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Peat Pots

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Learners place a peat pot in water to observe and calculate the rate of capillarity in a model of a soil. This task assesses students' abilities to make simple observations, collect, record, and represent data, use a data table to...
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River Planning

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students use a model to conduct an experiment involving dam construction. Based on their observations, they draw conclusions about social, economic, and and environmental issues and make a decision concerning dam location. As a group,...
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Roebling and Suspension Bridges: A Thread of Steel

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students create a model bridge using steel. For this bridges lesson plan, students study John Augustus Roebling and how he created bridges out of steel and the impact it had on society. Then students build their own bridge model.
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Rockets: Kinematics or Energy?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct model rockets, measure and record the height of the launch.  In this creative lesson students use different methods to calculate velocity and height data from their launched rockets.
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Threats to Validity

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students review the components of the scientific habits of mind. In groups, they use this information and relate it to scientific investigations. They develop strategies to evaluate information and evidence and how to question sources...
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Separation of a Complex Mixture

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students develop a method to separate different types of mixtures. In this chemistry lesson, students model the steps in the scientific method. They perform the experiment and analyze data.
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Pendulums

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students construct a pendulums and experiment with what variables change or effect the rate at which they swing through an arc. They are assessed on scientific inquiry including the following skills: observation, data collection,...
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Understanding the Indoor Environment: The Movement of Air

For Teachers 3rd - 12th
Students discuss HVAC to assess prior knowledge. Students create a rubric to assess their modals of HVAC units, and build the models according to instructions and discussion by the teacher.
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Ice Melting

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students design investigations to test various materials to prevent heat gain in frozen water. The task assess students' knowledge of scientific inquiry including the following skills: observation, data collection, measurement,...
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Clouds

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders complete various activities about clouds. They create a cloud in a lab, write a cloud story, make a cloud model and complete a webquest.
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Ants In Motion

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students brainstorm ants and their characteristics in a class discussion. They observe the ants and answer question pertaining to their behavior; then they apply the scientific method in creating and investigating a problem.
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Using Mass Balance to Understand Atmospheric CFCs

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students use an interactive online mass balance model to observe levels of chlorofluorocarbons over the past few years. Students evaluate the influence protocol emissions will have on the future levels of CFCs.
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Black Hole Lesson

For Teachers 10th
Tenth graders experiment with detection techniques for black holes by modeling the rotation of galaxies with larger and larger masses in the center. They discover while some events cannot be directly observed they may be observable in...
Lesson Plan
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Matter: Atoms and Molecules

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate how information about the atom has been determined. In this atomic structure instructional activity, students draw what they think an atom looks like. They conduct Internet research about the types of atomic models...
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The Fault Line

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students use cardboard models of the North American and Pacific plates and sand to investigate what happens when there is an earthquake or movement along the boundaries of the plates.
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Structure of the Earth

For Teachers 8th
Eighth graders describe and identify the three layers of the Earth. They work together to construct their own earth model. They share their creation with the class.
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Proportionality: The X-Plane Generation

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students meet NASA researchers who describe the relationship between force, energy and motion. They discuss how NASA's experimental X-plane is being tested to make space travel more reliable and show how proportionality and ratios are...
Lesson Plan
Michigan Sea Grant

Exploring Watersheds

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Collaboratively, students partake in a hands-on activity in which they build models of a watershed. Each group member draws an elevation map—a bird's eye view—of their model and predicts how water will flow from the high to low points....
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Earth's History

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders study the law of superposition by creating models of fossils in layers of rock. They examine how fossils are usually found in sedimentary rock which leads to the study of geologic history in those rocks.
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Classification of Animals

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders examine two-way classification systems using four mutually exclusive groups and two dimensions simultaneously. They then are given a set of plastic animals, asked to create a two-way classification system, then asked to...
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The Cost of Smoking

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explain the financial and life expectancy costs of smoking using a computer model to enter and adjust parameters to collect data in the form of a table. They analyze the data collected and determine the true cost of smoking.
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A QUESTION

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students engage in scientifically oriented questions. They give priority to evidence, draw conclusions/formulate explanations and connect/evaluate explanations with scientific knowledge. Students communicate and justify proposed...
Lesson Plan
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Daisyworld: Stella Mac or PC

For Teachers 11th - Higher Ed
Students investigate Daisyworld, a very simple planet that has only two species of life on its surface - white and black daisies, and bare ground. They construct a Stella model of Daisyworld and perform guided experiments to explore the...
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Energy and the Environment

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders define alternative energy form, design models which show how the energy source can be used, and explain the purpose of dams.

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