Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama
It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...
Curated OER
Building a School Model: An Academic Challenge
First and second graders explore aspects of design. They discuss and design the ideal classroom building complete with window and door placement. Additionally, students observe and note features found in neighboring classrooms as...
NASA
Modeling the Periodic Table
Imagine a race to complete a puzzle where each person has the same 50 pieces, knows they are missing other pieces, and must figure out how everything fits together. The winner gets fame, listed in books for years to come, and a financial...
Curated OER
The Sun: Earth's External Heat Engine - Part 1 of the Astronomy Model
Designed by School Power...NaturallySM, this lesson familiarizes advanced earth science and physics learners about the variables that affect our supply of solar energy. They examine gas spectra and perform calculations. There is an...
University of Nottingham
Modeling Conditional Probabilities: 2
Bring the concept of conditional probability alive by allowing your classes to explore different probability scenarios. Many tasks have multiple solutions that encourage students to continue exploring their problems even after a solution...
National Wildlife Federation
Wind Power
Many have played with seed helicopters at one time or another. Learners use paper to create their own helicopters to model the Linden seed. After a discussion of seed dispersal, they take their models outside, let them go, and make...
Teach Engineering
Making Moon Craters
Create an egg-citing study of energy. Pupils investigate the effect of height and mass on the overall amount of energy of a falling object. The fourth segment in a six-part series on energy uses a weighted egg falling from different...
101 Questions
Neptune
Examine an innovative approach to a large-scale model. Pupils across the state of Maine teamed up to create a model of the solar system that spans 40 miles. Put thinking skills to work within your classes as they make the calculations to...
Teach Engineering
Airplane Tails and Wings: Are You in Control?
Keep everything under control. The lesson, the 16th segment in a 22-part unit, provides a more detailed look at the parts of a plane, specifically the control surfaces. Pupils learn about the construction of the wings and the tails and...
Curated OER
Sentence Modeling
Young writers try their hand at writing descriptive sentences. Learners look at four photographs that are accompanied by sentence frames. Their job is to fill in the frame with appropriate and descriptive words based on the photograph. A...
EngageNY
Comparing Estimated Probabilities to Probabilities Predicted by a Model
Small groups devise a plan to find the bag that contains the larger percentage of blue chips. they then institute their plans and compare results to the actual quantities in the bags.
NASA
Development of a Model: Analyzing Elemental Abundance
How do scientists identify which elements originate from meteorites? Scholars learn about a sample of material found in a remote location, analyzing the sample to determine if it might be from Earth or not. They study elements, isotopes,...
NASA
Exploration of a Problem: Making Sense of the Elements
When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to best...
Curated OER
Are You Listening?
To underscore the importance of practicing good listening skills class members engage in a series of activities that model poor listening skills. In pairs and then as a whole group, class members enact different, more positive techniques...
Curated OER
Modeling: Having Kittens
Cats can't add, but they do multiply! Determine the number of descendants of a single cat given specific facts about cats and kittens. The lesson focuses on developing strategies for problem solving using both individual and group work....
Curated OER
Model Air Plane Acrobatics
Your young airplane enthusiasts will enjoy this collaborative task of graphing an airplane's distance from the ground as it flies in a perfect circle. They will discover that they have graphed a sinusoidal function that comes from the...
PHET
Iron Filings and Magnetic Field Lines
How do magnetic fields differ? Allow scholars to see the difference between 2-D and 3-D magnetic fields. They construct models of both and observe how they are similar and different. It is the fifth installment of an 18-part unit.
CK-12 Foundation
Factor Polynomials Using Special Products: Difference of Two Squares
Factoring patterns are not magic! Show your classes how to model the difference of two squares' factors using an area model. Learners manipulate the width and length of two squares to represent the polynomial a^2-b^2. They use the model...
Thoughtful Education Press
Personal Narratives: Learning from Lessons Life Teaches Us
"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...
Leadership Challenge
Inspire Students Today to Make a Difference in the Future
Your search for a year's worth of leadership lessons is over! A lesson in a character education series provides a full two semesters of inspiring leadership activities. The resource includes individual and group challenges to ensure a...
Curated OER
Barbie Bungee
Middle and high schoolers collect and analyze their data. In this statistics lesson, pupils analyze graphs for linear regression as they discuss the relationship of the function to the number of rubber bands and the distance of the...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Divisibility Rules
Learning division is a challenge for many young mathematicians, but this presentation on divisibility rules can make it much easier. Seven different rules are clearly explained and modeled with the support of multiple examples. Consider...
Curated OER
Make Your Fortune in Stocks
Fourth graders participate in a stock investment activity in which they research stocks to place in an imaginary portfolio. They invest $10,000 in a variety of stocks and track their progress using the Internet or newspapers.
Curated OER
Making an Inference from an Implied Message Within a Text
Show your scholars that they make inferences every day and might not even know it. Through scaffolded instruction, they break down the process of drawing information from context. Using example sentences and didactic questioning,...