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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Simple Machines

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students explain how simple machines work and design their own machine. They use the Internet for research.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

TE Lesson: Renewable Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars examine renewable energy sources such as solar, water, and wind. They experiment to determine how renewable energy is transformed into electricity. They investigate the role of engineers who work in the field of renewable...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What's The Matter: A Sinker or Floater?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students conduct an experiment. In this water lesson, students watch the lesson "Float and Sink" on an interactive website. Students learn how to test items in water and then work in groups to test their items. Students discuss their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Principles of Flight: Bernoulli's Lift

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students discover how air pressure effects flight.  In this physics lesson, students create two types of airplane wings so they can observe the way air pressure creates lift.  Students utilize a printout to create the airplane wings.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

An American Scene Painter

For Teachers Pre-K - 4th
Students study the work of American scene painter Charles Burchfield. In this visual arts lesson plan, students research the nature paintings of Burchfield and then paint their own watercolor scenes in his style.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Falling Water

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling water can...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Minerals

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Young scholars apply rules to compare and rank the hardness and softness of minerals. They perform a scratch test on four unknown mineral samples, read a bar graph that illustrates the comparative hardness and softness of four named...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bird Bodies

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students read about and explore the different types of birds. They discuss how all birds are alike and what makes some different from the others. They experiment picking up "food items" using different tools that represent different...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Haunting Music

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students discover music that was inspired by the spooky and bizarre. In this music of Hector Berlioz and Camille Saint-Saens lesson, students identify elements of music and listen to the Symphonie Fantastique and Danse Macabre. Students...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Does One Tree a Forest Make?

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Students take a walk around the schoolyard looking at and identifying the trees. One leaf for each tree is collected. A chart is developed that represents the population of trees on the school ground. They keep journals and write an essay.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making the Connection With Quilts

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders engage in a lesson which integrates the study of the Underground Railroad in Indiana with a Language Arts unit on quilts. They write a book report on one of the quilt books read in class and design a quilt block for the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Newton Gets Me Moving

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students discuss Newton's laws of motion. The conduct motion experiments by building "Newton Rocket Cars" from assorted materials. They propel the cars with rubber bands and wooden blocks and record the distance traveled on data sheets.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Floodplain Modeling

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students simulate the impact of fluctuating river volumes on structures and landforms. They experiment with table top-sized riverbed models and water. Students consider how human design can help mitigate the effects of a flood.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Hot Problem Solving

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students follow the steps of the engineering design process to meet the challenge of getting their entire class from one location on the playground to the sidewalk without touching the ground between. The class develops a well...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Spear Point Production

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students explore that prehistoric people had to have a good knowledge of the physical world around them in order to choose the best material for spear production. They also explore that prehistoric people were intelligent beings who...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Making the Connection With Quilts

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders explore history of Underground Railroad in Indiana and discover how slaves were assisted on their journey using codes displayed in different quilt blocks. Students examine connection quilts have to ancestry and family...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Life of a Navajo Weaver

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Students explore Native American weaving patterns and dance movements. In this Native Americans lesson, students view examples of weaving patterns on the Internet and compare the patterns to a Native American dance. Students demonstrate...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Ramp Builder

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
Students plan and build a ramp designed for maximum distance a car can travel. In this physics and data collection math lesson, students work in groups to design a ramp using various household materials. Students test small cars on their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Gravity Launch

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Young scholars examine how gravity affects launching rockets into space. In this physical science lesson plan, students review the concept of gravity and use an interactive online site, "Gravity Launch," to simulate a rocket launch.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Force

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders move a variety of objects in different ways to observe the different forces. For this physics lesson, 5th graders observe pushing, pulling, gravity, and friction. The hands-on component, and teamwork involved, should make...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Art Through the Eyes of Youth

For Teachers K - 8th
Students take a field trip to an art gallery reflecting on the paintings they like the most. Individually, they use magazines to find pictures related to their personality. In pairs, they make a mask to represent their ethnic group and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Fulcrums

For Teachers 3rd - 4th
Students engage in a lesson that concentrates on the use of a lever and fulcrum. They define how a lever is used to lift a load. The lesson has background information to justify it. Students demonstrate how to use the lever while lifting...
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Lesson Plan
Michigan State University

Gases Matter

For Teachers 1st - 8th Standards
Young scientists learn that seeing isn't necessarily believing when it comes to the states of matter. After performing a fun class demonstration that models the difference between solids, liquids, and gases, children complete a series of...
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Lesson Plan
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Be a Scanning Probe Microscope

For Teachers 3rd - 9th Standards
Extensive reading is done in order to learn about scanning probe microscopy and nanoscale. Afterward, individuals use a pencil to probe an unidentified object that is inside of a box so that they cannot see it. Using only what they could...