What is a watt? This tongue-twisting, mind-bending question and others are answered through this instructional activity on the different lighting options available. With the support of a PowerPoint, teach your physical science class...

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,...

Complete teacher narrative and presentation slides for teaching about Earth's water make up the bulk of this lesson. Embedded within the slide show, you will find videos about the water cycle, keeping track of the limited supply of fresh...

How do cohesion and adhesion work together? The third installment of a nine-part series teaches young scientists the difference between adhesion and cohesion. They also learn how cohesion and adhesion work together to cause capillary...

My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt! In the hands-on activity, learners explore electricity by building circuits, both parallel and series. They also determine how increasing the number of light bulbs and...

Teacher's notes, a materials list, detailed procedure, tips, and extension ideas are all included to make teaching this instructional activity on photovoltaic cells a sunny spot in your day! After some brief background reading, physical...

How does electricity work? Budding scientists explore the concepts of electrical currents and open and closed circuits with class discussion and a hands-on activity using a battery to turn on a light bulb. Learners also make predictions...

Fourth graders discuss, describe and track weather by utilizing a variety of measurable quantities as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, cloud conditions and precipitation. They assess, through experiments and practicing, how to...

Collaborative groups connect resistors and solar panels in series and measure electrical resistance, voltage, and current. The objective is to order 16 solar panels from strongest to weakest. They graph current-voltage and power curves...

Ping, ping, ping. The last installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program explores technology use in marine studies, such as sonar. Activity involves simulating sonar techniques to identify a...

How large can a population become? The fifth installment of a nine-part unit teaches young ecologists about limiting factors that determine the carrying capacity of species in the Sonoran Desert. Here is a PowerPoint to help present this...

Emerging electricians build a simple ammeter for making measurements on an electric current. They test the placement of solar cells in both series and parallel circuits and examine the magnetic field produced by the movement of electrons...

First graders use their observations to describe daily and seasonal cycles. through a demonstration using a suspended ball and flashlight, they determine the time of day in various locations. Next, 1st graders participate in a...

What kind of design challenges are there in building structures to support rocket engines? The unit takes design teams through the process of building the lightest possible thrust support structure that can withstand the necessary forces...

Fifth graders experiment with student-made aluminum boats to test for buoyancy. They design a boat and determine how many marbles it takes to sink it while recording their data in a spreadsheet. They design a graph using the data and...

Students identify and implement methods to standardize testing stations that measure solar panel output power. After collecting electrical ouptut data from several solar panels, they plot the current-voltage and power curves. Students...