Gro More Good Learning Activities is a series of 72 free lessons focused on the four seasons of a garden. Each activity is fun, hands-on and perfect for getting your kids outside, exploring and learning. The activities are based on early childhood education best practices and developed in partnership with the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center. Lessons can be expanded and used with any age group. View Resource »
Growing a Knowing Nose
Students explore a variety of plant-derived aromatic substances, reflect on the memories and feelings they evoke, and describe them. Next, as they try to taste without using their sense of smell, they begin to grasp the importance of this remarkable adaptation. They also learn that scents provide plants with a way to communicate, aid in reproduction and seed dispersal, and protect themselves. For grades 3-5, adaptable for other ages. View Resource »
The Soil Story Curriculum
The Soil Story Curricular Guide is designed to educate middle school students about the cycling of matter and the flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem. Each of the five lessons supports students with understanding how carbon, as a form of matter, moves to and from various reservoirs on Earth. Building on what the Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve, 2013) suggest students know by the end of fifth grade, this unit engages middle school learners in using a visual model to explain interactions that occur when matter cycles between the geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. View Resource »
The Three Sisters
This comprehensive project (designed for 5th graders) incorporates concepts of plant physiology, companion planting, ecology, history, and ethnobotany. It links to Next Generation Science Standards and is written to span two school years, but concepts could be adapted for shorter lessons. View Resource »
A similar lesson for younger students can be found here.
Want to cook with your Three Sisters harvest? Here’s a recipe!
Journey to the Center of a Seed
A seed is more than meets the eye. In this curriculum for grades K-4, students observe, sort, and classify a variety of seeds according to different properties, and then take a journey inside a bean seed to predict and observe changes that occur during seed germination. View Resource »
