Heavy Issues

Want to get your students motivated in science class? Given only a piece of aluminum foil, assign groups the task of designing a "barge" that will support the weight of a bunch of pennies.  The group who is able to put the most pennies...

Whatever floats your boat—with some additional weight. The first activity in a five-part series challenges pupils to design a boat to hold pennies. Using the design process, learners design, build, and test their boats, making sure they...

Students examine how to conduct simple investigations and use simple equipment to gather data.  In this magnet lesson students decide what types of objects are attracted to magnets. 

Fourth graders conduct a lab activity that measures the factors that change the swing rate of a pendulum. They create a hypothesis and test it during the experiment. They record their observations using the recording sheets and journal...

Learners explore the formation of clouds and different cloud types. Students simulate a cloud formation within a bottle.

Students develop a greater understanding and concern for the plight of our coastal waterways. Students begin to recognize that we are all partially responsible for water pollution.

Students examine how plants grow in a closed system, observe condensation, select plants for arboretum, and create recycled terrarium from a two liter soda bottle.

Students examine oil reliance in Britain and around the world. In this oil crisis lesson, students discuss how oil is produced and consider the supply left in the world. Students also examine the influences of oil prices and discover the...

Learners construct an evolutionary tree representing specialization, diversity, and selection using easily obtained materials. They use at least twenty pieces of hardware to classify then develop "evolutionary" relationships between the...