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Lesson Plan
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University of Colorado

Great Red Spot Pinwheel

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The great red spot on Jupiter is 12,400 miles long and 7,500 miles wide. In this sixth part of a 22-part series, individuals model the rotation of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. To round out the activity, they discuss their findings as a...
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Lesson Plan
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University of Colorado

Happy Landings: A Splash or a Splat?

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Huygens spacecraft landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, making it the farthest landing from Earth ever made by a spacecraft. In this hands-on activity, the 12th installment of 22, groups explore how density affects speed. To do this,...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Inspector Detector

For Teachers 4th - 8th
How do spacecraft detect magnetic fields? The fourth installment of a five-part unit has learners develop a device with magnets that allows for the detection of magnetic fields. They use a map of an imaginary planet to try out their...
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Handout
National Institute of Open Schooling

The Gaseous State

For Students 7th - 12th Standards
Sixth in a series of 36, this lesson focuses on gases and their behavior in given situations. Learners review the states of matter and then focus on gases, specifically learning Boyle's, Charles's, Avogadro's Laws, Dalton's, and Graham's...
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Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Richter Scale

For Teachers 6th Standards
The 12th lesson in a series of 20 opens with a demonstration of exponential functions using pasta. This concept is connected to the Richter Scale, which is also an exponential function. Scholars compare the exponential scale that...
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Lesson Plan
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Chicago Botanic Garden

Historical Climate Cycles

For Students 7th - 9th Standards
Scientists use ice core samples to obtain temperatures of the earth from 400,000 years ago! The third of five lessons instructs pupils to interpret historical climate data to see changes over time. In part I, participants interpret...
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Lesson Plan
Science Matters

A Model of Plate Faults

For Teachers 6th Standards
The San Andreas fault is one of the longest fault zones in the world. In a series of 20 lessons, the fourth lesson has pupils use a paper model to recreate various types of plate faults. Each is held in position then drawn into a science...
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Lesson Plan
Science Matters

Ring of Fire

For Teachers 6th Standards
Over a period of 35 years, earthquakes and volcanoes combined only accounted for 1.5 percent of the deaths from natural disasters in the United States. The 15th lesson in a 20-part series connects the locations of earthquakes and...
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Lesson Plan
LABScI

Catapult: Flight of the Marshmallows

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Watch your marshmallows fly. The engaging STEM activity has groups create a catapult to launch marshmallows. After testing their prototypes, they consider improvements and redesign their catapults.
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Bow and Arrow

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Where does the energy of an arrow come from? Is it from the person, the bow, or somewhere else? A simulation allows scholars to adjust the stretch distance and the elastic constant in order to understand where the energy comes from, what...
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Interactive
CK-12 Foundation

Electric Ice Sheet

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
Tommy is trapped on an ice bridge and needs you to balance the charges so he doesn't fall into the icy water! Scholars apply Coulomb's Law, which relates to both the strength and the distance between charges. They work with these two...
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Island Rotation: Lesson Plan 1

For Teachers 4th - 12th Standards
How do scientists provide evidence to support the theories they put forth? What clues do they put together to create these theories? After watching West of the West's documentary Island Rotation class members engage in a series of...
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Lesson Plan
Polar Trec

Beacon Valley Weather

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
In Beacon Valley, katabatic winds regularly knock fit adults to the ground. The lesson compares the actual temperatures to the wind chill after factoring in katabatic winds in Beacon Valley. Scholars learn to calculate wind chill and...
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Lesson Plan
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PBS

Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Commitment to Recovery

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Recovery from substance addiction is an ongoing process. The final lesson in a series about painkiller abuse and addiction prompts learners to research various recovery options before writing a short story about a character who is going...
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Lesson Plan
Cornell University

Catapult

For Students 4th - 12th Standards
Studying levers couldn't be more exciting! Learners build their own catapults and test the results as they make adjustments to the fulcrum. They compete against other groups to create the most accurate apparatus.
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Lesson Plan
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Beyond Benign

Breaking the Tension

For Students 6th - 8th
The tension builds as learners experiment in your classroom. The 17th installment in a 24-part series has scholars investigate the concept of surface tension. After discovering characteristics of surface tension, they add a compound...
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Lab Resource
Colorado State University

What Is a "Convection Cell"?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Round and round in circles it goes! A hands-on activity has learners recreate a model of a convection cell. They watch as the difference in density of their materials creates a current.
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Activity
DiscoverE

Safe Landing

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Watch out below! Future engineers come up with methods to ensure that a ball in a cup stays in the cup even after dropped from a given height. It might be prudent to include some kind of shock absorber in the cup. Parachutes are a good...
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Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Siphon Pump

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Defy the laws of gravity. A simple activity has learners create a siphon pump for water. The challenge is to get water to flow upwards through a tube.
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Activity
DiscoverE

Paper Tower

For Students 3rd - 8th
Read all about it! Challenge your class to build taller and stronger. Newspapers provide the means to build towers in a simple activity. Scholars try to build as tall a tower as possible with just two sheets of newspaper.
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Activity
DiscoverE

An Egg-Citing Ride

For Teachers K - 8th
Wheeeee! Young thrill seekers build a bungee jump—not for themselves, though, but for an egg. The egg must fall from a height of five feet and rebound within two inches of the ground or floor.
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Lesson Plan
DiscoverE

Kicking Machine

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Don't kick the resource to the curb; you'll definitely regret it. Future engineers devise a kicking machine that launches a ping-pong ball toward a target. They can use a pendulum, a rubber band, or both, depending on whether they want...
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Lesson Plan
Teach Engineering

Exploring Energy: Energy Conversion

For Teachers 5th - 6th Standards
The energy is not really lost, it is just converted to a different form. Pupils learn about the conversion of energy in the fifth segment of an energy unit with six parts. Learners develop an understanding of the conservation of energy...
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Lesson Plan
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network

How Dry am I? Exploring Biomimicry and Nanotechnology

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Help your classes feel like they can walk on water! An engaging inquiry-based instructional activity has young scholars experiment with different surface coatings. They make observations about their properties and how they relate to the...

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