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...

Challenge young learners to cut the clutter with this fun engineering project. As employees of a home and office supply company, young engineers are asked to develop devices that organize everyday items. After participating in a...

Thorough instructions are given to guide you through making a demonstration hydraulic pump from two plastic soda bottles. After using the resource to teach your class about Pascal's and Bernoulli's principles, turn them loose in groups...

The scientific issue of carbon-14 dating and exponential decay gets a statistics-based treatment in this problem. The class starts with a basic investigation of carbon content, but then branches out to questions of accuracy and...

Who knew Snickers® could be used to teach science? Give your budding earth scientists a chance to explore the Law of Superposition, in addition to a well-earned snack.

Drinking clean water can be taken for granted. Explore the process and high cost of filtering water with a water pollution and filtration activity. Young scientist build a filtration system to filter polluted water, examine the economics...

Get your class to use the scientific process to solve a scientific problem. They utilize the Natural Inquirer magazine to identify a research question which they write an introduction to and collect data to answer. They use graphs,...

This science assignment produced by NASA teaches inquiring minds the distribution of Earth's water. Learners will appreciate and understand the importance of fresh water and how weather and climate affects everything.

How does energy from the sun make plants grow? Scholars move step by step through the processes that promote plant propagation during a detailed lesson. The resource illustrates ADP production and hydrolysis, then allows learners to...

Super scientists tests the toxicity of water using radish seed bioassays. Over the course of five days, scholars observe the germination process of several radish seeds, looking closely at their roots to determine the level of toxins...

Let's see how complicated we can make this simple task. The last activity associated with a 10-part series has groups design and build a Rube Goldberg machine. Teams determine a simple task to accomplish and use the engineering design...

Teams use the design process to design, build, and test a model levee to protect the town from a wall of water. A handout provides a price list for the materials learners can use to build their levee within a budget.

Small groups use the engineering design process to build and test a vehicle capable of carrying 250 grams a distance of five meters. The design must allow for the storage of potential energy and turn it into motion,...

When your parents say that your room's a pig sty, tell them about biomimicry. The sixth installment of a nine-part Life Science unit has scholars research the shelters used by animals in the natural world, like turtle shells. Using the...

Genetics learners read an article and watch a video about personalized medicine and the hope it holds for treating patients more specifically than doctors currently are able to. They research, design, and produce a brochure about the...

Of quartz I love geology! The chapter offers five activities at three different levels. It features hands-on activities that cover crystal shapes, cleavage and fracture, hardness scale, specific gravity, and mineral...

Concentrate to determine the best reflector design. Pairs use the engineering design process to build a reflector to increase the current output of a photovotaic panel. Teams arrive at a final design and present it to the class along...

A small little ant can have a large impact on its ecosystem. Young researchers explore the different species that live in a plains ecosystem. They find the characteristics of several species and then compare species to determine how...

Ever been told you have your father's eyes? How did it happen? Young biologists get a hands-on experience in meiotic gene expression with a fun pairs-based activity. Participants use pipe cleaner chromosomes with trait beads to make...

Pupils individually determine what they need to know about osteoporosis and how they will find that information. They share their thoughts with a partner before moving on to share with the class. The class arrives at a list of a set of...

Three days of erosion exploration await your elementary geologists. Learners begin by examining rivers via Google Earth, then they model water flow in sand, and finally, they identify resulting landforms. This lesson is written...

Can you design the perfect chair? Scholars apply the engineering design process to design and build a prototype of a new type of chair from wires. They test their designs with a wooden artist model or stuffed animal.

Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...

Challenge your class to use their understanding of the engineering design process to design and build a small-scale, off-road prototype for an assistive technology device. Teams select materials to build their scale models, and, using...