Resources for Educators
Math & Science Connection
Whether you're using a collection of Dr. Seuss books to teach basic math skills like counting, adding, and subtracting, or exploring the different states of matter by melting a crayon with a hairdryer, a series...
Curated OER
Activity: Gummy Bear Genetics
Who's your Daddy ... and Mommy for that matter? Given a first-generation group of gummy bear offspring, young scientists must determine which bears are their parents. An activity worksheet covers the differences in genotypes and...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: First Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
A set of first grade geology lessons focuses on plate tectonics and movement of plate boundaries. During the pre-lab, learners experience three types of plate movement through a kinesthetic demonstration. The lab...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ebola: Disease Detectives
How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...
Curated OER
Introduction to Severe Weather Patterns
Students review basic weather concepts and terminology, and explore weather modeling tools.
Curated OER
Curriculum Activities: Ecological Concepts
Students explore a variety of microclimates to develop an awareness of why organisms live where they do. Moisture, time of day, land cover, and temperature form the basic concepts of this investigation.
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.
California Academy of Science
Color Vision Genetics Evolution Simulation
At one point, all mammals carried only two color receptors, but now most humans carry three. An informative presentation and hands-on activity demonstrate how this evolved through genetics. By participating in the activity, pupils...
Columbus City Schools
Force Field Physics
Attracted class members to an activity-packed journey through the science behind the invisible forces at work all around us. From jump rope generators to junkyard wars, there's never a dull moment when eighth grade physics scholars...
Curated OER
A Honey of a Hexagon
Learners explore how bees make honey and why the hexagon is the best basic pattern for the honeycomb through the use of a video and hands-on activities with honeycombs and geometric shapes.
Curated OER
Basic Human Inheritance Patterns
Students study the stages of the cell division (meiosis) which results in the formation of gametes and study topics as crossing over, gene linkage, and human inheritance patterns in certain diseases.
Curated OER
Inheritance Patterns in Zorks
In this inheritance patterns worksheet, students create a visual of a Zork using chromosome strips to represent alleles from the father and the mother to determine the traits in the offspring. Students translate the genotype to the...
Curated OER
Volcano Contour Models Activity
Students experiment with water levels and plastic topographic volcano models to determine the contour lines that would be used to create a topograpohic map of a volcano. They use the traced lines to actually develop the map.
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Small Scale Sculpting: Etch Lab
Make works of art using a vintage yet effective etching strategy. The surface of a semiconductor chip has specific patterns formed through a process called etching. Through a lab investigation, young scholars recreate that process...
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Gravity Launch
Getting a ship into orbit isn't rocket science. Oh, wait...that's exactly what it is! Learn the basics of the concepts of thrust, launch angle, and gravitational pull in this fun and progressively challenging game.
Center for Learning in Action
Gases
Explore the properties of gases through one activity and two investigations in which super scientists observe the changes gas makes when encountering different conditions.
NOAA
Invertebrates
Crabs and lobsters ... yum! The 18th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program focuses on invertebrate marine life. After the lecture slideshow, learners conduct an activity to sample...
Center for Learning in Action
Introduction to the States of Matter
Liquids, gases, and solids are the states of matter in which scholars investigate in a lesson plan that offers in-depth information and engaging activities that look into the three states and the changes their properties make when mixed...
Center for Learning in Action
Water – Changing States (Part 2)
Here is part two of a two-part lesson in which scholars investigate the changing states of water—liquid, solid, and gas—and how energy from heat changes its molecules. With grand conversation, two demonstrations, and one hands-on...
Nevada Outdoor School
Let It Snow! Let It Melt!
Winter weather offers a great opportunity to teach young scientists about the states of matter. This activity-based lesson includes a range of learning experiences, from experimenting with the rate at which ice melts...
Core Knowledge Foundation
A Time for All Seasons - Spring
Celebrate the arrival of spring with this fun primary grade science unit. Engaging young scientists with a variety of hands-on activities and inquiry-based investigations, these lessons are a great way to teach children about...
Curated OER
Cloud Watching
Students analyze art as a cloud pattern activity. For this cloud and art lesson, students view April Gornik's painting The Back of the Storm and make connections between science and art. Students observe cloud patterns for one week and...
Curated OER
Population Patterns
Students study patterns of population growth in an ecosystem and why populations must remain in balance. They interpret basic population graphs and suggest scenarios about different population growth patterns in an ecosystem.
Curated OER
A Closer look at Oil and Energy Consumption
Upper graders analyze basic concepts about the consumption, importation and exportation of the worlds oil production. They create several graphs to organize the data and draw conclusions about the overall use of oil in the world.