What would it take to live on the lunar surface? Small groups build model rockets in order to simulate launching a habitat into space and rebuilding it. Divide the class into groups to design and build a model of a lunar habitat. The...

How do seeds get around? It's not like plants can control seed dispersal—or can they? Dig deeper into the amazing mechanisms of seed dispersal observed in tropical plants through interactives, a video, and plenty of hands-on data...

Space, the Final Frontier. The nine NASA-created challenges in this unit are designed to teach class members the engineering design process. Each challenge comes with teacher and student pages that can be used individually or as a...

It may be gruesome but somebody's got to do it! Young forensic scientists get a feel for what the job entails as they study blood spatter in seven experimental activites. They examine how spatter can be changed by release height,...

Scholars watch a video and meet a scientist who is studying sharks as she explains her observations about the sharks and provides her hypothesis to explain their behavior. Learners then act like a scientist as they watch an aquarium...

Learners of light will construct a contraption in which light is passed through a prism and shone into a box. The temperatures at different points along the path and outside of the path of light. The intent is to imitate William...

For this nature of science and measurement worksheet, students answer 30 questions about experimental design, pure science vs. applied science, density, metric conversions and dimensional analysis.

The scientific method keeps you from believing only what you want to believe — it expands your mind. The lesson plan introduces the eight steps in the scientific process and how to design an experiment to biology scholars. Live insects...

Engineering challenges are not just man-made ... nature has its own set of them. A hands-on STEM activity has groups designing a seed dispersal system. Each group can only use one sheet of paper — a tough task!

What goes into a museum display? A secondary-level STEM project prompts groups to design a museum display for the Tech Museum of Innovation. They create an analogous, interactive model illustrating a science concept to complete the...

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....

Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language...

Why are muscles important? Third graders study the different kinds and functions of muscles in the human body. After drawing arrows in an illustration to indicate where a muscle contraction would occur, they do their own experiment about...

What do physicists and musicians have in common? A lot more than you might think. After first viewing a slide show presentation and completing a series of skills practice worksheets on the physics of light, sound, and...

Pour a solid foundation of engineering into the minds of future engineers. Scholars take part in three activities to learn about civil engineering. They build a model of a cable-stayed bridge, conduct an experiment to see the effects of...

What is a chemist's favorite plant? Stoichiome Tree! Scholars produce hydrogen gas by reacting magnesium with hydrochloric acid. Then they calculate the molar volume of the gas produced before answering assessment questions. 

Young scientists study light reflection and refraction as they determine the critical angle, the rainbow angle, and color separation in rainbows. Teams record the data they collect in a shared spreadsheet and discuss results with the class.

Young classes are sure to get a charge out of this lesson plan! Learners experiment with circuits of a solar cell. They practice determining current, voltage, and power for the circuit and maximize the voltage and current of the cell.

Students examine the energy the sun produces on a daily basis. In groups, they discover the properties of visible and invisible light. They also adjust the exposure time to change the properties of various objects. To end the lesson,...

In this chemistry olympiad laboratory activity, learners design and carry out two experiments. They design one experiment to test for the percent mass of a substance in a solution and they design another experiment to identify two...

Complete teacher narrative and presentation slides for teaching about Earth's water make up the bulk of this lesson. Embedded within the slide show, you will find videos about the water cycle, keeping track of the limited supply of fresh...

This resource is designed to be used as a lab sheet when experimenting with the dissolution of sugar in water. It's very nice in that it follows the scientific method of experimentation. There are places for the definition of the...

Students design circuits to power 3-9 volt devices such as CD players or flashlights. After measuring the voltage and current requirements for the item, they design a loaded voltage-divided circuit to power it. Students work in teams to...