American Chemical Society
The Periodic Table and Energy-Level Models
Teach your class to think of electrons as tiny packets of energy that travel in waves. Through a short video and diagram, participants see how electrons are located around the nucleus of an atom. They then get into groups and try to...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Yummy Apples!
Young learners listen to a read aloud of Gail Gibbons book, Apples and the story A Red House With No Windows and No Doors. They compare characteristics of a number of kinds of apples, graph them and create a apple print picture. Learners...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Got Lactase? The Co-Evolution of Genes and Culture
Does the human body evolve as quickly as human culture? With a stellar 15-minute video, explore the trait of lactose intolerance. Only about 1/3 of human adults seem to still have the enzyme lactase and therefore, the ability to digest...
Las Cumbres Observatory
Star In a Box
Stars may all look the same from down here, but their surfaces tell a different story. Using an animation, learners collect data about the temperature and luminosity of stars and compare them to their mass and radius. They then answer...
Curated OER
Signal Flags and Codes
Students make sets of nautical signal flags and use them to communicate in the classroom.
Curated OER
Reading and Writing about the Solar System
A superb interdisciplinary approach highlights this instructional activity which incorporates space science knowledge and narrative skills. After reading The Magic School Bus, two excellent poems, and watching a video, all about our...
Curated OER
Inventors and Inventions 2:Air and Space
Students fly their own paper airplanes. In this flight lesson plan, students create paper airplanes and see whose plane will fly the farthest. They discuss what factors affect the flight and attempt to create a plane that will go...
Curated OER
A Whale of a Story
Does sound travel faster in water or in the air? Put the question to the test with a science experiment. After reviewing a table of data, third and fourth graders decide which statements are true and which ones are false. The bottom of...
University of Florida
Unhealthy Forests and the News
Everyone knows a tree makes a sound when it falls, but what do we know about dying trees? Class members learn background information about Laurel wilt disease from a teacher-led presentation. Team members work with partners to read and...
Central Bucks School District
Igneous Rocks Lab
Searching for a simple igneous rocks experiment to assist pupils with rock classification based on texture and composition? In the activity, pupils view multiple rocks in various ways to determine texture and composition. They then...
Curated OER
Science: Teddy Bear Nation
Students sort teddy bears according to types and then graph the results. They each bring a bear to class and then discuss their similarities and differences. Once the bears have been sorted into groups according to size and color,...
Curated OER
Drama from Animal Characters
Learn about animal habitats, characteristics, and writing in a different perspective. The class composes a narrative from the perspective of a fresh water animal, they include a problem and the animal's reaction to the problem. The...
Ask A Biologist
Viral Attack
Can you catch the same cold twice? Elementary and middle schoolers learn about what happens when a virus attacks their bodies, and how the immune system never forgets a virus, with an entertaining comic book. The packet includes...
Smithsonian Institution
Water/Ways: The Poetry of Science
Water is the source of life. It appears in poetry in both peaceful and torrential descriptions; it appears in earth science in its liquid, gaseous, and solid states. Combine these interpretations of our planet's most precious and...
Global Oneness Project
Resiliency Among the Salmon People
Is losing cultural traditions the cost of social progress, or should people make stronger efforts to preserve these traditions? High schoolers watch a short film about the native Yup'ik people in Alaska and how they handle the shifts in...
Education Outside
Plant, This Is Your Life!
Individuals select a plant, illustrate it in their journal, record observations, and create a life story for their plant that accounts for its features and any unique properties. Using these descriptions, a partner attempts to locate...
Curated OER
Exploring Literature And Weather Through Chirps
Learners explore using crickets' chirps to calculate temperature. They read "Cricket in Times Square" and "The Quiet Cricket," read and discuss a Cricket eBook, develop a formula and calculate temperature using cricket chirps, and graph...
Curated OER
Pumpkins
Observe the differences between the inside and outside of a pumpkin. Learners discuss what pumpkins are used for and then view a pumpkin. Next, they view the inside of the pumpkin and draw the differences they see.
Curated OER
Mathematics in Bioengineering: Its Application for Today's Students
High schoolers explore the different fields of bioengineering. They will create and interpret graphs from cancel cells data. They then calculate the amount of drugs found in blood and eliminated by the body over time.
Curated OER
Physical Differences
Young scholars examine physical differences amongst themselves. In this diversity lesson, students read the book We're Different, We're the Same. Young scholars name things about their appearance that is different from the person next to...
Curated OER
The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind
Students investigate the relationship between the sun and wind.  In this reading comprehension lesson, students read the book The Contest Between the Sun and the Wind, and observe the effect of the Sun and wind on our planet....
Curated OER
Rock and Mineral IQ
Students observe rock and mineral compositions. In this identification instructional activity, students read The Story of Rocks. Students identify rock and mineral samples by testing for hardness, color, luster, weight and appearance.
Curated OER
The Shape of Things
Fourth graders develop their writing skills. In this paragraph structure instructional activity, 4th graders research natural disasters, compile their findings, create mobiles and write stories based on the mobiles.
Rainforest Alliance
The Carbon Cycle
Scholars learn about the carbon cycle, play a carbon cycle game, and then write a story based on their role as a carbon atom during the game. After the writings, pupils analyze the carbon cycle by leading a class discussion on the material.