Wild BC
Bearly Any Ice
After reviewing food chains, your class members participate in an arctic predator-prey game that exemplifies the impact of climate change of food availability. If you are in a hurry, skip this lesson, but if you have the time to...
Teach Engineering
Solving Energy Problems
Here's your chance to save the world. The eighth lesson in a 25-part Energy Systems and Solutions unit has young scientists come up with ideas for individual or group projects. They identify ways to solve the energy crisis. Hope they...
Teach Engineering
Bend That Bar
Bend it, but don't break it. Groups investigate the strength of different materials. Using a procedure in the seventh segment of a 22-part series on aviation, pupils determine how far a rod will bend. They determine the strength-to-mass...
Teach Engineering
Glue Sticks Bend and Twist
Stick this resource in the "Use" column. In the second installment of a six-part series, learners use glue sticks to demonstrate forces. Using glue sticks, instructors can demonstrate tension, compression, and torsion.
Curated OER
Starting With Stats
Statisticians analyze a data set of student IQs by finding measures of central tendency and dispersion such as mean, median, mode, and quartiles. They practice using a graphing calculator to find the values and analyze box plots and...
Computer Science Unplugged
Count the Dots – Binary Numbers
Did you know you can send a message using only zeroes and ones? This interactive resource presents an introduction to binary numbers. Through code cards, pupils learn to convert binary numbers to decimal numbers.
Teach Engineering
Chair Design
Can you design the perfect chair? Scholars apply the engineering design process to design and build a prototype of a new type of chair from wires. They test their designs with a wooden artist model or stuffed animal.
Curated OER
Map Your Favorite Sports Team's Next Road Trip
Students track a sports team across the country. They use a map scale to calculate the number of miles traveled by their sports team on a trip, conduct Internet research, and calculate how much it would cost them to go along on the trip.
Teach Engineering
Gumdrop Atoms
There's nothing sticky about the resource, unless you count the gumdrops! Scholars create a model of a lithium atom, complete with protons, neutrons, and electrons. It's just that these models are made with gumdrops and toothpicks.
Teach Engineering
Machines and Tools (Part 2)
Which pulley system will give us a whale of a good time? Teams compare the theoretical and actual mechanical advantages of different pulley systems. They then form a recommendation for how to move a whale from an aquarium back to the ocean.
Teach Engineering
Off-Road Wheelchair Challenge
Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...
Teach Engineering
Cost Comparisons
Our final proposal for the cost of the bridge requested is ... In the last segment in a series of 10, pairs work together to develop a proposal for a city bridge design. The class completes a cost comparison between concrete and steel to...
Teach Engineering
Messin' with Mixtures
Do you separate your trail mix before eating it? Then you've been separating mixtures your whole life! Scholars model a contaminated soil sample using trail mix and estimate the percentage of each component. They consider how to clean up...
Curated OER
Write a Description
Finding the central idea is the focus of this lesson. Middle schoolers write descriptions of different animals using details and descriptive language. They watch a video of kids using descriptive language, and then use showing language...
Curated OER
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Students explore the 5 themes of geography. In this cross curriculum literacy and geography lesson, students listen to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett, and make a list of the needs of the people in Chewandswallow....
Curated OER
Sun and Weather
How is the Earth's weather created? Middle schoolers will explain how the Sun's energy is transformed into different forms. They will perform mathematical calculations of volume, mass, and temperature. They they will explain the...
NASA
Introduction to Real Air Traffic Control—Problem Set A
Understand what it takes to control planes safely. The first lesson in a series of six introduces the class to the air traffic control situation. The pupils develop their understanding of units used in air travel, then learn how to read...
Curated OER
Scientific Method: How Many Drops of Water Fit on a Coin?
Young investigators conduct an experiment using the scientific method. They see how many drops of water fit on a coin; have them conduct several different trials. This involves making a hypothesis, looking at controls, and introducing...
PHET
Radiation Hazards in Space
Young scientists race from Earth to Mars and back, trying to complete mission objectives while avoiding radiation in this game for 2-4 players. To identify the winner, players must graph their mission points and radiation points at the...
Mascil Project
Parachute Food Drop
Drop a perfect project into your lesson plans. Groups use different building materials to create models of parachutes for food drops. After testing out their prototypes, they make improvements to their designs.
Curated OER
Mapping the Bone Field: An Area and Scale Exercise
Here is an excellent cross-curricular lesson. Learners relate multiplication to area by making a grid on graph paper, and then creating the same grid in real space outside in the school yard.
Curated OER
Soils
Young scholars apply knowledge of soil, environmental impacts, economics, multiple human demands, and use given data for a proposed scenario in making land use decisions. They debate land use issues and/or scenarios and discuss a case...
Curated OER
Chopping Cubes
Middle schoolers work in small groups to make various geometric solids with Play-Doh. They use fishing line to make cuts and observe the shapes of the cross-sections. Pupils complete an assessment in which they answer questions such as:...
Teach Engineering
Let's Take a Spin: One-Axis Rotation
Investigate the effect of one-axis rotations on geometric figures. Scholars learn to use snap cubes and the right-hand rule to draw figures after rotations about the x-, y-, or z-axes. They try their hands at examples created by the...