DiscoverE
Human Suspension Bridge
When is it okay to be suspended in school? When you're part of a human suspension bridge! Learners first model tension and compression in pairs. Once complete, they get together as a class to model a suspension bridge.
DiscoverE
The Power of Graphene
When you think electric circuits, your pencil probably isn't the thing that comes to mind. A simple experiment lets learners test whether the graphene in pencil lead is a conductor or an insulator. If the LED bulb lights up, a conductor...
TryEngineering
Sorting Socks is Algorithm Complexity
Use hosiery to teach computer science. Scholars use socks to develop a set of algorithms. They find ways to find a particular sock from a set and ways to sort socks. Finally, they use their algorithms to consider time complexity.
DiscoverE
Let Your Lights Glow
Put those old holiday lights to good use. Individuals use a section of ornamental lights to create electric circuits. If the lights glow, it's a success; otherwise, it's time to try again!
NPR
Iterate to Improve the Prototype
Strive for perfection. Based on peer feedback, groups identify ways to improve their prototypes of the solution to the plastics problem. Members must come up with at least two ideas for improvements. This is the eighth instructional...
Teaching Tolerance
The Privacy Paradox
What's more important: privacy or convenience? Scholars consider the question as they take a digital privacy quiz and read a transcript of an NPR podcast about the privacy paradox. As a culminating activity, pupils develop a list of five...
Classics for Kids
Fun With Musical Words
Is concertmaster another term for conductor, or is he or she another person entirely? Learn the specifics of the role of concertmaster with an activity focused on classical music. After learners define the term, they...
Nosapo
Creating a Bio Poem
Find out what's special about your pupils with a fun biopoem activity! As they fill out their name, words that describe them, what they love, and what they dream of, learners create an expressive poem about themselves.
Teach Engineering
Rube Goldberg and the Meaning of Machines
A Rube Goldberg machine does not really look like it would make work easier. Introduce your class to Rube Goldberg with a resource that shows how his inventions make simple tasks harder to complete.
Teach Engineering
Exploring the Forces of Tension
Let the resource stretch the minds of your young scientists with a lesson about tensile strength and stiffness of materials. Groups consider how easily materials stretch and relate this property to engineering design.
Teach Engineering
Complex Networks and Graphs
Show your class how engineers use graphs to understand large and complex systems. The resource provides the beginnings of graph theory by introducing the class to set theory, graphs, and degree distributions of a graph.
Teach Engineering
Not So Simple
Compound machines, nothing more than a combination of simple machines working together, are the focus of an activity that asks class members to use the provided information to take a look at the way innovators combine simple machines to...
Curated OER
Healthy Lifestyles
Students navigate MS Publisher to create a publication about a healthy lifestyle. In this healthy lifestyle lesson, students participate in activities to learn to eat right, to be fit and to create a publication based on what they...
National Security Agency
Introducing Integers and Their Operations
There's nothing negative about this mini-unit on integers! Engaging young mathematicians in a series of hands-on activities and collaborative learning opportunities, this resource offers an excellent way to introduce your class...
NFPA
Sparky's Birthday Surprise
Fire safety is a hot topic for kids! With this resource, little ones will read, color, draw, and play as they are learning about prevention and, as an added bonus, practice naming shapes, counting, and adding numbers! Reading, math, and...
Curated OER
Technology that Makes Phonics Fun
Students discover the Internet by participating in on-line educational activities. In this educational technology lesson, students utilize interactive story books, podcasts, and games to help expand an understanding of phonics....
Teach Engineering
The Amazing Red Planet
Introduce your class to Mars with a resource that provides information about its size, location, length of day, length of year, number of moons, and average temperature. Also includes is information about the lans for past...
Teach Engineering
Weather Forecasting
According to the Farmers' Almanac, the weather will be nice today. Class members examine how weather forecasting plays a part in their lives with a resource that provides information on the history of forecasting, from using cloud...
Teach Engineering
All About Linear Programming
Class members connect engineering with an understanding of linear programming using a technical resource. Scholars learn about linear programming (linear optimization) and how it applies to engineering design in the first of two modules....
Curated OER
Think It, Write It, Create It
Help your scholars create a class story. They will write a page of the story and illustrate that page. Then they use a variety of digital technologies to make the story come alive. A variety of digital resources are recommended for the...
Teach Engineering
The Grand Challenge
Magnetic resonance imaging, just how safe is it? The introduction to unit study of magnetic resonance imaging technology presents the grand challenge questions of how an MRI machine works, the risks involved, the physics involved,...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Faces of Climate Change
Sometimes, the best solution to a problem can be found by walking in someone else's shoes. Here, scholars use character cards to take on the roles of people around the world. They determine how their character's...
Middle Tennessee State University
The Invention of the Telephone
All of the people in your class would agree that life would be different without the invention of the telephone! Study Alexander Graham Bell's most famous and influential invention through the primary source document of his...
Teach Engineering
Can You Take the Pressure?
Do not let the pressure get to you. The first lesson in a unit of 22 introduces the concept of air pressure. Using background knowledge, the resource gives teachers the information they need to discuss how people measure air pressure and...