Using the Rap Almanac database students will be able to run simple and/or advanced searches using keyword words, rhyme phrases, people, places, or by the complexity of text found in hip hop lyrics.

Estimated time required: 1 class period.

Technology required for this lesson: Tablet or Smartphone.

This activity is an investigative introduction to mapping. Students create maps and determine important map features.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to physical and geographic features of the Great Lakes, including the size, area, amount of water, and locations of each, as well as the significance of the Great Lakes to many aspects of life for the region in which they are located.

Celestial navigation is the art and science of finding one's geographic position by means of astronomical observations, particularly by measuring altitudes of celestial objects sun, moon, planets or stars. This activity starts with a basic, but very important and useful, celestial measurement: measuring the altitude of Polaris (the North Star) or measuring the latitude.

Students create and use their own simple compasses, which are each made from a bowl of water, strong magnet, stick pin and Styrofoam peanuts. They learn how compasses work and about cardinal directions. They come to understand that the Earth's magnetic field has both horizontal and vertical components.

This article profiles Gerrit Vyn and Martha Fischer, sound recordists with the Macaulay Library, Cornell University, and their expedition to Nunavut, Canada, to record male sanderling vocalizations.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to paleontology and fossilization and identify various fossils by placing a cutout in the correct location for a tyrannosaurus and a stegosaurus on a board. Encourage students to visit the Paleontology app and explore its features. This is lesson one of five, which is designed to be taught in a sequence.

Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.

Technology required for this lesson: Augmented Reality, Tablet or Smartphone.

In this lesson, students will learn about the tools used by paleontologists and why it is important to use different tools while removing a fossil. Encourage students to visit the Paleontology app and explore its features. This is lesson two of five, which is designed to be taught in a sequence.

Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.

Technology required for this lesson: Augmented Reality, Internet Connectivity, Smartphone, Tablet, Tablet or Smartphone.

In this lesson, students will use the Paleontology app to match discovered fossils from a virtual excavation site to the outline of a dinosaur by dragging the fossil into the correct location. This is lesson four of five, which is designed to be taught in a sequence.

Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.

Technology required for this lesson: Augmented Reality, Internet Connectivity, Smartphone, Tablet, Tablet or Smartphone.

In this lesson, students will watch a video about a real excavation site highlighting the tools used. The students will reflect on the activities of the previous sections and ask additional questions. Encourage the students to visit the Paleontology app and explore its features. This is lesson five of five, which is designed to be taught in a sequence.

Estimated time required: 1-2 class periods.

Technology required for this lesson: Augmented Reality, Internet Connectivity, Smartphone, Tablet, Tablet or Smartphone.

This article highlights lessons and activities that ask students to plan expeditions to Antarctica. Students use math, science, and geography to plan their routes, clothing, and food.

In this unit, students learn the very basics of navigation, including the different kinds of navigation and their purposes. The concepts of relative and absolute location, latitude, longitude and cardinal directions are explored, as well as the use and principles of maps and a compass. Students discover the history of navigation and learn the importance of math and how it ties into navigational techniques. Understanding how trilateration can determine one's location leads to a lesson on the global positioning system and how to use a GPS receiver. The unit concludes with an overview of orbits and spacecraft trajectories from Earth to other planets.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores the historical and current exploration of the Arctic and Antarctica and provides resources that help elementary teachers incorporate a study of polar explorers into their curriculum.

This article assembles free resources from the Polar Explorers issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and Grades 3-5.

Students use their knowledge of scales and areas to determine the best locations in Alabraska for the underground caverns. They cut out rectangular paper pieces to represent caverns to scale with the maps and place the cut-outs on the maps to determine feasible locations.

This article describes Katy Farness' work with the Byrd Polar Research Center at the Ohio State University. Farness used remote sensing images and computer technology to create detailed images of Antarctica and the ice sheets of Greenland.

Place and Location are two of the five themes of geography and a natural starting point for a study of the Arctic and Antarctica. Location answers the question, "Where am I?" while the study of place asks, "What kind of a place is it?" and, "How does this place connect to my hometown?" This issue of Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears examines how you can introduce the Arctic and Antarctica and use science, geography, literacy, and technology to help your students compare and contrast these two dramatically different areas as well as their own home. Get ready for an adventure as you and your students develop your polar sense of place!

Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears is an online professional development magazine for elementary teachers which focuses on preparing teachers to teach polar science concepts in an already congested curriculum by integrating inquiry-based science with literacy teaching. Such an integrated approach can increase students' science knowledge, academic language, reading comprehension, and written and oral discourse abilities.

This article provides ideas, lessons and resources on how elementary teachers can integrate map skills, math, and art into lessons about the geography of the Arctic and Antarctica.

This nonfiction article, written for elementary students, discusses the unique characteristics of the North and South poles. The student article is available as a text-only document, illustrated book, and electronic book. Related lesson plans are included for teacher use.