Students ponder "weightlessness" in this creative Moveable Museum unit. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain a video that enhances the lesson.

This hands-on OLogy experiment uses Jell-O, fruit, nuts, and candy to demonstrate how space bends around anything that has mass. The activity begins with kid-friendly introductions to the concept of mass and Einstein's theory of bending space. The illustrated, step-by-step directions include notes about how the fruit, nuts, and candy represent stars, planets, and other objects in space. At the end, kids are encouraged to celebrate their new-found knowledge by digging into their edible space.

In this Moveable Museum lesson plan, students examine cultural artifacts from three different nomadic cultures, first on their own, and then in contextual photographs, gaining insight into the work of anthropologists. The 13-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Everyday Objects activity worksheet has isolated photographs of three cultural artifacts, with information on their materials and size. The Objects in Context activity worksheet has photographs of each object with explanatory text (object name, culture, use, and significance). The Putting It All Together activity has a list of discussion questions to help students further investigate material culture.

It probably comes as no surprise that telescopes do a better job of collecting light and observing outer space than your eyes. But do you know why? (Hint: the answer is NOT magnification!) This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, offers a thorough, kid-friendly look at telescopes. It discusses how different types of telescopes work and provides some suggested additional resources for further research.

This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they explore the Tree of Life cladogram. The site begins with a brief explanation of cladograms and how the Tree of Life shows the relationship of all living things on Earth. A cladogram of fruit is used to demonstrate on a small scale how scientists use this tool to understand how things are similar and different. A portion of the Tree of Life cladogram is included, showing true bacteria, arthropods, mammals, and 11 other important groups of species. Students can mouse over the branching points to see what the subsets have in common. The site also includes a pie chart view that compares the relative size of the most important groups of species. Students can click on each group to learn its characteristics, known species, size range, and other important details.

In this classroom activity, middle school students explore cladistics by creating a cladogram. The activity opens with background information for teachers about cladistics. After discussing the relationship of some familiar mammals, students learn about how scientists use cladistics to determine evolutionary relationships among animals. Working in pairs, students complete a worksheet that directs them to examine coins and create a cladogram based on their shared characteristics. Then, small groups of students examine dinosaur illustrations, identify their shared features, and those features to classify the dinosaurs.

This classroom activity, which is structured as a series of mini-research projects, helps students understand how technological advances have aided the exploration of Antarctica. The printable handout includes a set of 10 research topics in three categories, explorers, Antarctica today, and technological advances for you to assign to small student teams.

In this classroom activity, middle school students gain an understanding of geologic time. The activity opens with background information for teachers about carbon and radiometric dating. In a classroom discussion, students share what they know about geologic time. Then, working in small groups responsible for different eras, students create a timeline for their assigned era by conducting library and Internet research. The activity concludes by having students review all the timelines to compare how long humans have been on the Earth to the length of time dinosaurs inhabited the planet.

Biodiversity is the spectacular variety of life on Earth and the essential interdependence among all living things. Students begin to learn about the term biodiversity at its most basic level. On their first field trip, students observe a natural space and report on what they see. They also begin to see the need for keeping written records and how to make scientific observations of their site. A series of optional mapping activities are presented that develop the skills required to create detailed and representational maps derived from observations and data.

In this classroom activity, young students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. Working in small groups, students look through dinosaur books to gather interesting facts to share. As a class, students use their facts to create a semantic map. Then they explore the differences in dinosaur and lizard legs, and examine how these differences affect their stances. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify the dinosaurs within a collection of animal illustrations.

In this classroom activity, young students explore the differences between bone and trace fossils. The activity opens with background information for teachers about fossils. After describing what a fossil is in their own words, students learn that a fossil is "any evidence of life that is at least 10,000 years old." They then explore the differences between trace and bone fossils by examining pictures. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify trace and bone fossils.

In this classroom activity, middle school students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. As a class, students compare the stance of lizards and dinosaurs in pictures and try to replicate both reptiles' walks. Students then learn that Museum paleontologists classify birds as dinosaurs, and work in groups to compare a T. rex skeleton with pictures of birds.

In this classroom activity, young students investigate what paleontologists can tell from a dinosaur's teeth. The activity opens with background information for teachers about dinosaur teeth. Students begin by looking at animal photos and describing each creature's teeth. They then conduct an experiment that helps them differentiate between the teeth of meat-eaters and plant-eaters .The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs.

This classroom activity helps students understand the benefits and drawback of globes, Mercator maps, and polar map projections. After closely examining all three, students discuss how we represent a spherical object like the Earth on flat surface. The printable five-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions related to the representation of Antarctica on the three types of maps.

Students learn about the subtractive nature of white light in this Moveable Museum unit. It contains two procedures in which students "take apart" white light and then "put it back together again." The six-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, an easy-to-assemble color wheel, and information about where to obtain supplies. Students use special glasses to see that white light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow and then create a colorful top and spin it to see how the different colors blend into white.

In this week-long unit, students examine weather reports from all over the world in order to understand global temperature patterns. Throughout the unit, students collect their findings in a portfolio. The comprehensive curriculum materials contain teacher tools, a Web activity in which students examine 12 months of weather data for several U.S. cities, comparing their findings with the same 12 months at Antarctica weather stations, two hands-on experiments, two Q&A interviews and a student handout with guidance for putting together their portfolios and examples of creative final projects.

In this Moveable Museum lesson plan, students write a research proposal, drawing on their knowledge of a nomadic culture. Then they submit their proposals to you - the governing agency that determines what fieldwork will be supported. The 12-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Writing the Research Proposal activity worksheet has six questions designed to guide students' research and help them gather the information needed for their proposals.