Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Playing with Parachutes
This lesson certainly will not be a drag! Little engineers design parachutes that make use of air resistance and, as a result, slow the descent of the payload as much as possible. It is an opportunity to teach about many motion concepts:...
Alabama Learning Exchange
WATER You Doing to Help?
Auntie Litter is here to educate young scholars about water pollution and environmental stewardship! Although the 15-minute video clip is cheesy, it's an engaging look at the water cycle and conservation. Learners start by illustrating...
Baylor College
What Makes Water Special?
Get close up and personal with a drop of water to discover how the polarity of its molecules affect its behavior. Elementary hydrologists split and combine water droplets, and also compare them to drops of oil. Much neater than placing a...
Curated OER
Residential Power System
Perform data analysis on energy consumption to apply algebraic expressions to the real world. Learners will write and solve equations that answer various questions from residential power use. They will collect data at home and calculate...
Baylor College
About Air
Give your class a colorful and tasty representation of the components of the mixture that we call air. Pop a few batches of popcorn in four different colors, one to represent each gas: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. The...
Curated OER
Egg Toss
This cross curricular instructional activity involves eggs. Students read about eggs. A counting game involving an egg carton and ping pong balls (eggs) is played as students toss balls into numbered egg carton cups and adding their...
Curated OER
Pebbles, Sand and Silt -- Categorizing Fiction and Informational Books
Primary readers complete the activities in a Pebbles, Sand and Silt FOSS kit. As a class, they are given a group of rocks and they are to categorize them based on their activities in the FOSS kit. They use this information and apply it...
Curated OER
Pyramid Play
Students investigate the concept of the Food Pyramid. They use a game as a tool of discovery in order to classify different types of food in the pyramid. Upon completion of the game the students construct their own models of it.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Modeling Food Webs in Darién, Panama
It's a jungle out there! Young biologists journey to Darien, Panama to examine the intricate relationships between the organisms that inhabit the jungle. Groups begin by demonstrating an understanding of energy flow in ecosystems, then...
Curated OER
Graphing Iron Data
Students apply a data set to create a graph show how iron ore impacts an ecosystem. They explain how the iron effects the distribution and abundance of phytoplankton in coastal ecosystems using spreadsheet software.
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Investigation: Tour de Texas
Teams of Texas tourists gather into groups to analyze what they can do with $50 worth of an alternative fuel. They write checks, keep a balance sheet, and map out their sight-seeing route taking into consideration the location of...
Curated OER
Introduction to Magnetism and Electronics
Learners are introduced to the concepts of magnetism and electronics. As a class, they walk through the steps of the scientific method and define new vocabulary. In groups, they are given a bag of objects and they are to separate them...
University of Florida
Protecting Our Water Resources
Teach young environmentalists to protect their planet's resources with a set of interactive experiments. Kindergartners and other youngsters learn about watersheds and the water cycle, while older elementary learners focus on fertilizer...
University of Georgia
Using Freezing-Point Depression to Find Molecular Weight
Explore the mathematical relationship between a solvent and solute. Learners use technology to measure the cooling patterns of a solvent with varying concentrations of solute. Through an analysis of the data, pupils realize that the...
University of Georgia
Density and Texture of Soil
All soil is not created equal! A lab activity asks learners to collect and analyze soil. Specific calculations determine the amount of sand, silt, and clay in a sample and allow individuals to identify the soil texture.
Science Matters
Finding the Epicenter
The epicenter is the point on the ground above the initial point of rupture. The 10th lesson in a series of 20 encourages scholars to learn to triangulate the epicenter of an earthquake based on the arrival times of p waves and s...
Curated OER
Diversity of Colors
Young scholars investigate color diversity by experimenting with jelly beans. In this color spectrum lesson, students observe colored jelly beans through different filters and light sources to change the existing look of the bean....
Curated OER
Roller Coaster Fun
Third graders review the effects of gravity on how objects move. In groups, they design a roller coaster and share it with their classmates. Using materials given to them, they build their roller coaster and let a ball roll on the...
Curated OER
Biomimicry, Nature: Architecture of the Future
Students explore the relationship between nature and architecture. In this cross curriculum history, culture, and architecture lesson, students observe and discuss structures visible in nature. Students view websites in which Native...
Curated OER
Exploring All Frontiers
Young scholars utilize higher thinking skills to expand their self concept to include physical, cognitive, and affective frontiers. The teacher create activities which allow students to use raw data and primary sources, as well as...
Curated OER
Sustainability
Fifth graders investigate the concept of natural resources. They participate in a simulation project to see possible uses. They use the internet to study how Hacienda Verde is used as a model for others for sustainable coffee crops.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Diverse Life Forms of the Ocean
Pupils recognize marine organisms and differentiate between plankton and nekton. In this investigative instructional activity students create a concept map using their list of terms and study marine life forms.