Curated OER
Design a Green Rooftop Garden
Design and construct buildings with rooftop gardens. Junior engineers work in groups to build two buildings and then perform experiments to determine whether or not a garden affects the building temperatures. They graph and interpret...
Edmond Public Schools
8th Grade Science Resource Book: Unit 2 - Physics
Get things moving with this extensive collection of physical science resources. Covering the fundamentals of measurement, graphing, lab safety, and experimental design as well as the specific scientific concepts of velocity,...
Chemical Education Foundation
Teacher's Guide to Science Projects
Do you find the idea of having a science fair with all of your students intimidating? Use a guide that provides everything you need to know to make project-based learning manageable. The resource includes options for four different types...
Curated OER
Designing a Germination Experiment
Students explore botany by participating in a seed experiment. In this plant nutrition lesson, students define several science experiment vocabulary terms like observation, treatment, and replicate. Students utilize soaked seeds in a...
Curated OER
Buoyancy: Integrating Science and Literature
Integrate science and literature by using the scientific method to test the veracity of the floating peach described in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. Clips from a Bill Nye: The Science Guy episode about buoyancy frontload...
National Science Teacher Association
Middle School Sampler: Science
Focus on inquiry-based learning in your science class with a series of activities designed for middle schoolers. A helpful packet samples four different texts, which include activities about predator-prey relationships, Earth's axis and...
Curated OER
Designing Experiments - Procedures for Teachers
Students evaluate a hypothetical experimental design and attempt to improve upon it. For this scientific method lesson, students are presented with an experiment and are instructed to determine its flaws. They conduct their own...
Curated OER
Designing Experiments - Overview
Young scholars explore the concepts that enable them to design and conduct sound scientific experiments. They critique a faulty experiment and become familiar with some of the criteria of a good experiment. They conduct their own...
Virginia Department of Education
Scientific Process and Experimental Design
The scientific method keeps you from believing only what you want to believe — it expands your mind. The lesson introduces the eight steps in the scientific process and how to design an experiment to biology scholars. Live insects...
Curated OER
Pet Rescue
Students, in teams, follow the process of design, including the stages of investigation, creation, and reflection, as they devise a way to help "save" a (simulated) pet who is trapped in a pipe.
Wild BC
The Greenhouse Effect: Warming the Earth Experiment
First in a two-part lesson on the greenhouse effect, this lesson involves a classroom demonstration of the phenomenon, and a lab group experiment with color and absorption. Although there are easier ways to demonstrate the greenhouse...
PBS
Blow the Roof Off!
Blow the minds of young scientists with this collection of inquiry-based investigations. Based on a series of eight videos, these "hands-on, minds-on" science lessons engage young learners in exploring a wide range of topics from making...
Curated OER
Scientific Method Experiment: Factors Affecting How Ice Melts
Students demonstrate the scientific method by conducting an ice cube melting experiment. They make predictions and observations, and conclude what factors make ice melt more slowly or quickly than normal.
Curated OER
Independent Plant Growth Experiment
This is an awesome lesson filled with tons of engaging learning activities. Over a period of weeks learners will make observations, collect plant and analyze plant data, read and review agricultural articles, design and conduct an...
Curated OER
Design a Bobsled
Students apply their knowledge of friction, drag, mass and gravity as they design, build, and test mini-bobsleds.
Virginia Middle School Engineering Education Initiative
Save the Penguins: An Introduction to Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer
Heat things up in your physical science class with this interactive lesson series on thermodynamics. Through a series of class demonstrations and experiments, young scientists learn how heat is transferred through conduction, convention,...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Seed Dispersal in Tropical Forests
How do seeds get around? It's not like plants can control seed dispersal—or can they? Dig deeper into the amazing mechanisms of seed dispersal observed in tropical plants through interactives, a video, and plenty of hands-on data...
Curated OER
Designing a Germination Experiment - Part 1
Students experiment with seeds and germination. In this natural science lesson, students discuss the stages of germination. Students engage in a 4 part hands on science activity to view the process of germination.
Carnegie Mellon University
Lab Report
A set of instructions and a 100-point grading rubric have been designed for writing lab reports. Appropriate for middle schoolers, this lays out what to include for each of the six steps in the scientific method: title, hypothesis,...
NASA
Soda Straw Rockets
Three, two, one, blast off to a better understanding of force and motion with this exciting science lesson! Beginning with a discussion about rockets and gravity, young scientists go on to complete a series of worksheets about net forces...
Curated OER
Open Inquiry Using C. elegans
Ever wondered what motivates a roundworm? Introduce your biology class to C. elegans, a non-parasitic model organism that can help them understand behavioral stimuli. Paired pupils design an experiment to test the worm's reaction to...
IOP Institute of Physics
Physics in Concert
What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and electricity, young...
US Navy
The Science of Diving
Introduce gas laws using the popular topic of SCUBA diving. This activity makes a connection between the gas laws and the effect of pressure and temperature changes during diving. Young engineers complete introductory experiments to...
Curated OER
Science Experiments - The Low-down
Third graders discover the process thinking about science experiments, and why they are important. They work in small groups using incline planes and a small toy car to design one scientific question that can be answered through...