Noyce Foundation
Photographs
Scaling needs to be picture perfect. Pupils use proportional reasoning to find the missing dimension of a photo. Class members determine the sizes of paper needed for two configurations of pictures in the short assessment task.
Curated OER
Assessing Risks for Inhalation and Ingestion of Pollutants
High schoolers use a hypothetical scenario to investigate inhalation of an airborne pollutant and ingestion of a waterborne pollutant. They work in pairs, investigating differences in overall exposure to contaminants by calculating...
Curated OER
Coat Caper
Students examine pollen and fibers taken from a garment. They analyze pollen from new hybrids and compare it to the samples from the garment then make individual conclusions concerning the specific historical authenticity of the garment.
Curated OER
Coffee Cooling
Students explore the factors that affect how long coffee stays hot. They develop a question and a testable hypothesis for one factor such as initial temperature or size of opening of the container. Then they design and conduct an...
Curated OER
The effectiveness of Antacids
High schoolers design and conduct a scientific experiment to test which of four antacids would be most effective for neutralizing acids. They rank the antacids in order from most effective to least effective and explain how they...
Curated OER
That's the Way the Ball Bounces
Students investigate and compare the bouncing ability of the materials from which four different balls are made. They determine which material performs the best for use as a basketball. After collecting data in a small group they...
Curated OER
Ice Cold
Students design and conduct an experiment to investigate what happens when salt and ice come together and to determine if one form of salt is better for melting ice on steps and sidewalks.
Curated OER
Survival
Young scholars determine the best material from which to make a jacket to keep the body warm in a cold, dry, windy climate. This task assesses the student's abilities to perform an entire investigation.
Curated OER
Car Wash
Students determine the most appropriate site for a car wash, based on each site's soil characteristics (chemical, physical) and topographic features. They perform an experiment to determine the changes to three different soil types when...
Curated OER
Snell's Law
Students determine whether the index of refraction of sample of Corn Syrup meets Federal standards. This task assess students' abilities to explain the procedures for investigation, plan for recording and organizing observations and...
Curated OER
Catalase Enzyme
Students design and conduct an experiment to test their ideas about how to speed up or slow down the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. They have access to an array of physical and chemical factors that might influence enzyme...
Curated OER
Friction Force
Students investigate friction force on a variety of objects such as bricks and cardboard boxes. They use a force probe to collect data on the changes in force required to drag the objects across a variety of surface types.
Curated OER
Hooke's Law
Students explore the relationship between the force applied to a spring and its stretch. They design and conduct an experiment to determine the stretch of spring with 15N of force without having an actual 15N mass.
Curated OER
Hydrated Salt
Students plan, design, and carry out an experiment to determine an empirical formula for a hydrated salt X that tell students when all the water has been removed from hydrate crystals.
Curated OER
Assignment # 1: Merry-Go-Round Story
Class members use e-mail and the merry-go-round story format to create a science fiction story. Each writer begins by selecting one of three prompts, crafting the introductory paragraph and sending the paragraph to the next person on the...
Curated OER
Number: Rounding Off and Approximating
Young mathematicians access a website that leads them through three activities that enable them to practice their rounding and estimation skills when it comes to numbers and math word problems. There is also a very good worksheet...
Curated OER
Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
Noyce Foundation
Snail Pace
Slow and steady wins the race? In the assessment task, scholars calculate the rates at which different snails travel in order to find the fastest snail. Hopefully, your class will move much more quickly in finishing the task!
TerraCycle
What Can Nature Teach Us about Sustainable Design?
Talk about Velcro®, Gecko Tape, WhalePower turbine blades, and other innovations that mimic nature to inspire your STEM or engineering class. This set of worksheets gets them thinking about imitating nature in terms of sustainable...
Curated OER
Masks Paper Collage
Seventh graders create a symmetrical mask using tempura paint that displays interesting visual texture after watching an Eric Carle video. They apply collage in the making of the mask.
Curated OER
Inflation and Money
Students examine the relationship between inflation and money. Defining key terms, they define money in terms of its functions and give examples of money. They discover what happens when inflation occurs unexpectedly. They also examine...
Curated OER
Addition
Explore the concept of number bonds with your young elementary students. They will become familiar with the number bonds to 10, 20, and 100, and then play games to practice these skills. This is a differentiated lesson plan which...
Curated OER
Subtraction
Students explore subtraction. In this mathematics lesson, students practice how to subtract numbers from 20, 100 and other whole numbers. Students realize that there are number bonds which can help with subtraction like 3 and 17 bonds to...
Curated OER
Ravishing Rings (Multiplication with a Snack)
Students understand multiplication through the use of snack manipulatives. In this multiplication lesson plan, students solve a multiplication problem using pretzels and then create and answer original problems. Students analyze how they...