Scholars participate in two design challenges concerning flight in the second instructional activity of the series. They design balloon crafts that have neutral buoyancy and forward motion.

Investigate invisible forces. Young engineers design a setup that changes the direction of a steel ball using a magnetic force. The purpose of the setup is to model the gravitational pull of spacecraft by planetary bodies.

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...

Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second lesson of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.

Launch a activity on flight with a challenging resource that asks scholars to first brainstorm and test ways to move a ping pong ball with given materials, then apply the results to design a launcher for them.

The fourth installment of a five-part unit has young engineers designing and testing hoop gliders. They adjust the ratio of the front loop and back loop of the glider to determine the best design for the longest flight.

Groups explore concepts of flight by creating paper airplanes from different types of paper and testing their flight. They use the results to identify the optimal material.

Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!

Young entomologists construct three types of insect traps—pitfall, pollinator, and panel—before setting their traps out and observing what they caught. They then observe what types of insects the different traps attract.

See how Boolean algebra relates to video games with a lesson that teaches young scholars how to use Boolean algebra to create rules for a virtual world. They test the rule base for consistency in groups.

What can a mural teach pupils about computer science? The lesson has scholars create a mural on a wall to learn about bitmap and vector graphics. Along the way, they learn about the graphics coordinate system.

Get siblings to do your work. Scholars learn how to perform summations of arithmetic sequences in an innovative lesson. They use iterations, smaller siblings (tail-end recursion), and the divide-and-conquer approach.

Be sure to use this sweet resource. Scholars perform an experiment using sugar to investigate how surface area relates to the coarseness of sugar. They consider how this concept connects to nanotechnology.

Does your shirt hate water? In the activity, future engineers observe the hydrophobic effect in fabrics. They brainstorm and test some ideas for waterproofing fabrics.

Discover a world too small to see. In the lesson, young scientists learn about nanotechnology and brainstorm ideas for new applications of it. They perform an activity to determine how surface area changes when objects are made smaller...

Get learners excited about reading with literature circles! Small groups discuss the day's reading in various roles, including Discussion Director, Summarizer, Word Wizard, Literary Luminary, Travel Tracer, Connector, and Fact Finder,...

When going for distance, does it make a difference at what angle you launch the rocket? Teams of three launch foam rockets, varying the launch angle and determining how far they flew. After conducting the series of flights three times,...

Join the tree house detectives in learning about the processes of the water cycle, water conservation, water treatment, and water as a limited resource.

Heat things up in your physical science class with this interactive lesson series on thermodynamics. Through a series of class demonstrations and experiments, young scientists learn how heat is transferred through conduction,...

What a fantastic project idea for discussing not only the history of America's expansion into the West, but for reviewing any major unit of history in your class. Pupils build stamp collections to visually represent themes of the...

Give young geologists an up close and personal look at volcanoes with a series of hands-on earth science lessons. Whether they are investigating the properties of igneous rocks, building their own volcanoes, or making...

Young mathematicians fold and flick their way to a deeper understanding of statistics with a fun, hands-on math unit. Over the course of four lessons, students use paper footballs to generate data as they learn how to create line...

Despite the slightly off-putting title, the instructions and activities detailed in these project guidelines for researching a noteworthy figure will serve as a fantastic supplement to your next famous person research...

Give young scientists a new appreciation of fresh, clean drinking water. After learning about the ways astronauts recycle their air and water, your class will work in small groups creating and testing their very own water...