University of Minnesota
Heads or Tails
How exactly does touch help us identify items? Learners test this question by feeling a coin without moving their fingers and trying to determine if it is heads or tails. They test their accuracy by rubbing their fingers on the coins....
CC Homestead
Summarize
Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...
University of Texas
Matter and the Periodic Table Chemical Families and Periodic Trends
Is assembling the periodic table as simple as Tetris? Scholars arrange colored cards into a logical order and then make connections to the arrangement of the periodic table. Hands-on activities include adding trend arrows and analyzing...
LABScI
Catapult: Flight of the Marshmallows
Watch your marshmallows fly. The engaging STEM activity has groups create a catapult to launch marshmallows. After testing their prototypes, they consider improvements and redesign their catapults.
Curated OER
Hypothesis Testing
Students investigate the finding of a hypothesis and how it can be tested.For the experiment they will be using the concept of probability. Students design an experiment and test the hypothesis. Then the results are graphed showing the...
Purdue University
Healthy Water, Happy Home
Clear water does not mean clean water. A collaborative lesson has groups play a board game to identify sources of water pollution and develop strategies for improving water quality. Their investigations include reference to the water...
Alabama Wildlife Federation
Birding Lane
Birdwatching is a popular hobby. Young scientists test their knowledge of bird characteristics on their own bird-watching expedition. They take their journals on a walk and sketch the key characteristics of the birds they find while...
Curated OER
Sink or Float
Using a variety of objects, learners conduct buoyancy experiments. They make predictions on which object will sink or float and test their predictions. They use a graphic organizer to record their findings.
Virginia Department of Education
Graphs
Examine different types of graphs as a means for analyzing data. Math scholars identify the type of graph from a series of data displays and then develop questions to match each one. Then, given a scatter plot of height versus age data,...
NOAA
I Can't Breathe!
The Gulf of Mexico dead zone, an area of low oxygen that kills marine life, costs the United States $82 million every year. Young scientists research anoxic ocean environments then come up with a hypothesis for the cause of the Gulf of...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Artificial Lung and Diaphragm
She had a terribly busy day converting oxygen into carbon dioxide; now she just needs a moment to breathe. In the activity, scholars review the function of the respiratory system and discuss bioengineering's role in medicine/health and...
Curated OER
Elements of Biology: Genetics
Students study genetic manipulations and identify the solutions that could help to solve a problem. In this genetics lesson students divide into groups and research genetics for a debate.
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Successful Student: Let’s Review for Better Achievement
Study skills, time management skills, and test taking-skills are important attributes for both the classroom and the real world. Focus on these learning skills in a lesson that reviews how to be a good student and make better grades.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Building Functions: Inverse Functions from Tables and Graphs
Is the inverse a function? Scholars learn how to examine a function to answer this question. Using an online interactive, they examine the properties of inverse functions to compare to the original function.
Virginia Department of Education
Go with the Flow
How does nature's hierarchy relate to our local human environment? Answer this question, along with others, as the class visually depicts the natural hierarchy provided by nature. Pupils discuss each piece of the pyramid and its energy...
Virginia Department of Education
The Cycles of Nature
Encourage peer collaboration and assist with the creation of visual aids to identify carbon, water, and nitrogen cycles as your class learns more about nature. They discuss relative information, create a visual aid depicting the chosen...
Curated OER
Working with Questions
Learners explore questions in a scientific context. They consider what makes questions testable. After reading short scenarios, students come up with their own testable questions about the reading.
Curated OER
Beverage Tests
Learners investigate the pH of a liquid. In this middle school mathematics/science lesson, students collect and analyze data regarding the pH of various liquids. Learners display their data in various types of graphs as they consider...
Curated OER
Canada Eh? Pre/Post Tests on Canada Using GPS
Young scholars participate in a GPS activity and answer questions about Canada. In this Canada lesson, students identify location by using a GPS Unit and latitude and longitude. Young scholars find an Inuksuk (station) and a complete...
Curated OER
Grade 5: Testing for Tessellations
Fifth graders use formal geometric language to describe polygons (and other shapes) that will tessellate the plane and those that will not. Students make generalizations about the characteristics of a polygon (or other shape) that will...
Curated OER
Solar Heat: Building and Testing a Solar Oven
Building a solar oven is always an enriching and engaging activity when your class is studying forms of energy or alternative and renewable energy sources. This lesson plan refers you to the re-energy.ca home website for specific...
American Chemical Society
Crushing Test
Solidify understanding of the properties of crystals by crushing them to compare hardness. After some class discussion, a procedure is planned, and then small groups go about making observations as they crush five different crystal...
California Academy of Science
The Heat is On: Cause and Effect and Climate
The higher the number of letters in the final word for the National Spelling Bee, the higher the number of people killed by venomous spiders. Obviously, those two facts correlate, but no causation exists. Scholars view data based on...
Illustrative Mathematics
The Circle and The Line
Here is a resource where algebra learners show their understanding of a system of equations involving a circle and a line. Once graphed, learners see two points of intersection, one where the ordered pair is read, and a second where...