Materials Requirements for GEMS Teacher's Guides.

What materials will I need to present a unit? This is one of the most frequent questions we are asked.

Every effort is made in GEMS to use materials that are easy-to-find, inexpensive, and safe for classroom use. GEMS activities emphasize everyday materials — paper, pens, tape, plastic cups, scissors, and the like. But occasionally we require slightly more complex and difficult to find materials. After all, the materials needed to create a streambed to model erosion on a mountainside are more complicated than those needed to experiment with bubbles. (But both are well worth doing!)

With each title below is a PDF document with the materials lists scanned directly from the pages of that book. Many of the materials needed are available from our kit manufacturer, Carolina Curriculum, pre-packed in quantities that are suitable for the activities outlined in the guide. (Most GEMS Guides can also be purchased from Carolina Curriculum as pre-constructed GEMS Kits; in some instances the convenience of a pre-built kit more than justifies the added expense.)

For a number of guides there are materials that you should purchase from Carolina Biological that are less than a complete kit, but that will make your experience much easier: Color Analyzers optics kit with filters and diffraction gratings; lenses for More Than Magnifiers; overhead transparencies for Moons of Jupiter. Those items can be purchased here.

Simply select a title to download the materials list: