Curated OER
Design Your Own Rube Goldberg Machine
Students participate in a culminating activity for a unit on Energy and Simple Machines. They are challenged to incorporate simple machines in to a complex mechanical system. While designing and testing their machine they will also...
Curated OER
Who Is It?/Who Done It?
Students conduct an experiment that allows them to assess individual differences in random DNA sequences and apply those differences when solving a forensic problem. After discussing the polymerase chain reaction and its use to identify...
Curated OER
Time Is On My Side! Again!
Fourth graders evaluate their current test-taking and studying skills. In groups, they read a case study in which they create a time schedule for a week. They color code the scheduled and unscheduled activities for Frantic Fred and share...
Teach Engineering
Racing With the Sun - Creating a Solar Car
Here's an exciting and innovative lesson that's sure to get your charges fired up! In it, they use engineering design principles to construct and test a fully solar powered car. One caveat: the kits that each group needs to make their...
Curated OER
A House is a House for Me
Students evaluate the impact climates have on the building of structures. They research the different types of materials used to build houses in various climates and build small models of houses which are tested against different climates.
Curated OER
Cooking with the Sun
Students explore using energy from the sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. This excellent two-day lesson has groups of students build and test a variety of solar cookers....
Curated OER
Designing a Crew Exploration Vehicle
Take your class on an out-of-this-world adventure with this fun engineering design lesson plan. Working in small groups, young scientists design, build, and test crew exploration vehicles using some creativity, teamwork, and...
Teach Engineering
Design Step 6: Evaluate/Manufacture a Final Product
This is what all of the excitement has been building up to! Young engineers create engineering drawings, use machines to manufacture their products, test, and evaluate their designs in the last step in the engineering design...
Curated OER
Lippmann vs. The Testers: Can Intelligence Be Measured?
Students examine the ideas of Walter Lippman and standardized testing. They discover the ideas and beliefs behind using standarized tests. They examine a copy of an IQ test and discuss.
Curated OER
Here's an Instant Activity for February 16, 2004
Fourth graders complete a spelling activity that also improves their proofreading skills. In this spelling lesson, 4th graders read a list of words and proofread to find the word spelled correctly in each row.
Curated OER
Math Vocabulary
Students identify and teach mathematics vocabulary. They work in groups to prepare presentations using MultiMedia Lab V and songs to create fun ways to remember the vocabulary terms. Students use these presentations to teach the...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1
You want your class to meet all of the Common Core standards, and here is one way to tackle the first speaking and listening standard. Given a theme to focus on from "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy, small groups come up...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.2
One way to get your class to evaluate and synthesize multiple multimedia sources is through a research project. The idea here is that class members will watch videos and listen to scientific debates in order to create a casebook about...
Virginia Department of Education
Exploring Statistics
Collect and analyze data to find out something interesting about classmates. Groups devise a statistical question and collect data from their group members. Individuals then create a display of their data and calculate descriptive...
Nuffield Foundation
Maintaining and Preparing Cultures of Bacteria and Yeasts
Don't let your bacteria go to waste. A tutorial explains how to properly store and maintain bacterial stock cultures. It describes the purpose and preparation of a permanent stock, as well as a working stock for use in experiments.
Virginia Department of Education
Factoring for Zeros
Relate factors to zeros and x-intercepts. Scholars first graph quadratics in both standard and factored forms to see that they are the same. They go on to use the graphs to see the relationship between factors and x-intercepts.
Curated OER
Testing Soils for Garden Planting
Sixth graders collect soil samples and record the location of the samples by using GPS.
Curated OER
Testing the Waters
Students explore water in depth through discussion, research, and experiment. Students apply map skills to locating particular regions of the world as they relate to water. Students predict water quality based on information researched...
Curated OER
Lab for Truss Design and Testing
Learners design and build their own truss. For this physics lesson, students calculate the forces and maximum load. They complete a full scale diagram of their design.
Cornell University
Non-Newtonian Fluids—How Slow Can You Go?
Children enjoy playing with silly putty, but it provides more than just fun. Young scientists make their own silly putty using different recipes. After a bit of fun, they test and graph the viscosity of each.
Teach Engineering
Chair Design
Can you design the perfect chair? Scholars apply the engineering design process to design and build a prototype of a new type of chair from wires. They test their designs with a wooden artist model or stuffed animal.
Curated OER
Let's Review for Better Achievement
Seventh graders create goals using two or more skills they have identified to help them improve academic achievement. They discuss the question: What choices do you make that affect your grades? Students listen to the story of Sam the...
Teach Engineering
Watch Out for the Blind Spots
Applying engineering concepts to the field of medicine, pupils design a device to help test peripheral sight. The class learns and follows a specific design process for engineers before separating into groups; each group builds...
Curated OER
The Need For Shelter
Fifth graders build a shelter to protect themselves from rain. They perform durability and water proof testing on the shelters. They make observations of plants found in the Amazon rainforest.