ORC Resource Types

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The purpose of this promising practice lesson is to help students understand what the knowledge of DNA can tell us about ourselves and other organisms and species. Students will also learn about the systematic study of the human genome....

Projects: Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: This promising practice lesson is the first of a two-part series on where food comes from. These lessons are intended to help students understand that most of the food they eat comes from farms....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The objective of this promising practice lesson is to familiarize students with the kinds of things that plants need to grow well. This is the second lesson of a two-part series on where food comes from....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The purpose of this promising practice lesson is to explore the concept of extinction by studying dinosaurs. This lesson taps into student curiosity about dinosaurs in order to lead them to consider life forms that no longer exist....

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: In this best practice lesson, students will conduct activities from a module called DNA Chips: A Genetics Lab in the Palm of Your Hand. This module is part of the National Institutes of Health Snapshots series, which focuses on a single area of biomedical research to help students understand how science, people, ethics, and history all...

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The objective of this promising practice lesson is to carry out an investigation in order to answer a central question: Does soap float? The focus of this lesson is on scientific inquiry, but it incorporates scientific topics such as sinking and floating so it is recommended that students have at least some prior experience with these...

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The objective of this promising practice lesson is to explore plate tectonics and to understand how mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes are related to the movements of plates. In this lesson, students learn about the idea of continental drift and the theory of plate tectonics to ascertain a fuller picture of how land formations on earth's surface...

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The purpose of this best practice lesson is to use the example of natural water purification to show students that healthy ecosystems provide services to people that are essential to life as we know it. Students learn about how ecosystems purify water and what kinds of things humans do that alter these processes....

Projects: COR, Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The purpose of this promising practice lesson is to orient students to the plight of endangered species and to help them understand and gain perspective on human issues that continue to endanger species and threaten our global environment. The lesson looks at endangered species from a global perspective....

Projects: Standards First

Discipline: Science

Professional Commentary: The purpose of this lesson is to use Internet resources to explore the side effects of technology; and to design, implement and evaluate solutions related to the problem of waste disposal. At the end of the lesson students apply what they've learned to a practical real-life problem, reducing the school's garbage....