DiscoverE
Oranges and Batteries
Orange you glad you can make circuits using fruit? Young electricians learn about electric circuits and electricity. As part of the lesson, they build a circuit with an orange and then with a banana.
PBS
Zip Line
Slide all the way to the bottom. Using the design process, pupils create a carrier for a ping pong ball that will travel down a zip line. Learners test their carriers and determine solutions to issues they encounter to complete the third...
PBS
Helping Hand
Reach out and grab something. Given the task of picking up objects at least two feet away, pupils design and build a grabber. The last activity in a series of five challenges requires learners to use information about fulcrums and levers.
Bonneville
How to Build a Motor
Electrical engineers entertain and explain how to construct an electromagnet-driven motor. Kellie and Mike, the hosts of the show, are enthusiastic teachers that will help introduce a project that you likely include in your middle school...
Curated OER
Volcano Poster Project
In this volcano worksheet, students choose a volcano from a given list to do research on using the computer lab. Students gather information about the volcano and answer 20 questions. They create a poster with graphics and text about...
Curated OER
Chips, Anyone?
Learners identify how computer technology affects their lives, then read a news article about the impact of computer chips implanted under some people's skin. In this current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a...
Curated OER
Texas Regions and Native Americans of Texas
Fourth graders research to find the regions of Texas. For this technology lesson, 4th graders create a Kid Pix project showing the location of various regions of Texas. Students show where in those regions Native American tribes lived.
Curated OER
Mapping The Ocean Floor
Young scholars explore and analyze the bottom structure of underwater habitats. They describe and explain what can't see through the collection and correlation of accurate data. Learners assess that technology is utilized as a tool for...
Curated OER
Ethical Ways to Acquire and Distribute Fish as a Food Source
Students complete a variety of activities as they examine the ethics of acquiring and distributing fish as a food source. They touch on the ethics involved in genetically modified salmon, as well.
Curated OER
Kindergarten Money
Students identify the various coins and their values through presentations, a rubric, a value pretest, and coin manipulatives. Money is incorporated into various activities whether at home or in school. Students create money webs using...
Curated OER
Philanthropy in History
Students understand the importance of books in past and present societies. In this philanthropic lesson plan, students compare Andrew Carnegie and Benjamin Franklin's perspective on the importance of everyone being able to read. Students...
Curated OER
Keep Your Bubbles Up
Students investigate design and the correct use of technology. For this chemistry lesson, students investigate the Bernoulli Principle using hands on bubble making. They link the principle that keeps the bubble aloft to the BP principle.
Curated OER
WiTricity Explained
Learners explain how electricity is transferred from source to load without actual wires connecting the two. In this physics lesson, students explore how wireless electricity was discovered. They cite practical applications of this...
Curated OER
Aqueduct Architecture: Moving Water to the Masses in Ancient Rome
Ninth graders compare ancient and modern technology in water transporting. In this lesson on the evolution of the aqueduct, 9th graders build a working aqueduct model and examine its components. They explain the importance and use of the...
Curated OER
Select a Sound: RCX Programming
Students program an RCX to play one sound if a touch sensor is pressed down and another if it is not pressed. They write the program to repeat twenty times and incorporate the use of both a fork and a loop.
Curated OER
Things that Go Bump, Bump, Bump
Students program previously constructed bumper cars to keep bumping and reversing indefinitely. They use touch sensors attached to separate ports and complete a worksheet.
02 x 02 Worksheets
Inverse Variation
Discover an inverse variation pattern. A simple lesson plan design allows learners to explore a nonlinear pattern. Scholars analyze a distance, speed, and time relationship through tables and graphs. Eventually, they write an equation to...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Impacts of Climate Change
Scholars become experts on the eight major impacts of climate change through a jigsaw and grand conversation. They then research and present what they learned about effects specific to their region.
Science 4 Inquiry
Monster Mash-Up of Genetics
It's alive! Young mad scientists create monsters as they explore the probabilities of genetic traits during a well-structured inquiry lesson. Pairs travel from station to station, rolling the dice and adding traits to their creations as...
California Department of Education
Roadmap to Success
Life is a highway ... where will yours lead? Scholars pave the way toward success in the fourth of five college and career readiness lesson plans. Using the SMART system, individuals begin mapping out the steps they will follow to...
California Academy of Science
Measuring Earthquakes
After a brief discussion on earthquakes, make a makeshift seismograph to record the shaking of the table that it sits upon. While the background information will be useful to you as a teacher, the seismograph does not seem like it would...
Curated OER
Keep in Touch: Communications and Satellites
Students investigate how satellites help people communicate with others far away and in remote areas. They discuss a scenario of someone travelling to an area with no mode of communication, observe a teacher demonstration, and create a...
Curated OER
Look but Don't Touch:
Students complete a graphic organizer after identifying three interesting facts from a web site. They role play that the NASA space probe has landed on Mars where a large animal was found and they develop the important questions they...
Curated OER
Wire Maze
Learners investigate what causes electrical circuits to work. They construct a wire circuit and pass a paperclip through the maze, trying not to touch the wire, and answer discussion questions.