National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
What’s In Your Neighborhood?
Chart your way to an understanding of nanoscale. Using a Google map, learners estimate a radius around their location of 1,000 and 1,000,000 meters. Predicting what 1,000,000,000 meters would look like takes them off the charts!...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Shrink Me!
The incredibly shrinking meter—decimeters to centimeters, to millimeters, and now to nanometers! Learners may have a difficult time visualizing particles on a nanoscale. Help them see a little clearer using a well-designed lesson that...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Size and Scale – Learning about Measurement
Can you visualize one billionth of a meter? It's not easy to understand the scale of a nanometer. Learners use a hands-on lesson to develop an understanding of the size of a nanometer in comparison to common objects. They walk away with...
PBS
Helping Hand
Reach out and grab something. Given the task of picking up objects at least two feet away, pupils design and build a grabber. The last activity in a series of five challenges requires learners to use information about fulcrums and levers.
PBS
Paddle Power
Potentially get all the way across the water. The fourth of five design challenges asks pupils to develop a plan for a paddle-powered boat that will store its energy. Given a limited number of supplies, the class members design, build,...
PBS
Zip Line
Slide all the way to the bottom. Using the design process, pupils create a carrier for a ping pong ball that will travel down a zip line. Learners test their carriers and determine solutions to issues they encounter to complete the third...
PBS
Paper Table
What is black and white and re(a)d all over? Class members build a table out of rolled newspapers. Pupils follow the design process to design, build, and test their paper tables in the second challenge in a series of five.
PBS
Watercraft
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...
DiscoverE
Let's Make an Elastic Puppet
Create bending joints—but don't break! The activity shows how to make a puppet using straws and fishing line. Pupils create cuts to make joints that rely on the elasticity of the straw to bend and return to their original shapes.
Freeology
Nature Observations Journal
A journal template makes observing nature a breeze. Super scientists identify an interesting object in nature, draw it, list its details, and compose a written descriptions of their artwork.
Super Teacher Worksheets
Make an Earth Day Mascot
Scholars follow three steps—color, cut, and fasten—to create a mascot for Earth Day. The holiday's mascot is a jolly planet Earth equipped with a big smile, excited eyes, and dancing arms and legs.
Freeology
Earth Day Word Search
Save the planet one vocabulary activity at a time! Offer scholars a chance to locate 20 words with an Earth Day-themed word search.
Candlewick Press
A Classroom Guide to Peter H. Reynolds's Creatrilogy
Help young readers find, identify, and use their voices with a set of empowering activities based on Peter H. Reynolds' trilogy of books. Sky Color, Ish, and The Dot focus on recognizing moods and treating each other kindly, and their...
Science Matters
Post-Assessment
Twenty questions make up an assessment designed to test super scientists' knowledge of ecosystems. Scholars answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions about organisms, food chains, energy flow, and more.
Science Matters
That’s An Otter Story
Young scientists discover how sea otters' habitats have changed due to human impact. Through conversation, video observation, and story reading, scholars identify how human interactions change a specific ecosystem in both positive and...
Science Matters
Formative Assessment #3
Thirteen short-answer questions follow a brief food web activity in a formative assessment designed to test knowledge of ecosystems and the energy that flows through them.
Science Matters
Energy Flow
Budding scientists work collaboratively to reenact energy flow in a food chain. Scholars take on roles such as producer and consumer and perform tasks that symbolize energy flow in order to provide evidence of how much energy passes...
Science Matters
Crawly Composters
Get your hands dirty with an interactive lesson that showcases the process of decomposing and returning nutrients back into the soil. After building a compost pile, pupils regularly observe the ways worms help with changes to the soil...
Science Matters
Matter Cycles — Sum It Up
Scholars become part of the cycle of matter with a reader's theater that showcases producers, consumers, decomposers, and the sun. A diagram and discussion concludes the learning experience and enhances comprehension.
Science Matters
Mighty Microorganisms
How can you tell if a microorganism is helpful or detrimental to an ecosystem? Learners inspect slides or pictures of microorganisms and record their observations to identify those that are beneficial or harmful. They then pretend to...
Science Matters
Formative Assessment #2
Learners work collaboratively to predict what life would be like as an Arctic Hare. Teams go on a hunt where scholars role play an owl, white hares, and gray hares. Independently, pupils record their findings and reflect on their...
Science Matters
Lotusland
It's time for a field trip! Scholars take their new-found knowledge of adaptations and seed dispersal on a field trip to a local botanical garden. They gain an up-close look at how ecological interdependence works in a distinct...
Science Matters
Seed Adaptations for Dispersal
After a grand conversation about seeds, adaptation, and dispersal, scholars work collaboratively to examine seeds and record their findings on a four-column chart. Small groups share their observations and further discuss seed...
Science Matters
Blubber Gloves: It’s All About Insulation
Instill the concept of adaptation with the help of Blubber Gloves—ziplock bags, shortening, and duct tape. Scholars discuss how animals and plants keep warm in polar regions, record their predictions, and try on their Blubber Gloves to...