PAESTA Classroom

Designed for the sharing of short classroom exercises and explorations, this database allows for teachers to search for materials and resources that you, the PAESTA membership, have tested in the classroom. The database contains short descriptions and examples of activities members have conducted with students, such as inquiry-based assignments to reinforce specific content, or as an extension exercise to increase the graphic literacy of students.

The database will be of the most use if you, the PAESTA membership, contribute the classroom-tested resources you have developed! Please consider writing up your innovative approach to teaching a specific topic for inclusion in this database. Descriptions should include the objectives of the exercise and why this approach was used.

Please be sure the materials you submit do not infringe on copyright or intellectual property rights – links and/or citations to original sources are required. Submitted examples will be reviewed before being placed online.


You can select one or more subject areas and/or grade levels.

  • For Windows: Hold down the control (ctrl) button to select multiple options.
  • For Mac: Hold down the command button to select multiple options.

by Katie Bateman on July 22, 2015.

Student Description

by Katie Bateman on July 22, 2015.

In this activity students will explore watersheds in their local area, as well as those pertinent to discussion of the human impact on the watersheds in their own area and globally in areas with water problems.

by Laura Guertin on July 21, 2015.

One of the goals of this exercise is for teachers to use scientific visualizations to build students’ understanding of water science - but any data visualization can be utilized to address a different content area.  Also, this student can be completed with students in a classroom, and a worksheet in included with this exercise that can be futher adapted to work with your grade level.

by Chris Palma on November 12, 2014.

This is meant to be an introduction to CER using real data on Milky Way star clusters.  It can be expanded to cover many more concepts, but in this version it is meant to reveal the contrast between the shape of the Milky Way’s disk and halo components. 

Using data from professional catalogues, students are going to look for patterns in the positions in space of two different types of star clusters in the Milky Way – globular clusters and open clusters.

by Tanya Furman on September 22, 2014.

This activity was designed for students in central Pennsylvania, but can certainly be adapted. This activity helps students integrate observations of geology and topography, and then to contextualize modern topography in terms of erosion processes and hence rock strength.

Note that many of the days are viable as stand-alone activities, and do not require the full unit.

by Laura Guertin on March 29, 2014.

(Part of the PAESTA In The News - Current Events in Earth and Space Science Series. This series compiles current resources and background materials for recent scientific events in the news. Questions are provided with each topic, written across Bloom's Taxonomic Scale, and can be used for classroom discussion and/or as a writing prompt at the beginning/middle/end of an instructional unit.)

by Molly Witter on March 26, 2014.

(Part of the PAESTA In The News - Current Events in Earth and Space Science Series. This series compiles current resources and background materials for recent scientific events in the news. Questions are provided with each topic, written across Bloom's Taxonomic Scale, and can be used for classroom discussion and/or as a writing prompt at the beginning/middle/end of an instructional unit.)

by Laura Guertin on March 26, 2014.

(Part of the PAESTA In The News - Current Events in Earth and Space Science Series. This series compiles current resources and background materials for recent scientific events in the news. Questions are provided with each topic, written across Bloom's Taxonomic Scale, and can be used for classroom discussion and/or as a writing prompt at the beginning/middle/end of an instructional unit.)

by Laura Guertin on March 25, 2014.

(Part of the PAESTA In The News - Current Events in Earth and Space Science Series. This series compiles current resources and background materials for recent scientific events in the news. Questions are provided with each topic, written across Bloom's Taxonomic Scale, and can be used for classroom discussion and/or as a writing prompt at the beginning/middle/end of an instructional unit.)

by Laura Guertin on March 25, 2014.

(Part of the PAESTA In The News - Current Events in Earth and Space Science Series. This series compiles current resources and background materials for recent scientific events in the news. Questions are provided with each topic, written across Bloom's Taxonomic Scale, and can be used for classroom discussion and/or as a writing prompt at the beginning/middle/end of an instructional unit.)

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