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Exploring Landforms of North and South America

In this assignment, students will explore 25 features found in North and South America. They will circle, outline, and label specific locations on maps of North and South America. In the teacher instructions, you can also find a link to a Presentation that shows and discusses the geology and uniqueness of many of these locations.

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Exploring River Formation Earth Science Lab

In this observation lab, students will use stream tables to observe how rivers form. When students are done they will understand how natural landslides can cause river course changes, how meanders are formed, how heavier sediment gets deposited quicker than lighter sediment like silt and clay, why rivers take the path they do, and how deltas are formed. Teacher notes, observations, suggestions, an answer key, and reflections are included.

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Earth Science Absolute Dating Lab

In this earth science lab, students will flip M&Ms/Skittles to help them gain a better understanding as to what absolute dating is. Students will learn what radioactive elements are and how scientists use this understanding to give an age to rocks and fossils. Students will create a spreadsheet and create a graph that will visually demonstrate the half-life of Carbon 14. There are 6 word problems that they will analyze to help them understand how to use a half-life graph.

Earth Science Demonstration: Chocolate Plate Tectonics

Here is a plate tectonic demonstration/lab idea for all grade levels.  You can easily use this video when teaching about earthquakes and plate movements.  All you will need is a hot plate, pan, some milk and chocolate powder.  Place the pan on the hot plate, pour in some milk, pour a thick layer of chocolate powder on top of the milk until the milk is covered.  Turn on the hot plate and then wait a few minutes up to about 5 and you should start to see the "crust" break apart and "magma" rise to the surface.  Extension in your conversation can be:

Earth Science Rock and Mineral Density Lab

In this Earth Science Lab, students will design and experiment that will help them determine the densities of different rocks and minerals. This is a follow up lab to the Phet Density Lab that they would have already completed in my class. You can find the Phet Density Lab in the Educational Resource store. This Rock Density lab however can still be given if you have already discussed how to go about finding mass, volume and densities of rocks and minerals.

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Earth Science Salt Crystal Formation Lab

In this 3rd through 10th-grade lab, students will observe the formation of salt crystals. Students will also add food coloring to their dissolved salt solution to demonstrate how chemical impurities can change a mineral's color. If you have enough students doing the lab your class will get to see many different results. This Earth Science lab comes with the student work, student image sample results, and with my own insights and explanations as to how the experiment can work well.

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Earth Science: What's in that Mineral? Activity

This Google search activity allows students to go to the internet to search for specific minerals and then to use the Periodic Table to discover what elements the mineral is made out of. This activity usually takes a full 50 minutes for the students to find all of the answers. Students will investigate 12 different minerals and which elements make the mineral up. They will look at a periodic table and decide whether the elements are metals or nonmetals. Students will also search the internet and find out some industrial uses for each mineral.

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