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Lesson Plans & Activities

Peer-reviewed, classroom-ready NGSS-aligned lesson plans, activities, data puzzles, virtual field trips, and design challenges covering environmental hazards, climate change, mental health, Earth systems, community resilience, and more.  

Lesson Plans & Activities

Cartoon image of green pine trees with orange fire shapes over them with dead brown brush at the bottom and a dark grayish blue sky
Data Puzzle: Wildfire, Drought, and the Future of Forests

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.

 Wildfires are burning more and more of the forests across the western United States. In this Data Puzzle, Data Puzzle, students analyze post-fire forest recovery datasets as they gather evidence to construct explanatory models for the following question, "How do climate conditions impact the recovery of forests after a wildfire?"
Lesson
Data Puzzle Resource
Middle School
High School
Data Puzzles Logo
Screen Capture from Rocky Mountain National Park Virtual Reality tour
Ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park

This virtual reality tour is part of a larger lesson focused on ecosystems.

 Students explore biotic and abiotic interactions in Rocky Mountain National Park ecosystems in this virtual reality tour.
Lesson
Virtual field trip
Middle School
Moss campion (pink flowering plant) growing from speckled gray and light orange rocks with some green grasses
Data Puzzle: The Tipping Point

This data puzzle is a stand-alone lesson that is part of a larger collection of data puzzles.

 Plants like moss campion are uniquely adapted to the cold, dry climate characteristic of the tundra biome...but temperatures are on the rise. In this Data Puzzle, students analyze temperature and reproduction data to construct explanatory models for the following question "How is moss campion reproduction affected by temperature?"
Lesson
Data Puzzle Resource
Middle School
High School
Data Puzzles Logo
Demonstrates an arctic food web with animals including ocean algae, zooplankton, polar cod, a seal colored gray, a bowhead whale colored black and white, a polar bear, and sea ice algae colored green. In the background is a yellow sun, light blue sky, and there is also White Sea ice which the polar bear is on and the sea ice algae is underneath.
A Changing Arctic Ecosystem

This storyline unit consists of 8 lessons, each tied to NGSS life science standards

 The Arctic is warming more rapidly than anywhere else on Earth. One consequence of a warming Arctic is a dramatic decline in sea ice, an important habitat for many Arctic plants and animals. In this unit students will engage with 360° virtual reality tours, hands-on labs, and authentic Arctic datasets as they gather evidence to construct explanatory models for the unit driving question, "How might the decline in sea ice affect Arctic organisms large and small?"
Unit
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
Cartoon image of green pine trees with orange fire shapes over them with dead brown brush at the bottom and a dark grayish blue sky
The Future of Forests

This storyline unit consists of 9 lessons, each tied to NGSS life science standards

 In this middle school unit supported by NASA, students engage with online interactives, authentic datasets, and citizen science protocols to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "How do landscapes recover after a wildfire?"
Unit
Middle School
High School
Alpine tundra vegetation with large boulder with snowy mountain range in the background
Exploring the Arctic

This is the first activity of a three-part curriculum about Arctic climate; the activities may be used independently or in sequence.

 This activity introduces students to the Arctic and Arctic climate. Through a virtual exploration of the geography of the Arctic students become familiar with the region. They are then introduced to meteorological parameters that Arctic research teams use.
Lesson
STEAM Activity
Middle School
High School
University/College
Two scientists in large red parkas kneeling on the ground working on scientific equipment in a snowy landscape while a cold wind whips snow up around them.
Do you really want to visit the Arctic?

This is the second activity of a three-part curriculum about Arctic climate; the activities may be used independently or in sequence.

 This jigsaw activity introduces students with Arctic weather data using a role-playing activity that has students read and interpret graphs while considering the optimal time to plan a research mission to the Arctic.
Lesson
Middle School
High School
University/College
A wide alpine landscape with snow-capped mountains in the distance under a cloudy sky. In the foreground, a rocky meadow with sparse patches of grass and a large flat rock is visible
Arctic Climate Connections

The Broader Impacts portion of the NSF proposal studies the analysis of existing data from Arctic terrestrial stations with multi-year measurements of the surface energy budget, clouds, soil temperature profiles, and basic meteorological measurements.

 The Broader Impacts portion of the NSF proposal studies the analysis of existing data from Arctic terrestrial stations with multi-year measurements of the surface energy budget, clouds, soil temperature profiles, and basic meteorological measurements.
Unit
High School
Flock of birds landing at Elkhorn Slough where there is green moss over black sand and blue water in the background.
Population Estimates: Bringing Math and Science Together

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons, but this activity may be used prior to a field study to provide students with practice in estimating or used in a unit on ecosystems.

 During this activity students will learn how to estimate population size using two techniques, density extrapolation and the mark-recapture method.
Lesson
Middle School
Extremes
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

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