Curated OER
Caloric Burning Activities
Fourth graders use problem solving, decision making and basic math skills to calculate calories used during different activities. They determine the relation between food intake and activity. Students also figure out the activity,...
Curated OER
Life Cycle of the Plant - The Pumpkin
First graders access prior knowledge about pumpkins and read the story Pumpkin, Pumpkin. They will sequence the life cycle of the pumpkin through the use of picture cards and then sing a song about the life cycle of the pumpkin and plant...
Curated OER
Empowered Barbie
Students access prior knowledge of vocabulary on feminism and psychoanalytic theory, and gender schema. In this Empowered Barbie lesson, students recreate a Barbie doll. Students write a reflection on how they changed...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes
Adaptations must be made as environments change. This fabulous presentation features Icelandic icefish, a transparent, scaleless specimen that even has colorless blood. Genetics and adaptations concepts are explored as scientists study...
Community Resources for Science
A Whole New World of DNA and Proteins
Lead your young scientists into an exciting world as they participate in a role play and experiment focused on proteins and DNA. After researching the Central Dogma of Biology, individuals or groups participate in a classroom...
Curated OER
Aerobic and Anaerobic Conditioning
Students view the A.D.A.M. computer simulation of aerobic and anaerobic exercise. They break into groups and members brainstorm and list as many aerobic and anaerobic exercises as possible in five minutes.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Understanding the Greenhouse Effect
Dive into the power of the sun with a two-part lesson. Budding scientists model the greenhouse effect in a hands-on activity, and then participate in a skit that explores the earth's energy balances and what really occurs in the...
PHET
The Earth as a Magnet
Everyone loves playing with magnets and iron filings. Here, young scientists first observe and then participate in an activity demonstrating magnetic fields. After completing their observations, they apply this knowledge...
Cornell University
Build a Fuel Cell
Discover the connection between redox reactions and fuel cells. Collaborative groups build a Hoffmann Apparatus that demonstrates the electrolysis of water and then convert their models into a fuel cell. They use their fuel cells to...
02 x 02 Worksheets
Proportions
Cut-and-paste a great activity into your lesson plans. Scholars analyze real-world problems involving proportions. To change things up a bit they cut-and-paste quantities to create a proportion on their way to solving the problems.
SRI International
The Water Crisis
Water, water, everywhere, right? Wrong. Learners assess their own knowledge of water availability on Earth. Then, through a reading, a teacher-led presentation, and an activity, pupils learn about the importance of available clean...
University of Colorado
Looking Inside Planets
All of the gas giant's atmospheres consist of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up all stars. The third in a series of 22, the activity challenges pupils to make scale models of the interiors of planets in order to...
University of Colorado
Great Red Spot Pinwheel
The great red spot on Jupiter is 12,400 miles long and 7,500 miles wide. In this sixth part of a 22-part series, individuals model the rotation of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. To round out the activity, they discuss their findings as a...
West Contra Costa Unified School District
Introduction to Logarithms
Build on pupils' understanding of inverse functions by connecting logarithmic functions to exponential functions. This activity allows individuals to see graphically the inverse relationship between an exponential and logarithmic...
Council for Economic Education
The Silk Road
The Silk Road connected the European, Middle Eastern, and Asian worlds. It also helped create the modern trade world. An analysis activity makes the importance of this Chinese innovation clear by asking participants to evaluate trades...
Random House
Recipe for an Ecosystem
Creating an ecosystem is as simple as baking a cake. Well, maybe not, but using a recipe analogy helps learners realize that ecosystems consist of different components that come together in unique ways. Offer this worksheet as an...
Rustle Leaf
Tell Someone About Earth Day
Celebrate Earth Day by spreading the word of conservation. Teach children ten easy ways to help preserve the Earth and share this knowledge with others by sending e-cards and printable cards to loved ones. Extend learning about the...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
What better way to make predictions about future weather and climate patterns than with actual climate data from the past? Young climatologists analyze data from 400,000 to 10,000 years ago to determine if climate has changed over...
Curated OER
Aluminum Adventure
Chemistry aces use an electrochemical cell to anodize a strip of aluminum. They apply an organic dye to it. In a practical application, they design a piece of jewelry out of the anodized metal and describe the process. Thorough notes...
MARS - Mathematics Assessment Resource Service
Applying Properties of Exponents
The properties of exponents are all linked together and it is your mathematicians' job to discover and apply those rules. The comprehensive instructional activity begins with a pre-assessment task to check for prior knowledge and then...
Curated OER
Mini-Lesson Planning for Inferences
Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...
Curated OER
Changing Seasons
Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...
Statistics Education Web
It’s Elemental! Sampling from the Periodic Table
How random is random? Demonstrate the different random sampling methods using a hands-on activity. Pupils use various sampling techniques to choose a random sample of elements from the periodic table. They use the different samples to...
Brigham Young University
HOOT Directed Reading Thinking Activity
It's helpful to encourage kids to make predictions when beginning a reading unit. Before reading Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, have kids read Susan Barlow Broggi's Am I Grown Up When I'm Not Afraid of Spiders in My Shoes? to make...