Curated OER
Parachute Drop
Learners will have fun creating a parachute to collect data with. They will construct the parachute in small groups, measure the materials, and create an observation sheet. Then they drop the parachute and make predictions about how long...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Volume and Surface Area
Build boxes using unit cubes to compare surface area and volume. The group performs multiple experiments to determine properties of volume, such as if it makes a difference which order the dimensions are multiplied in. Extensive...
EngageNY
Estimating Probability Distributions Empirically 1
What if you don't have theoretical probabilities with which to create probability distributions? The 11th installment of a 21-part module has scholars collecting data through a survey. The results of the survey provide empirical data to...
Kenan Fellows
Density
Most scholars associate density with floating, but how do scientists determine the exact density of an unknown liquid? The third lesson plan in a seven-part series challenges scholars to find the mass and volume of two unknown liquids....
Curated OER
Analyzing Tree Rings to Determine Climate Change
Learners examine how to locate and access data sets. In this climate change lesson students import data into Excel and graph it.
Curated OER
A Comparison of Cloud Coverage over Africa
Learners identify different climate regions and local weather patterns. In this cloud coverage lesson students use NASA satellite data and import it into Excel.
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Signals from the Deep
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill directly impacted an area of the Gulf of Mexico the size of Oklahoma. A marine biology lesson looks at the impact of an oil spill on the deeper parts of the ocean. Scholars download actual data collected...
American Statistical Association
A Sweet Task
Candy is always an effective motivator! A fun math activity uses M&M's and Skittles to explore two-way frequency tables and conditional probability. The candy can serve a dual purpose as manipulatives and experimental data.
Virginia Department of Education
Exponential Modeling
Investigate exponential growth and decay. A set of six activities has pupils collecting and researching data in a variety of situations involving exponential relationships. They model these situations with exponential functions and solve...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Tree Rings: Living Records of Climate
Open with a discussion on weather and climate and then explain how tree rings can provide scientists with information about the earth's past climate. Pupils analyze graphics of simulated tree rings from various US locations for the...
EngageNY
Ruling Out Chance (part 1)
What are the chances? Teach your classes to answer this question using mathematics. The first part of a three-day lesson on determining significance differences in experimental data prompts learners to analyze the data by...
NOAA
Biological Oceanographic Investigations – Keep Away
As of 2015, there are 53,481 oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico. Scholars determine how species diversity is impacted based on the ecosystem's distance from a drilling platform. It focuses on finding the mean of data sets...
National Wildlife Federation
Why All the Wiggling on the Way Up? CO2 in the Atmosphere
The climate change debate, in the political arena, is currently a hot topic! Learners explore carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere and what this means for the future in the 11th installment of 12. Through an analysis of carbon dioxide...
Statistics Education Web
How Wet is the Earth?
Water, water, everywhere? Each pupil first uses an Internet program to select 50 random points on Earth to determine the proportion of its surface covered with water. The class then combines data to determine a more accurate estimate.
Curated OER
Weather instruments
Students explore weather instruments. In this weather lesson, students make rain gauges, anemometers, and barometers following the instructions given in the lesson. Students set up a weather station using their instruments and record and...
Virginia Department of Education
Scatterplots
Math is all fun and games with this activity! Learners use an activity designed around hula hoops to collect data. They create scatter plots with their data and then analyze the graphs for correlation.
Curated OER
Experimenting with Pressure and Volume
Students explore the relationship between temperature and pressure using a paper-pencil laboratory activity and software. The nature and behavior or gases with respect to temperature is the focus of this lesson.
Curated OER
Birds' Eggs
More than just data, scatter plots are full of information that can be used to answer a variety of questions. This lesson uses a plot with information about bird egg sizes to answer questions about the relationship between length and...
Curated OER
Water Conservation
Open learners' eyes to the challenge of finding safe drinking water – something we often take for granted in our country. The PowerPoint presentation includes images, graphs, diagrams, and even a video to stimulate discussion on how we...
Curated OER
From Curiosity Cabinet to Museum Collection
Students study binomial nomenclature and museum-based research. They create a curiosity box, label the objects in their curiosity box , develop a classification scheme for the objects, and create a database of all objects collected by...
Cornell University
Mechanical Properties of Gummy Worms
Learners won't have to squirm when asked the facts after completing an intriguing lab investigation! Hook young scholars on science by challenging them to verify Hooke's Law using a gummy worm. Measuring the length of the worm as they...
Illustrative Mathematics
Chocolate Bar Sales
In this real-world example, algebra learners start to get a sense of how to represent the relationship between two variables in different ways. They start by looking at a partial table of values that define a linear relationship. They...
Kenan Fellows
Absorbance Curves: Using Spectrophotometers to Quantize the Effects of a Strong Acid on a Buffer
The Henderson-Hasselbalch equation combined logarithmic terms with the application of carbonic acid as a buffer solution. Scholars learn investigate equation and its applications through hands-on experiments. They collect data and...
Michigan State University
Bug Lyphe!
Introduce ecology classes to biodiversity and interdependence in ecosystems with a PowerPoint presentation. Then, they get up-close and personal with the invertebrate world by collecting insects, classifying them, and graphing their...