Lessons For Home
Below is a list of Geoscience-related learning resources that do not require leaving the house! We have redesigned some of our Rockin’ Out activities to be done at home, as well as gathered resources from NASA, the USGS, and other organizations.
At-Home Lesson Plans
Glaciers and Climate At Home
Glaciers around the World
Check out our glacier images and learn fun facts about how glaciers carve the landscape, the interaction of glaciers and climate, and some methods scientists use to study glaciers.
How Ice Behaves: A Look into Glacier Movement
Grades: 6-12
Length: 45 to 60 minutes
Topics: glacier deformation, basal sliding, friction
Consult this recipe for making your own glacier goo.
Lesson Plan: Word | PDF
Evaluating Glacier Change and Landscape Change
Grades: 6-12
Length: 2-3 lessons, 45 minutes each
Topics: climate change, repeat photography, qualitative vs. quantitative data, glacier recession, aerial photography, evaluating graphic data
References: United States Geological Survey
Lesson Plan: Lesson Plan | Lesson Materials
Rocks and Minerals At Home
Rock and Mineral Gallery
Coming Soon – Check out out photos of 15 common rocks and minerals to begin learning about identification.
How to Look at Rocks in your Backyard
Coming Soon: A worksheet on how to identify the basic types of rocks that you can find in your backyard in the Pacific NW.
Changing Landscapes
The Stream Table – How Rivers Change the Landscape
Grades: K-12
Length: 1 to 1.5 hours
Topics: rivers, erosion, energy, discharge, dams, hypotheses, variables
Lesson Plan: Word
Natural Hazards
Earthscope
Discover a multitude of resources from Earthscope, an NSF-funded program that investigates the structure and evolution of North America to learn about earthquakes and volcanoes, on why earthquakes occur and how scientists measure them here.
Earthquake Simulator
Learn about what earthquakes are, how energy is propagated, and how earthquakes are measured here.
Pore-Pressure Experiment
Grades K-12, details can be adjusted accordingly
Length: 20-30 minutes
Topics: Seattle geology, cohesion, capillary forces, pores
Pore Pressure experiment
All About Landslides: Land on the Run
Grades: 5-7
Length: 1 – 1.5 hours
Topics: landslides, landslide triggers, gravity, friction
References: Teach Engineering STEM Curriculum
Lesson Plan
The Atmosphere
Atmosphere Pressure Experiment
See how our atmosphere exerts pressure on s through this easily-crafted-at-home demonstration.
Space and Planetary Science
Make Your Own Spectroscope
Ever wonder how we know what things in space are made of, for example how we know that the sun is mostly hydrogen and helium? With light! Scientists point instruments called spectroscopes at bright things in space (like stars) to separate the light emitted by these things in space and then determine what they are made of.
Learn more through this presentation from the Stanford Solar Center, then make your own spectroscope by following these directions here!
Geology Math and Reading
Math
Choose from a wide range of lessons from NASA that incorporate basic math skills in a framework of geology and space science!
Recommended lessons from NASA are:
Exploring Star in the Milky Way
Lunar Math
Reading
Rockin’ Out’s summer reading list to encourage reading while learning about the earth:
FieldNotes Environmental Journal (high school reading level)
More recommendations to come.