A variety of activities for multiple grades with hints on how to tie technology into the lessons.

Discipline
Earth and Space Sciences
Grade Level
3-5
6-8
9-12
PreK-2
Lesson Type
Activity
Lesson Keywords
Plant Growth
Plants
Soils and Plant Growth
Soil particles
Soil Engineering
Conservation
Soils and Plant Growth
Soil Basics
Soil Conservation
Soil Mineralogy

Next Generation Science Standards

Grade Discipline Core Idea
3-5 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems

Four major Earth systems interact. Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller pieces and move them around.

3-5 ESS3.A: Natural resources

Energy and fuels humans use are derived from natural sources and their use affects the environment. Some resources are renewable over time, others are not.

3-5 ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems

Societal activities have had major effects on the land, ocean, atmosphere, and even outer space. Societal activities can also help protect Earth's resources and environments.

3-5 LS1.C: Organization for matter and energy flow in organisms

Food provides animals with the materials and energy they need for body repair, growth, warmth, and motion. Plants acquire material for growth chiefly from air, water, and process matter and obtain energy from sunlight, which is used to maintain conditions necessary for survival.

3-5 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

Matter cycles between the air and soil and among organisms as they live and die. 

6-8 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems

Energy flows and matter cycles within and among Earth's systems, including the sun and Earth's interior as primary energy sources. Plate tectonics is one result of these processes.

6-8 ESS3.A: Natural resources

Humans depend on Earth's land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for different resources, many of which are limited or not renewable. Resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes.

6-8 ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems

Human activities have altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging it, although changes to environments can have different impacts for different living things. Activities and technologies can be engineered to reduce people's impacts on Earth.

6-8 LS1.C: Organization for matter and energy flow in organisms

Plants use the energy from light to make sugars through photosynthesis.  Within individual organisms, food is broken down through a series of chemical reactions that rearrange molecules and release energy.

6-8 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.

9-12 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems

Feedback effects exist within and among Earth's systems.

9-12 ESS3.A: Natural resources

Resource availability has guided the development of human society and use of natural resources has associated costs, risks, and benefits.

9-12 ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems

Sustainability of human societies and the biodiversity that supports them requires responsible management of natural resources, including the development of technologies. 

9-12 LS1.C: Organization for matter and energy flow in organisms

The hydrocarbon backbones of sugars produced through photosynthesis are used to make amino acids and other molecules that can be assembled into proteins or DNA.  Through cellular respiration, matter and energy flow through different organizational levels of an organism as elements are recombined to form different products and transfer energy.

9-12 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

Photosynthesis and cellular respiration provide most of the energy for life processes. Only a fraction of matter consumed at the lower level of a food web is transferred up, resulting in fewer organisms at higher levels. At each link in an ecosystem elements are combined in different ways and matter and energy are conserved. Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are key components of the global carbon cycle.

PreK-2 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems

Wind and water change the shape of the land.

PreK-2 ESS3.A: Natural resources

Living things need water, air, and resources from the land, and they live in places that have the things they need. Humans use natural resources for everything they do.

PreK-2 ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems

Things people do can affect the environment but they can make choices to reduce their impacts.

PreK-2 LS1.C: Organization for matter and energy flow in organisms

Animals obtain food they need from plants or other animals. Plants need water and light.

PreK-2 LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems

[Content found in LS1.C and ESS3.A]