Lesson Plans and Activities

All USGS teaching packets are based on National Education Standards. To order hard copy of the teaching packets please call 1-888-ASK-USGS or email ask@usgs.gov.

Life Science | Geography: Maps | Earth Science | Links to Other Online Lesson Plans

Life Science: Changing World

• Exploring Caves
  Exploring Caves, an interdisciplinary set of materials for K-3, covers at least five scientific disciplines: earth science, hydrology, mapping, biology, and anthropology. This unit aims at helping teachers to sort and organize the most important ideas in this rich scientific area.
  (This packet is available only online.)
  Grade Level: K-3

• Mud Fossils
  In Mud Fossils, K-3 students are invited to explore and observe real fossils and then make their own fossils using mud and found objects.
  Grade Level: K-3

• Global Change
  This packet is appropriate for grades 4-6. It covers four themes: time, change, natural cycles, and the Earth as home. Includes a two-sided color poster, teacher guide, and three activities. Each activity includes background material, an experiment, three lesson plans, and suggestions for further reading.
  Grade Level: 4-6

• Land and People
  Land and People: Finding a Balance is an environmental study project that engages high school students in studying ecosystems resource issues. The project focuses on the interaction between people and the environment in three regions on the United States: Cape Cod, Los Angeles, and the Everglades.
  Grade Level: 7-12

• Geological Age
  In Geologic Age, students (grade 7-12) investigate radioactivity as a tool for measuring geologic time and how geologists use this information to determine the absolute age of rocks or minerals.
  Grade Level: 7-12

Life Science | Geography: Maps | Earth Science | Links to Other Online Lesson Plans

Geography: Working With Maps

• Map Adventures
  This teaching packet is appropriate for grades K-3. Students will learn basic concepts for visualizing objects from different perspectives and how to understand and use maps. The lessons center on a story about a little girl named Nikki who visits an imaginary amusement park. Nikki goes up in an unplanned balloon ride that gives her, and the students, different views of the park.
  Grade Level: K-3

• What Do Maps Show?
  This teaching packet is for grades 5-8 and is organized around geographic themes: location, place, relationships, movement, and regions. A map is a picture of a place. Different maps show different information. No one map can show everything. Students will compare shaded relief maps, road maps, and topographic maps
  Grade Level: 5-8

• Exploring Maps
  Exploring Maps is an interdisciplinary set of materials on mapping for grades 7-12. Students will learn basic mapmaking and map-reading skills and will see how maps can answer fundamental geographic questions: "Where am I?" "What else is here?" "Where am I going?"
  Grade Level: 7-12

Life Science | Geography: Maps | Earth Science | Links to Other Online Lesson Plans

Earth Science: Earth Hazards

• Volcanoes!
  In Volcanoes!, an interdisciplinary set of materials for grades 4-8, students will explore questions such as "What is a volcano?" "Where do volcanoes come from?" and "Can scientists forecast volcanic eruptions?"
  (This packet is available only online.)
  Grade Level: 4-8

• A Model of Three Faults
  Students will observe fault movements on a model of the earth's surface.
  Grade Level: 7-12

To order USGS teaching packets, call 1-888-Ask-USGS or email ask@usgs.gov.

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