West Contra Costa Unified School District
Exploring Quadratics and Graphs
Young mathematicians first graph a series of quadratic equations, and then investigate how various parts of the equation change the graph of the function in a predictable way.
Teach Engineering
Energy Skate Park
Skate through a simulation on energy with an a activity that uses a computer simulation of a skater to reinforce the concept of conservation of energy. The resource guides pupils through scenarios using the computer simulation to...
Teach Engineering
Straw Bridges
Pairs work as engineering teams to design and build model bridges from drinking straws and tape. In this third segment in a series of 10, teams compete in an attempt to build the strongest bridge. To help with the design, the groups...
Teach Engineering
Using Hooke's Law to Understand Materials
Provide a Hooke for a lesson on elasticity with an activity that has groups investigate a set of springs. They use a set procedure to collect data to calculate the spring constant for each spring using Hooke's Law. The groups...
EngageNY
Introduction to Networks
Watch as matrices break networks down into rows and columns! Individuals learn how a network can be represented as a matrix. They also identify the notation of matrices.
Teach Engineering
News Flash!
Extra, extra, read all about it! Scholars research information on endangered species and produce a news report to share their findings with the rest of the class. In groups, they then consider engineering solutions to problems on habitat...
Teach Engineering
Egg-cellent Landing
The classic egg-drop experiment gets a new bounce with an activity that asks pairs to design a lander similar to one used to land a rover on Mars within a fixed budget. The activity provides a great introduction to the idea of...
Teach Engineering
Energy Forms and States Demonstrations
Does a tennis ball have energy? What about a bowling ball? Demonstrate concepts of different forms of energy forms and states with a variety of objects. Using the equations for potential and kinetic energy,...
Teach Engineering
Energy on a Roller Coaster
Roll with your class into the idea of conservation of energy. Pupils use a roller coaster track to collect data to reinforce the concept of conservation of energy and the influence of friction. Class members then create a graph from...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Skateboard Assembly - Cycle Time
Assemble a great lesson on assembly lines. In the first installment of a nine-part technology/engineering series, future entrepreneurs learn about the manufacturing process, specifically about the assembly line and cycle time. The lesson...
Teach Engineering
Club Function
Let's get the herd to follow the rules. The activity associated with the second lesson in the unit introduces the class to the definition of a function. Individuals must gather in groups of zebras and rhinos defined by the general...
Teach Engineering
Solving Energy Problems
Here's your chance to save the world. The eighth lesson in a 25-part Energy Systems and Solutions unit has young scientists come up with ideas for individual or group projects. They identify ways to solve the energy crisis. Hope they...
Inside Mathematics
Archery
Put the better archer in a box. The performance task has pupils compare the performance of two archers using box-and-whisker plots. The resource includes sample responses that are useful in comparing individuals' work to others.
Curated OER
The Food Guide Pyramid
Students examine each level of the food pyramid and how many servings they should consume during the day. They study the important nutrients associated with each category of the food pyramid.
Trash For Teaching
The Light-House Project
Groups work together to design a lighthouse, from designing and drawing the wiring diagram, to creating prototypes of the switch and circuit, to envisioning and building a scale model along with a blueprint. By including different...
Teach Engineering
Who Can Make the Best Coordinate System?
Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.
Radford University
Are You Faster than Bacteria?
Just how fast does bacteria grow? Over the course of three lessons, pupils investigate exponential growth with the use of bacteria growth. During the lesson, bacteria from a cell phone is grown to make a connection to real life. Using...
Facebook
Social Media and Sharing
Whether it's cute cat videos or pictures from an epic vacation, scholars love to check out what's happening on social media! But, how much sharing is too much? A lesson from a vast digital citizenship series poses some serious points to...
Curated OER
Charting History With Pennies
Students collect pennies and sort them in ascending order of dates. For the year on each penny, students research key events in history and pick a single event, explaining its historical significance. Then students use these events to...
Mathematics Vision Project
Module 6: Modeling Periodic Behavior
Around and around we go ... again, and again, and again, and again! That's the nature of a periodic function. Young scholars learn how to model a periodic pattern with trigonometric functions. The nine-lesson unit explores the connection...
Curated OER
Make Your Point with Power
Seventh graders create a PowerPoint presentation. In this technology lesson plan, 7th graders use information they're learned in previous lessons to create a PowerPoint presentation.
Curated OER
Piecewise Modeling with Multiple Functions: Federal Debt
Students analyze data on debt and write an equation. In this statistics lesson, students are given data from different time periods, and are asked to graph and analyze the data. They work in groups, and are assigned different parts of...
Curated OER
Math All Around Us!
Students walk around their neighborhood and school to find objects that remind them of a math concept or vocabulary term. In this real world math lesson, students find math concepts in various familiar locations and take pictures of...
Curated OER
Communicate with a Truck Driver
Learners explore the communication methods of truck drivers and their experiences. In this truck driving lesson plan, students use a website, Twitter, and Podcasts to learn about the job of a truck driver and their contributions to...