Lesson Plans

Exploring Plate Tectonics: A Hands-On Approach

Several activities exploring plate tectonics. Unit 1 has: continental drift hypothesis, defining the plate boundaries, and lithospheric plates. Unit II has: Divergent and transform plate boundaries, intra-plate volcanism, convergent plate boundaries, multiple plate interactions, and plate tectonic theory. 

Exploring South Carolina

This lesson is based on South Carolina: An Atlas. Students will use the atlas to compare the regions in which the three principal nations of Native Americans in South Carolina lived. They will also discuss how their environment could have affected the places they chose to live, their homes, and other cultural aspects.

Exploring the Church in the Southern Black Community

Students explore the Documenting the American South Collection titled, the "Church in the Southern Black Community. Beginning with a historian's interpretation of the primary sources that make up the collection, students search the collection for evidence to describe the experiences of African Americans living in the south during the Antebellum through the Reconstruction Period centering on their community churches. The activity culminates in student presentations of a digital scrap book.

Field Guide to the Southern Piedmont

An identification guide to over 700 common organisms in the Piedmont of the Carolinas & Georgia, including mammals, birds, insects, fungi, plants, molds, and bones.

Finding a Good Location

This is a lesson plan from The Powder House, South Carolina's oldest public building. 1. The students will be able to explain the reasons why the Powder Magazine was constructed in the Northwest corner of Charles Town. 2. The students will use maps and other geographical tools to gather, interpret information, and draw conclusions about the Powder Magazines location.

Five Flavor Life Saver

Focus Questions:

1. How does salinity affect the density of water?

2. How does salinity affect the movement of ocean water?

3. How does the movement of ocean water affect climate and the quality of life on earth?

Objectives: The students will be able to: 

1. Define concentration and apply this definition to salinity in the ocean.

2. Express concentration in metric units.

4. Measure the densities of each solution.

5. Demonstrate how solutions having different densities interact.

Food Plants and Ecosystems 3-5

This lesson contains information & hands-on activities where 3-5 grade students will be learning about plants and how components in nature interact with each other in ecosystems. Our goal for this lesson is to help children explore the connection between food production and ecosystems interactions.

Food Plants and Ecosystems 6-8

This lesson contains information & hands-on activities where 6-8 grade students will be learning about plants and how components in nature interact with each other in ecosystems. Our goal for this lesson is to help children explore the connection between food production and ecosystems interactions.

Food Plants and Ecosystems 9-12

This lesson contains information & hands-on activities where 9-12 grade students will be learning about plants and how components in nature interact with each other in ecosystems. Our goal for this lesson is to help children explore the connection between food production and ecosystems interactions.

Food Plants and Ecosystems K-2

This lesson contains information & hands-on activities where K-2 students will be learning about plans and how components in nature interact with each other in ecosystems. Our goal for this lesson is to help children explore the connection between food production and ecosystems interactions.

Food Webs in the Estuary

An interactive gaming activity that illustrates the complexity of the estuarine food webs.

Forest Science 6th Grade Teacher's Guide

This teacher's guide to sixth grade Forest Science is designed to help you teach a basic overview of South Carolina forestry. The book includes seven lessons which include historical and sociological perspectives as well as scientific information.

Each lesson includes factual information as well as italicized teaching suggestions, projects, and extensions.

Forest Science 7th Grade Teacher's Guide

This teacher's guide to seventh grade Forest Science is designed to help you present the basic tenets of managing the forest resource in South Carolina. The book contains six lessons which deal with scientific forest management, including natural science, environmental considerations, and applied genetics.

Each lesson includes factual information as well as italicized teaching suggestions, projects, and extensions.

Fort Frederick Timeline

Students will be able to visually compare the historical events that took place on and/or near the property of Fort Frederick Heritage Preserve by completing a timeline.

Fort Sumter National Monument Teacher's Guide

The Fort Sumter Teacher’s Guide is designed as an informative tool for South Carolina educators. The National Park Service values education and strives to help students and teachers learn the unique history of special places. National Park Service staff and volunteers developed this guide that connects the state curriculum standards to the NPS sites in the Charleston area.

These sites include Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square and Charles Pinckney National Historic Site.

Fort Sumter National Monument: Teacher Guide with Historic Notes

This Teacher's Guide is designed as an informative tool for South Carolina educators. The National Park Service values education and strives to help students and teachers learn the unique history of special places. National Park Service staff and volunteers developed this Guide that connects the state curriculum standards to the NPS sites in the Charleston area. These sites include Fort Sumter, Fort Moultrie, the Fort Sumter Visitor Education Center at Liberty Square and Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. 

From Dred Scott to the Civil Rights Act of 1875: Eighteen Years of Change

In this activity, students will examine sequential primary sources relating to the events that led to this change and write eight short descriptions explaining the relationships between the historical events.

From the Bottom to the Top

Focus Questions: How do marine scientists collect samples of the organisms living on the ocean floor? Objectives: The students will:

1. Design and build their own sampling sled like the ones research scientists use for benthic sediment/biological retrieval. 

2. Investigate how marine scientists sample the organisms on the ocean floor.

3. Identify the problems facing the scientists in designing and deploying a successful sampling mission.

From the Coastal Zone to the Piedmont on the Underground Railroad

This lesson is a part of a larger unit on the Underground Railroad and is based on Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt (Hopkinson, Deborah. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993.). The teacher will read the book to the students, a story about a young slave who stitches a quilt with a map pattern that guides her to freedom in the North. Students will discuss the cultural significance of the story and design their own quilt squares, incorporating the concepts of geography and coded messages. A route will be mapped from the coastal regions of South Carolina to the Piedmont.

Frosted Fort: Tabby Construction

Students will have the opportunity to learn about the historical techniques of making tabby by constructing structures from a Frosted Flakes or Rice Crispies bar recipes.