Curated OER
Dental Impressions
What an impressive task it is to make dental impressions! Pupils learn how dentists use proportional reasoning, unit conversions, and systems of equations to estimate the materials needed to make stone models of dental impressions....
NASA
Marsbound! Mission to the Red Planet
It's time to go to Mars. Using the provided cards and mat, groups design a mission to Mars. The cards contain information about the different components of the launch and warn about a few mishaps that might occur along the way.
Achieve
Dairy Barn
Agriculture is truly a math-based profession! Help the dairy farmer determine the supplies needed to complete his barn. Using given dimensions, learners build equations and use units to determine the correct amount of materials.
Achieve
Stairway
It's the stairway to learning! Scholars research all aspects of building a staircase. Using information from building codes, they write and graph a system of inequalities to analyze the constraints. The completed project is a scale model...
Computer Science Unplugged
Ice Roads–Steiner Trees
As an introduction to Steiner Trees, class members are challenged to find the shortest paths to connect multiple points. The teacher introduces the problem by showing how to connect three points. Groups then go outside and construct a...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Isn’t It Exciting? (The American Industrial Revolution and Urbanization)
America was built on the ingenuity, work ethic, and foresight of our ancestors. Sixth graders learn about the complex Gilded Age in American history, including the prominent inventors and captains of industry, and how they all connect...
University of Georgia
Land Biomes Project
Challenge scholars to research a biome and create a presentation for the producers of Survivor to choose their ecosystem for the next season's show. The materials include outlines, worksheets, and grading rubrics for individuals as well...
NASA
NASA: Moving Cargo
How does NASA transport people and cargo to planets? The five-lesson unit breaks down the transportation system that scientists use to transport cargo to space. Pairs team up in order to devise a transportation system that will carry the...
Curated OER
Sphere Dressing
Geometric design makes a fashion statement! Challenge learners to design a hat to fit a Styrofoam model. Specifications are clear and pupils use concepts related to three-dimensional objects including volume of irregular shapes and...
Dream of a Nation
Big6 Research Project
Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...
The Alamo
The Alamo - Remembering Through Education
Help young historians truly remember the Alamo with a comprehensive set of informational text about the Texas Revolution. Complete with important vocabulary, biographies of prominent historical figures, thorough timelines of events, and...
EduGAINs
Making Savvy Consumer Choices
It's never too early to learn about grocery budgeting. Middle schoolers delve into the world of consumer math with a lesson that focuses on both healthy choices and real-world math applications. Groups work together to form a grocery...
Massachusetts Department of Education
Similarity through Transformations
Create the ultimate miniature golf course. The 93-page model curriculum unit from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education contains nine lessons on understanding similarity in terms of both Euclidean geometry...
Federal Reserve Bank
Insurance Inventory
Do you have enough insurance? Pupils may be surprised to learn how much their possessions are worth. This activity asks them to create an inclusive list and make a comparison to their insurance coverage. According to the statistics, most...
Federal Reserve Bank
Saving and Investing for the Long Term
Create savvy investors with an activity that uses an online resource to allow individuals to invest in the stock market. The teacher is able to track activity and progress. Stock tips and strategies are shared.
Virginia Department of Education
Genetic Variation and Mutations
Young scientists demonstrate their creativity while completing several activities, to assess genetic variations and mutations. Instructors provide a list of options and scientists choose to write a comic strip, create a book, construct a...
Virginia Department of Education
Ecosystem Dynamics
Searching for an eccentric way to enhance lessons on ecosystems while ensuring pupils remain creative and motivated? Upon viewing The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, designated groups design and construct a pop-up book that depicts the specific ways...
Teach Engineering
Working Together to Live Together
Whose home is it anyway? Design teams plan a housing development in which they must also protect a native species. The teams consist of a project manager, civil engineer, environmental engineer, and graphic designer. Teams present their...
Curated OER
Creating a Newspaper
Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...
ReadWriteThink
Alliteration in Headline Poems
Poetry is everywhere you look! Create found poems using headlines from newspapers and magazines. Young poetry focus on creating alliterative phrases with words they find in headlines, tying their poems to a central theme.
Discovery Education
Future Fleet
Turn your pupils into engineers who are able to use scientific principals to design a ship. This long-term project expects pupils to understand concepts of density, buoyancy, displacement, and metacenter, and apply them to constructing a...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 4: Engineering Analysis
What is the main difference between an engineer and a technician? This is one of the driving questions in a plan that proves that analysis at every step of development is crucial to the engineering design process. The instructional...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 2: Research the Problem
How do you get started designing a product to meet your engineering design goals? Here, learners gain understanding of an important aspect of the engineering design process: background research. Through brainstorming and worksheets,...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 1: Identify the Need
What exactly does an engineer do? Learners find out through a lesson that asks them to solve a problem that affects a target population. Aspiring engineers learn the steps of the engineering design process as they apply it to a challenge...