Curated OER
Chemical Resistance and Synthetic Polymers
Students participate in lab activities in which they examine immersion, stain resistance, and stress cracking of synthetic polymers. Students use their collected data to discuss service applications and possible performance of materials.
Curated OER
Types of Bonding Lab
Chemistry lab learners experiment to identify a series of unknown compounds. They choose which tests to perform, but you may suggest melting or boiling point, solubility, electrical conductivity, and malleability. This is a terrific...
Curated OER
How hard is it?
Inquiry is probably one of the most fun ways kids learn. They will test the hardness of 10 different minerals in order to classify them. They rate each of the minerals from most to least hard. Note: Having real minerals for this...
Curated OER
Strawkets and Weight
Students investigate the effect that weight has on rocket flight. They construct a variety of straw-launched rockets that have different weights, observe what happens when the weight of a rocket is altered by reducing its physical size...
California Academy of Science
Parts of an Antelope
There are so many wonderful parts to an animal: fur, antlers, tails, and legs, to name a few. A large diagram of an antelope is used to start a matching game, where the class matches body parts made of the same material. They discuss...
Exploratorium
Falling Feather
Whether or not Galileo actually dropped balls from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, this demonstration will solidly demonstrate that objects are accelerated at the same rate, regardless of mass. You will, however, need a vacuum pump and a few...
American Chemical Society
Exploring Baking Powder
Meant to follow an activity in which young chemists identified an unknown substance by chemical reactions, they now take their data and use it to determine which materials combine to make up baking powder. This lesson is one that can be...
University of Texas
Matter and the Periodic Table Chemical Families and Periodic Trends
Is assembling the periodic table as simple as Tetris? Scholars arrange colored cards into a logical order and then make connections to the arrangement of the periodic table. Hands-on activities include adding trend arrows and analyzing...
Curated OER
Free Up the Ketchup!
Students, in teams, use given materials and their knowledge of Newton's First Law to create a device that will remove a sticky ping pong ball from a 16-oz. cup (which represents ketchup stuck in a bottle.)
Curated OER
Condensation Polymerization
This organic chemistry lab activity is appropriate for teaching polymerization, percent yield, melting point, or the types and uses of polymer materials. Chemistry pupils imagine that they are working for a company to develop a special...
Curated OER
May the Force be with You -- All about Force and Gravity
Here is a fabulous set of teacher's notes that will make your next hands-on gravity and force lab fun and interesting. These notes provide you with three activities that allow children to make and test hypothesis regarding force,...
Curated OER
Exploring Biomes Lesson 2: Biome Research
Learners view a PowerPoint presentation on biomes and their classifications. Divide them into groups and assign them each an individual biome to research. There are pictures of the PowerPoint slides and notes about what to teach for...
Curated OER
Call to Arms: Robotic Analogues for Human Structures
Investigate deep sea discovery through the emerging technology being built. In this physical science instructional activity, students analyze the different types of motion available in the human arm. Students research...
Center Science Education
The Nitrogen Cycle Game
Earth science experts learn about the roles of nitrogen by taking a virtual journey through the nitrogen cycle. Completing a passport worksheet along the way, they move from place to place around the classroom by the toss of dice. Each...
Berkshire Museum
Backyard Rocks
You don't have to travel far to learn about rocks, just step outside, pick up a stone, and begin investigating. After taking a class walk around the school grounds collecting rocks, young scientists practice their skills of observation...
Cornell University
Chemical Reactions
Investigate the Law of Conservation of Mass through a lab exploration. Individuals combine materials to initiate chemical reactions. They monitor for signs of reactions and measure the masses before and after the reactions for...
Mascil Project
Parachute Food Drop
Drop a perfect project into your lesson plans. Groups use different building materials to create models of parachutes for food drops. After testing out their prototypes, they make improvements to their designs.
Curated OER
Anchialine Cave Species
Ever heard of a stygofauna or a stygobite? How about an anchialine cave? Set your young biologists on a quest to find information about organisms that live in and have adapted to life in caves located near the water. Class members then...
Exploratorium
Magnetic Pendulums
Passing a copper wire coil through a magnetic field influences another coil to also sway. It is with this demonstration that you can teach your physical science fans about electromagnetism. Note that the assembly requires about an hour,...
Exploratorium
Corner Reflector
If you set up a triad of mirrors into a corner figuration, they act as a kaleidoscope, bouncing light waves back and forth indefinitely, changing the light that your eyes perceive. Although the materials required are very specific and...
Curated OER
Freestanding Structures: A Tech Museum Floor Activity
Students attempt to design the tallest structure that they can with the given materials which are wooden dowels and rubber bands. They discuss the physics of their structure and how they would improve it the next time they built a...
Curated OER
Heat and Thermodynamics
This is actually a 10-day mini unit on thermal energy for your high school chemists. Every avenue is taken to get learners absorbed in heat: a pretest, a PowerPoint presentation, Internet exploration, demonstrations, lab activities, and...
Curated OER
Insoluble Paintings
Use this art lesson plan to study insolubility and density. Combining water-based paint and mineral oil will cause a fun and interactive painting. This is a great art project to incorporate during a science unit.
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: History of the Periodic Table
Although the article that launches this lesson plan is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one...