Curated OER
Understanding the Indoor Environment: Word Walls
Students study vocabulary words about indoor air quality. In this indoor environment lesson, students create a word wall with vocabulary words about indoor air quality and pollutants.
Curated OER
Newton Must have Been a Sports Fan
Pupils examine Newton's Laws. For this law of motion lesson, students observe Newton's three laws of physics demonstrated by the teacher. They apply other examples to Newton's first law of inertia.
Curated OER
Understanding the Indoor Environment:Preventing and Fixing Indoor Air Pollution
Pupils explore air pollution. In this environmental studies lesson, students work with a partner to create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting possible solutions to prevalent indoor air pollution problems. Pupils discuss...
Curated OER
Current Thinking About Magnets
Students construct their own magnet and wire device. In this inquiry instructional activity, students investigate the factors affecting the strength of magnetic forces. They manipulate different variable to determine their effect.
Curated OER
Lift and Drag: Principles of Flight and the Soaring Imagination
Students construct models of early gas balloons and gliders. In this balloon and glider lesson, students create models of early gas balloons and gliders, discover how the forces of lift and drag effect aircraft in flight, and put on...
Curated OER
Air and Its Characteristics
Young scholars explore air through guided discovery. In this air lesson, students will observe three demonstrations about air. They will answer leading questions as they observe how air displaces and takes up space, how air has weight,...
Curated OER
Balloon Rocket
Students observe a balloon rocket and how it relates to Newton's Third Law of Motion. In this balloon rocket lesson plan, students make a balloon rocket out of balloons, clothespins, straw, fishing line, and duct tape.
Curated OER
Clouds and the Weather
Fourth graders analyze the relationship of clouds and local weather. Students also observe and record cloud data and weather conditions daily as they research different cloud types. The data is analyzed looking for trends in daily...
Curated OER
Magnets
Young scholars explore the science of magnets and how magnets work. They conduct a series of fun experiments and magnetize objects and demonstrate how magnetism operates right through other materials.
Curated OER
Getting the Oil Out
Students discover ways of obtaining oil by participating in an experiment. In this natural resource lesson, students identify diagrams of oil derricks and pumps in order to visualize how oil is retrieved from the earth....
Curated OER
Canoe and Kayak
Students explore canoes and kayaks. In this canoe and kayak lesson, students research the history, parts, and sport of the canoe and kayak. Students then practice how to use a paddle for each boat, and go on a field trip in order...
Curated OER
What is Sound? How Can We Change Sound?
In this lesson, learners investigate the phenomenon of sound! Students compare and contrast how sound travels through solids, liquids, and gases. They explain how length and thickness affect sound. Learners know the difference between...
Curated OER
Air...What Gives?
Students investigate the properties of air by capturing it, squeezing it, and feeling its weight. In this forces lesson, students capture bags of air and examine its properties. The weight and pressure of air is emphasized.
Curated OER
Sky and Cloud Windows
Students monitor the weather, clouds, and sky. In this weather lesson, students create a sky and cloud window to focus their sky observations. They write observations in a notebook and include the date, time, cloud cover, types of...
Curated OER
Simple Machines I - Inclined Planes, Wedges, and Screws
Fourth graders examine the physics behind and uses for inclined planes, screws, and wedges. They determine examples of how these simple machines are used in daily life. Working in three small groups, they move from station to station...
Curated OER
Lunar Craters
Students explore crater impacts. In this moon crater lesson students evaluate and interpret the physical characteristics of a crater.
Curated OER
Friction
Students explore the force of friction between materials. In this physics instructional activity, students participate in an experiment using various materials such as wood, waxed paper, and aluminum foil and explore which item produced...
Curated OER
Seeds of Change
Pupils recognize, compare and contrast physical characterisics of seeds, identify parts of a peanut seed, and observe and record the growth rate and habits of a variety of seeds.
Curated OER
Adding Colors
Students investigate the combination of colors created by the human eye. The instructional activity highlights the eye's ability to retain the individual colors and add them together to produce a third when the colors are spun.
Curated OER
Lenses
Students explore vision by experimenting with lenses in equipment. In this optics instructional activity, students define the different technology that enhances vision such as microscopes, telescopes and cameras. Students experiment with...
Curated OER
Animal Signs Word Search
Although this animal and environment word search has little educational merit, it may serve as a vocabulary review tool for scholars new to these terms. The words students must find include camouflage, interdependent, muskrat, food...
Curated OER
Pet Rescue
Young scholars, in teams, follow the process of design, including the stages of investigation, creation, and reflection, as they devise a way to help "save" a (simulated) pet who is trapped in a pipe.
Curated OER
Make Your Own Temperature Scale
Differentiate between temperature and thermal energy. Your class will build a thermometer using simple materials and develop their own scale for measuring temperature. Discuss with your class and consider why engineers need to understand...
Curated OER
California Poppy Postcards
What a great lesson plan! Learners discuss California history, including the state flower, the poppy, and then engage in an art activity. For the activity, they learn about value, shading, layering, blending etc. to produce a realistic...