This hands-on lesson teaches students about the physical and social geography of Oregon’s 36 counties. Students learn to interpret a variety of maps, glean information to answer worksheet questions and finally create a map that communicates physical and social facts about an Oregon county. As an extension to the lessons, students work cooperatively to create the questions and answers for an Oregon Geography Pursuit game.

Google Slide version of student worksheets available for elearning purposes.

Pumpkins are a great manipulative for math and science exploration. These activities are ideal to follow up on field trips and make the most of the natural connections between pumpkins and math and science.

In this lesson students set up a side-by-side germination experiment of monocot and dicot seeds. They will observe differences and similarities of these two types of flowering plants at the germination level, specifically the number of cotyledons. Students can record their findings daily. This is a great way to begin a flowering plant unit

In this activity students make notebooks to both hold materials they find and record their observations on nature walks.

Besides being just plain fun, making butter is a great way to demonstrate one of the many ways food is made, as well as how liquids can be converted into solids. You can get more in depth and use the lesson to demonstrate phase change.

This lesson is a delicious way to teach students about one type of physical change that matter can under go – liquids transforming into a solid.

While most plants grow from seeds, many can also be grown from bulbs, tubers or stem cuttings. This is called
vegetative propagation. It is used in agriculture for growing many types of plants in the nursery and greenhouse industry, as well as for raising crops like potatoes and garlic.

Alternative Plant Propagation lesson available on the Curriculum Matrix.

This lesson investigates the miraculous process of air and water combining with seeds, soil and sunlight to create nearly all the food we eat. By having students observe different types of seeds, this lesson takes plant germination one step further by having students record the differing growth rates and other observations in germination journals (template provided).

In this hands-on fun activity, students learn what a soil profile looks like and the composition of soil. Students are introduced to the five soil forming factors and soil horizons.

Garnish your math, literacy and science curriculum with sweet or spicy microgreens! Students will explore a tasty way to learn about life cycles and calculate area through real-life applications.