Students examine how to locate and access data sets.  In this climate change lesson plan students import data into Excel and graph it.   

Students examine the factors that influence hurricanes to develop.  In this hurricane lesson plan students research atmospheric trends that affect hurricanes and create a summary.

Students investigate topology. In this Applied Science lesson students explore higher, more abstract mathematics using tangles. Students make topologically related shapes.

Students build a scaled model of the solar system. In this space science instructional activity, students arrange them according to their distances from the sun. They analyze each planet's unique features such as density and relative...

After a concise introduction to the water cycle, junior meteorologists access NOAA's average snowfall data. They choose a city to examine in terms of precipitation. Then they look at historical snowfall data and use it to predict snow...

Want your class to rock? Then try this boulder activity. Pupils learn about a specific boulder field and use edible materials to demonstrate the geological processes that formed this unique feature. Weathering, erosion, and mass...

As you work through Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, try out some or all of the 20 questions and activities included here. Useful for discussion questions, group assignments, or individual projects, this resource covers plot as...

All the tools (and directions) you’ll need  to build an essay are included in a resource designed for learners and educators. The packet can be given to class members or divided into sections and used as part of a series of lesson...

If you are looking for a straightforward presentation about erosion and deposition with an emphasis on rivers, look no further. While not super flashy or entertaining, vocabulary is presented simply and accompanied by pictures to...

Determining whether or not something is living can be more difficult than it seems. Put your young scientists to work defining their own criteria to identify life, then work with three samples to see if they are alive or...

From their sweat to the water vapor in their breath, astronauts recycle every possible drop of water while in space. After watching a short video describing the different ways materials are recycled and reused in space...

Strengthen your high schoolers' writing with a series of steps for writing successfully. With sections on organizing an essay, choosing a topic, crafting a thesis statement, and revising a draft, the activity encourages your class to...

With 90 percent of its land area covered in forests, Suriname, a country in South America, contains the largest percentage of forests throughout the world. Here is an activity that brings classmates together to learn about the...

The propellant needed for space explorations runs in the thousands, while paying to get the craft into orbit costs millions! In the second installment of three, two activities explore laws of conservation of energy and momentum. Using...

Explore the scientific method of classification. An interactive activity asks learners to create a classification system for a group of objects and develop a flow chart to communicate their systems. In addition, individuals use a...

West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man and a two-page scientific article about the same topic provide the text for a reading comprehension exercise that asks individuals to craft a one page summary of information gathered...

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....

Molecules to the Max! refers to a movie released in 2009 about the world of atoms and molecules. A helpful discovery guide provides five posters on science topics typically covered at the middle school level. It also explains the...

Let nature guide your engineering designs. By taking apart a flower, pupils learn about reverse engineering. They use the results to brainstorm designs for new products or ideas. This is the seventh installment of a nine-part Life...

Even light cannot leave the force of a black hole! Learners use a model to explore the gravitational force of a black hole. An elastic bandage and heavy ball serve to create the hole, while marbles become the victims of its strong force.

Coloring pages showcase microbes—bacteria, viruses, and protists. Scholars have the option to download a coloring book and scavenger hunt or color the page directly on the computer. Three paragraphs describe each microbe. 

Winogradsky columns are ideal for observing the role of bacteria and other microorganisms in an ecosystem. This student activity guide is complete with data tables for observations and analysis questions for processing what was observed....

What do you call a tiny collection of galaxies? A puny-verse! Young scholars graph data gathered by scientists studying Cepheids. They attempt to identify a relationship between the variables through standard and logarithmical...

A lesson allows you to go back in time and see the big bang actually happen. Bazinga! In reality, pupils research the Big Bang Theory and theorize what it would be like to go back in time and see it happen. There are four...