Curated OER
Technology use survey
Survey your class to find out how often and what technology they use. They will answer 5 questions to 5 students and then create a short report on what they learned about their classmates' technology use.
Curated OER
Blogging To Create A Community of Writers # 5 of 7
Here is activity 5 from a 7 activity unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this activity is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use material data to study the past. They compose...
Curated OER
Jeopardy Game Template
Oh Boy! What you have found is not just another Jeopardy game, but a template you can use to create your own. Just imagine 25 students racing to provide the question for the answer, Manifest Destiny. Complete instructions for creating a...
Curated OER
Riding the Backchannel Wave
Increase student engagement and take your classroom discussion to new depths
DiscoverE
Hoop Glider
Fly into an engineering lesson sure to get your scholars' interest off the ground. Young pupils create hoop gliders out of straws and paper hoops. Adjusting the size and number of the hoops lets them investigate the effect on flight...
Science Friday
Make a Model of a Home Made From Shipping Containers
Build a scale model of a home built out of shipping containers. A hands-on activity has scholars watch a video about a home built from shipping containers and then design their own home. They build scale models of their designed homes...
Discovery Education
It's Too Loud!
STEM scholars investigate sound attenuation by conducting an experiment in which they compare the farthest distance that they can hear a sound with and without ear protection.
TryEngineering
Choose Your Best Way
Find the best path through town. The lesson teaches future computer programmers about networks and paths in graph theory. They develop a network of their towns to determine the most efficient path to visit each of their homes.
TryEngineering
Search Engines
Learn how to find things quickly and efficiently on the Internet. The lesson teaches how search engines work and how to efficiently use them. It includes an activity where groups develop search queries to find sites using given criteria.
TryEngineering
Circuits and Boolean Expressions
Teach basic logic using Boolean operators. Young computer scientists learn about the operators NOT, AND, and OR, and how they can be expressed using Boolean notation, logic gates, or truth tables. Along the way, they learn about half...
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Waterproof that Roof!
Learners design and build model houses, with an emphasis on waterproof roofs. They perform tests to see if their models are as waterproof as they think.
Teach Engineering
Wimpy Radar Antenna
The Diary of a Wimpy Antenna? In the last installment of a six-part series, your class constructs a model of a radio antenna and tests its torque. Pupils use the results to design a better model that resists bending and twisting forces.
Teach Engineering
Investigating Torque
Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.
Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Teach Engineering
Fairly Fundamental Facts About Forces and Structures
Don't twist and turn looking for a resource. The first installment of a six-part series teaches young engineers about the five fundamental forces of compression, tension, shear, bending, and torsion. These forces help explain different...
Teach Engineering
Get Me Off This Planet
What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits are used...
Teach Engineering
Weather Basics
Weather — there's more to it than meets the eye of the storm. With this resource young meteorologists learn about the basics of weather, including information about the factors that influence the weather, common weather vocabulary, and...
Computer Science Unplugged
Harold the Robot — Thinking About Programming Languages
Get young programmers thinking about programming languages with an activity that asks class members to craft directions for one person (teacher, another adult, or a class mate) acting as a robot. Participants direct the robot to...
Computer Science Unplugged
Drawing Lines with Pixels
How do the computers keep it straight? Using the provided algorithms, class members draw a line and a circle using pixels. They then check the drawings using a straight edge and compass to determine the accuracy of their drawings.
Computer Science Unplugged
Sharing Secrets—Information Hiding Protocols
Did you know that you can find the average age of a group of people without anyone having to real their age? This resource provides directions for way to do just that. After the activity, class members read a short passage that provides...
Intel
Prototyping
I need something to test. The three sessions in this instructional activity have individuals build and test a prototype of their design. The first two sessions are devoted to prepping for the prototype by drawing up specifications and...
Wind Wise Education
Can Wind Power Your Classroom?
Can you power this? Individuals do an energy audit for the classroom to determine the amount of electricity needed to power it. Using either live data or sample data from wind turbines they decide whether it would power the classroom....
Teach Engineering
Lighting in My Classroom Survey
How much energy does it take to light a room? Class members calculate the total wattage it takes to light the classroom. Through calculations, responsible scientists determine the cost of energy for the year, then figure out how much...
Teach Engineering
Breathing Cells
Pairs work together to determine whether unknown solutions are either acids or bases by using a red cabbage indicator solution. After determining the general pH of the unknown solution, classmates blow into the same indicator after...