Royal Society of Chemistry
Acids and Bases—Microscale Chemistry
Here's proof that small-scale labs lead to big-time learning. Introduce acid-base interactions to middle school scientists through a microscale chemistry lab. Pupils combine a variety of solutions and use indicators to obtain approximate...
Oregon State
World Map of Plate Boundaries
Young geologists piece together the puzzle of plate tectonics in an earth science lesson. Given a physical map of the world, they search for land formations that indicate the location of different types of plate boundaries.
Towson University
Looking Into Lactase: Structured Inquiry
Why is lactase important? Biology scholars explore enzyme function in a structured inquiry lab. The activity tasks lab groups with observing how temperature and pH affect enzyme activity, as well as determining which milk products...
Nevada Outdoor School
Let It Snow! Let It Melt!
Winter weather offers a great opportunity to teach young scientists about the states of matter. This activity-based lesson includes a range of learning experiences, from experimenting with the rate at which ice melts...
University of California
Hot! Hot! Hot!
Calories are not tiny creatures that sew your clothes tighter every night, but what are they? A science lesson, presented at multiple levels, has learners experiment with heat, heat transfer, and graph the function over time....
Lerner Publishing
Meet the Dinosaurs
Take your class of youngsters on a prehistoric adventure with this four-lesson series on dinosaurs. Accompanying the Meet the Dinosaurs books by Don Lessem, these lessons engage children in writing their own dinosaur books,...
American Chemical Society
Man and Materials Through History
From the start of the Industrial Revolution, it only took 147 years for someone to invent plastic. This may seem like a long time, but in the history of inventing or discovering new materials, this is incredibly fast. An informative and...
American Chemical Society
Development of Baking Powder
Did you know baking powder can be used to treat acne, whiten teeth, and make sugar cookies? The lesson on the development of baking powder is ready-to-go with no preparation required. Through readings, pupils answer questions, complete...
American Chemical Society
Joseph Priestley, Discoverer of Oxygen
Do you want to hear a joke about nitrogen and oxygen? NO. We all know there is oxygen in the air and that plants produce oxygen, but how was it discovered? Scholars read a handout, answer questions, and analyze material in the...
American Chemical Society
The Discovery of Fullerenes
Carbon is the most common element on earth, so the innovative discovery of a new type of carbon molecule won the 1996 Nobel Prize. In the ready-to-go lesson, scholars learn about C60 and how it has opened up the entire area of...
Towson University
Mystery of the Crooked Cell
Can your class solve the Mystery of the Crooked Cell? Junior geneticists collaborate to learn about sickle cell anemia in a fascinating lesson plan. The included materials help them to examine the genetic factors behind the disease...
Millennium Schools
Lifestyle Chemistry
My name is Bond, Hydrogen Bond. Written for distance scholars working on chemistry at the high school level, the lesson includes eight weeks worth of material divided into six parts: substances you use, mixing it up, your skin, what's...
University of Georgia
Antacid and Uncle Heartburn
Household materials can be used for more than cleaning! In this collaborative experiment, emerging chemists use products such as vinegar and liquid antacid to explore chemical reactions that commonly occur in the human body.
Beyond Benign
In a Lather
Time to come clean! Scholars continue preparing the shampoo they created in the previous two lessons. The purpose of this stage is to calculate the perfect amount of additive to make the shampoo lather.
Center for Learning in Action
Investigating Physical and Chemical Changes
Super scientists visit ten stations to predict, observe, and draw conclusions about the physical and chemical changes that occur when different states of matter—liquid, solid, and gas—are placed under a variety of conditions. To...
Ohio State University
Ohm's Law
Have you ever wanted to build a conductor? Here is a lesson that takes pupils through building a conductor based on Drude's model in order to better understand electricity.
Earth Day Network
Filtering Water
See the water filtration system up close with a fun science experiment. Young scientists work for several class periods to design a water filter using household objects, and then decide which filter material would be most effective...
American Chemical Society
Isolation of Phytochrome
Why do soybean plants that are planted weeks apart in the spring mature simultaneously in the fall? Four independent activities cover the history of phytochrome research, scientist collaboration, the electromagnetic spectrum, and...
Education Development Center
Micro-Geography of the Number Line
Young mathematicians dive into the number line to discover decimals and how the numbers infinitely get smaller in between. They click the zoom button a few times and learn that the number line doesn't just stop at integers. Includes...
Ohio State University
Exploration Activities with Electrostatic Interactions
Step out of the 21st century and discover protons and electrons through observation. Using common materials, participants continually adjust their explanation of charges. The final assessment requires pupils to design their own...
Kenan
Respiratory System
Explore the respiratory system with a model. First, pupils build a set of lungs to experiment how they inflate and deflate. Then, they delve deeper into the topic with a web quest to discover new information about the nose, trachea, and...
Curated OER
Muscular and Skeletal Systems
How do muscles move bones? Find out using a built-in-class model. Pupils construct a hand model with paper and string, then follow a series of directions to explore the movement process. Discover additional information about the muscular...
Tracy Pendry
Cardiovascular/Circulatory System
Explore the circulatory system with a cardiovascular pump activity that promotes discovery and discussion as class members create a functioning model of the heart. Continue the learning process through a web quest showcasing the...
Curated OER
Process Skills Review: Observation, Inference, and Predictions
A simple worksheet asks science learners to define five terms and identify five statements as predictions, observations, or inferences. This would be a supportive assignment when introducing elementary-levle scientist to inquiry practices.