Curated OER
Simple Circuit: Electric Currents and Circuits
Through inquiry and exploration, 4th graders will learn and understand the functions of open and closed circuits. They will break into 2 groups, define vocabulary, hypothesize how to light a bulb, then test their hypothesis 4 different...
PHET
Pendulum Lab
How would a pendulum work on the moon or Jupiter? To answer that question scholars control up to two pendulums including their location, length, mass, and amplitude. Added controls include changing the friction and strength of gravity....
Columbus City Schools
Planet X
How did the earth become the mass that it is now? Your young scientists explore this question through the concept of density. Their inquiries consider the impact of gravity on the formation of planets. The culminating activity of the...
Curated OER
United States Entry into World War I: A Documentary Chronology
High schoolers complete a unit of lessons on the events that led to U.S. involvement in WWI. They complete a Webquest, conduct research, complete a Venn diagram, read and discuss the reasons for entering the war, and create a slideshow.
Curated OER
Crazy for Cubes: Art and Science
Learners discuss Sol LeWitt and conceptual art, then analyze the differences in expressing a concept through model-based inquiry and aesthetic art criticism. They develop a geometric, scientific, or mathematical concept, then create an...
Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Sentence Structure
Statements can be taken out of context and interpreted or used to support a very different view than the one originally intended. Young journalists start thinking about leading questions, sentence structure, context, and how they all...
Concord Consortium
Energy of a Spring
Spring has sprung! Young physicists explore the properties of springs with a simple simulator. Users control the initial position of the spring, then observe the potential, kinetic, and thermal energies in the system.
Curated OER
Dissolved Oxygen and Respiration
Students are presented with the question, "Do plants that grow underwater use oxygen?" They create an experiment to test the presence of dissolved oxygen in the water using provided materials. Student experiments include a control jar as...
Curated OER
Activity: Gummy Bear Genetics
Who's your Daddy ... and Mommy for that matter? Given a first-generation group of gummy bear offspring, young scientists must determine which bears are their parents. An activity worksheet covers the differences in genotypes and...
National Wildlife Federation
Branching Out – Exploring Dendrochronology
Tree rings from North America give a continuous history of El Nino intensity over the last 1,100 years. Scholars learn how scientists use tree rings to create timelines demonstrating variations in weather patterns. The cumulative...
Curated OER
Designing a Scientific Study
Students define an exploration question or hypothesis and design a scientific study to answer it. They conduct the experiment.
Curated OER
Investigating the Biosphere With Planetary Models
Students create a biosphere using the computer program SImEarth. They work in small groups to create "Daisyworld" in which they model aspects of the Gaia hypothesis. They form a question to answer and choose variables to investigate in...
Curated OER
Fortune Teller Fish
Students demonstrate how to create and test a hypothesis. They design an experiment and set up a variable, experimental group and control group.
Curated OER
Popcorn!
Second graders pop popcorn as a way to experience the scientific process. They form a hypothesis, carry out an experiment and explain their findings.
Curated OER
Pendulum Activity
Fourth graders conduct a lab activity that measures the factors that change the swing rate of a pendulum. They create a hypothesis and test it during the experiment. They record their observations using the recording sheets and journal...
Curated OER
Note Taking And Skills And Lab Reports
Young scholars perform simple and fun experiments to use the scientific method, take careful notes, and write a lab report. They first make and test a hypothesis about how many drops of water they can fit on the face of a penny and then...
Curated OER
Creating and Designing a Database of Class Library Books
Students are shown how to create their own database using different field types. They are taugt how to design their own layout-chaning font or size and color of text, adding background color and clipart. Students interrogate their...
Curated OER
Coke Mentos
Students hypothesize on what the outcome will be of an experiment, they then observe the experiment and write their observations down. In this experimental lesson students hypothesize, observe then discuss what happens in an...
Curated OER
Friction Restriction: Creating a Design Plan to Redesign the Tread of Tennis Sneakers to Increase Friction
Young scholars evaluate the friction of tennis sneakers and redesign them to increase friction. For this physics lesson, students calculate starting, sideways and forward stopping friction. Using quantitative data, they prove that...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Wet Heads
Middle schoolers apply the steps of the scientific method to an experiment. They complete an instructional activity of scientific inquiry and use a spreadsheet software to create a graph illustrating data gathered.
Statistics Education Web
Text Messaging is Time Consuming! What Gives?
The more you text, the less you study. Have classes test this hypothesis or another question related to text messages. Using real data, learners use technology to create a scatter plot and calculate a regression line. They create a dot...
University of Minnesota
Dendritic Spines Lab
This is your brain on drugs ... literally! Your neuroscientists-in-training examine the evidence of drug use on the human brain and how neurons change their connectivity when altered by drugs. They then work together to create testing...
Under the Dome
Triangle Mystery ...
Build a pyramid based on sums. Individuals watch a video of a computer program that creates a pyramid of numbers based upon a starting number. The scholars develop a hypothesis on how the number trick works and share their thoughts on...
Statistics Education Web
Consuming Cola
Caffeine affects your heart rate — or does it? Learners study experimental design while conducting their own experiment. They collect heart rate data after drinking a caffeinated beverage, create a box plot, and draw conclusions....