Lesson Plans
( sort by: grade level | topic | learning standards )

The lesson plans listed below are designed to help teachers of grades K-12 incorporate earth science and anthropology into their classrooms. The lessons are designed to go hand-in-hand with the GeoGallery of object images from the ISM’s geology and anthropology collections. While written, for the most part, by teachers for grade levels matching their areas of expertise, you will find most lessons can easily be adapted to other grade levels.

Lessons sorted by grade level:

Kindergarten

• 0.1: Collecting Rocks
• 0.2: Sorting Rocks
• 0.3: Minerals—Building Blocks of Rocks
• 0.4: Rocks & Minerals—Uses Past and Present

First Grade

• 1.1: Rocks & Minerals
• 1.2: Our Everchanging Earth

Second Grade

• 2.1: Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks—Introduction
• 2.2: Sedimentary Rocks
• 2.3: Igneous Rocks
• 2.4: Metamorphic Rocks

Third/Fourth Grade

• 4.1: Museum Adventure WebQuest
• 4.2: Exploring Rocks
• 4.3: Exploring How Rocks are Formed
• 4.4: Exploring Minerals
• 4.5: Exploring Uses of Rocks & Minerals
• 4.6: Contain Yourself: Changes in the Use of Containers by Native Americans

Fifth/Sixth Grade

• 6.1: Gliding Glaciers
• 6.2: Landforms of Illinois
• 6.3: Weathering & Erosion
• 6.4: Ride the Rock Cycle
• 6.5: A Burst of Light: Mineral Use in Fireworks
• 6.6: Using KidPix (grades K-6)

Seventh/Eighth Grade

• 8.1: Geo-Hunt—Geological Resources
• 8.2: Mighty Minerals
• 8.3: Sediment Sleuths
• 8.4: Project Geode
• 8.5: Evaluating an Illinois Earthquake
• 8.6: Using Hyperstudio (grades 2-8)

High School

• 12.1: Igneous Rocks
• 12.2: Sedimentary Rocks
• 12.3: How Old Is Illinois?
• 12.4: The Rocks Under Illinois
• 12.5: Three Dimensional Geology
• 12.6: Using Inspiration (grades 4-12)
• 12.7: Creating Spreadsheets—AppleWorks (grades 6-12)
• 12.8: Creating Spreadsheets—Microsoft Excel (grades 6-12)