Curated OER
Catch a Dream
Learners apply the concepts of air pressure, the Bernoulli Effect, and angle of attack to build their own model planes out of paper, plastic, wooden rods, and drinking straws.
Curated OER
Reflecting Light
Students are introduced to the reflective properties of light and use mirrors to make light from a source reflect onto a specific target. They take turns and record the amount of time it took to correctly reflect the light.
Curated OER
Separating Soup Mix
Students use screens of three sizes to separate a mixture of five solid materials. They plan and conduct simple investigations using appropriate tools, measures, and safety rules and record and report observations, explanations, and...
Curated OER
Spectral Surprise
Students experience a model that produces, separating, and displaying spectral colors.
Curated OER
Season's Readings
Young scholars use descriptive language to write riddles on their favorite seasonal subjects; they illustrate the "answers" to their riddles using the medium of their choice and compile both riddles and illustrations to create a book.
Curated OER
Environmental Education
Second graders examine how their choices affect the environment. They identify different types of pollution and its source. They ask questions to end the lesson.
Curated OER
Dam-it? I Just Don't Know!?!
Eighth graders analyze two different large dams: The Hoover Dam and the Three Gorges Dam. They compare and contrast the two dams.
Curated OER
Lake Superior Ecology Unit
Sixth graders research Lake Superior and its ecosystem. Students investigate the lake's cycles of mixing and stratification and how these cycles affect the biology of the lake. This lesson contains five days of activities.
Curated OER
Perpetual Motion
Middle schoolers discuss movement of air currents and then experiment to create visible models of air currents. Students connect the model to weather patterns.
Utah STEM Foundation
Utah Stem Action Center: Changes in Matter
The goal of this activity is to develop and use a model to describe that matter is made of particles on a scale that is too small to be seen. You will be making observations of changes supported by a particle model of matter.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Changes of State: Chemical and Physical Changes
In this chemistry lab, students will investigate, observe, and describe a variety of chemical and physical changes in matter. They will understand that this is part of everyday life.
American Chemical Society
Middle School Chemistry: Changing State: Melting
Discover the concept that energy transfer and molecular motion cause the change in state from a solid to a liquid. Also compare state changes of water to the state changes of other substances.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: Freezing Things: States of Matter
The class will go back over the Power Point presentation on chemical and physical properties. The teacher will then conduct numerous liquid nitrogen demos. This lesson is used early in the Chemistry course. The students love it. This...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Science Detectives
Students are given a scenario for this lesson where they must use investigative skills like a detective would to decide whether changes that happen to objects in the story are physical or chemical. They then conduct an experiment with...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Alex: What's the Matter: Concentration Game
What's the Matter? is a guided inquiry lesson on classification of matter, physical and chemical properties, and physical and chemical changes. There are two parts to this lesson: (a) concentration game for definitions and (b)...
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Mn Step: States of Matter
In this activity, students investigate physical and chemical changes in the states of matter for water. They collect data and record their observations.
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: States of Matter
A comprehensive lesson plan site that contains a number of activities to aid in teaching about the states and properties of matter and the difference between a physical and chemical change.
Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
Smile: Somethin' Sweet
This site provides a lesson plan using candy making to demonstrate physical and chemical changes in matter. Includes directions to make caramel and rock candy.
ArtsNow
Arts Now Learning: States of Matter [Pdf]
In this instructional activity, students will move and generate choreography to understand different states of matter.
American Chemical Society
Middle School Chemistry: Lesson Plans: What Is a Chemical Reaction?
After observing a demonstration of a chemical reaction between a burning candle and the oxygen in the air, learners use atom model cut-outs to model the reaction and see that all the atoms in the reactants show up in the products.
Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College
Serc: Investigating Plastic Polymers: Building a Model
Young scholars will use their prior knowledge about changes of matter including physical and chemical changes from the Houghton Mifflin science curriculum. Students will create a hypothesis to test the physical properties of materials...