Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Science at 100,000 Feet
Take your class up, up, and away with an engaging weather balloon simulation! Individuals get hands-on experience in creating and launching their own airborne labs to study how temperature and pressure affect substances at 100,000...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Blowing in the Wind
Using a simulated air sample, environmental or earth science pupils examine the components. You will need to prepare the faux air by using a hole punch and various colors of construction paper. Each color will represent a different...
Concord Consortium
Specific Heat and Latent Heat in Condensation
There's more to melting than meets the eye! Junior physical chemists investigate the differences between specific and latent heats as a substance undergoes a phase change. Users remove heat from the system and observe changes in kinetic...
Curated OER
Student News And Weather Channel
Fabulous! Your 5th graders should love this project. As an ongoing lesson throughout the year students use temperature probes to record outside temperature and then document their data using spreadsheets. They use their weather data and...
Beyond Benign
The Big Melt: Arctic Ice Caps
Are the Arctic ice caps really melting out of existence? Junior climatologists examine the statistics of ice decline through four math-based lessons. Each activity incorporates data, climate information, and environmental impact into an...
Columbus City Schools
Earthly Waves
How did scientists discover what lies beneath the earth's surface? Dig a hole? X-ray vision? Guide your class through the types of seismic waves and how these waves helped shed light on Earth's many layers. The included resources provide...
McGraw Hill
Population Biology
The carrying capacity of an environment varies based on the organisms that live there. Using a virtual lab simulation, scholars test two protists living in their own environments and a third environment where both protists live....
Science 4 Inquiry
The Ups and Downs of Populations
As the reality of population decline across many species becomes real, pupils learn about the variables related to changes in populations. They complete a simulation of population changes and graph the results, then discuss limiting...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Color Variation over Time in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations
A species-specific look at natural selection, the resource herein examines how adaptations have helped the population of rock pocket mice survive in a changing landscape. To begin, middle or high schoolers watch a 10.5 minute video,...
Chemistry Collective
Virtual Lab: Unknown Acid and Base Problem
Looking for an easy way to give your class experience with acid-base chemistry outside the lab? Try a detailed interactive that puts them in total control! Young chemists determine the dissociation constant and concentration of an...
Space Awareness
Star in a Box
What happens to stars as they get older? A simulation takes pupils through the life cycle of stars based on their masses. The resource introduces the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and the common relationships and life cycle patterns observed.
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Signals from the Deep
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill directly impacted an area of the Gulf of Mexico the size of Oklahoma. A marine biology lesson looks at the impact of an oil spill on the deeper parts of the ocean. Scholars download actual data collected...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ocean Acidification
Human impacts on the environment can sometimes be difficult to measure, especially under water! An activity centered on ocean acidification gives science scholars the opportunity to examine the effects of carbon dioxide on marine life....
Curated OER
Shaky New Zealand
Students explore geography by answering study questions in class. In this plate tectonics lesson, students identify the earthquake data concerning the country of New Zealand and answer questions regarding the data. Students identify...
Biology in Motion
Evolution Lab
Evolution occurs though change over time, but can it go any faster? Scholars speed up the process of evolution and observe a simulation of 20 blue organisms fighting for survival. A graph displays the changes in phenotype over time. By...
Concord Consortium
Double Pendulum
What's better than a pendulum for studying motion and periods? A double pendulum! Young physical scientists use an interactive to explore pendulum motion—times two. The resource boasts a host of parameters to change and a running graph...
PBS
Analyzing Light Curves of Transiting Exoplanets
Scientists detected exoplanets by measuring how the brightness of stars changed over time. Young astronomers interpret and analyze the same data that led to exoplanet discoveries. They learn to apply light curve graphs and connect the...
Curated OER
Tables, Charts and Graphs
Students examine a science journal to develop an understanding of graphs in science. In this data analysis lesson plan, students read an article from the Natural Inquirer and discuss the meaning of the included graph....
PhET
Radioactive Dating Game
Uranium 235 has a half-life of over 700 million years and is the fuel used in the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Pupils see the half-lives and decay rates of Carbon-14 and Uranium-238. They also take measurements of these two...
Curated OER
Weather in Your City
Students observe weather conditions of a particular city. Multiple intelligences are explored within this lesson. They locate their particular city on a United States map. Each student writes about their discoveries in his/her journal...
Science 4 Inquiry
At the Top: A Bald Eagle's Diet
Bald eagles are opportunistic predators and eat fish as well as raccoons and other mammals. Pupils learn about bald eagle diets through a simple simulation and videos. They collect and analyze data to understand the adaptability of this...
NASA
Development of a Model: Analyzing Elemental Abundance
How do scientists identify which elements originate from meteorites? Scholars learn about a sample of material found in a remote location, analyzing the sample to determine if it might be from Earth or not. They study elements, isotopes,...
Curated OER
What's the Matter? Locating Electrons in an Atom
Students roll dice in order to simulate the probability of locating an electron in a certain region around the nucleus.
Curated OER
What's in the Water?
Fifth graders use the dots to simulate water pollutants in a lake. They use cups to collect a sample of "water." Students sort the dots by color and record the number of each dot color under the correct pollutant name in the Lake Water...