Mountain West Teaching Resources (ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY)
Mountain West Teaching Resources (ID, MT, NV, NM, UT, WY)
Physics, biology and environmental science units for classrooms across the Mountain West, written to the concepts each state's standards describe, with four worksheet levels, editable slides, timed plans and complete answer keys.
Start with one lesson →Resources that fit
Units that travel well across the Mountain West
The levers and pulleys worksheets at $14.99 are the quickest way in; the physiology and ecosystem units suit high school groups; the Grades 2–4 environment bundle covers elementary; the chemistry curriculum runs a year.
Lever Law & Pulley Systems Worksheets for Grades 7–9
Diabetes & Obesity Teaching Resources | High School Biology | Human Physiology & Health Science
Ecosystem Management | Biodiversity, Sustainability & Ecological Systems
Environment Science Bundle for Grades 2–4
Chemistry Complete – Ready-to-Use Curriculum for Middle School Chemistry
Why teachers here use these
What these six states share, and what they do not
Six states, six sets of standards, and a common set of working conditions. Idaho now runs four-day calendars in more than fifty districts, and rural Wyoming does the same, which turns an ordinary lesson into something that must fill a longer day and then survive a three-day gap. Montana's Indian Education for All is a constitutional and statutory mandate reaching every school, grade and subject, so planning there carries a requirement most states never put in writing. New Mexico teaches under the continuing court oversight of Yazzie/Martinez, the ruling that found the state had failed its at-risk, Native American, English-learner and low-income students and that drives its Indian Education Act funding. Nevada sends every eleventh grader to the ACT; in Utah a 2026 bill to let some charter schools opt out of RISE testing failed in the House. Underneath the differences sit distance, small staffs, and teachers covering subjects outside their training. A finished unit is worth most exactly where there is no colleague down the hall teaching the same course.
A sequence you can run
Five lessons, however your week is shaped
Each unit is a sequence rather than a single activity, so it can run as five short periods, two long blocks, or four days with the fifth left for the students who need more time.
- Open with the object or the dataA pulley system, a set of readings, a photograph of a landscape. Students describe what they see before any term is introduced, which gives a quiet class an easy way in.
- Teach the model from the deckThe slides carry the explanation and one worked example. Every slide is editable, so you can swap in a local example — a river, a mine site, a piece of equipment students know.
- Set the level each student needsFour versions of the same task. The lower two shorten the reading and separate the steps; the upper two ask for a prediction and then a justification of the result.
- Mark together before the gapWith complete keys, checking happens in class. On a four-day calendar this matters: you find the misunderstanding on Thursday rather than discovering it the following Monday.
- Finish with written work you keepThe closing task produces something to grade and file. It is the piece you reach for at a conference, an IEP meeting, or when a student transfers into your room mid-year.
What's covered
What every unit includes
Each download is sized for a real class period rather than a warm-up, and the files arrive editable so you can adjust them before anything is printed.
- Worksheets at four challenge levels
- Editable slide deck
- Complete answer keys
- Lesson plan with timings
- Printable and digital formats
- Instant download after purchase
Browse by jurisdiction
Pick the state you teach in
Each state page names the standards, the assessment your grades actually sit, and five units chosen for that jurisdiction. Go there when you want the detail for your own building.
Make it work in your building
Built for long blocks and thin staffing
Distance changes what differentiation has to do. In a school where one teacher covers two or three sciences and there is no specialist to hand a struggling student to, the support has to sit inside the worksheet itself. That is what the four levels are for: the same investigation and the same question, with the reading load and the amount of structure adjusted. Every student produces written work, and it stays comparable because the underlying task is identical, so you finish the unit with a folder showing what each student can do.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Are these tied to any of these six states' standards officially?
No. These are independent teaching resources, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by any state education agency. Each unit is written to the concepts and skills state academic standards describe for its subject and grade band, which is why the same file serves classrooms in six states. Open the preview and check it against your own district's scope and sequence before buying.
How do these sit with the state tests across the region?
The tests differ: the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), the Montana Comprehensive Assessment System (MontCAS), the New Mexico Measures of Student Success and Achievement (NM-MSSA), RISE in Utah and WY-TOPP in Wyoming, with the ACT standing in for a state exam in Nevada's eleventh grade. These units build the reading, vocabulary and written explanation those assessments draw on. We sell no practice tests and make no claim about scores.
Does a bundle make sense for a small school?
Often more than in a large one. If you are the only chemistry teacher and you will teach the course again next year, a complete curriculum costs less per teaching week than assembling single units topic by topic, and it goes through the office as one purchase order. Single units are the right choice when you want one topic or want to see the format first.
How do I fit these into a scope and sequence I did not write?
Read the lesson plan, find the weeks in your district calendar where the concepts already belong, and drop the unit there rather than reordering your year around it. Everything is Word and PowerPoint, so matching the vocabulary in your pacing guide, cutting a lesson you already cover, or adding a school header takes minutes rather than an evening.
Can students who struggle with reading use these worksheets?
Layout here is plain on purpose: clear headings, one instruction per line, room to write, and nothing decorative competing with the question. The four levels differ in reading load as well as difficulty, so identical content reaches a student with less text in front of them. Editable Word files let you enlarge the type before printing.
Our district runs a four-day week. Will a five-lesson unit still fit?
Yes, and it is one of the reasons teachers on those calendars buy finished units. Four longer days hold the same sequence with the stages combined, and the timings in the lesson plan show you what fits where. The extension tasks give the fifth day's worth of material to students who need it, and nothing depends on a lesson happening the next morning.
A year of chemistry in one download
The complete chemistry curriculum sequences a middle school year of lessons, slides and answer keys into a single purchase.
See the chemistry curriculum →