Curated OER
Instructional Software Resources for Grades K-3
Students become familiar with teh selection, evaluation, and use of instructional software for 4-8 classroom. They download software demos from the web and discuss critiquing software. Students browse software evaluations on web sites.
Curated OER
We Have Work to Do!
An excellent lesson awaits your young scientists! In it, learners are invited to explore the world of pulleys, levers, and planes; simple machines that make lifting heavy things much, much easier. They watch video, and engage in hands-on...
Curated OER
Using Your Senses
Here is a terrific lesson that uses a special State Quarter as a learning tool. This one uses the Alabama State Quarter. During this lesson, pupils learn about their five senses. They make observations about what is in paper bags using...
Curated OER
Move It!!!
Students explore motion by observing the movement of people and duplicating those movements. They compare and contrast various kinds of movements and identify different types of movements in pictures. They build an object that can be...
Curated OER
Habitat is Home
Students complete a picture to show things found in their homes. In this habitat lesson, students discuss and make a class picture of an animal habitat and its four basic needs. Students sing a song. Students create their own habitat...
Curated OER
Let's Start Growing
Learners investigate how a tree grows from a seed. In this plant biology lesson, students use potting soil, tree seeds, and a paper cup to observe seeds growing into plants. Learners record observations in their science journals.
Curated OER
Solids, Liquids, and Gases
Students explore the three main forms of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. They examine concrete examples of each, using their five senses and "experimenting" to find differences in them. They find pictures of each, cut them out and past...
Curated OER
Animal Coverings
Students compare and contrast the types of coverings found on animals. They identify a wide variety of animals in a museum room. They classify animals based on their coverings as well.
Curated OER
Who's Wild?
Students explore the differences between animals of the wild and domesticated animals. In this wild animals lesson, students understand that tame animals ancestors were once wild. Students illustrate the differences by drawing a wild...
Curated OER
Shake, Rattle and Roll
Students compare the weathering of different-sized materials. Comparisons are made and data analyzed to reach conclusions about the process of weathering. Applications can be made for the higher grades.
Curated OER
Spectral Surprise
Students create spectral colors. In this hands-on science lesson, students examine the electromagnetic spectrum as they follow steps to create a model that separates and displays light.
Curated OER
What's Your Favorite Season?
Students explore earth science by creating illustrations in class. For this four seasons lesson, students identify the four different types of weather that take place during the year and read the books Harvest Year and Snow Comes to the...
Curated OER
Investigating Brass Instruments and Pitch
Students observe the sounds of different brass instruments in order to understand how to create different pitches. For this musical lesson, students create a "brass" instrument from everyday household objects. The students discuss the...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Noodling Around: Powers of Ten
How many noodles long is your classroom? Find out when engineers of all ages explore measurement through the use of pool noodles. With the noodles pre-cut to certain metric lengths, the activities could be used to introduce the metric...
Curated OER
The Magical Diving Sub
First graders discuss and predict if a given object sinks or floats. They record their predictions on a data sheet. Pupils test the objects and organize them into floating/sinking groups. Students observe the floating and sinking of a...
Curated OER
Push or Pull?
Utilizing the Nebraska State Quarter, pupils learn about the pioneers who had wagons that were pulled across Nebraska by oxen during the westward movement. Excellent worksheets are embedded in the plan that guide them through this fine...
Curated OER
What's in Our Woods?
Students observe their local forest and document the change that occurs over the school year. For this forestry lesson, students utilize a GPS to mark a certain area of the woods as their study area for the remainder of the year....
Curated OER
Cells Are Us
Students explore cells. In this science lesson plan, students investigate how the cell is the basic unit of life, that cells divide slowly to become mass of cells, and that there is a gradual loss of cells throughout life.
Curated OER
Biological Flight
Students examine the many different ways that seeds fly in birds, in air, and why. In this science lesson plan, students collect seeds, learn Bernoulli's principle including lift, ailerons, elevators, drag and how to make a paper...
Curated OER
Garbage in the Garden
Students create their own compost. In this soil lesson, students fill a bag with waste and soil, in order to create a mini compost bin. Students observe the baggies over a 6 week period, they record their findings and collect data on...
Curated OER
Planting Wheat with Little Red Hen
Students discuss the cycle of growing wheat, and then plant their own in foil pans. After the wheat grows for a couple of weeks, students participate in a story retelling activity reinforcing the concepts of the process.
Curated OER
Newton's Second Law of Motion with Balance Toys
Students discuss acceleration and deceleration and participate in brief demonstrations of the Second Law of Motion. They apply the law to a metal balance toy and a plastic balance toy by applying the same force then with different forces.
Curated OER
Energy Transformation with Balance Toys
Students explore and identify the concepts of potential and kinetic energy. They define kinetic and potential energy and discuss examples of each. Students then play a game involving balance toys, demonstrating both kinetic and potential...
Curated OER
11 - The Heat Is On
Students observe physical change of melting by observing substance in original state, melting substance, allowing substance to return to original temperature, determining if substance retained its original properties, and recording results.