Learners will like making a liquid layer cake to investigate the relative densities of various liquids: water, oil, and corn syrup. They will also introduce a few solid materials to find out how their densities compare. Standing alone,...

Watch your marshmallows fly. The engaging STEM activity has groups create a catapult to launch marshmallows. After testing their prototypes, they consider improvements and redesign their catapults.

Sixty multiple-choice questions test on a variety of first year chemistry subjects. In order to succeed, exam takers must be competent with properties of elements, stoichiometry problems, gas laws, bond dissociation, and types of...

The National Chemistry Olympiad exams are comprehensive tests covering an entire  year of chemistry concepts. You can use them as practice for competing in the challenge, or simply as a review, or as an actual final exam for your...

Young ecologists examine the case of the prairie dog, and their near extinction. They read a terrific student handout embedded in the plan, and engage in a class discussion that's based on what they read. Learners perform research on...

Youngsters listen to the story, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." After discussing the story, going over new vocabulary, and repeating the rhymes in the story, they study the parts of a fly. They finish by creating a fly on...

Should gray wolves be removed from Yellowstone National Park? After researching the complex relationships between the various habitats and species at Yellowstone National Park,  including humans, class members take a position...

Twisting and turning through the sky, roller coasters are popular attractions at amusement parks around the world, but how exactly do they work? Explore the physics behind these thrilling rides with an engineering design activity....

To wrap up your year of general chemistry, have lab groups compete in a tot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) competition. With their foundation in chemical nomenclature, stoichiometry, and gas laws, each group completes several...

Take your class of youngsters on a prehistoric adventure with this four-lesson series on dinosaurs. Accompanying the Meet the Dinosaurs books by Don Lessem, these lessons engage children in writing their own dinosaur books,...

Tiny particles can provide big learning opportunities! Middle school scientists explore the world of nanoparticles through reading, discussion, and experiment. Collaborative groups first apply nanotechnology to determine water...

How does examining an ice core tell us about weather? Learners set up and explore fake ice cores made of sugar, salt, and ash to represent historical snowfall and volcanic eruptions. From their setups, scholars determine what caused the...

When making sweet tea, why do people dissolve the sugar in hot tea instead of cold tea? The class discusses the previous lab and builds upon it. Working in groups, they design an experiment to determine how temperature affects the...

Study everything about plants! The 12-part series of lessons continues with an examination of many aspects of plants. Components of the laboratory activity address the growth and structure of plants by evaluating familiar plants. The...

Find similarities in seemingly unlike organisms. The second instructional activity in a series of 12 builds the concept of a taxonomy and explores the use of a dichotomous key. Learners begin in part one by attempting to group a set of...

Can my windmill pick up a weight? Given the same set of materials, groups design and build the most efficient windmill. On the first day, groups concentrate on getting a windmill to spin, while on the second day, they modify their...

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.

Have your young scientists questioned why plants grow a particular way? Through this learning opportunity, scientists gain firsthand knowledge about how plants develop and various factors that affect rates of growth as they bring plants...

Heat up your lessons on boiling points. The resource provides a three-part activity: first, groups find the boiling point of solutions; second, they create boiling point curves for salt and sugar solutions; and third, they mix a solution...

Students recognize and name the main parts of a flower. In this life science lesson plan, the teacher leads a discussion about the parts of a plant, then students color and cut out the parts of a planet, then glue the parts together...

Sixth graders study the food web in a bay. In this food web lesson, 6th graders investigate the SAV- submerged aquatic vegetation of a bay including their predators, and how the organisms eat, have proper living space and water. They...

What do magnetic fields look like? The best way to learn about magnetic fields is to try identifying them for yourself. Scholars will understand the importance of magnetic fields after completing this experiment. The extension activities...

Ninth graders study the basic principles of flight, including the Bernoulli Principle and Newton's Laws. They construct and study model aircraft