Curated OER
Designing An Investigation
Students will design a scientific investigation. In this engineering design lesson, students will set up an investigation, collect data and form a conclusion about bridge design. They will use common household items to construct their...
Curated OER
A Pox No Longer Upon Us
Tenth graders research the development and use of vaccines. They examine historical documents for qualitative observations and the basis of immunization. They examine primary and secondary immune responses as they relate to the...
Curated OER
Deer: Predation or Starvation
In this predation or starvation worksheet, students read about the effects of the wildlife service bringing in predators (wolves) to control a deer population. Students calculate the change in the deer population from 1971 to 1980. They...
Curated OER
Domino Dash
In this speed worksheet, students use dominoes to measure the average speed of rows falling over. Students make a line graph to show the relationship between the length of the domino row and the time. Students answer 8 questions about...
Curated OER
How Trees Contribute to the Water Cycle
In this water cycle instructional activity, 3rd graders conduct an experiment where they observe and calculate how water transpires in different types of trees. Students engage in a class discussion and use Venn Diagrams to compare...
Curated OER
Billions of Bubbles
Students conduct an experiment with bubbles. In this observation and comparison instructional activity, students read Bubbles, Bubbles, Everywhere and conduct an experiment where they test different kinds of liquids to see which is...
Curated OER
What Are Erosion and Sediments?
Middle schoolers create experiments in class based on the erosion of Earth. In this erosion lesson, students perform a lab in class replicating the effects of erosion. Middle schoolers finally draw their own conclusions based on the...
Curated OER
Our City's Temperature
Students use a thermometer to record temperatures from their homes throughout the city, and then hypothesize reasons for the temperature variations. They use a weather graph worksheet that's imbedded in this instructional activity to...
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
Radiation Comparison Before and After 9-11
Using the NASA website, class members try to determine if changes could be detected in cloud cover, temperature, and/or radiation measurements due to the lack of contrails that resulted from the halt in air traffic after the attacks...
Texas Instruments
Vandalism 101
Learners explore logic and use Geometer’s Sketchpad and patterns of logic to solve a puzzle.
Polar Trec
Playground Profiling—Topographic Profile Mapping
The Kuril islands stretch from Japan to Russia, and the ongoing dispute about their jurisdiction prevents many scientific research studies. Scholars learn to create a topographic profile of a specific area around their schools. Then they...
Curated OER
Case Study of Local Trends in the Carbon Cycle
Students examine the relationship between chlorophyll and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In this investigative lesson students study the local effects of climate change.
Center for Learning in Action
Investigating Physical and Chemical Changes
Super scientists visit ten stations to predict, observe, and draw conclusions about the physical and chemical changes that occur when different states of matter—liquid, solid, and gas—are placed under a variety of conditions. To...
Teach Engineering
Fun with Air-Powered Pneumatics
How high did the ball go? Engineering teams build a working pneumatic system that launches a ball into the air. The teams vary the amount of pressure and determine the accompanying height of the ball. An extension of building a device to...
Kenan Fellows
Isotopic Pennies
Many people confuse atomic mass and atomic numbers. The sixth of seven lessons in a unit requires scholars to find the weight of different groups of pennies. Then, they must solve how many of each type of penny exists in a closed system...