Heavy Issues

Want to get your young scholars 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...

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...

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...

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

Learners 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.

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...

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 activity, students discuss how oil is produced and consider the supply left in the world. Students also examine the influences of oil prices and discover...