Earth Science Lab for teachers
Free interactive earth science labs with a printable student activity and an answer key for each. Students need no accounts, and the labs run on school Chromebooks with nothing to install.
Ready-made classroom activities
Each activity is a one-page worksheet that walks students through the lab, with a results table and a set of questions. Times are for a typical class working in pairs.
Run a lab in 10–15 minutes
- Hook (2 min). Show the lab on the board and ask its opening question (below).
- Explore (6–8 min). In pairs, students follow the worksheet steps and fill in the results table.
- Questions (3 min). Questions 1–4 in class; the rest for early finishers or homework.
- Debrief (2 min). Ask the debrief question. If time allows, finish with the lab’s Challenge mode.
Before class, open the answer key: every number in it is calculated by the same model the lab uses, and automated tests check that they match.
Opening and closing each lab
Earthquake Epicenter Finder
Hook: “Three towns felt the same earthquake. How could we work out where it started?”
Debrief: Why did we need three stations? Why don’t the circles meet perfectly?
Tip: Keep “Snap to arrivals” on for younger students.
Plate Tectonics Explorer
Hook: “Iceland and Japan both have volcanoes. Why are Japan’s earthquakes so much deeper?”
Debrief: Which boundaries make deep earthquakes, and what is happening to the plate there?
Tip: Project the explorer and fill in the first row of the table together.
Contour Map Playground
Hook: “The map is flat. How can it tell a hiker which side of the hill is steeper?”
Debrief: Where are the lines closest together, and what does that look like on the landscape? Which way does the river flow, and how can you tell?
Tip: Give students two minutes to sculpt their own hill first. Their landscape stays in that browser until they press Reset landscape.
River Erosion Sandbox
Hook: “Why does a river cut a deep valley in the mountains but build new land where it meets the sea?”
Debrief: Where did the river erode, and where did it drop sediment? Why does clay need faster water than sand to be picked up?
Tip: Have pairs change one thing at a time (slope or flow) and compare the four setups on the board before trying gravel.
Water Cycle Explorer
Hook: “A drop of water in your glass may once have been in a glacier or deep underground. How could it get from the ocean to your tap, and how long might that take?”
Debrief: Which moves needed the sun’s energy and which needed gravity? Why did the ocean take up almost all of the time?
Tip: Give everyone chance code 10 for the worksheet, then let students pick their own codes and compare whose droplet traveled longest.
Rock Cycle Builder
Hook: “The granite in a kitchen countertop could one day become a roof tile. How?”
Debrief: Which steps needed energy from the sun, and which needed Earth’s internal heat? Where did your rock take a shortcut?
Tip: Fill in the first row of the worksheet together, and show students that a dashed option explains why it can’t happen yet.
Standards
NGSS MS-ESS3-2 (Earthquake Epicenter Finder): Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform technologies to mitigate their effects.
NGSS MS-ESS2-3 (Plate Tectonics Explorer): Analyze and interpret data on the distribution of fossils and rocks, continental shapes, and seafloor structures to provide evidence of the past plate motions.
NGSS HS-ESS2-1 (Plate Tectonics Explorer): Develop a model to illustrate how Earth’s internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features.
NGSS MS-ESS2-2 (River Erosion Sandbox): Construct an explanation, based on evidence, of how geoscience processes have changed Earth’s surface at varying time and spatial scales.
NGSS HS-ESS2-5 (River Erosion Sandbox): Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
NGSS MS-ESS2-4 (Water Cycle Explorer): Develop a model to describe how water cycles through Earth’s systems, driven by energy from the sun and the force of gravity.
NGSS 5-ESS2-2 (Water Cycle Explorer): Describe and graph the amounts and percentages of salt water and fresh water in Earth’s reservoirs as evidence of how water is distributed on Earth.
NGSS MS-ESS2-1 (Rock Cycle Builder): Develop a model to describe how Earth’s materials cycle and the flow of energy that drives this cycling.
Contour Map Playground: Supports map-reading skills used in MS-ESS2-2 investigations (how geoscience processes shape Earth’s surface).
Science and engineering practices: analyzing and interpreting data; developing and using models; using mathematics and computational thinking. Each lab is a supplement to your curriculum rather than a complete unit.
Chromebooks, no logins
Runs in Chrome on Chromebooks and Safari on iPads, with nothing to install and no accounts. Every control works with a keyboard, and in the Epicenter Finder arrival times and distances can be typed instead of dragged.
Student privacy
Students never enter a name or any personal details, and nothing about them is sent to us. The Contour Map Playground keeps a student’s sculpted landscape in that browser only. The site uses Google Analytics for anonymous, aggregated usage statistics, and asks for consent first where the law requires it. Details are in the privacy policy.
Print-ready
Each worksheet and answer key prints on a single page. Use the Print button on each page, or paste the questions into your own Classroom assignment.
Questions teachers ask
Is Earth Science Lab free for classrooms?
Yes. Every lab, student activity and answer key is free, with no sign-up and no limit on the number of students.
Do students need accounts or logins?
No. Students open a link and start. Nothing is saved to an account, and worksheets are completed on paper or in your own Classroom assignment.
Does it work on Chromebooks and tablets?
Yes. The labs run in any modern browser, including Chrome on school Chromebooks and Safari on iPads, with nothing to install. JavaScript must be enabled. Every control works with a keyboard and on a touch screen.
Will my students see ads?
There are no ads on Earth Science Lab today. If ads are added later, students who arrive from Google Classroom, Canvas or Schoology, or through a Share to Google Classroom link, will not see them, and teacher pages will stay ad-free.
Which standards do the activities support?
The Epicenter Finder connects to NGSS MS-ESS3-2, the Plate Tectonics Explorer to MS-ESS2-3 and HS-ESS2-1, the River Erosion Sandbox to MS-ESS2-2 and HS-ESS2-5, the Water Cycle Explorer to MS-ESS2-4 and 5-ESS2-2, and the Rock Cycle Builder to MS-ESS2-1. The Contour Map Playground teaches the map-reading skills used in MS-ESS2-2 investigations. Each activity is a supplement to your curriculum, not a full unit.
Can the whole class open the same setup?
Yes. Set a lab up the way you want and press Copy share link: everyone who opens that link sees the same settings. In the Epicenter Finder’s Challenge mode everyone gets the same three quakes, so scores can be compared fairly.