Curated OER
Invasion of the (Cactus) Booty Snatchers
Students, in groups of four,identify and analyze relationships among birds within a population, a community and an urban ecosystem. They fill out, while they're completing their experiments, a Populations of Birds Student Data Sheet.
Curated OER
Shopping Around
Third graders select a recipe and compare prices for ingredients at two different stores. They select the best place to buy the ingredients and answer questions about the process. They include their data on a spreadsheet related to their...
Curated OER
Analyzing Political Cartoons
Seventh graders identify a political cartoon and analyze a pre-Revolutionary War political cartoon. In this political cartoon lesson, 7th graders discuss cartoons and the historical beginnings of American politics using a PowerPoint...
Curated OER
Apple Logic and Problem Solving
Young scholars examine apple production in the United States. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students use problem solving strategies introduced to solve math problems associated with apple production in the United States. Student...
Curated OER
Environmental Graphing
Students experiment with graphing. In this graphing introduction lesson, students complete four activities: 1) a bar graph based on class birthdays 2) an estimation graph of the raisins in raisin bread 3) another estimation example with...
PHET
AM Radio Ionosphere Station
Tune in! Young scientists use an AM radio at home to monitor solar output. The long-term project would be ideal in a flipped classroom or as an out-of-class project.
Polar Trec
Bering Sea Fabulous Food Chain Game
In spring, the Bering Sea turns green due to phytoplankton, which live at the surface, experiencing a population explosion. Groups of scholars play a food chain game, writing down food chains as the game is played. After five to six...
EngageNY
Informally Fitting a Line
Discover how trend lines can be useful in understanding relationships between variables with a lesson that covers how to informally fit a trend line to model a relationship given in a scatter plot. Scholars use the trend line to make...
Polar Trec
Who Will Melt First?
If the Greenland ice sheet melted, sea levels would rise by about 20 ft; if the Antarctic ice sheet melted, sea levels would rise by 200 ft. Scholars explore ice melting through the analysis of different ice samples, clean and dirty ice....
Virginia Department of Education
Road Trip
Help plan a road trip with linear equations. Scholars consider two different rental car companies and write equations representing the cost for each company. They graph the system of equations to determine the conditions under which each...
NOAA
Mapping the Deep-Ocean Floor
How do you create a map of the ocean floor without getting wet? Middle school oceanographers discover the process of bathymetric mapping in the third installment in a five-part series of lessons designed for seventh and eighth graders....
EngageNY
Scatter Plots
Scholars learn to create scatter plots and investigate any relationships that exists between the variables with a lesson that also show them that statistical relationships do not necessarily indicate a cause-and-effect...
SRI International
The Water Crisis
Water, water, everywhere, right? Wrong. Learners assess their own knowledge of water availability on Earth. Then, through a reading, a teacher-led presentation, and an activity, pupils learn about the importance of available clean...
Virginia Department of Education
Permeability and Porosity
Covering both permeability and porosity, scholars perform a hands-on experiment testing various soil types. The material includes a pre-lesson worksheet to help focus pupils on the task at hand.
EngageNY
Modeling with Polynomials—An Introduction (part 2)
Linear, quadratic, and now cubic functions can model real-life patterns. High schoolers create cubic regression equations to model different scenarios. They then use the regression equations to make predictions.
Kenan Fellows
Reaction Stoichiometry—How Can We Make Chalk?
What is a reasonable percent yield in the manufacturing process? Scholars develop a process for producing chalk in the third lesson of a six-part series. Then, they must determine the theoretical and percent yield. Discussions about...
Beyond Benign
Catalysts and Oxygen
Here is an engaging and hands-on lesson plan that allows high school chemists to demonstrate the effects of a catalyst on various chemicals. They garner knowledge of how reactants and products differ from one another, while...
University of Colorado
Looking Inside Planets
All of the gas giant's atmospheres consist of hydrogen and helium, the same gases that make up all stars. The third in a series of 22, the activity challenges pupils to make scale models of the interiors of planets in order to...
NASA
Development of a Model: Analyzing Elemental Abundance
How do scientists identify which elements originate from meteorites? Scholars learn about a sample of material found in a remote location, analyzing the sample to determine if it might be from Earth or not. They study elements, isotopes,...
NASA
Christa's Lost Lesson: Effervescence
How are chemical reactions affected by gravity? Learners explore the phenomenon of effervescence as part of the Christa's Lost Lessons series. They compare findings in an experiment on effervescence to a video of a similar experiment in...
Chymist
Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz
One of the most recognizable commercial melodies was written in 1977, and led to gastronomical relief around the world. Scholars use Alka Seltzer tablets to measure reactants and calculate the chemical equation for the reaction of NaHCO3...
EngageNY
Secant Angle Theorem, Exterior Case
It doesn't matter whether secant lines intersect inside or outside the circle, right? Scholars extend concepts from the previous instructional activity to investigate angles created by secant lines that intersect at a point exterior...
EngageNY
Probability Rules (part 1)
In statistics, probability rules—literally! Learners use their previous knowledge and explore a set of rules for conditional probability, independent probability, and complements. Given different scenarios, they must determine what type...
Virginia Department of Education
How Much is that Tune?
Tune in for savings! Scholars investigate pricing schemes for two different online music download sites. After comparing the two, they determine the numbers of songs for which each site would be cheaper.