Natural Inquirer Lesson Plans

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Generic Lesson Plans

These lesson plans can be used with any article in the Natural Inquirer journals.

Generic Lesson Plan 1- This lesson plan uses graphic organizers to help students create podcasts/ radio broadcasts using a Natural Inquirer article. This lesson plan was printed in the Worming Their Way In monograph.

Generic Lesson Plan 2- This lesson plan focuses on students' understanding of the main idea of a paragraph in each section of a Natural Inquirer article through a reading and notetaking process. This plan was printed in the FACELook edition.

Generic Lesson Plan 3- This lesson plan introduces students to the purpose of scientific abstracts and how to write them. This lesson plan can be found in the back of the Student Scientists Edition.

Generic Lesson Plan 4- This lesson plan focuses on Bloom's Taxonomy and an adaptation of the "questions only" reading strategy to help students read and understand a Natural Inquirer article. This lesson plan can be found in the back of the Bioenergy edition.

Generic Lesson Plan 5- This lesson plan uses sticky notes to summarize main ideas in each section of the scientific article to help improve student comprehension of the text they are reading. This lesson plan can be found in the back of the Climate Change Series.

Generic Lesson Plan 6- This lesson plan helps students with reading comprehension by asking students to read a Natural Inquirer article and write a letter to the scientist to ask for clarification on at least 4 questions the student has. This lesson plan can be found in the back on the Wildland Fire 2 edition.

Generic Lesson Plan 7- This lesson plan gives students a chance to reflect on their reading by creating forest poems and reading some poems. This lesson plan can be found in the back on the Wildland Fire 2 edition.

Generic Lesson Plan 8- This lesson divides students into groups and assign each student a role. The roles are summarizer, predictor, questioner, and clarifier. The students read articles and perform their role to help students understand what they have read. This lesson plan can be found in the Woolly Bully monograph.

Venn Diagram- This is a simple Venn Diagram that can be downloaded and used with any Natural Inquirer or Investi-gator article.

Generic Lesson Plan 9- This lesson plan asks students to compare and contrast 2 articles using the Venn diagram posted above.

Article Lesson Plans

Invasive Species Lesson Plans

Issue Specific Lesson Plans

In addition to the lesson plans on this page, many of our Issues of specific lesson plans that go along with that publication. Please follow the links to the Issues to download more lesson plans.

Wildland Fire 2 Lesson Plan One -This lesson plan helps students with reading comprehension by asking students to read a Natural Inquirer article and write a letter to the scientist to ask for clarification on at least 4 questions the student has.
Wildland Fire 2 Lesson Plan Two -This lesson plan gives students a chance to reflect on their reading by creating forest poems and reading some poems.
Ecosystem Services Lesson Plan- Volume 12, No. 1 - Students will use graphic organizers to help them read and understand the articles in the Ecosystem Services edition. There is also an optional internet lesson plan that helps students think critically about land cover and ecosystem services.
Student Scientist Edition Lesson Plan- Vol. 10, No. 1 -This lesson plan introduces students to the purpose of scientific abstracts and how to write them.
Climate Change Education Collection Lesson Plan -This lesson plan uses sticky notes to summarize main ideas in each section of the scientific article to help improve student comprehension of the text they are reading.
Bioenergy Edition Lesson Plan- Vol. 9, No. 1 (Using question strips)
Bioenergy Edition Lesson Plan- Vol. 9, No. 1 -This lesson plan focuses on Bloom's Taxonomy and an adaptation of the "questions only" reading strategy to help students read and understand a Natural Inquirer article.
Woolly Bully Monograph- Number 3 -This lesson divides students into groups and assign each student a role. The roles are summarizer, predictor, questioner, and clarifier. The students read articles and perform their role to help students understand what they have read.
Worming Their Way In Monograph- Vol. 1, No. 2 -This lesson plan uses graphic organizers to help students create podcasts/ radio broadcasts using a Natural Inquirer article.
World's Forests- Vol. 11No. 1- Inquiry 1 Lesson Plan- This lesson plan is to be used with Inquiry 1 and focuses on latitude and the world's forests.
World's Forests- Vol. 11 No. 1- Inquiry 2 Lesson Plan- This lesson plan is to be used with Inquiry 2 and looks at renewable and nonrenewable resources as well as how much forest land is used per person and in what ways forested land is being used.
World's Forests- Vol. 11 No. 1- Inquiry 3 Lesson Plan- This lesson plan is to be used with Inquiry 3 and focuses on the carbon cycle and that forests hold carbon.
World's Forests- Vol. 11 No. 1- Inquiry 4 Lesson Plan- This lesson plan is to be used with Inquiry 4 and focuses on the concept of sustainability, criteria, and indicators.
FACELook Monograph- Vol. 1 No. 1 -This lesson plan focuses on students' understanding of the main idea of a paragraph in each section of a Natural Inquirer article through a reading and notetaking process.
Invasive Species Edition - Vol. 8 No. 1- This lesson plan helps students learn about different types of invasive species and whay they are problematic.
Wilderness Benefits Edition- Vol. 7 No.1- This lesson plan uses the articles "Speak-o-logical" and "It's Elemental, My Dear" to think about the concept of naturalness and what it means. The students also create Haiku poems.
Urban Forest Edition - Vol. 6 No. 1- This lesson plan helps students do a schoolyard tree inventory and biodiversity project.
Facts to the Future - Vol. 5 No. 1- This lesson plan is for the "Do What You Water" article and helps students think about fresh water use on Earth.
Olympic Winter Games Edition - Vol. 2 No. 2- This lesson plan is for "Goldifinch and the Three Scales". It helps students examine the concept of an invasive species.

United Nations Special Report

Natural Inquirer Lesson Plan - week long lesson plan for studying boreal and temperate forests

FACTivities for the Outdoor Classroom

Outdoor Education Lesson Plan - ideas to encourage outdoor education

Year Long Lesson Plans

Table of Contents for Scientific Process Year Long Lesson Plans. This page provides a list of the components and topics in the scientific process lesson plan packet.
Welcome to the Natural Inquirer Year Long Lesson Plan Packet. This page provides a brief overview of all the lessons and a rationale for using them in the classroom.
Natural Inquirer Staff Contact Information. This page provides a list of Natural Inquirer staff and their contact information.
National Science Education Standards Addressed by Lesson Plans. This page shows how the Natural Inquirer Scientific Process lesson plans help support some of the National Science Education Standards.
What is the Scientific Process? This section provides you with an introduction to the scientific process and how the scientific process relates to the Natural Inquirer journal.
Unit One: Lesson 1- Who Is A Scientist? This lesson provides students with an opportunity to identify and discuss their perceptions of scientists and describe what different scientists do in the USDA Forest Service.
Unit One: Lesson 2- What it Means To Be A Scientist And What Is The Scientific Process? After completing this lesson, students will be able to describe the scientific process and what it means to be a scientist.
Unit One: Lesson 2- Student Sheet. This page is the student note sheet that complements Unit One: Lesson 2.
Unit One: Lesson 3- The BIG Idea - Thinking About Science and the Environment. This lesson introduces students to the "Thinking about Science" and "Thinking about Environment" sections in the Natural Inquirer journal.
Unit One: Lesson 3- Student Sheet. This sheet is to help students identify important concepts in the "Thinking about Science" and "Thinking about Environment" sections of the Natural Inquirer.
Unit Two: Lesson 1- Searching the Literature and Defining the Problem, Part 1. Students will be able to identify a problem and explain how research helps to identify a problem.
Unit Two: Lesson 1- Student Sheet. This page is a student sheet that complements Unit Two: Lesson 1.
Unit Two: Lesson 2- Searching the Literature and Defining the Problem, Part 2. In this lesson students will learn to identify and research a science problem.
Unit Two: Lesson 3- Designing the Experiment and Answering the Question. In this lesson students will learn how to read and explain information from a scientific article and they will design ways to solve scientific problems.
Unit Two: Lesson 3- Student Sheet. This page is a reading guide for students to use with Unit Two: Lesson 3.
Unit Two: Lesson 4- Discussing the Findings and Implications. In this lesson, students will learn to read, analyze, and communicate the important findings in a scientific article.
Unit Two: Lesson 4- Student Sheet. This page is a student reading guide that complements Unit Two: Lesson 4.
Unit Two: Lesson 5- Tables, Charts, and Graphs. In this lesson, students will learn how to read and create graphs for a scientific article.
Unit Three: Lesson 1- Reviewing the Scientific Process. This lesson provides a review of all the previous lessons on the scientific process.
Unit Three: Lesson 2- Culminating Project- A Research Project and Article for the Natural Inquirer. This lesson is the culminating project for the scientific process unit. In this lesson, students research a science problem and then create their own Natural Inquirer article describing their research.
Natural Inquirer Student Notes Page. A page for students to take notes.