Students explore the interconnectedness of living things in an ecosystem. They use pictures and arrows to develop a food web, and participate in constructing a class food web with students representing various parts of the web.

Eighth graders discover how electricity is produced. In this physics lesson, 8th graders infer about the future of Mississippi's energy industry. They participate in a Smart Board interactive activity at the end of the lesson.

Students investigate the concept of molecular structure. They describe the behavior of simulated molecules and identify any dislocations in crystalline structures. They also define various related vocabulary words and use them in...

Though the walrus spends roughly one third of its time on land, it eats organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. The first in a series of five, the lesson uses a variety of plant and animal cards to have scholars build an arctic...

Students, in groups, use given materials to devise a way to deposit a ping-pong ball into a paper cup that is located in the middle of a 6-foot diameter circle, while standing outside the circle.

Students build a device that captures and carries a pet rat safely back to its cage with out "harming" the rat or themselves. They build and experiment with wind-up or battery operated rat cat toys after predicting the outcome of their...

I'm so cool! No, you're exothermic. This thermodynamics lab unit includes an introduction, teacher demonstrations, six labs that students rotate through each class day, homework assignments, application of knowledge, and...

Using spectroscopes, high school astronomy, physics, or chemistry learners observe emission spectra from several different sources. This stellar NASA-produced lesson plan provides terrific teacher's notes and a student handout. Make sure...

Students illustrate the changes in the properties of a material at its glass transition point. They gather data which they use to construct graphs regarding elastic modules versus absorption modulus, tangent delta, and the effect of...

Students use a NASA satellite data to contrast amounts of cloud coverage over different climate regions in Africa. They explore how Earth's major air circulations affect global weather patterns, and relate to local weather patterns.

Why do experiments require a control? Guide scholars through designing an experiment to see what they can do to evaporate water faster with a lesson plan that stresses the importance of controlling all variables. The second activity...

Young gardners read and listen to books about seeds, plants, and the growing process. They plant seeds in plastic cups to observe the process of root-growing and plant formation. The whole class walks through a field to collect seeds...

More of a mini-unit than a lesson plan, these activities lead inquisitors through a survey of oil deposits. In the first part, they read about and view diagrams of sedimentary rock layers that trap oil. Next, they test porosity and...

Young scientists observe the spectra of elements and compare that to the Doppler effect. Hook scholars from the beginning all the way to the extension activities in this 5E-format lesson. 

Learners gain an understanding of how systems and organs in the human body work. They create their own fictional account of a trip through the human body, and describe one response the body makes to stimuli.

Students study the variables that affect the Earth's albedo.  For this environmental data analysis lesson students interpret and graph information and calculate changes. 

Passive solar heating is a technology that's been in use for thousands of years. Here, elementary schoolers are exposed to this type of heating, the materials that are used in passive solar heating, and they study how engineers design...

Learners design and construct a listening device that will allow them to listen to the sound generated by specific object inside a box.

The carbon cycle is natural and has happened for millions of years, so can humans change it? Young scientists play the role of carbon as they travel through the carbon cycle. They complete two rounds, once before the industrial...

We can't dig a hole through the Earth, so how do we know about the layers beneath our feet? Scholars learn about layering through hands-on exploration of common materials. They study the characteristics of each layer and apply their...

High schoolers will identify the factors that contribute to erosion and weathering. They will start by differentiating between chemical and mechanical weathering. They then apply what they learned by playing the online jeopardy game. Key...

First graders get out and explore two different habitats to examine how each one meets the needs of the plants and animals that dwell there. They discuss what they've learned about animal habitats as they explore the outdoor environment....

Many types of cancer treatments now depend on nanotechnology—a big "little" discovery. Scholars begin by removing "malignant" tissue from simulated brains, one using fluorescent markers thanks to nanotechnology and one without. This...

Students use pictures and make a mural to investigate how ocean animals are adapted to certain parts of their environment.