Ahoy, matey! Here is an engineering expedition that mini mariners are sure to be swept away by! After reading a brief description and history of periscopes, they work in crews to construct one. Use this activity to enhance a lesson on...

First graders experiment with prisms to explore sequence of colors of light created.

Students study concepts associated with light. In this light lesson, students observe an demonstration by the teacher. They examine reflection and refraction of light and name things that reflect light and those that refract it. They...

Turning white light into colors only takes a little scientific know how! Young scholars create their own spectroscope in a hands-on activity exploring the properties of light. Using a diffraction grating, they discover how white light...

Color me green. The fourth lesson in a unit of 15 introduces the class to color images and how to encode color images using binary code and hexadecimal numbers — and they will quickly notice that it is easier to code the...

All you need is light. Groups use a reflectometer to find the reflectivity of specific chemical compounds. Learners compare the graphs of the reflectivity of the known compounds to Martian soil. Using the graph comparisons, scholars...

My friend told me how electricity is measured and I was like Watt! In the hands-on activity, learners explore electricity by building circuits, both parallel and series. They also determine how increasing the number of light bulbs and...

Explore Snell's Law using thin films. In the fifth installment of a seven-part series, pupils solve a set of problems relating to Snell's Law and use this skill during an experiment requiring the collection of reflective measurements...

Emerging engineers read about Arduino software and how it can be used. Then they follow a nine-step tutorial to connect an Arduino board to a computer and put it to work! The objective is to code a program that will cause an LED to...

Students participate in a variety of instructional experiences about Computer Science. They define Computational Science and describe computational simulation. They also compare and contrast Computational Science and Computer Science.

Biotechnology pros produce their own biofuel using waste oil and fresh vegetable oil. They test the quality of their product using titration techniques and pH analysis. They write their observations and report their findings. Be aware...

Warm up to the idea of solar energy. A instructional activity includes three activities that challenge scholars to apply knowledge in new ways. First, they learn to run an alarm clock without a battery by using solar energy. Next, they...

After a discussion of chemical reactions and electricity, scholars break into groups and follow a scripted activity to discover if fruit can power a clock. After a concluding discussion, the class a presented with a challenge.

Make sound visible with an activity that provides directions for how to build a vocal visualizer meant to create light patterns. Making noise into the visualizer causes a mirror to vibrate, reflecting a laser beam, and creating...

Utilizing computer software, learners demonstrate the color spectrum. They investigate the life of the artist Piet Mondrian and define his style of artwork. Then they use Photoshop to recreate some of his designs while discovering the...

Learners calculate the amount of solar radiation hitting the ground at their school compared to the solar constant. They also repeat the experiment at a water testing site and utilize a light probe to measure the light being reflected...

Students establish an understanding of electricity and then demonstate that understanding by creating a basic experiment involving a lemon battery. They reflect on the importance of electricity.

Students investigate the law of reflection by using mirrors. In this physics instructional activity, students operate a robot using IR controllers. They explain the path of light as it reflects through a surface.

Scientists in California developed a bionic eye that allows blind people to see edges of objects in black and white and costs $145,000. In the activity, groups of scholars discuss bioengineering, focusing on the human eye. They then...

Nobody is as smart as all of us together. In a collaborative learning activity, scholars learn it takes a team to be successful in laparoscopic surgeries. Groups complete the laparoscopic task as a team and discuss their results to...

Introducing ... the aerogel. The first of a two-installment series teaches young engineers about the properties and uses of aerogels. A PowerPoint presentation provides information about this unique material to help solidify the concept.

Class members engage in a STEM experiment and investigate how materials affect heating in a house by creating models of houses and using different top surface materials. They record the temperature inside the models and consider what the...

In the last portion of the six-part unit, teams perform an experiment with gold nanoparticles to determine which sport drink has the most electrolytes. The nanoparticles are used as chemical sensors and fluoresce in different wavelengths...

Always check your assumptions when interpreting data and data visualizations. That's the take away from this exercise. Class members examine a failed project that looks at search trends to predict flu outbreaks and consider the...