This article provides lesson plans about natural resources and energy sources for elementary teachers.

This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain shows the relationship between tectonic boundaries and the locations of earthquake events and volcanoes around the world.

This investigation is a laboratory activity in which the alkalinity of 2 types of substrates (carbonate vs. non-carbonate) are compared on the basis of titration. Students will reflect on the relationship of alkalinity and toxic heavy metals. Teaching ideas from: Project Wet, Water Education for Teachers as found in: "Healthy Water Healthy People, Field Monitoring Guide "(2003)

Watch the ZOOM cast discover which insulator -- newspaper or aluminum foil -- is better at keeping an ice cube frozen longer.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members show you how to make your very own electroscope. You can use it to find out if an object is electrically charged.

Learn all about gemstones at this site. Here you can view gem images and read the very detailed descriptions and general information facts pertaining to select gems.

Prior to reaching households, water is exposed to a variety of treatments designed to render it fit for human consumption and use. One of the first treatment steps is the removal of suspended solids using chemical additives called flocculants. In this activity, students learn about two commonly used flocculants and clean water collected from a local pond or river. They experiment with flocculant, stirring and pH variables.

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site challenges you to think like Einstein and understand how time travel might be possible.

This is a classroom lab investigation where students use the story of the three bears to discover inadequacies in the story and discover how to make them correct. Convection, conduction and radiation are involved.

This is a classroom activity in which students explore solids, liquids, and gases, and their properties. This provides hands on experience for all students.

This video from NASA explains the process by which gamma-ray flashes associated with storms produce matter/antimatter particle pairs.

This activity is a summary/assessment assignment which allows for differentiation and student choice. Students are assessed in their knowledge of the atomic model and the arrangement of elements on the periodic table.

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site answers questions about irregularities in the tides.

This project is a classroom investigation where students design a chemical torpedo out of pipettes, baking soda and vinegar to travel down a rain gutter. While working on the project the students will have to analyze their design, interpret their success and failures, adapt their creation and compete against other students in distance and velocities of their launched torpedo.

This lab introduces or reinforces the concept of specific heat and the transfer of heat amongst substances.

In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn how engineers are transforming the future of flight by designing airplanes based on principles found in nature. In the early 1900s, the Wright Brothers found inspiration for their first airplane in nature. Their "Flyer," which was modeled on a bird's flexible wing design, was steered and stabilized by pulleys and cables that twisted the wingtips. Despite its success, this control strategy quickly vanished from aviation. Instead, stiff wings capable of withstanding the greater forces associated with increased aircraft weights and flying speeds became the standard. In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn how designs found in nature have inspired today's aerospace engineers as they conceive the next-generation of flying machines. Grades 3-12.

All cells, organs and tissues of a living organism are built of molecules. Some of them are small, made from only a few atoms. There is, however, a special class of molecules that make up and play critical roles in living cells. These molecules can consist of many thousands to millions of atoms. They are referred to as macromolecules (or large biomolecules).

This activity is an investigation into the relationship between alkane length and boiling points. Students develop a mathematical model of this relationship and use it to make predictions and error analysis.

Students will classify elements as metals, non-metals and metalloids based on their observtions of appearance, conductivity, malleability and reactivity with dilute acid. They will observe the location of these groups on the periodic table.

Watch the ZOOM cast build a chair out of newspaper by making good use of the strength of triangles.