Designing the right package — it's more than a pretty picture. Challenge small groups to design a food package. They must consider the type of food they are packaging and the package's ability to control the physical and...

Students explore the food pyramid. In this nutrition lesson, students identify the 5 food groups and sort foods according to the group in which they belong. Students use the Visual Thesaurus to complete a food groups worksheet and...

Sixth graders study the food web in a bay. In this food web lesson, 6th graders investigate the SAV- submerged aquatic vegetation of a bay including their predators, and how the organisms eat, have proper living space and water. They...

Pore over the properties of plastic. Working through four different stations, pupils investigate some properties of plastic, including chemical decomposition, mechanical breakdown, density, and the ability to infiltrate the food chain....

Students identify foods that belong in each group on the food guide pyramid. They discuss how TV and peers may negatively influence eating habits.

Investigate desert biomes by creating food chains and food webs. Groups first research feeding habits of organisms in the Sonoran Desert. This information helps pupils draw food chains and webs to determine relationship between organisms.

That is living in the water? Groups of two to three view pond water with microscopes in order to find microorganisms. They draw pictures of the ones they find in their slides.  The groups compare their drawings to pictures of common...

See how changes in initial populations and parameters affect a biological community. Individuals use a special software program to simulate a desert community with five species. They adjust initial populations to see how the community...

What's the best way to learn how watersheds work? Build one! Combining engineering, the water cycle, and ecology concerns, the activity is the perfect fit for an interdisciplinary unit. Teams construct a model watershed with simple...

Young scholars examine ocean life by identifying methane hydrates.  In this ocean life lesson, students research organisms that live in the coldest, deepest parts of the ocean and live off methane hydrates.  Young scholars...

Make fast food restaurants even faster. Groups consider trade-offs when maximizing efficiency in fast food restaurants. Restructuring schedules and floor plans, as well reassigning job duties, all fall under this directive.  

Drop a perfect project into your lesson plans. Groups use different building materials to create models of parachutes for food drops. After testing out their prototypes, they make improvements to their designs.

Students investigate hunters and prey by creating a food web.  In this animal life instructional activity, students investigate a single organism in preparation for a field trip, discovering its diet and habitat.  Students each...

Sometimes it's okay to eat your science experiment. A hands-on activity has pupils create models for algae to learn about its cellular structure. The best part of the experiment? The resulting juice-filled gels are edible—yum!

In this Fact Monster search engine worksheet, students access the Internet to find the answers to five questions with multiple choice answers.

Learners explore the food chain. In this dinoaur lesson, students identify charactersitics of an omnivore, carnivore, and herbivore. Learners sort dinosaur picture/word cards into groups by their eating characteristics. Students also...

Students use a computer and the internet to click on highlighted words to find certain answers. They then write the answer to the questions on paper. Finally, students choose one animal to write about. They research the animal on the...

There are a billion reasons to use the resource! Well, not quite. A demonstration using food color and water shows scholars the meaning of nano. An iterative process results in diluting the concentration of food coloring by one tenth...

Help overcome challenges in eating pizza. Scholars work in groups to design a device that assists a physically handicapped person eat pizza. They build a prototype of such a device to test their designs before building. To...

High schoolers conduct an experiment using the reaction of hydrogen and oxygen. After pairs balance the chemical equation for making water, they mix different ratios of hydrogen and oxygen in a chemical reaction. Classmates...

Don't melt away! Pairs investigate different insulation materials to determine which one is better than the others. Using a low-temp heat plate, the teams insulate an ice cube from the heat source with a variety of substances. They...

Harness the power of bacteria. Scholars see how using organisms that exist in nature can help solve human problems in the process known as bioremediation. They research and discuss several successful examples, such as using oil-eating...

Challenge your class with this fun and engaging engineering design project. The goal, to create a brand new cereal complete with a list of ingredients, a name and logo, and a box to hold it in. Starting with a survey to determine the...

It's okay to play with your food—just this once! Scholars design and create meshes and chutes to sort pasta by size and shape. They test their designs and make improvements as necessary.