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Climate Change Challenge
Students participate in a demonstration in which they role-play polar bears and habitat components to demonstrate the impacts of climate change on the Arctic Ocean ecosystem.
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Sand or Rock? Finding Out From 1,000 km
Middle schoolers observe how measurements are made with different instruments. In this remote sensing lesson students investigate the physical state of surfaces including the surfaces of the solar system.
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Why Do We Have Night?
Young scholars engage in a fun, creative way to discover how the Earth moves. This lesson helps students explain why there is day and night. It can also create curiosity to further study the solar system and eclipses!
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A New Slant On The Seasons
Students identify how the tilt and position of the Earth causes the seasons. After a discussion of the seasons and when they begin. Using themselves as the objects in the universe, they role play how the rotational movement of the...
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Dust in the Wind; Chemicals in the Water
Students explore mechanical and chemical weathering at stations. They articulate some mechanisms of chemical and mechanical weathering through exploration in a lab. Students stations describe how chemical weathering differs from...
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"Graphing Your Motion"
Students study the concepts of motion, velocity, and acceleration through graphing their own movement using LoggerPro. They explain the difference between speed and velocity using the weather vane example. They discover the difference...
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Simple Machines: Levers
Students discover the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines. They practice basic engineering theory through their hands-on demonstrations of levers.
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Moldy Food
Students investigate how mold grows on food. In this mold instructional activity, students review the food pyramid before growing mold on different foods in Zip-Loc bags. They create graphs that show how long it takes for mold to grow on...
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Oobleck
Students explore "matter." In this literacy and three states of matter activity, students listen to Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, then work in groups to explore "oobleck" (cornstarch and water mixture) with their five senses....
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Inertia
Students conduct a simple inertia demonstration by spinning a hardboiled and raw egg. They push a wagon to demonstrate inertia. They explore Newton's first and second laws of motion.
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Cooler in the Shadows
Students explore how the amount of sunlight and heat change in areas that are shaded.
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Newton Rocket Car
Young scholars observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and...
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Searching for life
Students explore the possibility of life on Mars and what that might look like. In this planetary lesson students complete several activities on looking for life on Mars.
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Falling Water
Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling water can...
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TE Activity: Yogurt Cup Speakers
Sixth graders build a speaker as they investigate the roles of electricity and magnetism. They discover the properties of magnets, create an electromagnet, and determine the direction of a magnetic field. They show cause and effect...
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The Halls are Alive with the Sound of Music
Students discuss physical places in which had good or bad acoustics. After reading an article, they discover the relationship between the physics of sound and concert hall acoustics. They calculate the speed of sound and compare their...
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Sound/Pitch
Students explore how pitch changes when using instruments that are plucked, blown, and hit. In this sound and pitch instructional activity, students blow across the top of bottles that are filled with water to create sound. Students use...
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There's Air in There!
Students attempt to blow a wad of paper into a soda bottle. In this physics lesson, students discover that air pressure inside of a soda bottle prevents new air from going in.
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Wonder Underground
Students classify and record objects they find "underground." In this observation lesson plan, students dig into bins filled with soil and encounter various objects such as bark, twigs, etc. Students classify their findings.
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Michigan Food: From Farm to You
Learners recognize Michigan on a map and understand how its climate is affected by the Great Lakes. In this Michigan food instructional activity, students play a trivia game to identify the produce of Michigan. Learners relate the...
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Alexander Calder: Master of Balance
Students build simple mobiles. In this equilibrium lesson plan, students investigate the functions of three types of levers as they analyze artwork by Alexander Calder. Students then create their own simplified mobiles.
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Create a Butterfly Mobile
Students construct a butterfly mobile. In this visual arts lesson, students use rice paper, watercolors, a coat hanger, and wax paper to create a unique butterfly mobile. Students use photographs of butterflies to construct a realistic...
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Matter in Motion
Second graders examine matter, what it is and what the different states are. For this matter lesson students view The Magic School Bus Meets Molly Cule and answer questions.
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Floods: Rising Waters and You
Students will examine how floods work and why they can cause so much damage and destruction. They use a stream table to observe the processes that lead to flooding and the effects of floods on human-made structures. Includes a guide to...