How does water pollution affect the environment? Provide your class with the resources to answer this question as they learn about eutrophication and ecosystem changes. Over two weeks, they simulate the effects of pollution on the...

Is it really that big of a deal if the global climate undergoes a little change? Young environmentalists consider this very question as they discuss in small groups the impact of different climate change scenarios on their lives,...

Be 100 percent confident who has the most and by how much. Pupils use percentages to help make the comparisons by finding what percent one quantity is of the other. They also determine the percent differences between the two...

How much work does it take to lift a bucket? An interactive presents a problem of lifting a bucket from the ground to the top of a building. Using their knowledge about work and integrals, pupils calculate the amount of work required to...

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...

Do charged and neutral particles behave differently as they undergo phase changes? Science sleuths examine two types of attractive forces using an informative interactive. Pupils can vary the amount of Van der Waals attraction present...

What exactly is the fiscal cliff? What are the effects of changing income tax rates and payroll tax rates? Your learners will begin by reading news articles and examining graphs illustrating the "Bush tax cuts" of 2001 and 2003. They...

Have you reached your breaking point in looking for great resources that illustrate bond energy? Demonstrate the potential energy changes that occur when polar and non-polar bonds are broken with a stimulating simulation. Pupils pull on...

Does increasing temperature increase the rate of a chemical reaction? Junior chemists examine the effects of temperature on reaction rate using an engaging interactive. Pupils select the temperature of the reaction vessel, then observe...

Keep your class afloat with a hands-on density lesson. The challenging lesson has learners experiment with different materials to compare their densities. They learn that increasing or decreasing the amount of the material doesn't change...

How can you relate colligative properties of solutions to everyday situations? Pupils first discuss the concepts of density, boiling and freezing points, then demonstrate how to accurately determine the boiling and freezing point of...

Though the publisher designated this unit for use with third through eighth grades, this particular lesson would be best used with middle schoolers due to the specific measurement skills required. Basically, they set up the reaction...

Alone, or as part of the intended unit on chemical reactions, this activity allows learners to experience an exothermic reaction. Here, learners add calcium chloride to a baking soda solution and watch the temperature rise! They will...

The sun sends the earth 35,000 times the amount of energy required by all of us on the entire planet, every day. The fourth lesson in the 10-part series looks at how light energy from the sun transfers into thermal energy. Scholars build...

When your upper elementary or middle school class is learning about chemical changes, these activities help demonstrate the concepts. In Part A, they submerge and place a nail partially underwater, then after a week they make...

When no more solute can be dissolved into a solvent, the solution has reached saturation. The interactive simulation allows learners to manipulate a solution in order to measure its concentration. The amount of solvent, the amount and...

Bring out some bubbly! Individuals perform the classic baking soda and vinegar experiment with a twist. Learners add a drop of dish detergent to make the bubbles last longer. They vary the amount of baking soda and vinegar in an effort...

Water with varying amounts of dissolved salt are dyed and then used to compare densities. The objective is to discover the effect of salinity, and therefore density, on ocean water on the stability of the ocean. Many branches of science...

Scholars model the height of water in a container with an exponential function and apply average rates of change to this function. The main attraction of the lesson is the discovery of Euler's number. 

Polar ice samples provide scientists with valuable information about the condition of the atmosphere for hundreds of thousands of years in the past. Of particular interest is the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and its...

Asses the class to determine their knowledge of proportional relationships involving percents. Class members work through the nine-question assessment with a variety of percent problems. The multi-step problems involve simple interest,...

The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...

Pupils estimate, calculate, and count back the amount of change needed from purchases made during small group activities.

Bright blue slides with yellow and white font make this presentation easy for learnerrs to read. The content is a brief overview of the commonly observed physical properties of matter, focusing on the differences among solids, liquids,...