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Newton Rocket Car
Students observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and record...
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The Human Memory
This is a well-designed, creative lesson to help young scholars learn more about the human memory. Working in pairs, students complete tasks and gather data. Excellent websites for resources are also provided.
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Utah's Harvest
Fourth graders recognize the importance of the physical geography on a community. In this commodities lesson, 4th graders graph the five most important commodities of Utah. Students understand why these commodities are so...
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Get into the Flow with an Interactive Volcano
Students research the structural elements of a volcano. They make a PowerPoint slide that contains five facts which will be added to a whole class slideshow. They add an interactive table of contents using action buttons.
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Parts of a Solar Panel-Part I
Learners examine electrical contacts, solar cells, and rechargeable batteries and compare and contrast the characteristics of a solar cell to a rechargeable battery in a hands-on activity. Students complete a worksheet as they...
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Indoor Environment: A Magazine Publication Project
Students demonstrate knowledge of Indoor Air Quality by creating a class magazine. A link to order a free Action Kit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is provided so teachers can build background knowledge. Performance...
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Unit Plan Template
Learners research the adaptations of desert animals and build their research skills. In this the adaptations of desert animals lesson, students describe major factors that desert animals have on their habitat. Learners explore...
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Simple Machines: Levers
Students discover the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines. They practice basic engineering theory through their hands-on demonstrations of levers.
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TE Activity: You're in Hot Water
Learners study different ways of using solar energy. They design a solar water heater and determine how much water it can heat in a set amount of time. They examine how the heaters work by solar radiation and convection.
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States of Matter
Students discuss a given set of questions based on Chemistry and matter and review a glossary of terms. They conduct experiments on each state of matter: "Dry ice and water, Dry ice and soap and Dry ice and Isopropyl Alcohol." and...
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Floodplain Modeling
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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Mineral Scavenger Hunt
Students complete a scavenger hunt worksheet as they find examples in their classroom, at home, etc., of minerals. Excellent worksheet!
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Simple Machines
Students explain how simple machines work and design their own machine. They use the Internet for research.
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Wheeling It In!
Students use everyday materials (milk cartons, water bottles, pencils, straws, candy) to build a small-scale transportation device that incorporates the wheel and axle and the lever. They race their carts/trucks, measure distance, time...
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Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Students explore the variety of ways to use solar energy. They investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design. They explain how passive solar...
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Falling Water
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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Stations of Light
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. Students investigate...
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Weather
Students explore the earth's atmosphere, weather, and climate. They begin class with a discussion about weather patterns, atmosphere, and the layers of the earth. After the class discussion, students rotate through four stations to...
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Funny Putty
Students are introduced to the properties of solids, liquids and gases. They see that colloids are mixtures which display the properties of more than one of these states. They engage in an excellent experiment which demonstrates this fact.
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Contours, Curves & Lines
Learners discover how straight lines and curves function in both art and the science of conservation tillage by building model "hills" and experimenting on them.
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How Does Your Garden Grow?
Students construct and maintain a school garden. In this gardening lesson, students plan the construction of the garden by writing letters to local businesses asking for supplies and materials; students build the garden using their math...
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Making a Rainstick
Students construct a rainstick. In this music lesson, students investigate the history of the rainstick by reading the book Bringing the Rain to the Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. Students express their feelings about the rain and create...
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From Rags to (Paper) Riches: Explore Colonial Papermaking
Young scholars explore Colonial papermaking. In this Colonial America U.S. history lesson plan, students analyze two poems written in the 1690s about the Rittenhouse paper mill to learn about papermaking. Young scholars...
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Simple Machines
Fourth graders discover the principles and uses of gears noting that they can be used to change the direction of motion or the speed of an object. They may also change the force and/or distance through which an object turns. They then...