TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Brain Is a Computer
Students learn about the similarities between the human brain and its engineering counterpart, the computer. Since students work with computers routinely, this comparison strengthens their understanding of both how the brain works and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Are We Like Robots?
Students explore the similarities between how humans move and walk and how robots move, so they come to see the human body as a system from an engineering point-of-view. Movement results from decision making (deciding to walk and move)...
Other
Lehigh University: Climate Change
An inquiry-based science unit for middle school students centered on weather and climate. The lessons integrate technology and lab activities while teaching about Earth system energy balance, greenhouse gases, paleoclimatology, and how...
Other
James Gurney: Dinotopia
Dinotopia is a fabulous series by James Gurney that takes place in a fantasy world populated with humans and dinosaurs. The books were made into a television miniseries which is available on DVD. The Dinotopia site is rich with pictures...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Pill Dissolving Demo
In a class demonstration, the teacher places different pill types ("chalk" pill, gel pill, and gel tablet) into separate glass beakers of vinegar, representing human stomach acid. After 20-30 minutes, the pills dissolve. Students observe...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Waves: The Three Color Mystery
Students are presented with a challenge question concerning color blindness and asked to use engineering principles to design devices to help people who are color blind. Using the legacy cycle as a model, this unit is comprised of five...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Solar System!
An introduction to our solar system: the planets, our Sun and our Moon. Students begin by learning the history and engineering of space travel. They make simple rockets to acquire a basic understanding Newton's third law of motion. They...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Next Generation Surgical Tools in the Body
Through this unit, students act as engineers who are given the challenge to design laparoscopic surgical tools. After learning about human anatomy and physiology of the abdominopelvic cavity, especially as it applies to laparoscopic...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Understanding the Structure of the Eye
Students learn about the anatomical structure of the human eye and how humans see light, as well as some causes of color blindness. They conduct experiments as an example of research to gather information. During their investigations,...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Digestion Simulation
To reinforce students' understanding of the human digestion process, the functions of several stomach and small intestine fluids are analyzed, and the concept of simulation is introduced through a short, introductory demonstration of how...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: How Antibiotics Work
Students are introduced to a challenge question. Towards answering the question, they generate ideas for what they need to know about medicines and how they move through our bodies, watch a few short videos to gain multiple perspectives,...
National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health
Seer Training Modules: Introduction to the Nervous System
Self-guided learning activity where students learn about the structure and function of the human nervous system. There is a short quiz at the end of the lesson to check for understanding.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Bees Are Master Pollinators
The study of biomimicry and sustainable design promises great benefits in design application. It affords means by which to promote cost-effective, resourceful, non-polluting avenues for new enterprise. These "blueprints" have existed...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Born on a Mountaintop: Davy Crockett, Tall Tales & History
These four lesson plans integrate the life of Davy Crockett and the tall tales that were created about him. Includes a printable rubric, lesson extensions, links, and much more!
Other
Specialist Schools and Academies Trust: Learn Ar: Pe: Arms & Muscles
A learning resource that incorporates augmented reality (AR), using a camera, where students explore the anatomy of the human arm. The home page for this site has a PDF resource that explains how AR works and provides printable marker...
Other
Catie (Canadian Aids Treatment Information Exchange)
CATIE is a Canadian organization that provides support and information to people affected by HIV and AIDS, and those seeking information on AIDS prevention. The site offers many resources, for example, information for HIV-infected...
Georgia Department of Education
Ga Virtual Learning: Ap Environmental Science: Course Introduction
An introduction to Environmental Science, an interdisciplinary field of study that integrates the biological and physical sciences in an effort to understand environmental systems, and the solutions to both man-made and natural...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Battling for Oxygen
Using gumdrops and toothpicks, students conduct a large-group, interactive ozone depletion model. Students explore the dynamic and competing upper atmospheric roles of the protective ozone layer, the sun's UV radiation and harmful...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Metamorphosis Stories of Change
The goal of this activity is for students to learn how to tell a story in order to make a complex topic (such as global warming or ozone holes) easier for a reader to grasp. Students realize that the narrative impulse underlies even...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Polluted Air = Polluted Lungs
To gain a better understanding of the roles and functions of components of the human respiratory system and our need for clean air, students construct model lungs that include a diaphragm and chest cavity. They see how air moving in and...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Fish Friendly Engineering
Students further their understanding of the salmon life cycle and the human structures and actions that aid in the migration of fish around hydroelectric dams by playing an animated PowerPoint game involving a fish that must climb a fish...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: One World Ocean
In this activity, students learn about ocean currents and the difference between salt and fresh water. They use colored ice cubes to see how cold and warm water mix and how this mixing causes currents. Also, students learn how surface...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Can You Catch the Water?
Students construct a three-dimensional model of a water catchment basin using everyday objects to create hills, mountains, valleys and water sources. They experiment to see where rain travels and collects, and survey water pathways to...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Power to the People
Students read and evaluate descriptions of how people live "off the grid" using solar power and come to understand better the degree to which that lifestyle is or is not truly independent of technological, economic and cultural...