Looking for fresh ways to teach science? This post is packed with inspiration and resources to help you explore animal metamorphosis, climate change, rock identification, soil science, plate tectonics, and flower anatomy with your students. I’ve included links to my other posts with hands-on activities, background info, printables, and study materials. Below, you’ll find everything you need to make these topics engaging and accessible in your classroom or homeschool.
Before we dive in: If you plan to teach earth & environmental science topics, great learning resources are key to deepening understanding! I think you and your students will love my complete Science Units. They’re packed with all the handouts, posters, worksheets, activity directions, and other printable materials you’ll need. Plus, you’ll support my blog with your purchase! ❤️
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Amphibians Unit: lessons on the traits and life cycles of amphibians! -
Antarctica: an ecology unit plus STEM activities! -
Rocks and Minerals: a complete geology unit with lab activities! -
Soil Science Unit: with 5 lab activities! Soil horizons, textures, porosity, permeability, & more! -
Plate Tectonics: a geology unit study! -
Flowers: a botany and floral anatomy unit study
Animal Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis is a process where an animal’s body changes form at different stages of its life cycle. Many insects and amphibians go through metamorphosis, developing in two or more distinct stages, like a legless tadpole becoming a frog or a wingless caterpillar transforming into a butterfly.
Understanding metamorphosis helps students see how organisms grow, adapt, and utilize different resources in their habitats throughout their life cycle. You can study classic examples of metamorphosis like frogs and butterflies – but these are far from the only examples! For instance, studying aquatic insects like caddisflies and mayflies is another excellent way to learn about metamorphosis – plus these critters are bioindicators and very likely found in ponds and streams near you!
Arctic Sea Ice, Albedo, & Positive Feedback Loops
Are you searching for a science lesson that brings climate change to life in your classroom? Positive feedback loops are not just fascinating—they’re a powerful way to help students grasp the dynamics behind our warming planet. By teaching about positive feedback loops, like the relationship between sea ice, albedo, and temperature, you’ll equip your students with a deeper understanding of one of the mechanisms fueling anthropogenic climate change.
A great way to demonstrate positive feedback loops is with a hands-on activity. For this outdoor educational activity, students can create a model of sea ice and ocean water albedo using aluminum foil and two tubs of water. Students will track the temperature in a covered and uncovered tub on a sunny day.
Best of all, studying sea ice and climate change also ties in with studies of the Arctic and Antarctica. Learning about our poles and the animals that live there is a great way to tie climate science and ecology together in your lessons. If you’re looking for a complete set of printable classroom materials for studying the Arctic and Antarctic, you’ll want to check out my complete Polar Bundle.
Rock Identification & Formation
Rock identification is a wonderful way for students to connect classroom learning with the world around them. Learning rock ID is about more than just recognizing rock samples. Rather, learning about the different types of rocks means learning about how they formed and the underlying processes creating different rocks, like tectonic plate movement, weathering, and erosion!
You can do a rock identification lab activity. In this activity, students will sort common igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rock samples. But there are also other great ways to study and review rocks. Try the Rock ID bingo game or print these Rock ID flashcards. Finally, you may also check out my post about 7 Rock and Mineral Activities for the classroom!
Soil Science
Soil is often overlooked as a classroom topic, yet it’s a fascinating and practical area of science to explore with one’s students. Whether you’re introducing elementary schoolers to the basics of earth science or tackling advanced environmental science concepts with high schoolers, soil science offers countless opportunities for hands-on learning with real-world applications. If you need further convincing, here are five compelling reasons to incorporate soil science into your classroom curriculum.
There are many hands-on activities you can do when studying soil. First, try a soil textures jar lab or examining the organic matter content of soils. For a delicious soil-related project, make soil horizons parfaits to learn about the different layers in soils! Finally, for printable directions, handouts, and worksheets for all of these activities and more, check out my complete Soil Science Unit!
Plate Tectonics
The theory of plate tectonics is a scientific theory central to the field of geology. This theory explains that the surface of the Earth is broken into large plates that are slowly moving and interacting with one another at different plate boundary types.
Plate tectonics is an important concept for students to understand. First, to help you get started studying plate tectonics in your classroom, I’ve put together this list of eight engaging and hands-on plate tectonics activities and projects!
Additionally, if you want to dive into all things plate tectonics, I recommend checking out my complete Plate Tectonics Unit. It includes printable materials to learn about the theory of plate tectonics and related topics like volcanoes, earthquakes, and the Earth’s layers!
Flower Anatomy
Lastly, studying the parts of a flower is a great way to teach kids about the plant life cycle and pollination! Plus, you can learn about flower anatomy in a hands-on way by dissecting a flower! This is an easy way to observe the main parts of a flower: carpel, stamen, petals, and sepals! Best of all, students can observe how each of these parts is built for its own special function – from attracting pollinators with bright colors to distributing pollen.
I’ve created several flower anatomy printables (pictured above) for my free resources page. If you’re new around here and would like to access the free resources page, all you need to do is subscribe to this blog’s newsletter to receive the link (you can unsubscribe at any time). If you’re already an email subscriber, you can head to the free resources page to download the flower anatomy printables and more via the link you received in your welcome email!
For a more complete set of flower and botany materials, be sure to check out my complete Flowers Unit – it’s full of lots of handouts, worksheets, diagrams, activities, and more! Or, you can also find the Flower Unit within my Botany Collection. It is a discounted collection with three plant-related units: Flowers, Pollination, and Fruit!
Study Earth & Environmental with Wild Earth Lab!
There’s no need to scramble to put together the perfect earth & environmental science teaching materials for these topics – I’ve already created them for you! These sets include all the printable materials you need for studying these topics!
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Amphibians Unit: lessons on the traits and life cycles of amphibians!$10.00
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Antarctica: an ecology unit plus STEM activities!$15.00
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Rocks and Minerals: a complete geology unit with lab activities!$15.00
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Soil Science Unit: with 5 lab activities! Soil horizons, textures, porosity, permeability, & more!$12.00
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Plate Tectonics: a geology unit study!$12.00
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Flowers: a botany and floral anatomy unit study$10.00
Explore more lessons from Wild Earth Lab:
If you enjoyed this post, I know you will love trying my other printable science and nature units in your classroom too!
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