Curated OER
Multiplying Decimal Numbers: Using Zeros as Placeholders
Explore decimals with upper graders. They solve problems from their textbook involving decimal multiplication. Afterward, as a class, they check their answers by comparing them to those projected with an overhead projector.
Curated OER
What Percentage of Time Do You Spend Doing Daily Activities?
Engage your kids with an intriguing, real-life exploration that covers several areas in math, and allows for natural academic differentiation.
Curated OER
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Needs Math in Life at All?
Students think and talk about the ways in which they use math throughout the day. They add each way to a "math in real life" bulletin board and reflect in writing on the ways they use math.
Curated OER
Discovering Dewey's Decimal System
Young scholars discover the Dewey Decimal System. In this fractions lesson, students utilize education software to discover how the Dewey Decimal System works. Young scholars create a PowerPoint presentation in groups or a...
Curated OER
I'm Late, I'm Late, for a Radioactive Date!
Through the use of an interactive Web site, students explore C-14 and C-14 dating. Then students analyze an article written about the C-14 dating of the Shroud of Turin and draw conclusions.
Curated OER
Volume and Surface Area: Which Is More?
Students explore the volume and surface area of three dimensional figures. Through the use of video, students discover three dimensional shapes, their uses in real-life applications, and methods used to calculate their volume and surface...
Curated OER
Count The Letters
Students perform activities involving ratios, proportions and percents. Given a newspaper article, groups of students count the number of letters in a given area. They use calculators and data collected to construct a pie chart and bar...
Teach Engineering
The Building Blocks of Matter
Everything can be reduced to atoms. The first installment of a six-part Mixtures and Solutions unit focuses on the building blocks of matter. Scholars review basic atomic structure, including protons, neutrons, and electrons, in...
NASA
Lava Layering
Take the old baking soda and vinegar volcano to the next level by using it to study repeated lava flows over time, examine geologic features on Earth and Mars, and speculate about some of the formations on Mars.
Teach Engineering
Stormy Skies
Young meteorologists examine the four main types of weather fronts and how they appear on a weather map. Participants learn about the difference between the types of weather fronts along with their distinguishing features. A...
Teach Engineering
Manned Mission to Mars
To go or to not to go — the question for a mission to Mars. This resource provides details for a possible manned mission to Mars. Details include a launch schedule, what life would be like on the surface, and how the astronauts would...
Teach Engineering
Properties of Mixtures vs. Solutions: Mix It Up!
Now it becomes crystal clear why the unit is called Mixtures and Solutions. The fifth installment of a six-part unit explores mixtures and solutions. After viewing a demonstration on mixing pebbles with water, salt with water, and...
Teach Engineering
Global Climate Change
The greenhouse effect and its relationship to global warming is the focus of an activity that asks class member to consider the effects of climate change on weather. Pupils work with their families to determine their carbon...
Teach Engineering
Exploring Energy: Kinetic and Potential
The potential of the energy in the class is moving. The third segment in a six-part unit on energy provides a deeper understanding of kinetic and potential energy. Learners understand the relationship between mass, speed, and energy and...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Are You Bigfoot?
Scholars independently explore several websites to calculate their ecological footprint. Using their new found knowledge, they answer six short-answer questions and take part in a grand conversation with their peers about how...
Teach Engineering
Alloy the Way to Mars
Future engineers test different alloys to determine the specific strength of each one. Based on the results, they make a recommendation to NASA on which alloy to use on engines for spacecraft.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Natural Selection and the Evolution of Darwin's Finches
Darwin explained the connection between species of finches 150 years before scientists understood DNA. Technology and progressing science proved he was right, yet many struggle to understand how natural selection happens. Scholars use...
NASA
Down to Earth
There are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don't. The lesson includes four activities in which students learn binary, convert binary to images, understand CCD arrays, and interpret...
Curated OER
Sextant Solutions
Middle schoolers explore ways a sextant can be a reliable tool that is still being used by today's navigators and how computers can help assure accuracy when measuring angles. This activity will show how computers can be used to...
Curated OER
Number Sense and Numeration
Students add and subtract integers. In this algebra lesson, students discuss number sense as they sort numbers in the correct order. They analyze and label numbers differentiating between rational and irrational numbers.
Curated OER
Inventions
Students study invention steps and design their own invention. In this invention lesson, students discuss inventions and the process of inventing. Studnets write in an inventor's journal and study various types of inventions....
Curated OER
Computation with Fractions
Upper graders are introduced to the topic of fractions and percentages. In groups, they discuss real world situations in which fractions are present, and they complete a worksheet solving problems with common and uncommon denominators....
Curated OER
Everybody Is a Winner in the Iditarod
Students read an article about the Iditarod winners. Using the document, they answer questions on a worksheet and examine the history of the race as well. They complete an activity using the internet to end the activity.
Curated OER
Holiday Greeting Cards: A Graphing Activity
Pupils examine statistics about the popular type of greeting cards and create pie or bar chart using an online tool. They illustrate the sales statistics for the greeting cards before making the charts.