Need some activities to go along with your unit? A collection of hands-on activities from PBS offers opportunities to add to your electricity, sound, and force units. The electricity activities revolve around building a...

Warm up to the idea of solar energy. A lesson includes three activities that challenge scholars to apply knowledge in new ways. First, they learn to run an alarm clock without a battery by using solar energy. Next, they complete an...

Scholars view the film Reach for the Skies to learn about the Shangai Tower. Following a discussion and observation of premade shapes, pairs design and construct a tower using uncooked pasta, straws, newspaper, tape, and marshmallows....

Learn to forecast the weather using cloud types. Budding meteorologists identify cloud types and learn to use a dichotomous key. As scholars develop observation and identification skills, they discover how different cloud types cause...

Just how do astronauts stay safe during moon landings? Here's an activity that allows investigators to use the engineering process to explore how shock absorbers protect astronauts during landing. Applying knowledge of gravity, force,...

Build a rover for pennies in a fun-filled activity! Young engineers design, build, test, and evaluate a lunar rover model. Using rubber bands, plastic straws, and cardboard, teams collaborate to make a rover model with spinning wheels....

Utilizing computer software, learners demonstrate the color spectrum. They investigate the life of the artist Piet Mondrian and define his style of artwork. Then they use Photoshop to recreate some of his designs while discovering the...

Start programming in event-driven style. Scholars learn to place buttons on the user interface and use event handlers. They also learn to recognize errors in code and debug as necessary. This is the second lesson in the series of 21.

Students use this design as an electronic reading and writing guide to Henry David Thoreau's famous essay, "On Civil Disobedience." They use activities to familiarize students with the political issues of Thoreau's time. Comprehension...

Now practice drawing a rectangle, ellipse, circle, and line by writing your own JavaScript code. Don't know where to start? No problem, you will be guided through creating every line of code. Getting an error message? Again, no problem,...

Create a list of your favorite foods while you practice writing text in JavaScript. Use fill, textSize, and text functions. This is a quick activity that helps solidify basic skills. Expand with additional challenges...

Clothing design, do you know any teenagers that are interested in that? How about mixing what they have learned about JavaScript programing and the creativity of designing a piece of clothing? This activity does just that. Practice the...

Creating a list of favorite fruits is the perfect use of an array in coding. Practice defining and using arrays in this simple activity of creating an array and printing out each element in the array.  

Who is Aimee Mann? Read the New York Times article "P.S. I Loved You," included here, and have your readers answer a series of reading comprehension questions. Afterward, encourage your class to brainstorm ways in which they...

Eighth graders study the 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner.' They study the ballad and explore style and technique. Students use the internet and search previously identified news sites for current items of interest. They use images copied...

Young scholars practice memorizing the seven days of the week and keeping them in order.  In this calendar lesson, students read aloud the book Today is Monday by Eric Carle, and create their own calendar style book using...

How fun it must be to play Frisbee in space! That is just what a NASA engineer gets to do, and you can learn how, too. Follow the instructions provided in this informational article to create your own satellite launcher. Afterward,...

Introduce event-driven programming. Young computer scientists learn the meaning of event-driven programming and how it is different from previous styles of programming. They play a card game to simulate the challenges that occur in this...

Hands-on experience with valves and water flow supports young researchers' understanding of valve operation. Attached resources for learners are text-dense; I'd break up the text into smaller pieces for groups to read and present...

Discover how copying nature can be beneficial to humans. Scholars read articles about examples of biomimicry and its potential applications. Along the way, they learn about Nature's Nine Laws and how they relate to biomimicry. This is...

Scholars learn how to make a digital canvas and fill it with artwork by creating a drawing app using the canvas element. The activity requires learners to previous knowledge of arrays and return commands to draw images.

Practice word processing while writing different types of poems. First, elementary and middle schoolers use Word templates to write poetry. They use rhyming and descriptive words as they work with clipart, text wrapping, and picture...

Move beyond buttons when designing user interfaces. In the fourth installment of a 21-part unit, young computer scientists learn to apply design mode, which gives users options for colors, fonts, etc. They learn to incorporate these...

Familiarize your class with Google operators, specific symbols, or words they can use to express more clearly to the search tool what they want to find. With the resources included here, they can test their previous knowledge, view...