University of Florida
Unhealthy Forests and the News
Everyone knows a tree makes a sound when it falls, but what do we know about dying trees? Class members learn background information about Laurel wilt disease from a teacher-led presentation. Team members work with partners to read and...
Curated OER
Science in the News
Students explore science in the news through articles, magazines, and internet news sites. They select articles, read them and summarize them to identify the audience that would care about their topics. As they present their articles...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Genetics, Jobs and Your Rights
Your class will read an overview of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, passed in 2008 and address the question of whether or not genetic information should be used to influence our career paths. In jigsaw style, they then are...
Energy for Keeps
The Energy Times
Extra! Extra! Read all about past and present energy use in a classroom-made historical newspaper. Useful as a cross-curricular assignment between science, history, and language arts, the project is sure to get young journalists...
Curated OER
All The News
Young scholars simulate newspaper critics in the topics of heat and temperature. They write a scientific critique of evidence and claims used in a newspaper article and research using KIE software. They write notes on the letter to the...
Curated OER
What Do People Know About Radon?
Students read the fictitious newspaper article entitled, "Levels of Radon in Jersey Town Exceed Limits." This helps them get a basic vocabulary started for the terms and concepts related to radon. In groups, they identify words that they...
Curated OER
Energy: The US in Crisis?
Students research and assess past, present, and future decisions related to energy shortages by focusing on the California energy crisis as a case study. Students develop their own news articles about decisions that need to be made...
Curated OER
Ghana's Tropical Rainforests: What Does Their Future Have To Do With Us?
Students examine the human impact on the tropical rainforests of Ghana, and the connection to people in other countries. They research the threats to rainforests by writing a campaigning leaflet and newspaper article.
Curated OER
Lake Log: Diary of the Basin
Students log news articles about the changes in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. In this wetlands and news instructional activity, students track articles about the wetlands area around Lake Pontchartrain, write brief summaries, include...
Curated OER
The First Humans: Prehistory-3500 B.C. "Lucy"
Students explore prehistoric times by completing web activities in class. In this human ancestry instructional activity, students identify the archaeological discovery of the "Lucy" skeleton and what it meant for science. Students...
Curated OER
The Social Sciences
Students search for examples of social science in and around their school. They create a Social Science scrapbook of the eight social sciences, that includes news articles and summaries that focus on each social science area.
Curated OER
The Evening News - Rainforest Rescue
Fifth graders prepare a television briefing reflecting on their experiences in an earlier lesson in which they simulated surviving a crash into the Amazon and using maps to achieve rescue. They develop and present a summary of their...
Curated OER
Death by Particles
Emerging epidemiologists define relative risk and read an article about the effect of particulate pollution on the cardiovascular health of women. They record the relative risk values, graph them, and answer analysis questions. This is a...
Curated OER
Global Environmental Issues: Air and Water Pollution
Thinking about designing a project for your social studies or environmental science classes? Use an overview of a project that prompts class groups to research an environmental issue.
Curated OER
Lift and Drag: Principles of Flight and the Soaring Imagination
Learners construct models of early gas balloons and gliders. In this balloon and glider lesson, students create models of early gas balloons and gliders, discover how the forces of lift and drag effect aircraft in flight, and put on...
Curated OER
Holidays: Stress on the Body
Students read an article on stress and holiday weight gain. In this biology lesson, students research about the body's response to excess sugar in the diet. They create a pamphlet, billboard, newscast or journal article containing...
Teach Engineering
Above-Ground Storage Tank Design Project
The challenge: determine whether a tank will float. A design activity has groups work as engineering teams in order to determine the stability of given tanks and liquid contents. The teams need to determine the equations to...
Curated OER
Three is a Toxic Number
Future public health advocates read a case study of a combination of water pollutants that may be linked to autism. The class is split into three groups, one to research each of the suspected chemicals. The look at how each one affects...
Curated OER
Echinacea No Cure all for Kids
Students look at real data and answer the question of whether or not they would recommend Echinacea to cure a cold. In this investigative lesson students describe whether the data supports the hypothesis that echinacea shortens the...
Curated OER
To Go Solar or Not to Go Solar!
Middle schoolers imagine that they are on a panel to consider if a solar energy system would be advantageous to a new school as it is being built. They read the included handout and then each play a role as a participant in a community...
Curated OER
Testing Bangladesh's Waters
Learners assess the causes and effects of massive arsenic contamination in the water supplies of 43 of Bangladesh's 64 districts. They evaluate why this contamination occurred, and how it affects the population of Bangladesh.
Curated OER
Microbes and Our Food
Young scholars investigate foodborne illnesses and involved microbes. They identify major pathogens and then research and explain how they contaminate foods and how people are affected.
Curated OER
What's a Kid to Do?
Students participate in an environmental action letter-writing campaign. They conduct Internet research on the Global Response website, discuss various successful Global Response campaigns, select a campaign they are interested in, and...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Survival of the Fittest - Variations in the Clam Species Clamys sweetus
It's not often that you come across a clever laboratory activity that is both imaginative and comprehensive! Using M&M's and Reese's peanut butter candies to represent two different clam species, young biologists test for "relative...