This Google search activity allows students to go to the internet to search for specific minerals and then to use the Periodic Table to discover what elements the mineral is made out of. This activity usually takes a full 50 minutes for the students to find all of the answers. Students will investigate 12 different minerals and which elements that make up each mineral. They will look at a periodic table and decide whether the elements are metals or nonmetals. Students will also search the internet and find out some industrial uses for each mineral.

This is an excellent video, by MinuteEarth, to show your Earth Science students how deltas from due to river deposition.  It discusses how the river at its mouth will either create a delta or erode more of the land.  The science video will talk about how during ice ages, ocean levels drop and rivers then cut deeper into the land.  During part of the video, there is a quick discussion about how civilizations formed around the fertile land of deltas.

In this video, students will witness the destructive power of an earthquake and learn about a fascinating phenomenon called liquefaction. This video was captured during the 2011 earthquake in Japan and shows how the earth shifts and grinds the dirt, squeezing the water out and causing the ground to become like quicksand. By watching this video, students will gain a better understanding of the impact earthquakes can have on the environment and how they can cause changes in the ground structure.

Find out how glacier melt can raise ocean sea levels. This science video also explains thermal expansion.

Here is a website that has a sliding animation to demonstrate the size of cells and compares them to many other objects, including viruses, parts of cells, and bacteria.  This would be a great visual for your students when introducing the cell.

EarthScience.xyz is a website that teaches earth science to students.  It is a step-by-step book containing all the information needed to learn about the Earth.  Teachers can have access to all the labs and assignments that are taught at Snowflake High School.  There are tons of high-quality graphics, animation, and videos that will make presenting geology, meteorology, oceanography, paleontology, and astronomy to students engaging and fun.

In this Earth Science activity, students will gain a better understanding of what gases the atmosphere is made out of. Students will need to work some math problems out, converting percents and decimal places to determine ppm, parts per million. Students will gain an understanding that greenhouse gases make up such a small amount of the atmosphere, but are extremely important in keeping the temperature balance in check.

I do this convection currents demonstration when discussing how air moves. This can be used as well when discussing volcanoes, mantle convection, and water convection. You can find the worksheet for the air convection model at Teachers Pay Teachers.

In this Earth Science or Physical Science lab, students will gain an understanding of the three types of thermal energy transfer: conduction, radiation, and convection. Students will use hot, cold, and room temperature water to demonstrate convection by using food coloring. Students will then see how long chocolate chips take to melt when you add heat to just one side of some tin foil. Finally, they will use heat lamps, thermometers, and dark and light-colored papers to demonstrate radiation and the absorption of radiated heat.

In this lab students design and experiment that will oxidize a penny. The purpose of this lab besides demonstrating chemical weathering is to assess how well students are understanding the scientific method as well as their ability to think outside the box by taking content knowledge and applying it in a lab situation. I stand back from this lab to see how well students perform. Students will observe their pennies each day until their pennies are dry or for 3 or more days, depending on how they set up their design.