DiscoverE
Helping Hand
Sometimes we all need a helping hand. Scholars get together to lend a hand in creating an assistive device that must be able to grab a hard-to-reach object. Now that's some help we could all use! 
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Water and Ice
Learners participate in various air experiments to understand that air is all around us. In this states of matter lesson, students focus on the role of air in the water cycle. Learners understand that air is densest near the ground....
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Boomerang
Students explore the concept of boomerangs. In this boomerang activity, students throw homemade boomerangs at different angles to record maximum distance and if it returned or not. Students collect their boomerang data then create a...
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The Cloud in the Bottle
Young scholars observe a demonstration of how pressure and temperature affects cloud formation.
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Clifford Goes to School and So Do We!
Students use the story, "Clifford Goes to School," to investigate the value of rules as a means of keeping them safe. Following step-by step directions, the rules are placed on patterns and which are worn home.
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High and low notes!
Little ones talk about how sounds can be made high or low depending on the length of the keys that make them. They label eight xylophone keys from highest to lowest depending on the relative sound they'd make. Tip: Get out a real...
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Holiday Poetry and Music
Students discuss Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays and family traditions. After brainstorming how holidays are celebrated, students write a poem about a chosen holiday and create their own hand-made instrument. They share their poems...
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Identifying Angles
Students identify names of angles. They use a large clock to demonstrate angles using certain times of day. Given a geoboard, students create figures with acute, right, and obtuse angles.
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The Counting Caterpillar
A daily counting routine builds a caterpillar with 100 body segments (marked with symbols to indicate 2s, 5s, and 10s) by the 100th day of school. Provides structured repetition as part of the morning routine so that by 100th day,...
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Making a Pinhole Camera
Students are introduced to the basic straight line pattern of travel that light takes. A cereal box and wax paper provide the pinhole camera that captures the light's inverted image. Shifting this pattern provides additional challenges.
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Spuds in Space
Young scholars explore the effects of velocity on an object when it collides with another object. They design and outfit a potato astronaut in a spacesuit to withstand the hazards of high velocity impacts from space debris and meteoroids.
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Inventions
Students study invention steps and design their own invention. In this invention lesson, students discuss inventions and the process of inventing. Studnets write in an inventor's journal and study various types of inventions....
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Color Me Red If I Am a Ten
Students count aloud by tens. They use a number chart to color in every number that ends in a zero and then participate in choral counting by tens.
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Understanding Waves
Students examine the physical properties of waves to explore the word crest and trough. They use toys to study waves in air, water and light.
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Water Filtration
Middle schoolers demonstrate the four of five procedures that municipal water plants use to purify water for drinking. A water filtration system is designed by a student and their partner. A data chart is made to record all observations...
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Chemosynthesis for the Classroom
Explorers set up Windogradsky columns with local mud so that they can culture microorganisms. After three and six weeks they make observations of the mud and the organisms growing in it. In this way they observe succession and relate...
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How Many Units?
Young mathematicians calculate the area of rectangles and squares. In this geometry lesson plan, learners are grouped in pairs and use geoboards to construct rectangles. They calculate the area of the figure by counting the number of...
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Don't Slip!
Students measure, record, and graph the force of moving a block of wood along sand paper. In this friction lesson plan, students read a spring scale, collect data, construct a graph, and propose a model to explain how fiction works.
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Rocket Design: Aerodynamics, Trajectories
Students use science inquiry skills to build and launch a simple rocket, from several wooden launch pads of various angles, to determine what trajectory angle carry a rocket the greatest distance.
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Simple Machines, Odd Machine
Students construct a device to 'launch' a marshmallow at the teacher and then discuss various forms of levers. They work in teams to design catapults and identify different kinds of levers.
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Introduction to Dolch Words
First graders are introduced to Dolch words. In this reading improvement instructional activity, 1st graders use Dolch words to review beginning and ending sounds, consonant blends and sight words.
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Alphabetizing Dolch Words
Students alphabetize a weekly word list. In this alphabetizing lesson, students work as a whole group to alphabetize their weekly word list. This lesson teaches students about alphabetizing to the second letter in a word.
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What's Hiding in the Air?
Fifth graders conduct experiments to study the effects of invisible air pollutants including one with a bean plant. They examine methods of invisible air pollutants.
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Think Before You Toss
Students sort a variety of trash items and determine thier sorting decisions.