Curated OER
Scientific Tools
Students list different uses for common scientific instruments. They identify appropriate instruments to measure length, temperature, and mass. Pupils are given a copy of the "Science Tools" task sheet, students place the correct number...
Curated OER
Apply Scientific Inquiry and Scientific Habits of Mind
Learners review the components of the scientific inquiry method. In groups, they apply this method to various experiments they are given to complete. They also use the correct scientific habits of mind when researching different concepts.
Curated OER
Survival in the Land of Batzilla
Students experience a guided inquiry into the workings of an ultrasonic motion detector. They are led to study something they cannot see, hear, feel or taste. Students design strategies to avoid becoming prey of the predatory "Batzilla."
Curated OER
Ecology
Learners gain an understanding of necessary components required within a healthy, sustainable environment and ways human actions can impact that balance while discovering how to recognize and analyze explanations and models used in...
Curated OER
What Do Snails Eat?
Students conduct a food choice experiment with snails, recording the results on a chart to determine what snails eat. In this what do snails eat lesson, students color a picture of snail anatomy, perform the experiment with 3 food...
Curated OER
Urban Biology: Can Fish Detect Odors
Students investigate how fish use their sense of smell. In this scientific method lesson, students design and perform an experiment to investigate how fish use their sense of smell. This lesson includes statistical analysis and...
Curated OER
Sugar and carbohydrates, protein, fat and water - that's what little plants are made of!
Pupils identify photosynthesis as the mechanism by which plants convert sunlight energy into a usable energy source for plant processes. They identify photosynthesis as the mechanism by which plants create a molecule that can be used to...
Curated OER
Water Quality and Dissolved Oxygen
Students investigate the relationship between dissolved oxygen and organic materials and aquatic organisms. This is a 3-lesson series in which students explore dissolved oxygen and then design an experiment testing the effects of changes.
Virginia Department of Education
Molecular Model Building
During this hands-on activity, young chemists build molecular models based on the Lewis dot structure before studying valence shell electron pair repulsion theory.
Virginia Department of Education
Predicting Products and Writing Equations
A chemistry lesson presents 14 chemical reactions for scholars to observe, write the equation, and balance the equations. Additionally, it provides ways to extend the activity as it relates to catalysts.
Virginia Department of Education
Equilibrium and Le Chatelier’s Principle
The best part of learning about equilibrium is that nothing changes. Young chemists observe four demonstrations during this lesson: equilibrium in a saturated solution, equilibrium with an acid-base indicator, equilibrium with cobalt...
Virginia Department of Education
Laboratory Safety and Skills
Avoiding lab safety rules will not give you super powers. The activity opens with a demonstration of not following safety rules. Then, young chemists practice their lab safety while finding the mass of each item in a mixture and trying...
Curated OER
Recipes for the Future
Students engage in real time interactions with researchers and are exposed to innovative research. They conduct an experiment designed to investigate the strength and maximum deflection of a composite material with and without the use of...
Curated OER
Power In The Wind
Middle schoolers experiment designing graphs of selected readings from the Nebraska sites from the Power in the Wind study. They choose whether or not to put their data in a spreadsheet program to make a computer-generated graph or to...
Curated OER
Build Your Own Hovercraft
Students construct a hovercraft following specific procedures. In this technology lesson, students explain the physics principles behind hovercraft. They compare and contrast this machine with the aircraft.
Curated OER
Biosphere
Learners examine the basic biosphere and its components. In this ecology lesson students complete several experiments including designing a system that is balanced to sustain life.
Curated OER
Hydrated Salt
Young scholars plan, design, and carry out an experiment to determine an empirical formula for a hydrated salt X that tell students when all the water has been removed from hydrate crystals.
Curated OER
Help Wanted: A Lighting Engineer For Popular Rock Group
Students are assigned to groups, and determine each member's role in the group. They will design an experiment to determine a way to produce the three primary and five secondary colors. Students discuss color and mood. They listen to a...
Curated OER
What Can We Lose? What Do We Lose as we Gain Force With A Lever?
Third graders view a demonstration of a teeter totter as a basis for assessing pre-knowledge of a lever. They create a KwL chart. Students work in small groups to conduct a variety of experiments. The first requires students to tie books...
Curated OER
Aerospace
Learners experiment with weight and balance of a glider. In this flight instructional activity students construct their own flying glider and record their experiment with it.
Curated OER
Inquiring Minds Want To Know
Eighth graders conduct a scientific experiment that help them explain the concept of nature versus nurture.
Curated OER
Mushroom Prints
Students create a mushroom spore design on paper while studying the facts on fungi.
Curated OER
String Instruments and Pitch
Young scholars make predictions and explore how pitch is altered in string instruments. In this acoustic science lesson, students learn the types and parts of string instruments and create their own. They listen to classical music and...
Curated OER
Bungee Man Lab
Students explore the motion of a toy bungee jumper using the scientific method. They view a video of a bungee jumper and discuss what can be measured about a bungee jump. Students discuss the scientific mehtod and how to design an...