Teach Engineering
Insulation Materials Investigation
Don't melt away! Pairs investigate different insulation materials to determine which one is better than the others. Using a low-temp heat plate, the teams insulate an ice cube from the heat source with a variety of substances. They...
Discovery Education
It's Getting Hot in Here
Class members engage in a STEM experiment and investigate how materials affect heating in a house by creating models of houses and using different top surface materials. They record the temperature inside the models and consider what the...
Curated OER
Calorimetry Problems
In this calorimetry instructional activity, students complete 30 problems. They calculate the change in heat of a system given the mass and the change in temperature of the system. Students also find the final temperature of a reaction...
Curated OER
Household Conservation/Efficiency
Hook your class up to an online home energy usage calculator so that they can estimate the amount used per month by their families. Then give them Watt meters with which they will measure the power consumption of several small...
Curated OER
Comparing Graphs of Temperature and Radiation
Students study plots and use a Live Access Server to generate plots. In this temperature lesson students examine the process of incoming and outgoing radiation.
Curated OER
Integrating Chemistry-Chemical Reactions
In this chemical reactions activity, students read about different types of chemical reactions, potential and chemical energy. They answer three questions about their reading.
Curated OER
Earth Energy Budget Pre Lab
Students explore energy by conducting an in class experiment. In this climate change lesson plan, students conduct a water vapor experiment in a soda bottle. Students utilize graphs and charts to analyze the results of the experiment and...
Curated OER
Surface Air Temperature Trends of the Caribbean
Learners use real satellite data to determine the changes in near-surface air temperature at different times of the year over the Caribbean Sea. They discover how Earth's tilt causes seasonal differences in incoming solar energy. They...
Curated OER
Chemistry: Energy Resources and Transfers
Learners explore the concepts of energy resources and energy transfers. In this chemistry lesson, students examine renewable and non-renewable energy sources as they view classroom demonstrations and discuss the concepts as well as their...
Curated OER
Passive Solar Design
Students study what passive solar design is for buildings and structures. For this solar design lesson students identify passive solar design techniques.
Curated OER
Cost Effective Buying
Students evaluate energy-related purchases. In this consumer awareness lesson, students visit an appliance store and rank the products' cost effectiveness by using a mathematical formula.
Curated OER
Thermal Energy and Heat Unit
Students explain that heat energy in a material consists of the disordered motions of its atoms or molecules. They know and explain that transformations of energy usually transform some energy into the form of heat, which dissipates by...
Curated OER
Science: Heat Quiz
In this science: heat quiz activity, students answer ten questions, not interactively, about heat, water and temperature with the answers at the bottom of the screen.
Curated OER
Solids and Liquids
Students complete activities to study the properties of solids and liquids. In this states of matter lesson, students investigate the melting and freezing of a range of materials in a virtual experiment. Students melt the substances and...
Teach Engineering
Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Passive solar heating is a technology that's been in use for thousands of years. Here, elementary schoolers are exposed to this type of heating, the materials that are used in passive solar heating, and they study how engineers design...
Curated OER
Landscaping and Urban Forestry - Lesson 4 (Grades 5-6)
Students discuss reasons to plant trees and the best locations for cooling. They analyze two homes identifying types and locations of trees, and location of the central air conditioners. The benefits of shade, the process of...
Curated OER
Ice Energy
Students study the concept of ice energy. In this ice energy lesson, students observe what happens when salt is sprinkled on a piece of ice before following a recipe to make two types of ice cream. They note the difference in the two...
Curated OER
Heat Unit
Young scholars define thermal equilibrium. They distinguish between internal energy and heat. Students describe how the quantity of heat that enters or leaves a substance is measured.
Curated OER
Activity #15 What Happens To A Liquid As Energy Is Added?
Students model the arrangement of particles in a liquid. They use the model, to demonstrate how a gas is formed from a liquid with no increase in temperature as energy is added. Pupils model the arrangement and movement of gas particles.
Curated OER
Do Different Colors Absorb Heat Better?
Learners work together to test how the color of a material affects how much heat it absorbs. They make predictions and take notes on their observations. They discover how engineers use this type of information.
Curated OER
Keep It Cool
Young scholars complete a science experiment to study insulation, heat transfer, and permafrost. In this permafrost study lesson, students design and test a soda insulator. Young scholars graph their class data and discuss the results....
Curated OER
A Comparison of Land and Water Temperature
Students examine NASA satellite observations of surface temperature and investigate the seasonal changes of land and water temperature.
Curated OER
Cooler In The Shadows
Students investigate the concepts of shadows and how they are projected with objects different positions in relation to the sun. They conduct an experiment by observing objects in different positions. Then students record the observations.
Curated OER
Science Jeopardy - The Earth Sciences
The earth sciences are the focus for this Jeopardy-style review game. Categories include geology, space, scientific investigation, meteorology, and oceanography. Diagrams and pictures are involved with most of the questions, making this...