Curated OER
The Universe
Students describe what scientists mean by an "expanding universe" in their own words. They explain how scientists comprehend the universie is expanding. Students comprehend the vast scale of the universe. They comprehend how theory...
Curated OER
What is the Nature of Science?
Students examine videos of field researach to discover the components of the scientific process. Using forms, they conduct community surveys about the nature of science. They research the extinction of dinosaurs and compare...
Curated OER
In Search of a Land Ethic
Students research the theory that everything is connected to everything else. Students explore the concept of how do we put normative values on our nonhuman environment. Students investigate an ecologist and write an informational...
American Chemical Society
Joseph Priestley, Discoverer of Oxygen
Do you want to hear a joke about nitrogen and oxygen? NO. We all know there is oxygen in the air and that plants produce oxygen, but how was it discovered? Scholars read a handout, answer questions, and analyze material in the...
Curated OER
A New Society Project
Ninth graders examine the social and political movements of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. In this American history lesson, 9th graders work in groups to form their own society and laws. Students make a diagram of their town and...
Curated OER
Scientific Inquiry: Periodic Motion
Students construct their own pendulum. In this physics lesson, students design an experiment to find the factors affecting its period. They formulate a conclusion based on experimental data.
Curated OER
Physicists or Philosophers?
Trace the sequential process of the developing theories of atomic structure in the early 20th century, show, in historical development, how scientists "know" things, how experiments are set up and how interpretations are drawn from them,...
Curated OER
About Science
Students explain why physics is the basic science. They outline scientific methods by distinguishing among observations, facts, hypotheses, laws, and principles. Students describe the circumstances under which a hypothesis or law must be...
Curated OER
Ecology And the Conservation of Natural Resources
Students study Alfred Wegener's theory of continental drift and how the continents were connected in one large land mass called Pangaea. They examine plate tectonics and the theory that the earth's surface is composed of large moving...
Curated OER
Time Travel, Black Holes, and Relativity
Students read the novel, The Time Machine, and compare H.G. Well's perceptions of the future with those presented in The Third Wave, by Alvin Toffler. They research current scientific and mathematical theories that relate to space and time.
Curated OER
The Ocean Floor
Fifth graders discuss the process of sedimentation and the continental drift theory. They locate major structures on the ocean floor and they identify life forms at each level of the ocean.
Curated OER
Phosphate Testing Contract
Students examine how to prepare an experimental procedure. In this scientific method lesson students conduct an investigation on phosphate.
Curated OER
Time and Earth History Socratic Questions
Young scholars develop a sense of geologic ("deep") time and the ways in which Earth scientists construct the geologic time scale. They study he major events that shaped Earth, including the origin and evolution of its lithosphere,...
Curated OER
Super Science By Any Means Necessary!
The animated S2 Unit will use the adventures of a Super Hero and her sidekick to teach basic science and math concepts. Educators can use comic books, Saturday Morning Cartoons and the adventures of Super Heroes to teach a nine-week...
Virginia Department of Education
Vapor Pressure and Colligative Properties
Hate to vacuum, but enjoy using a vacuum pump? Explore a lesson that starts with a demonstration of boiling water at various temperatures by using a vacuum pump. Then scholars design their own experiments to measure vapor pressure and...
Virginia Department of Education
States of Matter
Scientists have been studying exothermic reactions before they were cool. The lesson begins with a discussion and a demonstration of heat curves. Scholars then determine the heat of fusion of ice and the heat needed to boil water through...
Virginia Department of Education
Thermochemistry: Heat and Chemical Changes
What makes particles attract? Here, learners engage in multiple activities that fully describe colligative properties and allow the ability to critically assess the importance of these properties in daily life. Young chemists conduct...
Curated OER
Animals and Humans
Young scholars identify the functions of various body parts. They participate in the "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" song, draw a picture of themselves and other mammals, and create a traced outline of their body that they add...
Curated OER
Eratosthenes And Radius of the Earth
Students calculate the radius of the earth. They use the method and data suggested by Eratosthenes. They investigate the interrelationships among mass, distance, force, and time through experimental processes.
Curated OER
Lesson 4 Activity 1: Mapping the Third Dimension
Students work in pairs to construct a simple stereoscope.
Curated OER
Living Things Experience Diverse Life Cycles
Second graders will study and explain the meaning of growth, development, and life cycle. They describe how plants grow and develop and observe an animal to show how it grows, changes, and reproduces throughout its life.
Curated OER
Electrifying Electricity
Students explore the basics of electricity using common everyday items as well as demonstrate how parallel and series circuits can be used in electronics and electrical devices. They explore how common items in their world can be wired...
Curated OER
What Influences Reaction Rate?
Students study reaction rates, what determines how fast a reaction happens and how the chemical changes occur. In this reactions instructional activity students complete a lab where they use Alka-Seltzer to observe reaction rate and...
Curated OER
Energy in the Natural Environment
Students examine the flow of energy through the natural environment. In groups, they describe the effect of energy on the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere. To end the lesson, they experiment with the chemical and physical...