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Insects
Second graders brainstorm and identify several types of common insects. They play bug bingo, building bugs and an insect tree, observing real insects in the classroom and examining some of the things insects make.
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FLIGHT FAIR
Students conduct their personal investigations into paper airplane flight. Cooperative teams are formed, with students choosing the paper airplane design that they are most interested in building.
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Storm That Drowned a City
Students use a map to locate New Orleans and watch a video on the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. As a class, they watch a demonstration on how a wetland can reduce the impact of a hurricane. In groups, they perform their own...
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The Physics of Flight
Students discuss how the invention of flight changed the way people live today. In groups, they compare and contrast the differences between weight, lift, thrust and drag. Using these principles, they create a glider and propeller with...
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Digestive System Journey
Students explore what happens to the food they eat as it passes through their body. They demonstrate their understanding of the digestive system functions by choosing to create a poster, build a model, produce a multimedia presentation,...
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Water Table Lab
Learners build a water table to show the zones of aeration and the zones of saturation. In this water table lesson plan, students use a beaker with sand and gravel to simulate the Earth's water table. They label the zones of aeration and...
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Adhesives: Measuring Stickiness
Students test the stickiness of natural substances. In this adhesion as a property of matter instructional activity, students build a tool to test the adhesion of natural "glues" such as honey, peanut butter, flour and water paste, and...
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Liquid Conductors
Students identify liquids as conductors. In this circuits lesson, students build a circuit, then use various liquids to complete the circuit, and determine which liquids successfully conduct electricity.
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Now Hear This!
Students create a model of the inner ear. In this hearing lesson, students follow a series of directions to build a working model of the inner ear, then observe how the parts react to a variety of sounds.
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Outdoor Photography with Digital Cameras
Young scholars become familiar with perspective, composition and framing of pictures. In this photographing nature lesson, students photograph and then describe their pictures in a paragraph. Young scholars build pictures to tell a story...
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The Planet Mars
Fifth graders gain knowledge about Mars and Earth. In this compare and contrast instructional activity, 5th graders use visual representations of the solar system to observe the characteristics of the planets. Students read fiction and...
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Candy Compounds
In this compounds worksheet, learners are given a bag of colored gumdrops that represent specific atoms. They construct ionic and covalent bonds with gumdrops using the key provided and the compounds to build. They fill in a chart with...
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What Makes Thing Fly?
Second graders study lift, drag and thrust from a real flight instructor. In this physical science activity students build and fly paper airplanes and experiment with variations and design.
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Introduction To Orbital Mechanics
Young scholars use NASA drawings to build a model satellite for a specific mission. They design a set of drawings for their satellite showing its subsystems as well.
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Growing Up (And Around, and Down...) Exploring Plant Growth
Students build plant growing structures. In this plant growth lesson plan, students plant growth structures such as a garden tepee or a crawl through tunnel. They grow plants that are appropriate for the structure.
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Feeding the Birds
Students build bird feeders. In this aviary instructional activity, students build different types of bird feeders. This web page includes information on which type of feeder attracts which birds and what food to use with the certain...
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Worm Watching
Students examine the role earthworms play in building soils. They discuss worms and what they do with soil, make predictions and draw pictures, and observe their worms in soil over a two week period.
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Learning the Basic Levers...One, Two, Three: Different Basic Arrangements Levers
Fifth graders read information about levers. They complete worksheets to summarize their learning. This activity relies heavily on the Silver Burdett Ginn text, Science Discovery Works, Energy, Work, and Machines. The activity will not...
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Desalination: Creating a Solar Still
To better understand how solar power can aid in creating desalinated drinking water, the class creates a model still. They will build a model of a solar still, make observations, and discuss how the process works. While the idea behind...
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Sun Friendly Homes
Students design and build a model solar energy home. For this technology lesson, students test the efficiency of their model houses by measuring temperature at regular intervals. They analyze data and share results with the class.
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Build-A-Horseshoe Crab
Students discover many facts about horseshoe crabs. Students identify the main body parts of horseshoe crab. They explore the habits of the horseshoe crab and their importances to the ecosystem. Adaptations for younger students are...
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Building a Circulation City
Students examine how the workings of the human circulatory system were discovered. In this circulation lesson students view a video, divide into groups and act out their given system.
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Genetic Jewels: Building the DNA Model
Students construct segments of DNA to create a piece of jewelry. For this genetics lesson students create a DNA sequence that they turn into something to wear.
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Atoms: The Building Block of Matter
Students examine how scientific theories are developed. In this matter lesson, students explore the basic idea of quantum theory. They create a timeline of scientists, their contributions, and discoveries.