Curated OER
Cooking with the Sun
Learners explore using energy from the sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. This excellent two-day lesson has groups of students build and test a variety of solar cookers....
Curated OER
Is That Legal? A Case of Acid Rain
Develop an environmental case study! Elementary learners discover how a case study is used as an analysis tool. The goal of this activity is to show pupils how techniques of persuasion (including background, supporting evidence,...
Curated OER
Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
Curated OER
Mapping the Brain
A virtual 3-D tour leads high schoolers to developing icons representing the function of various parts of the brain. These icons are then used to label hand-drawn maps of the brain. A worksheet, assessment, and detailed procedures are...
Curated OER
Cell Wall Recipe: A Lesson on Biofuels
Biotech engineers discover that changes in the DNA code for cell wall formation can help create crops better suited for biofuel production. They extract DNA from wheat germ. They decode paper strips with codes and relate the activity to...
NASA
The X-1 Paper Glider Kit
After reading an interesting account of how the X-1 aircraft was designed, built, and utilized, young engineers try their hand at constructing a paper glider version of the airplane. They cut out the plane out of a nicely designed...
Teach Engineering
Biological Processes: Putting Microbes to Work
Is there such a thing as useful microbes? Get ready to perform experiments on applying microbes for wastewater treatment. The first installment of the three-part unit provides background information to prepare young engineers for two...
Curated OER
Measuring Precipitation
A little engineering design is mixed into this lesson on precipitation measurement. Groups plan and construct a rain gauge, and use it to collect precipitation. As part of the PowerPoint presentation, learners view a satellite map of...
Curated OER
Contemporary Civic-life Issue Research Based Essay
Seventh graders write a five paragraph persuasive essay on a contemporary civic-life issue.
Curated OER
Wings, Chrome, and Tailfins: Automobiles of the 1950s
Young scholars study the automobile industry. In this cultural history lesson, students explore 1950s America as they view a teacher-created PowerPoint presentation regarding the 1950s. Young scholars research how the automobile changed...
Curated OER
Earn Points with Technology
Students explore renewable energy by analyzing a diagram. In this fossil fuel lesson plan, students view a chart explaining the different energy consumption from automobiles and how they impact our environment. Students analyze a point...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Pitch and Frequency
Students experiment with a vibrating ruler and a kazoo to study the different pitches and frequencies they produce. They create both high and low pitch sound waves. They examine how engineers use sound energy when designing electronic...
Curated OER
Smoke and Mirrors
Pupils develop a persuasive peer-to-peer case against smoking. They read two scenarios, perform a skit, and prepare a factual presentation.
Curated OER
Light Plants and Dark Plants, Wet Plants and Dry Ones
Students plant sunflower seeds in plastic cups, and once germinated, these are exposed to different conditions of light levels and/or soil moisture contents. Students measure growth of the seedlings every few days using non-standard...
Curated OER
Unit Circle and Triangle
Students apply the Unit Circle to solve ratios of triangles. In this geometry activity, students derive the different ratios of a triangle using the Pythagorean Theorem. They find the angles of a unit circle using a right triangle.
Curated OER
Plate, punch card, and instructions for Herman Hollerith's Electric Sorting and Tabulating Machine
Students read an article and participate in a class discussion. In this technology and engineering lesson students conduct an online search for images and terms.
Curated OER
Inventors and Scientists
Students research a scientific breakthrough. In this science lesson, students write an essay on a technology that has changed the world.
Curated OER
Minerals, Crystals, and Gems
Students discover the relationships between minerals, crystals and gems. They bring in rocks that they find at home, in the schoolyard, etc. and examine them and attempt to identify them. They set up a classroom exhibit that includes all...
Curated OER
Plants and Animals: Partners in Pollination
Students identify the plant parts and bee structures that are involved in pollination. They simulate pollination in a group activity and process the information.
Curated OER
Take Two and Call Me in the Morning
Eighth graders are introduced to the workings of the major systems of the Human Body: circulatory, digestive, respiratory, nervous, skeletal, and endocrine Systems. They learn the major organs of the systems and their functions.
Curated OER
Air Temperature and Kinetic Energy
Students use a NASA website do activities which help them better explain how air temperature and kinetic energy are related to aircraft propulsion.
Curated OER
Biotechnology Projects and Writing Assignments
High schoolers research a subject about biotechnology and do a project or a writing assignment on it. They can pick from a possible eighteen different projects and five different writing projects.
Curated OER
Career Planning and the Occupational Outlook Handbook
Students watch a demonstration on how to perform a proper internet search. Individually, they visit the Occupational Outlook Handbook and identify its purpose. They identify what professionals in a specific career do on the job and the...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Aztec Calendars and Culture
Sixth graders analyze the Aztec calendar and create their own examples of them. They determine the meaning of the symbols used in the calendars and record their ideas in journals. Students host a parent breakfast for them to observe...