Curated OER
Surveying and Assessing the Environmental Compatibility of a Building Construction Site
Students examine an area of land and assess its suitability for construction purposes. This project requires a vast amount of hands-on experimentation, data analysis, community involvement, and job shadowing/career awareness.
Curated OER
Using the Internet to Find Information About the Pyramids of Egypt
Students conduct internet research on the Pyramids of Egypt to build background knowledge for a story that they are reading. They answer a series of questions about ancient Egypt and the pyramids designed to enhance comprehension of the...
Teach Engineering
Ranking the Rocks for Desired Properties
Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern.
PHET
Mapping the Field of a Dipole Magnet
High school scientists build their own magnetometer and use it to map the field surrounding a bar magnet. Excellent background resources is included, as well as a diagram of how to build the magnetometer.
Cornell University
Radical Reactions
The radical reactions of polymers seems abstract to many pupils, but this lesson turns them into a fun building game. Scholars use dice and building pieces to build polymers. Then, they determine the theoretical and experimental weight...
TryEngineering
Search Engines
Introduce search engines with an activity that models how search engines work and the different algorithms they employ. Working in groups, class members then build search queries to demonstrate the knowledge learned.
Teach Engineering
Model Heart Valves
Small groups use the knowledge learned about the heart to design and build a prototype of an artificial heart valve. The teams demonstrate the functionality of their valve. They are also responsible for creating a pamphlet that describes...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
What van Leeuwenhoek Saw
When van Leeuwenhoek saw cells and single-celled organisms for the first time, he knew these small things were a big deal! Share his discoveries with young learners through a narrated video, model-building activity, and scale study....
Curated OER
Hazards: Second Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Equip learners with safety knowledge in the case of an earthquake. After coloring the places to go to get help after a quake, and label places that wouldn't be safe to go after a quake, young geologists simulate three levels of...
Center for History and New Media
Slavery and Free Negroes, 1800 to 1860
What was life like for enslaved and free black people before the American Civil War? Explore the building tension between states and the freedom of individuals with a thorough social studies instructional activity. Learners of all...
American Institute of Architects
Architecture: It's Elementary!—Fifth Grade
Young citizens construct an understanding of urban planning in this cross-curricular unit. Covering every aspect of city development from the political, economic, and social influences to sustainable building practices, this...
Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Thomas Jefferson, Message to Congress on the Embargo
Zounds! Image an American president closing all ports and prohibiting exports. As part of an exercise designed to strengthen primary source comprehension skills, readers examine Thomas Jefferson's 1808 message to Congress urging such an...
Discovery Education
Jets in Flight
This Discovery Education activity provides the information needed to understand the basics of flight. Before taking off, young pilots learn the eight stages of the engineering design process. Small groups then design and build...
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Through Robot Eyes
How can a robot measure the length of something when we don't know how far the camera is from the object? The instructional activity explains the concept of perspective and many others. Scholars apply this knowledge to judge the length...
Messenger Education
Design Challenge: How to Keep Gelatin from Melting
The inside of the spacecraft Messenger, which explores Mercury, will experience temperatures from 32 to 91 degrees Fahrenheit. In the final installment of a series of four space-related activities, groups spend time discussing and...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for Bridge to Terabithia
Bridge to Terabithia is a story about friendship that brings magic into ordinary life. Study guides may not be magical, but the guided questions, graphic organizers, extension activities, vocabulary, and discussion questions help...
US Department of Energy
Electric Avenue: Parallel and Series Circuits
Can you infer the wiring diagram of a series of lights based on their behavior alone? Scholars work with multiple boxes of four lights. They must flip the switch and decide how the lights are wired. By applying their knowledge of...
Center for History Education
Colonial Tea Parties
Most people know of the Boston Tea Party, but it was only one of similar protests throughout the colonies. Using a case study from Maryland, learners explore primary sources, including images and newspaper accounts of similar tea...
Curated OER
How Resourceful Are You?
Students investigate the concept of resources. They differentiate between natural, human, and capital resources. Prior to the lesson the students need to build background knowledge of goods, services, needs, and wants. They create a...
Curated OER
Into the Bat Cave
Students explore the lives of bats. In this bat lesson plan, students participate in up 6 activities that focus on bats and build their background knowledge about the nocturnal mammals.
Curated OER
Race the Track! The Time Challenge (lesson 2)
Students design a track that keeps a ball in motion for 5 seconds or longer. In this designing lesson plan, students explore force, gravity, and cause and effect when it comes to science and building before building their own track.
Curated OER
Build a Simple Circuit
Learners construct an extremely simple series circuit that powers a lamp on and off with a switch. They are in groups of 4 and are given a set of components and have to build the circuit working together as a group. Finally, they have to...
Jefferson Lab
The Periodic Table of Elements
A study of the periodic table of elements doesn't have to be elementary! Deepen understanding of the building blocks of chemistry with an interactive periodic table. At first sight, the table looks like a standard reference page, but a...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Building Functions: Inverse Functions from Tables and Graphs
Is the inverse a function? Scholars learn how to examine a function to answer this question. Using an online interactive, they examine the properties of inverse functions to compare to the original function.