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Let's Take a Rock Apart
Students take a crushed rock and sort the remains of the rock minerals into different categories based on the different properties. In this sorting lesson plan, students learn what makes up a rock and how to sort something into categories.
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Shake, Rattle and Roll
Students compare the weathering of materials. in this weathering lesson, students experiment with the chemical and physical weathering of different materials. Students use salt and water as an example of how weathering occurs.
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Oil and Natural Gas Formation
Students complete a narrative paper and a drawing depicting how the formation of oil and natural gas taken from the Earth's crust were once plants and animals millions of years ago. In this oil and natural gas lesson plan, students read,...
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People and Space
Students eat dehydrated foods that the astronauts would eat in space. In this dehydrated foods lesson plan, students make lists of food they could eat, discuss how dehydration takes place, eat food, and complete discussion questions.
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Looking Blue
Students participate in a research project that is exclusively using the internet. The author states that traditional labs are hard to conduct for a light lab. This one uses the internet with the intention that students can manipulate...
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Sky and Cloud Windows
Young scholars monitor the weather, clouds, and sky. In this weather lesson, students create a sky and cloud window to focus their sky observations. They write observations in a notebook and include the date, time, cloud cover, types of...
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Lift Relationships
Students use FoilSim (downloadable) to determine how lift is affected by varying parameters on the Airfoil simulation.
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Recycled Racers
Students research automobile operating systems in relation to racing. They design and construct vehicles from recycled material which they race to study the concept of propulsion.
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Wind Tunnels
Students build a simple wind tunnel and test out 2 glider wing shapes at different angles of attack. They record results and their observations just as engineers do.
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Reflecting Light
Students are introduced to the reflective properties of light and use mirrors to make light from a source reflect onto a specific target. They take turns and record the amount of time it took to correctly reflect the light.
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Drifting Continents
Students, through teacher-led demonstration, explore the idea of continental drift. They complete a worksheet involving the calculation of continental drift over time.
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Discovering Planet X
Students investigate the movements of the planet Pluto. Students participate in a hands-on activity to record data similar to the movements of the planet Pluto. Students compare their data to that found on a website.
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Using VNTR Analysis to Identify Guilt at a Crime Scene
High schoolers collect DNA from cheek cells. They compare and contrast the processes of DNA replication and PCR. They discuss how this information can be used to determine guilt at crime scenes.
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Upside-Down Wings
Students use FoilSim to demonstrate that the graphic analysis of the airflow around one object can be used to hypothesize airflow graphs for objects as they are elongated from a sphere to an airfoil shape.
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Design of Airfoil for Given Lift
Students use FoilSim to design an airplane wing that generates a given lift. As they change parameters such as airspeed, altitude, angle of attack, thickness and curvature of the airfoil, and size of the wing area, the software...
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Exploring the Interstellar Medium
Students investigate the Interstellar Medium and the Local Bubble that the Sun is inside. They read and discuss a handout, answer discussion questions, observe a demonstration of light scattering, and conduct an experiment on the...
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Using Chromatography to Identify Unknowns
Young scholars are introduced to the concept of chromatography. They practice using new vocabular and observing experiments. They answer discussion questions to end the lesson.
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What is Sound? How Can We Change Sound?
In this lesson, learners investigate the phenomenon of sound! Students compare and contrast how sound travels through solids, liquids, and gases. They explain how length and thickness affect sound. Learners know the difference between...
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States of Matter Mini-Unit
Students identify he phases of matter (solid, liquid, gas), and why they take place. They comprehend what a physical change is and what a chemical change is. Students know the difference between a Mixture and a Solution.
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Solids, Liquids, and Gases
First graders explore the properties of matter. In this states of matter activity, 1st graders conduct scientific investigations that require them to mix, cool, and heat objects in order to observe changes in the properties of matter.
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Faulty Movement
Students discover the faults throughout the Earth. They describe the different types of faults and how they are related to earthquakes. They build models of the faults.
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Air Pollution Control
Middle schoolers examine two devices used to clean up the air waste stream before it enters the atmosphere. They construct and use a wet scrubber and an electrostatic precipitator, and answer discussion questions.
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Magnets
Students investigate the magnetic attraction of different materials by observing a demonstration, and review the words "attraction" and "materials." Next they conduct exploration of a number of materials which have different properties...
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How Do The Colors of Light Mix?
Students investigate the mixing of light. They form a hypotheses to reason why color changes occur and they write conclusions and ask new questions arising from the investigation. Students identify the primary and complementary colors of...