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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

Polar landscape
Sea Ice, The Character

Sea Ice, The Character is one of four activities in the The Drifting North Polar Planetarium Experience that invites students to explore what it was like to participate in the MOSAiC expedition to the North Pole.

 In this activity, student's will compare and contrast the different structures of freshwater ice and seawater ice with a hands-on lab. Learning about what makes sea ice so unique in the Arctic will be guided by the driving questions: How does saltwater sea ice differ from freshwater ice? What is sea ice like in the Arctic? and Why is sea ice important in the Arctic?
Lesson
STEAM Activity
Middle School
High School
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
A graph of temperature anomalies with flattened map with red, orange, and yellow shades.
Arctic Feedbacks: Not All Warming Is Equal

This storyline unit consists of 10 lessons, each tied to NGSS Earth's systems standards

 In this MS/HS unit, students engage with 360° virtual field trips, authentic Arctic datasets, and app-based labs to construct models and explanations for the unit driving question, "Why might the Arctic be warming four times as fast as the rest of the world?"
Unit
Virtual field trip
Middle School
High School
Mosaic logo
Trelynn Watkins, 10, laughs as she plays in the Julia Primrose Fountain.
What’s Up With The Rising Temperatures in Colorado Cities?

This is the first lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 This lesson introduces why certain cities in Colorado are getting hotter using a video by the Denver Post that describes the pattern.
Lesson
Middle School
A graph showing global temperature rising over time from 1880 to 2020
What Was Earth’s Temperature Like in the Past?

This is the fifth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 Students examine what the world’s temperature trend was in the past and whether temperatures have changed recently.
Lesson
Middle School
A cloud spelling CO2 wafts out of smoke stacks with a blue sky in the background.
How Does Human Activity Affect the Warming Temperatures on Earth?

This is the sixth lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 This lesson explores whether human activities release greenhouse gases, like CO2, and whether these activities can cause temperatures on Earth to increase.
Lesson
Middle School
An illustration of how solar radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere which includes the earth and a yellow squiggly line bouncing on and off the earth's surface.
How Does an Increase in CO2 Cause an Increase in Temperature?

This is the eighth and final lesson in the Climate Resiliency Education Middle School Climate Unit.

 In this lesson, students learn how more CO2 in the atmosphere causes global warming.
Lesson
Middle School
Greenish yellow fern growing in between two brown rocks
Photosynthesis, Respiration, and the Short-Term Carbon Cycle

Project EXTREMES lessons were written to be stand alone lessons but can be incorporated into a larger unit.

 This lesson is focused on the short-term cycling of carbon and is designed to put the processes of photosynthesis and respiration within a global perspective.
Lesson
Middle School
Extremes
Illustration of two people high-fiving in a work environment

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