Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Myth or Fact
Are opioids the most abused drug after marijuana? How hard is it for young people to obtain painkillers without a prescription? Middle and high schoolers explore the growing epidemic of opioid addiction with a lesson that prompts them to...
Curated OER
Transportation Systems: Two Liter Boat Activity
Learners design and build full-size boats made out of two-liter plastic bottles, chicken wire, and plywood. Then they race the boats, with the boat's designers "manning the hull", in the school's swimming pool.
Curated OER
Goal Setting
Students understand how they can incorporate dietary guidelines in their daily life. In this investigative lesson students set dietary goals and incorporate an activity to learn how to create a new seed variety while studying dispersal...
Curated OER
The Census of Marine Life
Students explain diversity and abundance in marine life. For this oceanic biology lesson, students collect information for various geographical areas to collect a census of marine life.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Color Variation over Time in Rock Pocket Mouse Populations
A species-specific look at natural selection, the resource herein examines how adaptations have helped the population of rock pocket mice survive in a changing landscape. To begin, middle or high schoolers watch a 10.5 minute video,...
Curated OER
Teaching Radioactive Decay: Radioactive Half-life And Dating Techniques
Learners generate a radioactive decay table for an imaginary element using a box filled with pinto beans and M&M's. They use their data to plot a decay graph, develop the concept of half-life, and use the graph to "age" several samples.
Curated OER
Life is Starting to Change
Students investigate the tough economic times by discussing supply and demand. In this economics instructional activity, students read a news article and identify specific examples of the oil crisis that has touched their lives....
Curated OER
Seaside Science
Students research sea life using laptop computers. In this sea life lesson, students participate in a field trip to the beach and enter observations into their laptop computers. Students classify shells and sea life.
Curated OER
Elements of Life
Students discover they are made of elements in activities based on comparing the human body to the periodic table. In this science activity students are engaged with 3 hands on basic chemistry activities. The students end the activity by...
Curated OER
Plot Your Course
Students determine distance and direction on a nautical chart. In this nautical lesson, students identify obstacles and characteristics of common aid to navigation on a nautical chart.
Curated OER
How Many Penguins Does It Take? Studying Carrying Capacity and Limiting Factors
How does a population's habitat determine the size of that population? Teach learners about carrying capacity and limiting factors with an engaging roleplay activity. Class members pose as a colony of penguins who must gather food amidst...
Space Awareness
Britannia Rule the Waves
Could you determine longitude based on measuring time? Early explorers used a longitude clock to do just that. Scholars learn about early exploration and the importance of the invention of the clock. Then pupils build their own longitude...
Space Awareness
The Sun Compass of the Vikings
Evidence shows the Vikings likely navigated by using a simple sundial to find their course. Videos, a short story, and discussion help bring this time period to life as they study European history with a hands-on experiment. Scholars...
Curated OER
LAND USE ISSUES
Students relate math with real life situations. They identify and plot points on a grid map. They identify and locate the Drop Box Sites.
Curated OER
How can deep-water corals be used to determine long-term patterns of climate change?
Students explore the concept of paleoclimatological proxies. In this paleoclimatological proxies lesson, students explain isotope ratios in deep water coral samples. Students write a paragraph about global climate change as it effects...
Curated OER
Is the Hudson River Too Salty to Drink?
Students explore reasons for varied salinity in bodies of water. In this geographical inquiry lesson, students use a variety of visual and written information including maps, data tables, and graphs, to form a hypothesis as to why the...
PBS
Inventions
Use this lesson plan to discuss inventions that have changed your class's world and have impacted society. Middle schoolers investigate important inventions of their time and design an invention in a simulated business atmosphere. Modify...
NASA
Communications and the Lunar Outpost
Can you hear me now? Groups use given information about communication on the moon to determine the maximum distance an astronaut can travel and stay in communication. Using the calculations, they determine what lunar features they can...
Curated OER
Basic Vitamins: Water-Soluble and Fat-Soluble
Students examine vitamins and study their functions and food sources. They research what happens to vitamins when foods are overcooked. They prepare a microwaveable vegetable quiche.
Curated OER
A Common Measuring System
Students review the units of measurement of the Metric system. They translate a standard recipe into one using metric units. One group prepares the recipe using standard measurements and another prepares it using Metric units. They...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Is Measuring an Art or a Science?
Not only do future engineers learn the difference between accuracy and precision, they also get some hands-on experience using different measuring tools.
Southwestern Medical Center
Field Epidemiology: Investigation of an Unknown Disease
More than 90 percent of the people in a building have come down with an illness, and it is your job to investigate. Teachers give scientists the data needed to decide what is important and how they can solve the mystery. The exercise is...
Curated OER
Ratios, Mars and the Internet
Students calculate real ratios that exist between the planets Earth and Mars. After a lecture/demo, students use worksheets and access Internet sites to do their calculations.