Earth Science Week


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Here you can find suggested activities based on the National Science Education Standards. Each activity is also marked with an appropriate grade level. Also included are many general Earth science activities that are fun and educational. To access these activities, click on the activity name in the chart below.

Activities Based on the National Science Education Standards

Check out the latest Activity Calendar!

Earth Science Related Activities	Suggested Grade Level			Content Standards
Earth Science Related Activities	K-4	5-8	9-12	A	B	C	D	E	F	G
A Bit of Engineering
A Model of Three Faults
A Paste with Taste
Analyzing Hurricanes Using Web and Desktop GIS
Are You a Water Waster
Birdseed Mining
Build a Rain Gauge
Build a Weather Station
Burning Issues
Chemistry of Burning
Chocolate Rock Cycle
Climate and Temperature
Connecting With Nature
Conservation in Action
Cookie Mining
Core Sampling
Cupcake Core Sampling
Dangerous Atmosphere
Dating Popcorn
Deep-Sea Drilling
Dig Into Soil
Disaster Supplies Kit
Discovering Fossils
Earth's Hydrologic Cycle
EarthCaching
Earthquake Machine
Earthquake on the Playground
Energy Efficiency
Engineer a Satellite
Exploring 'Wild' Places with GIS
Exploring Caves (guide)
Exploring Caves (poster)
Exploring Change with GIS
Exploring Climate Change with GIS
Exploring Energy with GIS
Exploring for Petroleum
Exploring Porosity
Finding Slope
Flood
Fossil Formation
Freddy the Fish
Geologic Age
Geologic Time Scale Analogy
Geosscience and Petroleum Careers
Getting the Oil Out
GIS and Careers
Glacier Slide
Global Change
Gold Panning
Groundwater Movement
Hands-On Experiments to Test for Acid-Mine Drainage
How Can You Test Your Soil?
How Much Soil Is There?
Hurricane Tracking
Ice Core Clues
Identifying Your Watershed
Investigating Different Rock Types
Investigating Soil
Investigating Water Use in Your Home
It's About Time
Know Your Energy Costs
Land and People- Finding a Balance
Lightning
Logs of Straw
Look Up!
Looking for Wild Elements
Magnets at the Core
Make a Thunderstorm
Make Your Own Compass
Making a Cave
Making Your Own National Park Geologic Tour
Map-Making Basics
Mapping a Refuge
Measure for Measure
Measuring Permeabilities of Soil, Sand, and Gravel
Mineral Identification
Model of a Normal Fault
Model of a Well
Modeling an Oil Reserve
Modeling Earthquake Waves
Modeling Oil and Gas Reservoirs
Monitoring Life in the Rocky Intertidal Ecosystem
Mud Fossils
Mystery Mollusc
Name that Natural Resource
Natural Gas Formation
Ocean Currents
Ocean Currents Change Our Earth
Oil Trap Model
Particle Size and Oil Production
Pass the Jug
Places on the Planet: Latitude and Longitude
Plant an Ozone Monitoring Garden
Products from Petroleum
Products Made from Petroleum
Properties of Fluids in Reservoirs
Properties of Fresh Water and Sea Water
Recognizing our Dynamic Wetlands
Rock Abrasion
Rock Around the World
Rock Art in the National Parks
Sea and Ice Salinity
Sea Level and the Terrapin
Seismic Calendar
Sinkholes in a Cup
Sky and Cloud Windows
Soil Color and Redox Chemistry
Soil Properties
Soil, Plants, and the Energy Cycle
Soil, the Forgotten Resource
Solar Cell Energy Nationwide
Splish Splash: Water's Journey to my Glass
Step by Step Weather Observations
Take the Pulse of Your Classroom
The EarthTrek Gravestone Project
The Great Ocean Conveyor
The Incredible Journey
The Mountain Blows its Top
The Slope of Land in Your Community
Third from the Sun
Tracking Dinosaurs
Traveling Nitrogen
Tropical Atlantic Aerosols
Using Energy Resources Wisely
Wash This Way
Watch Out for Landslides
Water Filtration
Water, A Never Ending Story
What Lies Beneath the Upper Crust?
Where Growth Meets Growth
Wordsearch: Kinds of Tephra
Your Own El Niño
Your Own Greenhouse

In addition to the activities above, we have a classroom activity to accompany the USGS Global GIS CD-ROM found in the 2003 Earth Science Week Toolkit.

Content Standards Legend

A = Earth and Space Science

K-4
1. Properties of earth materials
2. Objects in the sky
3. Changes in earth and sky
5-8

Structure of the earth system
Earth's history
Earth in the solar system

9-12
1. Energy in the earth system
2. Geochemical cycles
3. Origin and evolution of the earth system
4. Origin and evolution of the universe

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B = Physical Science

K-4
1. Properties of objects and materials
2. Position and motion of objects
3. Light, heat, electricity, and magnetism
5-8

Properties and changes of properties in matter
Motions and forces
Transfer of energy

9-12

Structure of atoms
Structure and properties of matter
Chemical reactions
Motions and forces
Conservation of energy and increase in disorder
Interactions of energy and matter

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C = Life Science

K-4
1. The characteristics of organisms
2. Life cycles of organisms
3. Organisms and environments

5-8
1. Structure and function in living systems
2. Reproduction and heredity
3. Regulation and behavior
4. Populations and ecosystems
5. Diversity and adaptations of organisms

9-12
1. The cell
2. Molecular basis of heredity
3. Biological evolution
4. Interdependence of organisms
5. Matter, energy, and organization in living systems
6. Behavior of organisms

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D = Science and Technology

K-4
1. Abilities of technological design
2. Understanding about science and technology
3. Abilities to distinguish between natural objects and objects made by humans
5-8
1. Abilities of technological design
2. Understandings about science and technology
9-12
1. Abilities of technological design
2. Understandings about science and technology

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E = Science in Personal and Social Perspectives

K-4
1. Personal health
2. Characteristics and changes in populations
3. Types of resources
4. Changes in environments
5. Science and technology in local challenges
5-8
1. Personal health
2. Populations, resources, and environments
3. Natural hazards
4. Risks and benefits
5. Science and technology in society

9-12
1. Personal and community health
2. Population growth
3. Natural resources
4. Environmental quality
5. Natural and human-induced hazards
6. Science and technology in local, national, and global challenges

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F = History and Nature of Science

K-4
1. Science as a human endeavor

5-8
1. Science as a human endeavor
2. Nature of science
3. History of science

9-12
1. Science as a human endeavor
2. Nature of scientific knowledge
3. Historical perspectives

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G = Science as Inquiry

K-4
1. Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
2. Understanding about scientific inquiry

5-8
1. Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
2. Understandings about scientific inquiry

9-12
1. Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
2. Understandings about scientific inquiry

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The National Science Education Standards provide a vision of science literacy for all students in our nation's schools. The content standards of NSES outline what students ought to know, understand, and be able to do at various stages of their K-12 education. Inquiry should play a central role in developing students' understandings. The Standards are a call for action from individuals and organizations at all levels of the system. Thus, standards for science teaching, professional development of science teachers, assessment, science education programs, and science education systems are incorporated into the Standards as well. Responsibility for providing the support necessary to attain science literacy falls on everyone involved in the science education system.
The K-4 Earth science standards target students' understandings of properties of Earth materials, objects in the sky, and changes in the Earth and sky. Science lessons for students at these grade levels should focus on observing the objects and materials in their environment; distinguishing one from another; noting their properties, patterns, and changes; and developing explanations of how things became what they are. Activities include observing changes in weather and in the positions of objects in the day and night sky, as well as examining the properties of Earth materials, such as soil, rocks, water, and fossils.

In grades 5-8, students build upon understandings gained through observation in earlier grades to develop an understanding of the Earth and solar system as a set of closely related systems. The rock and water cycles provide an opportunity to examine interactions between the geosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. Earth history can be examined to gather evidence about the CO-evolution of Earth's main features: the distribution of land and sea, crustal features, atmospheric composition, global climate, and populations within the biosphere. The study of earthquakes and volcanoes provides evidence necessary to better understand the nature and features of the dynamic geosphere. Students should also begin to construct mental models that explain the visual and physical relationships among objects within the solar system.

Earth and space science standards within grades 9-12 continue the system's approach by focusing on matter, energy, crustal dynamics, geochemical processes, and the expanded time scales needed to understand changes within the Earth system. Students in these grades should engage in examinations of the energy sources and processes which drive geochemical cycles within and on the planet. They are also ready to comprehend more abstract and long-term phenomena, including explanations for plate tectonics, the evolution of life, and the solar system.