American Museum of Natural History
Make Your Own Creatures of Light
Bioluminescent animals are the focus of a hands-on craft in which scholars create a scene of either a land or sea bioluminescent creature.
Nemours KidsHealth
Smoking: Grades 6-8
Light up middle schoolers' understanding of the monetary and health costs of smoking with two activities. First, class members calculate how much a smoker would spend in a year if they smoke a pack a week or a day. They then explore...
Nemours KidsHealth
Alcohol: Grades 6-8
To get the word out about the realities of teens and tweens drinking alcohol, class members engage in two activities. For the first, groups design highway billboards about the dangers of alcohol drinking. Class members then create a...
Nemours KidsHealth
Water Safety: Grades 6-8
Taking care of younger children is often the first job for many middle schoolers. Learning how to keep themselves and their young charges safe, especially around water, is essential. Two activities teach teens, and tweens water safety...
Nemours KidsHealth
Food Safety: Grades 6-8
The flu or food poisoning? Middle schoolers learn how to safely prepare, cook, clean up, and store food with a instructional activity that has them first read articles about food safety. Partners create a video that shows them modeling...
Nemours KidsHealth
Healthy Snacking: Grades 6-8
Two activities focus on healthy snacking. In the first activity, scholars create a poster displaying two messages—pack a healthy snack and make good food choices. The second activity challenges pupils to draft a snack list and tag along...
Judicial Branch of California
Balancing Act: The Three Branches
What do hula hoops and the American system of government have in common? Using hands-on station activities, pupils consider the roles of the three branches of government. A script for teachers and writing prompts help round out a...
DocsTeach
Apollo-Soyuz: Space Age Detente
The Space Race saw the Soviet Union and the US go from competitors to partners. Scholars read a letter regarding the first docking of the US and Soviet space craft. Young historians also complete a written assignment and participate in...
American Chemical Society
Different Substances React Differently
Looks don't tell the whole story. Young experimenters explore reactions with substances that look similar. They observe the reactions that take place when combined with baking soda and use indicators to conclude they react differently...
American Chemical Society
Density and Sinking and Floating
Keep your class afloat with a hands-on density lesson. The challenging lesson has learners experiment with different materials to compare their densities. They learn that increasing or decreasing the amount of the material doesn't change...
American Chemical Society
Using Dissolving to Identify Substances
It's time to test observation and dissolving skills! After investigating the process of dissolving in previous lessons, pupils see if they can use their dissolving skills to identify substances. They dissolve known and unknown substances...
Bonneville
Exploring Buck and Boost Converters
Boost one's knowledge of converters. The fourth of seven installments in the Off the Grid unit looks at buck and boost converters, which lower and raise the input voltage. Scholars apply the converters to adjust the output voltage to...
Bonneville
Phone Charger Efficiency
Be efficient in learning about efficiency. A fun hands-on activity has pupils calculate the efficiency of cell phone chargers by measuring the power in and power out. They also learn how to read and use circuit diagrams.
Bonneville
Electrical Energy and Solar Module Efficiency
It's much more efficient if everyone knows the relevant terms. Pupils research vocabulary terms related to electric currents to start a unit on solar energy. They then use a multimeter to measure the voltage and current for a solar...
American Chemical Society
A Closer Look at Crystals
It's about to become crystal clear! Learners compare and contrast three different types of crystal substances. First they observe their structure and then investigate how they interact with various substances.
American Chemical Society
Mentos and Diet Coke!
Let the bubbles tell the story. Using a hands-on lesson, budding scientists learn how carbon dioxide in soda interacts with objects placed in the soda. The lesson explains how the gas adheres to the surface of the objects based on the...