Natural Science Teacher Resources

Natural science focuses on the phenomena of the natural world, whether it be through the eyes of a chemist, physicist, astronomer, or biologist. The beauty—and difficulty—of designing curriculum for natural science is how wide ranging the field itself can be. Luckily, Lesson Planet has just what you need for a perfectly applicable natural science activity!

Elementary learners will love participating in an introductory scavenger hunt for specific items in nature. Select an activity from a packet of practical natural science activities, including observation of the buoyancy in a cereal bowl and the distribution of ink in newspaper pictures.

For older students, a video on the history of earth science is a great place to start, or check out another video on how animal viruses can affect humans. Teach about natural selection as it relates to Darwin’s finches, or use an activity about the genes involved in particular types of cancer. Young astronomers can create a model of the moon’s rotation around the Earth, as well as the Earth’s rotation around the sun.

Our teacher team knows that you’d rather spend more time in the lab and less time in the planning book, so we’ve reviewed even more resources for every grade and skill level. Browse the lessons, activities, videos, and worksheets below for the perfect natural science unit!

Showing 24,120 resources
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Science 4 Inquiry: Middle School Earth Science Lessons

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The Science 4 Inquiry: Earth Science Collection includes 16 lessons designed for middle school. Scholars learn about layering through hands-on exploration of everyday materials and apply their findings to diagram the layers of the Earth,...
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24 Items in Lesson
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Chemistry with a Conscience

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Green chemistry and sustainability are the focus of a unit module that asks young scientists to use the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry to assess how green a product’s chemicals, reactions, or processes are. Class members engage in...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 6 - Chemical Change

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Catalysts, reactants, or products? The final unit in the middle school chemistry module examines chemical changes. Tweens perform experiments to determine what factors impact the rate of chemical reactions, study energy changes, both...
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6 Items in Curriculum Set
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American Chemical Society: Middle School Chemistry

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Introduce middle schoolers to the basic principles of chemistry with a curriculum set packed with activities and experiments that let learners explore the attractions and motion of atoms and molecules, the state changes of water,...
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Space-Based Astronomy Educator Guide

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
The Space-Based Astronomy Educator Guide teaches middle schoolers about the Earth’s atmosphere, the electromagnetic spectrum, and telescopes. Divided into units of study, including science demonstrations, lesson plans, and worksheets,...
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Crash Course: Chemistry

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Loosely based on the 2012 AP Chemistry curriculum, a series of 46 videos introduces high schoolers to organic chemistry. The videos model how to reason through problems, recognize different organic chemicals, their uses, and use the...
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Science 4 Inquiry: Middle School Physical Science Lessons

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The 10 lessons in the Science 4 Inquiry collection introduce middle schoolers to Physical Science. Scholars watch videos, design experiments, and play interactive games to understand the elements of physical science. They create a...
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The Physics Classroom: Reflection and Refraction

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
The six concept-builders in the Physics Classroom: Reflection and Refraction series uses carefully crafted questions to target various concepts involving mirrors and lenses. The first interactive provides three levels of practice...
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Ricochet Science: Biology 101 - The Chemical Basis of Life

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Introduce young biologists to basic chemistry concepts with a series of eight informative videos covering the structure of an atom, properties of water, acids, bases and pH, electronegativity, polar bonds, and hydrogen bonds, isotopes,...
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Biology Junction PowerPoint Presentations

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Add a little power to your biology classes with a collection of 18 colorful presentations that cover everything from an introduction to the scientific method to lab safety rules, from acids to vaporization, Although designed as an AP...
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Crash Course: Biology

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Imagine an entire biology course in one collection of 40 videos! Based on the AP Biology curriculum, viewers learn about the things that make up living things and the processes that keep organisms alive. They also learn how to identify...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 1 - Solids, Liquids, and Gases

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The five lessons in the first module of the Middle School Chemistry unit focuses on solids, liquids, and gases. Young chemists use science to explain what appears to be magic tricks, build thermometers, study the impact of temperature on...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 2 - Changes of State

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The second module in the middle school chemistry unit looks at changes in the states of matter. Middle schoolers observe heat transfer, build molecular models of water from Styrofoam, conduct controlled experiments with condensation and...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 3 - Density

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Chapter three in the middle school chemistry unit explores the relationship between volume and density. Young chemists conduct experiments to find volume through displacement, observe how temperature affects water density, and how the...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 4 - The Periodic Table and Bonding

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The Periodic Table and Bonding are the topics of the fourth chapter in the middle school chemistry unit. Class members demonstrate their understanding of how atoms form covalent bonds by drawing the bonds between given molecules. Also,...
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Middle School Chemistry: Chapter 5 - The Water Molecule and Dissolving

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Through demonstrations, hands-on activities, and discussions, young chemists explore water molecules and their polar characteristics. Groups design and carry out their own experiments to examine solubility, determine if the type of...
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Ricochet Science: Biology 101 - Biomolecules

For Students 9th - 12th
Welcome to Biology 101. Five short videos introduce viewers to biomolecules. Videos include information about the four classes of biomolecules, the three types of carbohydrates, the structure and function of nucleic acids, how amino...
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Minute Physics: Intro to Special Relativity Course

For Teachers 10th - Higher Ed Standards
Special relativity is a physical theory that explains the relationship between space and time. A collection of eight videos makes this complex—and at times confusing—concept a little easier to understand. Simple drawings illustrate each...
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Physical Science: Properties of Matter

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Looking for a way to engage elementary and middle school learners during a unit on properties of matter? Add these fun and informative videos from Crash Course Kids to your lesson plans. Each video in the playlist features entertaining...
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The Physics of Fluid Mechanics

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
In this collection, Pascal’s law, Archimedes’ Principle, and Bernoulli’s Principle aid young engineers in understanding the physics of fluid mechanics. Armed with the knowledge of how forces are applied to fluids, scholars design...
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Astronomy

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Space is the new frontier and astronomers boldly go where no humans have gone before. Guided by Einstein's theories, Kepler's Laws, and knowledgeable narrators, viewers of a 10-video collection explore the Universe and learn about...
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DoodleScience: A-Level Physics

For Students 9th - 12th
Doodle Science A-Level Physics presents six fast-paced, short videos that provide a quick review of physics concepts. Covered topics include Newton’s Laws of Motion, Conservation of Momentum, Circular Motion, Gravitational Fields, Simple...
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Learning Ocean Science through Ocean Exploration

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The 10 inquiry-based lessons in this collection, developed for NOAA Voyages of Discovery and the Ocean Explorer WebSite, give young oceanographers experience using scientific data and modeling scientific work and thinking. Beginning with...
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NOAA Enrichment in Marine Sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) Curriculum

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Introduce scholars to the Marine Sciences and Oceanography with 23 lessons covering marine science, biology, chemistry, geology, physics, technology, and marine policy. Aligned with national science teaching standards, the lessons are...