Illinois Valley Community College
STEM Activities for Middle School Students
Use STEM activities within the class to provide connections to concepts. The resource includes activities that range from working with buoyancy to building rockets and launching them. Other activities involve the engineering design...
Teach Engineering
Messin' with Mixtures
Do you separate your trail mix before eating it? Then you've been separating mixtures your whole life! Scholars model a contaminated soil sample using trail mix and estimate the percentage of each component. They consider how to clean up...
Curated OER
Weather... Or Not
Learners observe and discuss the local weather patterns, researching cloud types and weather patterns for cities on the same latitude on the Internet. They record the data for 6-8 weeks on a graph, and make weather predictions for their...
Curated OER
Can You Bear It? Pulleys, Gears, Forces, Structures and Mechanisms
Students review the types of simple machines. As a class, they focus on the positives and negatives of pulleys and gears and identify what pulleys and gears change of an object. They work together to design their own object to support a...
Curated OER
"If you build it..."
Students utilize prior knowledge to erect and assemble a building from a drawing using spaghetti noodles and marshmallows. For this building lesson, students visualize a three dimensional structure from looking at a picture and...
Curated OER
Our Amazing, Powerful Sun
Middle schoolers examine where energy comes from and how it can be used. In this solar energy lesson plan students explore different aspects of the sun.
Curated OER
Chemical Wonders
Students read about and discuss how chemical engineers use different states of matter to create substances. In this chemical engineering lesson plan, students also give examples of the 3 kinds of matter.
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Materials
The design challenge: develop a method to separate steel from aluminum. The first lesson plan in an eight-part series introduces the class to the grand challenge of ciming up with a method to streamline a sorting process at a...
Curated OER
Mapping India
Students participate in an activity in which they place placards listing geographic features, landmarks, etc. in the correct place on a large fabric map of a given country. They also examine artifacts, photos, sounds/music, etc. from...
Curated OER
African Adventures
Students access the Internet to gather information. They record their observations of African habitats. They create either an electronic slideshow or mural to present a science experiment.
Curated OER
Our community-in sculpture form
Students design tiles that represent their community. They discuss ideas with another class through email. They then create the tiles, fire them, and attach them to a masonite board to create a community mural.
Curated OER
The Human Skeletal System: Inside and Out
Students study bone size, structure and shape. They use various geometrical shapes to make a skeleton and produce a poster depicting the skeletal system and its functions. They arrange the pictures into the five sections, glue on...
Alabama Learning Exchange
The Solar System
Students explore the Solar System. In this cross-curriculum space instructional activity, students identify the planets, name them in order according to distance from the sun, and describe major characteristics of each planet. Students...
Curated OER
Recycling & Our Environment
Learners present information about recycling to other students. In this environmental protection lesson, learners create a puppet show or commercial about the importance of recycling for other students to view.
Curated OER
Construction: A Thematic Unit
Young scholars research different city departments and organizations that make up a city and choose a type of house to model. In this construction lesson students build their own city and present it to the class.
Curated OER
Tree Seedling Planting- My Relationship and Responsibility to our Forests
In this trees lesson, 4th graders read the book, A Tree is Growing and complete a KWL chart on how trees grow and how they are used. Students research the symbiotic relationship of humans and trees, create tree collages, plant a...
Curated OER
Manufacturing Technologies: Making a Picture Frame
Students use cereal boxes, paint, buttons and glue to design and make a frame for a photograph. They consider the different processes involved in making the frame and discuss how their observations apply to manufacturing systems that are...
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Counting Crows
Students discuss the fable, The Crow and the Pitcher. In this literature lesson, students read the fable and create a crow sock puppet. Students use their puppets to dramatize the fable.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Systems of the Human Body
Students research systems of the human body. In this biology instructional activity, students read the book Yucky Story and identify the systems of the human body. Students create a Powerpoint presentation to demonstrate their knowledge...
Curated OER
Neighborhoods
Students examine homes around the world. For this multicultural lesson, students read the book A World of Homes and Homes Around the World. Students compare and contrast the homes in the books to their own homes. Students construct a...
Curated OER
Making Decisions: Packaging and the Environment
Students work in small groups to redesign the packaging of several common items. They attempt to reach the goal of 25% reduction in packaging materials currently used and explore the impact of various materials and designs in landfills...
Curated OER
Sounds Like Music
Students define and examine the connections between sound and music and how engineers design instruments. They listen to examples of musical instruments, view a demonstration of a tuning fork and bottles filled with varying amounts of...
Curated OER
Vector Voyage!
Students use vector analysis to examine the concept of dead reckoning. They listen to a teacher-led lecture, complete a Vector Voyage Worksheet with the teacher, answer discussion questions, and use the Pythagorean Theorem for speed...
Curated OER
Food Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines
Students examine Food Guide Pyramid and Dietary Guidelines. They look at samples of serving sizes, sort different foods into their correct groups, complete worksheets to discover which types of foods they eat regularly, and discuss...