Mint candies are good for more than just one's breath. Using basic materials such as mint candies, straws, index cards, and Popsicle sticks, scholars create race cars that meet a given budget as well as design constraints. They perform...

Students are able to name one kind of harmful bacteria and why it hurts us and also name one kind of helpful bacteria and how we use it. They describe the process of growing bacterial cultures in a lab. Students create a reasonable...

Fourth graders make a detailed observations about non-native and native grasses. They define reasonable policies that they expect to follow while working in the CRWA. Students list, in small groups, two treatments that have been used in...

Many variables impact your body mass, not just diet and exercise. Scholars collect and study data about body mass to better understand the complexity of a sensitive topic. They learn about leptin deficiency, the hypothalamus, and more.

Putting glow sticks in the freezer makes them last longer, but why is that? Lesson focuses on how temperature impacts the rate of a chemical reaction. It begins with a teacher demonstration, then scholars design their own experiments...

You've heard of farm to table ... but what about farm in classroom? Junior agriculturalists embark upon a two-week journey into the science of growing things. Based upon the classic terrarium in a two-liter experiment, the lesson goes...

Wiggle your way through lab day! Young zoologists observe and infer the effects of different stimuli on earthworms during an engaging lab from the K20 series. Lab partners set up four different controlled environments, then record how...

Have you always wanted to take your science class on an amazing field trip they will never forget? Now you can! Observe the wildlife in an African savanna through trail cameras with a five-part data analysis activity. Learners analyze...

As an introduction to the skills required for and responsibilities of driving, pre-teens and teens engage in a series of activities, chart their response times, and analyze how variables effect these reaction times. Class...

How does the dirt get out of your drinking water? A hands-on activity introduces the use of flocculants to help clear solid particles out of water. The plan walks learners through the process of setting up an experiment that...

Young scientists roll up their sleeves and get a little dirty in this three-day earth science investigation. Following the scientific method, children monitor the growth of algae in pond water samples in order to determine...

Twelfth graders study the relationships of the 3 variables in Newton's Second Law. They design an experiment to test the relationships among the variables. Students work cooperatively with members of a team. They also analyze data to...

How does food coloring work? Classes watch a demonstration showing liquids dissolving in liquids. In groups, they then explore the ability of other liquids to dissolve in water (alcohol, mineral oil, and corn syrup) by setting up and...

Did you know that if you wait long enough, the M on the outside of an M and M will float to the surface when submerged in water? Learners observe the sugar coating of an M and M while it is dissolving in water. They explain how this...

When making sweet tea, why do people dissolve the sugar in hot tea instead of cold tea? The class discusses the previous lab and builds upon it. Working in groups, they design an experiment to determine how temperature affects the...

There is a solvent called aqua regis that can dissolve gold! After observing a solubility demonstration, groups receive four known crystals and one unknown. Based on the demo, they design an experiment to determine the identity of the...

Should athletes carb load before an event or consume carbohydrates during the competition? Scholars discuss how to set up a hypothesis and experiment to answer a question relating carbohydrates and athletic performance. Then, they read...

Sugar isn't good for you, but it's great for yeast! Scholars design an experiment to investigate how variables affect the rate of sugar consumption in yeast. The last installment of a nine-part Life Science unit considers how scientists...

Students design and conduct a scientific experiment to test which of four antacids would be most effective for neutralizing acids. They rank the antacids in order from most effective to least effective and explain how they determined...

If you discover an unknown powder, how do you determine if it is safe? Lesson uses four different tests to identify the properties of various powders that appear the same. Then scholars get an unknown powder and have to determine which...

Students investigate the pH of the soil in which different plants grow. They design and carry out an experiment to determine the factors that affect the growth of a population of plants, identifying and controlling major variables...

Fifth graders use information from their text to read and discuss pulleys and levers. They examine a top sketch of the arrangement of a fixed pulley. Working in groups, 5th graders perform experiments to test the effect of using a pulley...

Students plan, design, and carry out an experiment to determine an empirical formula for a hydrated salt X that tell students when all the water has been removed from hydrate crystals.

Students design and conduct an experiment to test their ideas about how to speed up or slow down the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. They have access to an array of physical and chemical factors that might influence enzyme...