PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Ed Online: What Do Inquiry Based Lesson Plans Look Like?
Inquiry-based lesson plans are usually referred to as "facilitation plans," to help teachers remember their role as facilitator of learning, rather than fount of all wisdom. The notion also helps teachers structure lessons more loosely...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: Stream Velocity Investigation Using Inquiry
An outdoor activity where students visit a local stream for a scientific inquiry. They make observations about the stream, and take measurements of the stream's velocity, depth, and width. They will also develop a sediment thickness...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: The American Red Squirrel an Outdoor Inquiry Lesson
For this activity, young scholars are presented with red pine cones that have been partly eaten by the American Red Squirrel, a fact that is not divulged to them at this stage. After a discussion of the possibilities, the class takes a...
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, Stevens Institute of Technology
Ciese: Biodynamic Farming
During this module students learn about biodynamic farming through hands-on activities that culminate in having multiple schools collaborate to design subsystems that are combined to make a working aquaponic system. During the SAGE...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Reasons for the Seasons
A well-designed science investigation that has students examine and graph seasonal temperature data from cities at different latitudes. They describe trends they see, and explain what they think causes these trends. They then identify...
Pennsylvania State University
Penn State University: Embryology in the Classroom
Come and learn more about how to incorporate embryology into your classroom. This site features tons of information about the embryology of chickens.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: The Circles of Life
This is an inquiry based cooperative learning unit that can be used in biology as a graduation exam review or in botany for a nine week project. The students will learn the life cycle of mosses, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms. The...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Where Did You Get Those "Jeans"?
This lesson can be interdisciplinary involving science, mathematics, and language arts. The primary nature of the lesson is inquiry, project, and technology-based. In science this project is a culminating activity in the heredity unit.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Using Primary Sources
This is an interdisciplinary inquiry-based lesson that focuses on critical thinking. Students are introduced to the true story of the first Thanksgiving with the reading of a NCSS Notable Trade Book Thanksgiving: The True Story. Working...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Souper Scooper
This hands-on, inquiry based lesson is an extension of the AMSTI Science Module, Solids and Liquids. Young scholars use nonstandard units to measure beans in a soup mix. Students predict how many beans will be in a scoop. Young scholars...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Light, Dry and Nutritious a Look at Dehydrated Food
This is a hands-on, inquiry-based activity that involves study and exploration of dehydration and dehydrated foods. Students are actively involved in using math and science skills.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: Stream Investigation
This is a field study where learners investigate the characteristics and processes of local streams to see how they affect the landscape around them, and develop questions that could be investigated. They also collect rock samples from...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: The Great Egg Drop: Relationship Between Gravity, Mass and Density
An interesting experiment in the relationship between gravity, density, and mass. Students must devise a way to drop a milk carton containing two raw eggs off a roof 50 feet high, without breaking the eggs. They then write a scientific...
California Institute of Technology
Infrared Zoo Lesson 3: The Invisible Zoo
How do biologists and zoologists use infrared technology to learn how warm and cold-blooded animals thermoregulate their internal body temperature? Have your students explore this phenomenon using this great lesson plan.
BSCS Science Learning
Bscs: A Medical Mystery
Young scholars are immersed in an online environment that challenges them to solve the medical mystery: "What's Wrong with M'Kenna?" This resource includes the complete middle school science curriculum unit, a teacher's guide, and an...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: Relative Dating Using "The Block"
This lesson involves an innovative strategy for introducing the concept of relative dating using a block of wood that has been painted, damaged, and nailed. The task for learners is to analyze the order in which these events happened and...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Trees
In this investigation, students will record an observation (drawing) of a tree in their science notebook. Following the observation, students will discuss what they observed and a list will be created by the classroom teacher. Based on...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mapping Local Data in a Gis
In this activity, students will learn how to conduct a map-based science research project using a Geographic Information System (GIS). They will design an experiment, collect and record geospatial data, analyze geospatial relationships...