Nature Stories: Promoting Environmental Awareness through Culture and Exploration. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity uses a cultural story to excite kinesthetic homework, nature journaling and daily adventure in a child's own back yard or kitchen flower pot.

Investigating Biological Classification: Organization of All Living Things part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students will investigate the organization of all living things through and learn how to classify through process of classifying their own shoes. Students will complete the classification of a Jaguar and write their own pneumonic device to remember the order of biological classification. (kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species)

Classroom Phenology: Using the Environment as a Source of Data and Observations part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a classroom and schoolyard investigation where students collect daily temperature and precipitation readings, weather observations, and weekly phenology reports in a phenology binder and in nature journals. Students then analyze this data and compare to recorded values in the Weatherguide calendar.

Exploring A Decomposition Community part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity allows elementary students to construct a decomposition column in order to observe the relationship between living systems and energy sources.

Insect Investigations part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation or bio-blitz where students are collecting as many different types of insects as they can. Back in the lab, they will record their findings, sort and classify the insects found. This will lead into a class discussion on biodiversity and the importance of insects and their benefits all living things.

Save an Animal Board Game - Impact of Human Activity or Natural Disasters part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This student activity engages the students' thinking by listening to a story, brainstorming ideas in small groups about how human activity or natural disasters could possibly impact an animal's environment, and then reinforcing that thinking using a board game called Save an Animal.

Investigating Animals: Interdependence of Life In A Habitat part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students will observe, discuss, and gather evidence on how environmental changes affect animals that live in that habitat.

White Bass, A Taste of Home? part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Hmong students will study white bass and it's management in St. Paul.

Identifying plant family characteristics part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is designed for students to discover how making observations of the environment is the key to making sound predictions. Students will also learn how both positive and negative outcomes of these predictions can affect and shape future decisions.

Ecosystem Study part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students will explore and create a healthy ecosystem, once established they will then introduce additional variables which may harm the ecosystem and determine which hazards should be avoided.

Famous Scientists part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This lesson is a presentation of famous scientist throughout history where the students will learn and take notes about the contributions and discoveries made in science.

Investigation a food web: producers, consumers, and decomposers part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students list plants and animals they observe. Students will organize their data as producers, consumers, or decomposers and create a food web showing how they affect each other. They will predict what will happen if the food web becomes imbalanced by extinction or over population.

Investigating simple plants part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students will observe simple plants, develop an investigable question, and form an investigation. They will document their investigation in their science notebooks.

Habitat Part 2 (See Mitze Olson's Activity for Part 1) part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is an investigation to determine the effect of soil type on plant growth. The students will develop an understanding of the plant as producer.

Schoolyard Trees: Creating a field guide for your school part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field-based investigation involving identifying and investigating common trees on the schoolyard and creating a field guide containing pressed leaves.

Plant Identification part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students identify native MN plants and record the common name, scientific name, and important information about each.

Determining Bird Populations Through Counting part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students gather population data on bird species. The students will create bar graphs and interpret their findings. Based on their experiences and data, they will write an answer to the guiding question.

Food Chains: Nature's Restaurant part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In these life science activities, students will participate in field observations of living things & do research of animals they observe to create a food chain & present it to the class. Students will participate in a food web simulation game.

The American Red Squirrel an Outdoor Inquiry Lesson part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This is outdoor activity involving students in gathering information on what an American Red Squirrel Eats and its interdependence with the coniferous forest.

Plant Field Study: Adaptations of Plants for Survival in Different Environments part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This is a field investigation where students observe plants in a school forest setting . Students then compare adaptations of plants from different parts of the forest.