Teach Engineering
Who Can Make the Best Coordinate System?
Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.
Curated OER
Sun and Shadows
Why do shadows look different in the summer than in the winter? What causes day and night? How can a sundial be used to tell time? Answer these questions and more through two engaging lessons about light and shadows. Fourth and fifth...
NASA
Just How Far is That Star?
Pupils often wonder how we know the distance to various stars. Starting with a thought experiment and progressing to a physical experiment, they determine the brightness and distance to various stars. The evaluation requires...
University of Wisconsin
Sizing a Rain Garden
Most appropriate if you are applying the entire unit to build a rain garden at your school, this installment involves calculating the area that will drain into it. Your garden planners will need data from previous lessons, so this one...
Curated OER
Skyscrapers: Engineering Up!
Students build their own newspaper skyscrapers with limited materials and time. They identify several different structural engineering principles relating to skyscrapers. They explain how their towers resisted the wind load.
Curated OER
Build and Test
Young scholars display what they have learned about bridges as they construct their bridge. They present their projects to the rest of the class. They compare and contrast the construction of the bridges.
Curated OER
Egg-streme Tesselation
Sixth graders view a video of tessellating an egg shape. They focus upon the problem solving strategies used and how tessellation geometry was used to construct the three dimensional figure. They create their own tiling patterns.
Curated OER
Hearing Handicap
Students examine the effects of hearing loss. In this activity on physical disabilities, students survey five older adults on hearing impairments. Students pool their data and compare their results with the results from other studies...
Curated OER
How many isosceles Triangles Can You Find?
Fifth graders solve problems while examining a variety of isosceles triangles. In this isosceles triangle lesson, 5th graders examine shapes to find their characteristics. Students pay particular attention to the...
Curated OER
Gravity: It's GREEEAAATTT!
Students calculate effects of gravitational force on planets, discuss the effects of weightlessness on the human body and describe and demonstrate how objects in a state of free fall are accelerated by gravity at an equal rate.
Curated OER
The North (Wall) Star
Young scholars engage in a lesson which shows them that celestial navigation is the art and science of finding one's geographic position by means of astronomical observations, particularly by measuring altitudes of celestial objects -...
Curated OER
How Probable is It?
Students explore probability. For this probability lesson, students look at videos and websites where they discover probability facts that can be used in situations. They determine the probability of different events.
Alabama Learning Exchange
This Is How We Roll!
Students research how roller coasters work. In this physics lesson plan, learners research the history of roller coasters and the safety factors in the design of a roller coaster on the website www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics. They...
Curated OER
CSI Clamshell Investigation
Pupils explore and explain how moon snails eat and where the holes in clamshells come from and then draw conclusion from the data collected. They incorporate math and graphing skills to determine if there is a relationship to a clam's...
Curated OER
Stone Fox and Economics
Pupils read the novel Stone Fox and review economic concepts including income, goods, and services. They define the following terms: capital, credit, credit risk and summarize their reading by reading several chapters at a time. They...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Ira Sleeps Over
Students read Ira Sleeps Over by Bernard Waber. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the ideas presented in the story. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and library...
Curated OER
Beyond The Earth Part I
Learners explore the solar system. In this space science lesson, students take notes on the solar system provided by their instructors. Learners then collaborate to design a computer-generated drawing of the solar system.
Teach Engineering
Bone Density Challenge Introduction
Can you use X-rays to measure bone mineral density? This is the essential question that learners must answer in the first installment of a seven-part series. They brainstorm ideas about necessary background information and what they...
Curated OER
Bonus Activity: Build a House
Students complete a building activity using their knowledge of geometrical shapes, tools, and how to follow a plan from previous lessons in this unit. In this following directions lesson, students study the basic building process as it...
Curated OER
Mandala Art
Students investigate art elements such as color schemes and proportion by creating their own personal Mandala Circle on paper or canvas. This also allows students to investigate mathematical concepts such as tesselations or social...
Curated OER
Patterns in Nature
Students learn about artist Larry Schulte and view examples of his work. They create addition sentence for the first seven numbers of the fibonacci sequence and use unifix cubes to build that sentences. Students color and create three...
Curated OER
Electricity
Students examine basic electrical components. They build a simple electrical circuit which rings a buzzer. They experiment with conducting and nonconducting materials.
Curated OER
The Voyage Scale
Students identify how models are powerful tools of exploration and that the sizes of the planets and distances between the planets in the Solar System span a large range. They make a sign for each planet they have created in the lesson...
Curated OER
Playing with Tens and Ones
First graders complete a number of activities that increase their number sense and use of simple operations. They use dice and worksheets to make two-digit numbers and to record them, they count by tens and ones, and order numbers using...