Curated OER
Seeing is Believing - Or Is It?
Here is a great science lesson. It extends the concept of vision into the area of optical illusions, perspective, and tessellation. This well-designed plan has tons of great activities, utilizes interesting video, and should lead to a...
Exploratorium
Inverse Square Law
The inverse square law is revealed when your class participates in this activity. They move a graph paper or perfboard square back and forth in a square of light to see how the intensity changes. You will definitely want to add this...
Curated OER
A New Phase In Town
Middle schoolers explore heat energy and how it is used to change the phase of matter, and discover that temperature does not increase or decrease until the phase change is complete. This extremely well-written plan is packed with great...
NASA
Newton Car
If a car gets heavier, it goes farther? By running an activity several times, teams experience Newton's Second Law of Motion. The teams vary the amount of weight they catapult off a wooden block car and record the distance the...
Chicago Children's Museum
Simple Machines: Force and Motion
Get things moving with this elementary science unit on simple machines. Through a series of nine lessons including teacher demonstrations, hands-on activities, and science experiments, young scientists learn about forces, motion,...
Curated OER
More Volume Please! Don't Be Dense!
Fifth graders determine volume and density through their knowledge of mass, volume and density.
Curated OER
Distance Makes a Difference
Middle schoolers create a clay model of the Sun and Earth. In this space science lesson, students explain how distance affects the appearance of objects. They write a poem or riddle about the Sun in their journal.
Curated OER
Volume
Third graders complete scientific investigation to determine what volume is and how it is determined by size not by mass. They discuss what they know about volume before proceeding with the demonstration and experimentation. After the...
Curated OER
Focusing Light With a Lens
Students experiment with a converging lens. They observe the image of an object through a lens. They determine the magnification of the lens.
Curated OER
Discovering The Ratio Pi And The Diameter
Students relate the ratio of Pi to the diameter of a circle. In this geometry lesson, students investigate the relationship of the chord of the circle the the number Pi. They define ration, chord, circumference and diameter and find...
Curated OER
Squid Races
Students imitate squid propulsion using a balloon and experience Newton's third law: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Various anatomical designs are tested and analyzed. They calculate the speed of each squid...
Curated OER
The Gravity Of It All-Newton's Laws
Students experiment with the concept of Newton's second law of motion. After building a ramp, they determine whether a large marble or a small marble will move farther, based on Newton's law. Students record their data on the provided....
Curated OER
The Miracle Fish: Learning to Design an Experiment
Students develop procedures to explore the behavior of fish. In this scientific experiment lesson students from a hypothesis, write a question, identify different variables and controls in their experiment.
Curated OER
How Can They Tell?
Pupils compare the characteristics of arcade tokens to those of a circulating U.S. quarter to determine how a video game can tell the difference between the two. They examine coins and arcade tokens very closely to observe the differences.
Curated OER
Investigating Space Requirement of Seed Plants
Students use scientific methods to investigate the effects of overpopulation of seed plants on growth in a limited living space. Students relate seed plant population findings to that of other organisms.
Curated OER
Create a microbe
Students explore viruses and bacteria. They construct three dimensional models of microorganisms recognizing size relationships by comparing the size of viruses with the sizes of bacterial cells.
Curated OER
Potential & Kinetic Energy
Students test different sized marbles and how fast they can go. In this energy lesson plan, students test different sized marbles going down an incline. They predict which would have the most potential and kinetic energy. After the test,...
Curated OER
Discovering Density
Students explore the physical properties of density. In this hands-on lesson, students calculate density and distinguish between intensive and extensive properties.
Curated OER
Home Sweet Home
Learners examine the change in the diversity of animals living in an area before and after development. In order to do this, students need to have access to an area near their school which is undeveloped. A good, "real life" lesson plan.
Curated OER
Why Are Cells So Small?
Students examine the relationship between cell surface area and the ability of materials to diffuse through a cell. They participate in an experiment in which they determine which materials diffuse easier than others. They complete...
Curated OER
"Fall"owing Changes in the Season
Students create a whole class A-B-"C"eason Book. Each student is responsible for creating a "letter" page relating to changes, adaptations, or other fall concepts. After hard copies of the class ABC books are created, the teachers using...
Curated OER
Steep, Steeper, and Steepest
Fifth graders discuss ways to move large rocks. They relate this to building a rock garden, and the ways people might load boulders into a truck. Students discuss the use of a ramp vs. lifting the boulder straight up onto the bed of the...
Curated OER
What Beautiful Caterpillars!
Second graders investigate the life cycle of the caterpillar. They create a caterpillar habitat and care for it. Students make daily observations that are recorded in a writing journal. During the process of observation the students...
Curated OER
Properties of Soil
Fourth graders conduct investigations to test different types of soil from different regions of Texas. They make comparisons and identify the characteristics of the soil. The end product of the inquiry is a student report.