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Bucket Brigade
Students participate in a physical fitness activity about water. In this water conservation lesson, students discuss how to conserve water and the amount of water most people use in a day. To illustrate this amount students move 70...
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Spin the Saltine!
Students investigate chemical energy. In this physical science lesson plan, students blow on saltine crackers to demonstrate how chemical energy in food can be converted to motion. Students compare the saltine cracker experiment to how...
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Energize Your Future
Students consider the positive and negative aspects of alternative energy. For this physical science lesson, students consider the sources of energy they use everyday. Students compare alternative sources of energy and...
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The Greenhouse Effect in a Jar
Young scholars explore climate change by participating in a physical science experiment. In this greenhouse effect lesson, students discuss the impact global warming has on our environment and how it works. Young scholars utilize a glass...
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Physical Science Fun
Fifth graders explain how the land changes by developing some "land dances." Working in cooperative groups, each group develops a movement sequence that depicts the vocabulary word they are given. They teach dance to other classmates.
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Cooking with the Sun
Students explore using energy from the sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. This excellent two-day lesson plan has groups of students build and test a variety of solar...
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Seeing and Feeling Sound Vibrations
Groups rotate through a series of stations and work with a partner to observe sound waves. Children describe sound in terms of pitch, volume, and frequency. To apply their new knowledge, the class considers how these observations can...
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Sending Binary Messages
Pairs build a device that will be able to send a binary message. They then update their device to allow it to send four possible messages before upping the ante to eight. The provided self-assessment rubric comes with reflection...
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Life Cycle of the Plant - The Pumpkin
First graders access prior knowledge about pumpkins and read the story Pumpkin, Pumpkin. They will sequence the life cycle of the pumpkin through the use of picture cards and then sing a song about the life cycle of the pumpkin and plant...
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Making a Battery
Fifth graders make a battery. In this physical science lesson plan, 5th graders word in pairs make the battery. Students follow 4 steps to create the battery.
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Elements and Compounds
Students explain how radioactive decay occurs. In this physical science lesson, students simulate radioactive half-life through an experiment. They graph their data and share their results in class.
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Spin, Spin, Spin That Body!: Figure Skating, Physics, Science, Winter Sports, Olympics
Young scholars learn the scientific principles of centripetal force through research and experimentation.
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Introduction to Electric Circuits
High schoolers explore using a circuit board in this physics lesson. They will analyze current and battery set up on a circuit board. Teachers check the board before the students experiment.
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Burning It Up
Young scholars explore energy as it relates to body function. Data about the personal physical activity of students is gathered and entered into a database which is utilized to test hypotheses made.
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Design Your Own Rube Goldberg Machine
Students participate in a culminating activity for a unit on Energy and Simple Machines. They are challenged to incorporate simple machines in to a complex mechanical system. While designing and testing their machine they will also...
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Floating and Falling Flows
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
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How Far... How Powerfu
Students work with a real optical spectrum of a gamma ray burst afterglow taken at the Keck Observatory. They measure the shifts of spectral lines, deduce the velocity of the astronomical object, and then use Hubble's Law to get its...
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The Brain: Control Central
Students investigate the brain as the organ that regulates all of their physical, emotional, and cognitive responses. Some of the components of mental illness are examined inn this lesson.
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Human Anatomy- How Do We Move?
Students examine the muscular system. In this muscular system lesson, students first draw a realistic representation of their leg or arm bones. Students do several activities to attach these bones to "joints" with string to simulate...
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Health Care
Students analyze information and draw conclusions about the reality of human life expectancy; the battle between health care technology and our own internal time clocks. Students answer questions such as "Why does aging occur and can...
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What's That Tree?
Fifth graders identify trees along a nature trail. Using a dichotomous key, 5th graders answer questions to aid in their identification of trees along a specified nature trail. Observations are recorded in their science journals. Sample...
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Matter and Energy
Students explore energy by completing a science worksheet in class. In this principles of matter lesson, students define the vocabulary terms force, gravity, nuclear, and electromagnetic before reading assigned text about energy....
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How The Scientists Really Work
Students question the accepted practices of science by scientists and their interactions with technology and society. They devise and conduct appropriate interview procedures for scientists to question their understanding and...
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2D Motion
Young scholars examine the motion of objects in two dimensions. For this dimensional lesson students view several demonstrations, complete a worksheet and a lab activity.