Baylor College
What Is a One Part Per Million Solution?
Water may appear to be crystal clear, but there could be dissolved substances present. Lab groups make a one-part-per-million of a food coloring solution to demonstrate this concept. As part of an outstanding unit about water, this...
Baylor College
Can Nutrients in Water Cause Harm?
Ecology candidates culture pond water organisms over a few days time, then they experiment to find out how increasing nutrients affects the population. As part of a unit on water, this exploration gives your class an understanding of how...
Park City Historical Society & Museum
Oral History Interview Questions Worksheet
What is an oral history interview? What goes into the planning and what should be said? Why is it important that we know and learn from oral history? This is an excellent worksheet to support your young historians as they conduct...
Baylor College
What Makes Water Special?
Get close up and personal with a drop of water to discover how the polarity of its molecules affect its behavior. Elementary hydrologists split and combine water droplets, and also compare them to drops of oil. Much neater than placing a...
Baylor College
What Dissolves in Water?
One of water's claims to fame is as the universal solvent. Young physical scientists experiment to discover which materials dissolve in this special compound. You could never be more prepared for teaching this lesson plan than by using...
Baylor College
What Is the Water Cycle?
Small groups place sand and ice in a covered box, place the box in the sunlight, then observe as evaporation, condensation, and precipitation occur. These models serve as miniature water cycles and demonstrations of the three phases of...
Baylor College
Using Heat from the Sun
Let's heat things up! This simple experiment demonstrates for students the important role the sun plays in providing the earth with energy. Place one cup of water in direct sunlight and one in shade, then take measurements in order to...
Baylor College
Rainbow in the Room
Uncover the science behind the beautiful phenomena of rainbows with a simple demonstration. Shine light through different-sized containers of water as young scientists learn that rainbows occur when visible light is split up into its...
Baylor College
Measuring and Protecting Skin
Several subjects are addressed within the context of a science lesson about the sun's ultraviolet rays. Elementary earth scientists consider protection of the skin with sunscreens (health), estimating and measuring surface area or an...
PBS
Creating a Butterfly Garden and Habitat
This complete set of instructions for creating your very own butterfly garden and habitat is so cool! With some seeds and the handy resources in this activity, you and your class will be able to determine which type of habitat is best...
Smithsonian Institution
A Ticket to Philly—In 1769: Thinking about Cities, Then and Now
While cities had only a small fraction of the population in colonial America, they played a significant role in pre-revolutionary years, and this was certainly true for the largest city in the North American colonies: Philadelphia. Your...
Illustrative Mathematics
What is a Trapezoid? (Part 1)
Challenge your class to construct a definition for trapezoids. Looking at four examples and four non-examples, students individually create definitions and use them to classify an unknown shape. Allow for small group and whole-class...
Illustrative Mathematics
Fractions and Rectangles
Visual models are excellent teaching tools when explaining equivalent fractions. Looking at a rectangle cut into twelfths, students first identify the shaded fraction, and then explain whether the fraction is equal to one-fourth....
Baylor College
Fuel for Living Things
During a three-part lesson, learners make a cabbage juice pH indicator and use it to analyze the waste products of yeast after feeding them with sugar. The intent is to demonstrate how living organisms produce carbon dioxide, which is...
Baylor College
Serving Sizes
Are serving sizes for different foods always appropriate for what you need? In this hands-on activity, learners work in groups to estimate what one serving size of various foods are, and then evaluate their hypotheses by measuring real...
California Academy of Science
What's on a Penny?
As a lesson on scientific observation, have your class investigate the features of a penny and a nickel. Working in pairs, they practice writing detailed descriptions using their senses and a ruler to gather information. This is an...
Illustrative Mathematics
Who is the Tallest?
A simple question, with a not-so-simple answer. Working with whole and mixed number measurements in inches, feet, and yards presents a problem with many possible solutions. A great activity that challenges the minds of young...
Illustrative Mathematics
Price per Pound and Pounds per Dollar
Help learners understand the concept of unit rate as it is applied to buying beans at a grocery store. The objective is to determine the unit rate in two ways, and then apply each ratio to an additional problem. The attached commentary...
Illustrative Mathematics
Dividing by One-Half
Understanding when to divide by two or one-half can be confusing. Here is an activity that gives four different scenarios. It is up to your number crunchers to decide if they divide by two or one-half. The easiest way to approach the...
Illustrative Mathematics
What is a Trapezoid? (Part 2)
This collaborative activity investigates the meaning of a trapezoid and a parallelogram. It begins by presenting two different definitions of a trapezoid. Learners are to reason abstractly the difference between the two definitions and...
Illustrative Mathematics
Banana Pudding
Making banana pudding despite misplacing your one-cup measuring cup is easy as long as you can find your quarter-cup measuring cup! This real-life activity provides a good opportunity for learners to interpret division of a whole number...
Curated OER
The Class Trip
Mrs. Moore's class is trying to earn money for a trip to the science museum, but how much more do they need? Solve this problem with your own class as they develop their ability to model real-life situations algebraically. As an added...
Curated OER
Symmetry of the Addition Table
Help your class discover the commutative property of addition with this exploration of the addition table. By folding and coloring the table, a symmetry is found that directs students to an understanding of this crucial mathematical...
Curated OER
Snow Day
It's a snow day, and two brothers attending schools with different schedules each got a late start to the day. But who had the shorter school day? That's what your class will find out as they apply their knowledge of fractions to this...