Nothing says classroom fun like an invertebrate and a magnifying glass! Snails, earthworms, and roly-poly bugs become the center of attention as pint-sized investigators hone their inquiry and observation skills. They are...

Middle school scientists learn the steps of the scientific method by watching this phenomenal film and by singing a karaoke song! They are introduced to making observations and hypotheses, determining variables, data collection, and...

By making the following changes to the roads, we can prevent several accidents. A multiple-day lesson prompts pupils to investigate accidents in a small town. Pairs develop a proposal on what to do to help reduce the number of...

The more you text, the less you study. Have classes test this hypothesis or another question related to text messages. Using real data, learners use technology to create a scatter plot and calculate a regression line. They create a dot...

Caffeine affects your heart rate — or does it? Learners study experimental design while conducting their own experiment. They collect heart rate data after drinking a caffeinated beverage, create a box plot, and draw conclusions....

Do flexible circuits change dimensions during fabrication? Groups use GeoGebra software to measure the length of pictures of flexible nano-circuits. To determine if the circuits change dimensions, future engineers use Microsoft...

Build learning by breaking atoms! Young scientists study the way energy changes with a hands-on activity. As they roll steel marbles down a ramp, learners test the hypothesis that kinetic energy does not go away with friction...

Does increasing the pressure between two moving plates provide a stabilizing force or create more destruction? The hands-on lesson encourages exploration of strike-split fault models. The sixth lesson in a 20-part series asks...

How does the soda clerk know exactly how to get the glass across the counter to the customer? Pupils use the simulation to adjust the launch velocity, glass weight, base area, surface material, and the customer's position to answer...

This is your brain on drugs ... literally! Your neuroscientists-in-training examine the evidence of drug use on the human brain and how neurons change their connectivity when altered by drugs. They then work together to create testing...

Make sure your house is warm in the winter. Pupils analyze graphs of heating costs for two similar houses and make hypotheses for why the costs differ. They then build models of houses with appropriate insulation to reduce heating costs.

There's no better way to prepare your class for the AP® test format than previous exams. Instructors and scholars use the 2012 AP® Statistics free-response questions to familiarize themselves with the test. Topics covered in the exam...

Preparing for a high-stakes test can be highly nerve-wracking, but understanding the test content and format helps ease the anxiety. The 2009 AP® Statistics free-response questions are available for reference. Several topics under...

Is your knowledge of statistics at an AP® level? Scholars try out the 2008 AP® Statistics free-response questions. The questions cover box plots, scatter plots, distributions, probability distributions, experiments, statistical tests,...

Think inside the box. Working in small groups, pupils design a study to answer comparing two data sets. Team members collect data and construct box-and-whisker plots and analyze them to prove or disprove their hypothesis. They develop...

Photographs from the freedom movement in Selma, Alabama serve as the basis of two Socratic Seminars. Class members prepare for the seminars by closely observing the images, form a hypothesis, and use evidence from photo to support a...

Build a pyramid based on sums. Individuals watch a video of a computer program that creates a pyramid of numbers based upon a starting number. The scholars develop a hypothesis on how the number trick works and share their thoughts on...

Kids act as scientists and preditors in this short natural selection activity; they collect and analyze data, then apply their new knowledge to real-world examples of natural selection. The layout of the worksheet is easy enough to use...

While many mutations are neutral, those that appear advantageous increase in frequency in a population. Scholars use illustrations to make predictions about populations of mice. They follow it up with a video to confirm or refute their...

Do all liquids evaporate at the same rate? Young scientists observe the evaporation rate of three different liquids. They measure the time, the temperature, and the change in energy. After comparing the chemical formulas, scholars...

Class members come up with a hypothesis on the number of decimal digits in the product of two decimals. Learners work in groups to complete several decimal multiplication problems. The results help groups develop a conjecture on the...

Students find the standard molar volume of a gas. In this molar volume of a gas lesson plan, students react magnesium metal and hydrochloric acid and collect the hydrogen gas produced using a gas collection tube. Students calculate the...

Third graders talk about all the various ways they get to school. They make a list of all the bus numbers that the students use. They also list all the other methods of transportation used and solidify a hypothesis.

A set of instructions and a 100-point grading rubric have been designed for writing lab reports. Appropriate for middle schoolers, this lays out what to include for each of the six steps in the scientific method: title, hypothesis,...