Curated OER
Integer Subtraction
Students examine why a negative number subtracted from another number changes the operation to addition.
Curated OER
Ladybug Addition
Students engage in an interesting lesson on addition that encourages class participation through role-play and concrete hands-on activity. They utilize the fact that ladybugs have dots on their bodies to create a fun, hands-on lesson in...
Curated OER
Fantastic Fractions
Fourth graders explore and examine through hands-on experience and reasoning the concept of fractions. They solve problems involving multiplication and division of whole numbers and addition and subtraction of simple fractions and decimals.
Curated OER
Team Shape Picture/Shape Creation
Learners study the concept of shape--two-dimensional objects--and have hands-on experience creating pictures using a variety of shapes. They identify, explain and use the basic elements of design and recognize the effect different...
Curated OER
Simple Harmonic Motion
Students explore the theory of simple harmonic motion (SHM) by performing hands-on, practical application experiments. In this harmonic motion instructional activity, students use strings of various lengths and bobs of different weights...
Curated OER
Solve Simple One-Step Linear Equation
Sixth graders solve one unknown number by using hands-on manipulatives after being introduced to the history of abstract mathematics through literature.
Curated OER
Not A Drop To Drink
Fifth graders discuss ways that humans pollute our natural water supply. They observe a video about water pollution. Students identify eight different ways water is contaminated. They investigate an oil spill by conducting a hands-on...
Curated OER
Scales, Scutes, and Skins
Young scholars identify the various adaptations of reptiles and amphibians. After distinguishing between reptiles and amphibians, students discuss the ways in which their adaptations aid in their survival. They participate in a hands...
Curated OER
How Things Fly
Students explain basic principles of aeronautics such as gravity and lift. In this How Things Fly activity, students visit the interactive, hands-on How Things Fly gallery at the Smithsonian. Students perform three experiments that...
Curated OER
Learning About Fiction Genres in the Elementary School Library
Teaching about fiction genres can be challenging. The lesson here, designed for library media specialists, offers a fun way to do it. In the lesson, learners visit the library and learn about the different types of fiction...
Teach Engineering
Capillarity – Measuring Surface Tension
How do cohesion and adhesion work together? The third installment of a nine-part series teaches young scientists the difference between adhesion and cohesion. They also learn how cohesion and adhesion work together to cause capillary...
Curated OER
Building for the Big One
Students build and test structures that can best withstand earthquakes. They create their structures from playdough, cornstarch, grape-nuts and popsicle sticks and place their structures on a "shake table."
Exploratorium
Thread the Needle
If you are setting up a rotation lab where learners are investigating vision at different stations, this activity can be used to explore depth perception. Setting up a giant needle eye, students attempt to pass a pencil through it with...
Visa
In Trouble
What are some of the financial risks associated with using credit? Pupils learn the warning signs of incurring financial hardship, and through PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, and discussion, discover the...
Teach Engineering
May the Force Be With You: Lift
Get the class up and going with a instructional activity that discusses how airplane wings provide lift. Pupils use their knowledge of Bernoulli's Principle to develop an explanation of how it creates lift on airplane wings.
Teach Engineering
May the Force Be With You: Thrust
Force the plane through the air. The instructional activity introduces the force on an airplane that makes it go forward. Pupils learn how Newton's laws of motion apply to flight in the eighth segment of a 22-part unit on flight.
Curated OER
Our Solar System - Comparing Planetary Travel Distances
NASA presents a mini-unit on distances in our solar system. It incorporates scientific concepts of gravity, mass, density, and payload while your aspiring astronauts also employ mathematics skills. They calculate speed, they determine...
Teach Engineering
Food Chains and Food Webs - Balance within Natural Systems
Feast on an informative resource. Scholars learn about food chains and food webs and how these interactions give information about the natural community. A PowerPoint presentation provides information about this concept.
Tennessee Valley Authority
Renewable Energy Sources
Not all energy sources are renewable, as learners investigate in this unit. Made up of six lessons that span a few weeks of instruction, the unit has learners examining US energy reserves and consumption, using data to draw conclusions...
Tell City Schools
The Cay
Support your instruction of The Cay by Theodore Taylor with this extensive unit of materials. Provided here are prereading activities, worksheets and discussion questions for the entire book, and reading quizzes that you can use to check...
Teach Engineering
Breaking the Mold
A little too much strain could cause a lot of stress. Groups conduct a strength test on clay. Using books as weights, pupils measure the compression of clay columns and calculate the associated strain and stress. Teams record their...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Laparoscopic Surgery
Nobody is as smart as all of us together. In a collaborative learning activity, scholars learn it takes a team to be successful in laparoscopic surgeries. Groups complete the laparoscopic task as a team and discuss their results to...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 4: Engineering Analysis
What is the main difference between an engineer and a technician? This is one of the driving questions in a plan that proves that analysis at every step of development is crucial to the engineering design process. The activity...
Anti-Defamation League
The Hate U Give
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas became a quick hit in the young adult literature genre before its adaptation in the 2018 film of the same name. Use a thorough lesson, discussion guide, and series of activities to discuss the social...