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Wheel & Axle Tractor
Students design and build a tractor using LEGO materials. They write and draw their designs.
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SLIME!
Students learn the effects of friction and examine how certain lubricants can only be used with certain materials.
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Out Of Sight Air; Weather
Fourth graders conduct an experiment to get them thinking about the invisibility of air, and to prove that air has weight.
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Soaring With Air Power
Fourth graders view a Newton's Apple show that explores glider mechanics, explore the four forces, build and fly a glider to specific guidelines. They adjust the glider for greater accuracy and distance using four forces, and assess...
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Paper Structures
Students demonstrate that material strength varies with shape and arrangement.
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Energy Defined
Fourth graders complete activities to study the sources of energy and forms. In this energy lesson, 4th graders discuss the origin of energy and define it. Students participate in several experiments to further study energy including a...
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Blast's Cosmic Carnival
Learners, after analyzing the history of a concentrator, model how a Genesis spacecraft concentrator works by playing a game. In groups of three or four, after being given materials to work with, are challenged to roll the rubber balls...
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Learning About Our Five Senses
Learners study the sense of touch and various degrees of heat. They design a model that displays how the human hand reacts to heat using a touch sensor.
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Can You Make A Penny Float?
Students explore the concept of density by trying to make a penny and other materials float.
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Away You Go
Students build Lego cars which have two different types of tire surfaces. They roll them down ramps that have both rough and smooth surfaces to determine how friction affects the car as it rolls.
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Parachute - Land and Weather
Students use different parachute activities to study weather and land patterns and formations. Tornados and hurricanes can be discussed as students make large waves (move from very high to very low) that mimmick these two weather...
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Seashore Limitations
Students demonstrate the movements and behaviors of creatures from different parts of the ocean.
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Life of Thomas Edison
Students research the life of Thomas Edison. In this Thomas Edison lesson plan, students explore major life events of Thomas Edison. Students investigate the inventions of Thomas Edison. Students discover how various fields of study...
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What's it Like Inside the Sun?
Students perform experiment in which they model convection as it occurs in our Sun. They also explain that convection acts where the effect of gravity and heat are present (low density fluids can rise and cool, and high density fluids...
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Food Webs
Fourth graders discover how organisms depend upon each other in an ecosystem. In this ecosystems activity, 4th graders use food webs to discuss the interdependence between organisms in an ecosystem.
NASA
Pop! Rockets
Off they go — launching rockets is fun. The lesson plan contains templates to build paper rockets that can be launched from a PVC pipe launcher. Individuals or groups build the rockets and determine the shapes for their fins. Included...
NASA
Foam Rocket
When going for distance, does it make a difference at what angle you launch the rocket? Teams of three launch foam rockets, varying the launch angle and determining how far they flew. After conducting the series of flights three times,...
NASA
Launch Altitude Tracker
Using PVC pipe and aquarium tubing, build an altitude tracker. Pupils then use the altitude tracker, along with a tangent table, to calculate the altitude of a launched rocket using the included data collection sheet.
NASA
Rocket Wind Tunnel
Using a teacher-built wind tunnel constructed from a paper concrete tube form, a fan, and a balance, individuals determine the amount of drag their rocket design will experience in flight. Pupils make modifications to increase the...
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Fire Brigade
Young scholars examine how a community works together to protect them from fire. They work together to design a functional tool that could be helpful in fighting fires. They share their tool with the class.
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Principles of Flight: Flying Paper Airplanes
Students investigate ways to enhance an object's flying ability. In this model construction lesson, students construct two paper airplanes, one of which is twice as big as the first. Students compare and contrast the two separate...
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Air and Water Pressure
Students examine buoyancy and fluid pressure. They conduct a series of fun experiments to discover the effects of pressure and explore how pressure differences can be used to float, lift, transport, or hold a material in place.
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How Machines Help Us Stay Healthy
Students visit different departments at a local hospital to see how machines help peoples such as the CAT scan machine. They build a model of such a machine that shows how patients are moved in and out of the machine.
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Aqua-Thrusters!
Students construct their own rocket-powered boat called an "aqua-thruster." These aqua-thrusters will be made from a film canister and will use carbon dioxide gas - produced from a chemical reaction between an antacid tablet and water -...