Children learn how seasonal weather changes affect everything, from the behavior of animals to the way we dress and play.

In this activity, learners investigate how different materials repel or absorb water. Learners use spray bottles to explore how everyday items like sponges, cardboard, feathers, etc. respond to water differently. This activity also introduces learners to the scientific method as learners make predictions about which materials will absorb or repel water.

This 440-page report explores how students in pre-K through grade 8 learn mathematics, with a focus on number and operations, and recommends how teaching, curricula, and teacher education should change to improve mathematics learning. (A 39-page summary, Helping Children Learn Mathematics, is catalogued separately.) The authors identify five interdependent components of mathematical proficiency and describe how students develop this proficiency. The report presents a portrait of mathematics learning: research findings on what children know about numbers before they arrive in pre-K and the implications for instruction; details on the processes by which students acquire mathematical proficiency; what is known from research about teaching for mathematics proficiency and developing proficiency in teaching. Visitors to this website may read the full text online, download a copy (pdf), or purchase a hard copy.

During World War Two, a fierce battle between American and Japanese forces on Kwajalein atoll left a trail of debris on the deep lagoon floor. This lagoon now has one of the largest collections of well-preserved aircraft in the world. In this video, as part of the first ever film crew allowed onto this secret military base, Jonathan explores a B-25, F4-U Corsair and Dauntless dive bomber still sitting on the bottom of the ocean, as if ready to take off. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

Investigate a flower's power of marketing by making an imitation flower that successfully signals a bee (or other pollinator of your choice) to visit. Try to determine what characteristics will attract a pollinator to your flower. Also available as an online game.

How long does a baby elephant stay with her mother? What do you call a baby goat? Young children learn some interesting facts about the lives of baby animals in this original video from KET.

In this video, Jonathan treks all the way to Antarctica to investigate life south of the polar circle. Along the way he dives in the majestic kelp forests of Patagonia, where crabs rule the sea floor. Once he arrives in Antarctica, his adventures continue. He swims with penguins, dives under an iceberg, meets a massive jellyfish 3 feet wide, and has an incredible encounter with a Leopard seal, the apex predator of Antarctica. Part 1 finds Jonathan diving in Ushuaia, Patagonia in Argentina before boarding the ship to Antarctica, then he finally gets to Antarctica and meets some penguins! This program won a New England Emmy Award! Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

In this video, Jonathan treks all the way to Antarctica to investigate life south of the polar circle. Along the way he dives in the majestic kelp forests of Patagonia, where crabs rule the sea floor. Once he arrives in Antarctica, his adventures continue. He swims with penguins, dives under an iceberg, meets a massive jellyfish 3 feet across, and has an incredible encounter with a Leopard seal, the apex predator of Antarctica. Part 2 finds Jonathan continuing his exploration of Antarctica including an encounter with a Leopard seal. This program won a New England Emmy Award! Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

In this video Jonathan visits the New England Aquarium as a volunteer aquarist for a day to learn what it takes to care for thousands of fish in dozens of exhibits, up to the massive 200,000 gallon Giant Ocean Tank (GOT). What he finds is an eye opener‰ŰÓit‰ŰŞs not all fun and games. Maintaining an aquarium is serious work. But it does have its benefits, as Jonathan discovers while diving in the GOT and feeding the sharks. This segment won a New England Emmy Award! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

The ability to ask and answer questions while reading is essential to comprehension. This article discusses instructional strategies used to teach questioning and provides many online resources. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which explores the seven essential principles of the climate sciences for teachers in k-grade 5 classrooms.

Squirrels and chipmunks are just two of the animals you might see. Backyard Wildlife, an original KET video, encourages children to explore the world outside their back door.

Squirrels and chipmunks are just two of the animals you might see. Backyard Wildlife, an original KET video, encourages children to explore the world outside their back door.

In the open ocean around the Bahamas, pods of wild Spotted Dolphins frolic in the sunshine. Sometimes, they get bored and approach boats. In this educational video, Jonathan joins dolphin expert Wayne Scott Smith to learn how dolphins interact with each other. Jonathan learns how to play the Bandana Game, a game of -keep away- that the dolphins invented and like to play with Scott. Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this activity, learners observe hard parts of sea creatures (shells, molts, etc.) to better understand marine environments. A series of questions is provided to help guide learners through observations, and there are suggestions for adapting the questions to fit older and younger audiences. Background information is provided about gastropods (e.g. whelks), mollusks (e.g. clams, mussels, oysters), echinoderms (e.g. sea stars, sand dollars), and crustaceans (e.g. crabs). The activity is written for use in a science museum or aquarium, but could also be used anywhere you can set out the examples and have learners interact with them. You could even adapt the activity for exploring outdoors at a tide pool or similar place.

In this outdoor activity, learners become beachcombers as they walk on a sandy beach in search of evidence of life. Learners gather examples and consider how the collected artifacts reached the beach. Learners then match their artifacts with the living organism that created each, while also telling stories about how the artifact might have been used. This activity can be done with learners of various ages, but the level of details in identifying and describing what its found can be varied according to age.

The stated mission of this blog is "To make the nightly math problem as common as the bedtime story." Each day Laura Bilodeau Overdeck and her husband John post an interesting fact or scenario about everyday life and related math problems at three readiness levels. They include a page of suggestions for how to use these problems with children. This is a good source of problems for teachers and parents, as well as a model for adapting problems to meet different needs.

In this activity, learners investigate different types of bird beaks using household items which mimic different beak examples. Participants will then learn how beaks are adapted to the type of foods a bird eats.

In this video, Jonathan joins Charlie Donilon on his shark charter boat in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and learns about how shark tagging has shed light on the biology of and behavior of Blue sharks. Tagging has shown that these incredible swimmers actually migrate completely across the Atlantic ocean. Jonathan tries his hand at tagging a shark and then swims with Blue sharks. We also learn that Blue sharks are not nearly as vicious as they have been reputed to be, and the divers are actually able to pet the sharks! Please see the accompanying study guide for educational objectives and discussion points.

In this activity, learners develop an understanding of cylinders and volume as they compare two sizes of popcorn buckets.

In this hands-on activity, learners make a bridge out of a folded piece of paper and two blocks. Then they test their structure by stacking coins (and other things) on it, discovering how much weight the bridge can support before it collapses. This activity explores engineering, technology, architecture, weight, compression, tension, and balance.

In this challenge, learners have to figure out in what order to combine five solutions to change the color from clear, to yellow, to blue, and back to clear. The five chemicals are potassium iodide, sodium thiosulfate, sodium hypochlorite (Clorox bleach), soluble starch (Niagara spray starch), and water. The color changes indicate chemical reactions, and the lesson includes some background information about the reactions that create different colors. Suggestions are given for guiding learners through systematic approaches to making the different combinations and observing the results, and for explaining to different age groups what happens when the solutions are combined.

In this sunny day, outdoor activity, learners observe changes in shadows over time. The activity also helps to develop a sense of the Earth's motion. Since this activity requires some passage of time for a noticeable change in shadows, it is best done at the beginning of an event or a series of activities so learners can revisit their tracings after a period of time. At museum or planetarium settings, this might be a good activity to set up at the entrance for visitors to do at the beginning and end of their visit.

This brief article discusses the importance of young children creating their own informal graphical representations of their mathematical thinking and problem solving. As distinguished from formal recording of a completed process, these early markings and symbols enable children to develop understanding and make meaning as well as communicate their thinking. The article includes a list of references, including the authors' research on which the article is based.

This is a deceptively simple game to teach strategy, planning, and pattern analysis. In this game, learners take turns removing tokens from a board, and develop a plan to take the last piece. Through practice, learners can develop a strategy by which they will always win. This activity can be used with a wide range of ages for different purposes. Resource contains game board and ideas to extend the activity for extra challenge.

Learn about different types of clouds and the weather they signal in this video featuring original stop-motion animation.

In this activity, learners use their understanding of probability to guess which color will be drawn from a bag.

In this video, Jonathan explores how animals in the ocean use color, not just for camouflage, but to stand out. Please see the accompanying lesson plan for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

Illustrated instructions for constructing and planting in the Fast Plants deli-container growing system. This is a stable growing system that is easy to construct for all age learners, and works well for growing Wisconsin Fast Plants. Made from recycled deli-containers, these growing systems can be cleaned and reused for multiple years.

In this video, Jonathan examines the biology of coral reefs and their importance to the marine ecosystem. Please see the accompanying lesson plan that discusses pH and ocean acidification for educational objectives, discussion points and classroom activities.

The concepts that underlie the fourth essential principle of climate literacy ("Climate varies over space and time through both natural and man-made processes.") are too complex for students in early and upper-level elementary school, but the foundational knowledge can be taught within existing curriculums and standards. This foundational knowledge will lead to understanding in later years. The author shows the correlation to the national science education standards, identifies misconceptions among elementary school students, suggests formative assessment probes, and identifies lessons and activities to make curriculum connections. The free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle is based on the seven essential principles of the climate sciences.

In this activity, learners practice counting objects found on patterned wrapping paper or fabric. Repeated experiences with counting will help young learners understand that the last number they say when counting objects tells them "how many" objects in all.

This iOS app, a prehistoric-themed game, was developed to help teach children to learn subitizing. The free game can be played by one or two players against the clock or not timed. Level one is only available to the user.

In this activity, learners investigate soil conditions by creating a soil map. Learners record soil characteristics and compare the conditions of soil in different grid sections. Use this activity to discuss biodiversity and how habitats affect the growth of plants and animals. This activity is also available in Spanish.

In this activity, learners are invited to imagine the park of their dreams! In small groups, learners place moveable pieces on a grid, iterating on their plan together to create a plan for a community park. A variety of park features are offered as choices to include on the map, including a playground, skate park, water features, picnic areas, trails, and more. Like real-world projects, the plan is limited by the realities of space and funds. For younger learners, groups are limited to choosing less than 10 features. Learners ages 9 and up are limited not by the number of features, but by their cost in terms of points: They are challenged to keep track of the points on the park features cards and use less than 250 total points. Some park features, including a natural wetland and ice cream shop, promise to provide revenue back to the community and are worth points. Others, like a skate park or swimming pool, "cost" points. This activity is part of a curriculum designed to engage learners in hands-on engineering challenges.

This blog entry by Keith Devlin highlights the discrepency between instruction and teaching/learning. Devlin points out several examples of instruction and details what teaching should look like. There are two videos embedded in the blog post, one is of a student response and subsequent interview, the second video is an example of online instruction.

In this challenge, learners figure out how to make a juice stain disappear. (Younger learners will definitely need assistance, and safety instructions are included in the PDF.) First they experiment with cleaning solutions (vinegar, dishwasher detergent, and bleach) and types of juice (beet, purple grape, and cranberry). The experimental surface is a laminated paper grid (grid design in PDF) on which they drop solutions. A cloth used to blot up juice from the grid becomes the surface for learners to test which solution they think will best make stains disappear. Some background information is provided about how some cleaners work by adding and removing hydrogen atoms (acid and base reactions, e.g. vinegar and dishwasher detergent), and others work by removing and adding electrons (oxidation-reduction reactions, e.g. bleach).

In this activity, learners practice matching and subitizing as they create the longest domino train possible.

In this two part activity, learners become draft detectives by constructing their own draft catchers to detect drafts around windows or doors. Next, they make draft stoppers to reduce air flow and conserve energy. This activity helps learners understand the importance of reducing drafts and preventing heat or cold air loss. Note: the second part of this activity requires the use of a sewing machine (not included in cost of materials).

Learn more about the seasons and help George dress for the right time of year with this interactive game.