Combustion/Pollution part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students observe a burning candle and the byproducts given off through the burning process. This observation leads to a discussion to the effects of air pollution on our lives.

Water Quality part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This is a field investigation in which students test water quality in 2-3 areas using their own testable question.

What sizes are the planets and how do they move around the sun? part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This is an activity to help students understand the abstract concept about how planets move around the sun and their relative size compared with other planets in the solar system.

Investigating Temperature: Using a Thermometer part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students will record the temperature daily, using a bar graph, color coded bars. this monthly bar graph helps students understand phenology and interpreting graphs.

Moon Phases Box part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is an observation opportunity for students to view the phases of the moon and learn that the juxtoposition of the Earth and moon dictates the appearance of the moon in the sky.

Rotation of the Earth part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity will help students understand Earth's rotation and the causes for day and night.

Worm Farming and Composting part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a lab investigation where students design an experiment to create rich soil using organic matter, dirt, newspaper and red worms.

Our Friend the Worm! - Introducing Worm Composting into the Classroom part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is an introduction to setting up a composting worm bin in the classroom. It is part of a yearlong study on the interaction and influences that living system have on each other.

Erosion in our World part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a field investigation where students observe evidence of erosion and deposition in the schoolyard or designated area.

What Happens to Water When it Hits the Ground? part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students will test the percolation rates of 6 different soil samples. Three of the samples are measured sand and clay and three are collected from the schoolyard and wetland.

Cloud Inquiry Investigation & I.D. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This activity is a lab and field investigation where students gather data on cloud types and identify properties of cloud formation.

Sinking Water: A Connection With Glaciers, Ocean Currents and Weather Patterns part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This lesson has activities where students will learn about buoyancy and explore how hot water rises and cold water sinks. As an extension and real-life application, students will see that glacial run-off is occurring at a rapid pace and the cold glacial water could potentially change ocean currents thus influencing global climates.

Mapping the Glaciers part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
This earth systems field lab begins with an in-class guided inquiry experience which uses Minnesota Geological Survey 3-D maps of the upper Midwest to determine where they believe glaciers may have had an influence. They will determine this by looking at landscapes and compiling their own evidence from the maps. They will also offer evidence for a hypothesis they generate which involves the direction that the glacier was traveling. The two-day lesson ends (after student presentations on their findings about glaciers) with a field investigation of one of our parking lot snow banks. Students will compare and contrast what they know about glaciers, with one of our parking lot snow banks, determining any similarities with how the landscape may have appeared during the Pleistocene.

Observational Skills: Observing and creating sketches of an outdoor environment part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this series of activities, students observe and sketch the environment outside their school using their senses. Students create a classroom book using one of their sketches.

Using Benthic Marcoinvertebrates Captured by Rock Baskets to Determine Biodiversity in a River. part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this ecology investigation, students will build and place rock baskets to collect benthic macroinvertebrates in a local waterway. They will observe and identify their macroinvertebrates and use the data to determine the pollution tolerance index for various areas of a river.

Watersheds Urban and Rural part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
Students build a model of a watershed, apply water to the model, and explore what happens when elements of the watershed are changed.

Investigating Rocks part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this classroom guided inquiry lesson, students will explore the properties of rocks. Students will make observations of granite and develop a hypothesis explaining what makes a rock.

GO Inquire System part of Metacognition:Activities
GO Inquire is an online tool used to develop knowledge and skills of 4th grade science students in the concepts of erosion, transportation and deposition.

Let's get sedimental: A study of the process of sediment deposition and particle sorting part of MnSTEP Teaching Activity Collection:MnSTEP Activity Mini-collection
In this classroom lab, students will investigate particle sorting and deposition.

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.