some alarming symptoms to her doctor. Her symptoms included an inability to concentrate, headaches, stomach issues when she eats, and a lack of energy for everyday activities and sports that she used to play regularly. She also reported noticeable weight loss over the past few months, in spite of consuming what appeared to be a healthy diet. Her case sparks questions and ideas for investigations around trying to figure out which pathways and processes in M?Kenna?s body might be functioning differently than a healthy system and why.

Students investigate data specific to M?Kenna?s case in the form of doctor?s notes, endoscopy images and reports, growth charts, and micrographs. They also draw from their results from laboratory experiments on the chemical changes involving the processing of food and from digital interactives to explore how food is transported, transformed, stored, and used across different body systems in all people. Through this work of figuring out what is causing M?Kenna?s symptoms, the class discovers what happens to the food we eat after it enters our bodies and how M?Kenna?s different symptoms are connected.

See the OpenSciEd Instructional Model also: https://www.openscied.org/openscied-instructional-model/

This unit on matter cycling and photosynthesis begins with students reflecting on what they ate for breakfast. Students are prompted to consider where their food comes from and consider which breakfast items might be from plants. Then students taste a common breakfast food, maple syrup, and see that according to the label, it is 100% from a tree.

Based on the preceding unit, students argue that they know what happens to the sugar in syrup when they consume it. It is absorbed into the circulatory system and transported to cells in their body to be used for fuel. Students explore what else is in food and discover that food from plants, like bananas, peanut butter, beans, avocado, and almonds, not only have sugars but proteins and fats as well. This discovery leads them to wonder how plants are getting these food molecules and where a plant?s food comes from.

Students figure out that they can trace all food back to plants, including processed and synthetic food. They obtain and communicate information to explain how matter gets from living things that have died back into the system through processes done by decomposers. Students finally explain that the pieces of their food are constantly recycled between living and nonliving parts of a system.

See the OpenSciEd Instructional Model also: https://www.openscied.org/openscied-instructional-model/

Students will create an artifact using computing systems to model the attributes and behaviors associated with a concept (e.g., day and night, animal life cycles, plant life cycles). Students are scientists (botanists, zoologists), who just found a new plant/animal in their chosen ecosystem. Their job is to introduce their new plant/animal to the scientific world! They will create a stop motion video to show their new plant/animal's life cycle.

Learn more about ATP: how it stores energy, and how that energy is released when it's converted to ADP and phosphate. Created by Sal Khan.

The goal of this lesson is to introduce students who are interested in human biology and biochemistry to the subtleties of energy metabolism (typically not presented in standard biology and biochemistry textbooks) through the lens of ATP as the primary energy currency of the cell. Avoiding the details of the major pathways of energy production (such as glycolysis, the citric acid cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation), this lesson is focused exclusively on ATP, which is truly the fuel of life. Starting with the discovery and history of ATP, this lesson will walk the students through 8 segments (outlined below) interspersed by 7 in-class challenge questions and activities, to the final step of ATP production by the ATP synthase, an amazing molecular machine. A basic understanding of the components and subcellular organization (e.g. organelles, membranes, etc.) and chemical foundation (e.g. biomolecules, chemical equilibrium, biochemical energetics, etc.) of a eukaryotic cell is a desired prerequisite, but it is not a must. Through interactive in-class activities, this lesson is designed to spark the students’ interest in biochemistry and human biology as a whole, but could serve as an introductory lesson to teaching advanced concepts of metabolism and bioenergetics in high school depending on the local science curriculum. No supplies or materials are needed.

ATP synthase and its role in mitochondria during respiration and chloroplasts during photosynthesis.

In this 8 minute video, Paul Andersen describes how life could have formed on our planet through natural processes. The progression from monomers, to polymers, to protocells and finally to cells is described. The Miller-Urey experiment is described in detail as well as characteristics of the latest universal ancestor.

Also included are worksheets, a concept map, a slideshow, and transcript of the video.

Transcript added from YouTube subtitles. You can use this to write your own worksheet or quiz.

Students work to describe the different abiotic cycles (water, carbon, and nitrogen) through a variety of activities from which they get to choose.

This activity is acid-base titration lab where students determine the percent of calcium carbonate in an eggshell.

Developed for third grade. Students will:; understand the damaging effects of acid rain on the environment.; understand the damaging effects of acid rain on plants.; pose a hypothesis and use the scientific method.Biology In Elementary Schools is a Saint Michael's College student project. The teaching ideas on this page have been found, refined, and developed by students in a college-level course on the teaching of biology at the elementary level. Unless otherwise noted, the lesson plans have been tried at least once by students from our partner schools. This wiki has been established to share ideas about teaching biology in elementary schools. The motivation behind the creation of this page is twofold: 1. to provide an outlet for the teaching ideas of a group of college educators participating in a workshop-style course; 2. to provide a space where anyone else interested in this topic can place their ideas.

Lesson plan introducing and exploring via hands-on lab the idea that raising acidity in the world's oceans is reducing the availability of carbonate, which impacts calcifying organisms such as oysters and sea urchins.

Using the signal transduction pathway for the cholera toxin to understand activation and inhibition.

After learning about and exploring plant and animal adaptations, students research local organisms with interesting adaptations and share findings with their classmates. Students identify adaptations globally by analyzing a documentary.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_Adaptations_LessonOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:
Adaptations Activity 1: Adapting to the Environment
Adaptations Activity 2: Physical Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 3: Behavioral Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 4: Go Adapt!
Adaptations Activity 5: Create a Creature

Students explore the adaptations that allow beavers to thrive in aquatic environments, then make observations and inferences about the functions of diverse bird beaks.

Students discuss the migration of monarch butterflies as an example of behavioral adaptations, then act out the behavioral adaptations of organisms in charades.

Students synthesize their understanding of adaptations by playing a “go fish” style game to collect sets of organisms with physical and behavioral adaptations.

Educators Guide for this unit:
http://education.eol.org/lesson_plans/2-5_Adaptations_LessonOverview.pdf

Lessons in this unit:

Adaptations Activity 1: Adapting to the Environment
Adaptations Activity 2: Physical Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 3: Behavioral Adaptations
Adaptations Activity 4: Go Adapt!
Adaptations Activity 5: Create a Creature