NASA
Solar System Scale & Size
Use a variety of whole fruits to represent the different planets in the solar system to introduce scale sizes to your math or space science class. They follow suit by creating a non-scaled model of the solar system using specific-colored...
Exploratorium
Bubble Tray
Create jumbo bubbles and use them to teach about surface tension or interference, perfect for a physical science lesson on light or molecular attraction.
NorthEast Ohio Geoscience Education Outreach
Hydrology and Landforms
Three days of erosion exploration await your elementary geologists. Learners begin by examining rivers via Google Earth, then they model water flow in sand, and finally, they identify resulting landforms. This lesson is written...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Corals and Chemistry
After demonstrating the use of cabbage juice as a pH indicator, have your class experiment with their own breath, exhaling into the indicator, to show that carbon dioxide is acidic. As learners work, they also watch a video about coral...
Baylor College
About Air
Give your class a colorful and tasty representation of the components of the mixture that we call air. Pop a few batches of popcorn in four different colors, one to represent each gas: nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and carbon dioxide. The...
Oleh Yudin
iCrosss
Did you know that a soccer ball is very similar to a truncated icosahedron? Both have 32 faces, but while a truncated icosahedron is made up solely of flat hexagons, a traditional soccer ball has 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, each curved...
Recycle OK
The Incredible Edible Landfill
Create an edible class model of a landfill using pudding, graham crackers, cookies, and licorice. After making the landfill model, the class discusses what each part represents and answers some other landfill-related questions. Then they...
US Department of Energy
Solar Distiller
Explore the sun's ability to distill contaminated water with this simple set of classroom experiments. After filling two glass bowls, one with muddy water and the other with salt water, they are covered with plastic wrap and placed in...
Michigan Sea Grant
Water Quantity
It may be tricky for a young mind to conceptualize that less than 1% of all water on earth is useable for humans to drink. Simulating the amount of fresh water available on earth by removing measured amounts of water from a five-gallon...
Curated OER
Picture Fists Full of Kisses
Ease children's back-to-school jitters with this primary grade lesson based on the book The Kissing Hand by Ruth E. Harper. Starting off with a singing of the song "I Wish I Had a Little Red Box", children go on to discuss and create a...
University of Arizona
The Exotic Vacation
Students explain the concepts and vocabulary of Earth's rotation. They plan imaginary vacations based on the seasons in different locations. This is a very creative lesson plan, which students enjoy.