BioEd Online
Center of Gravity
Between the pull of gravity and the push of air pressure, it's a wonder animals can balance or move at all. With a hands-on lesson about the center of gravity, learners discuss their own experiences with the topic, then work with...
BioEd Online
Serving Sizes
When it comes to eating a balanced diet, portion control is paramount, but what is the difference between the serving size on the nutrition facts label and a portion as determined by the USDA? In a comprehensive look at portion control,...
BioEd Online
Nutritional Challenges
Eating healthy can be a challenge, especially for people with special dietary needs. After learning about standard nutritional needs for adults, learners take on the role of a dietician and work together to create a menu for one of the...
Baylor College
Energy for Life (Energy from Food)
Energy comes in many forms, but how do living things get the energy they need to survive and thrive? In a simple, controlled experiment with yeast, water, and sugar, groups make observations about how yeast reacts with water alone, then...
Kenan Fellows
Unit 4: Bioethics and the Future of Biotechnology
What's the future of biotechnology? Explore a hot topic in the fourth and final unit in a series of Biotechnology lessons. Learners develop an understanding of the many issues in bioethics, then create an argument for or against the role...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Chemical Signatures of Asteroid Impacts
What killed the dinosaurs and how do scientists know? Your high schoolers can examine these fascinating questions with a geochemical lens using the engaging 33-minute video, the accompanying data interpretation, and some thoughtful...
Baylor College
Energy Sources
Take the concept of burning calories to a more literal level in the second of seven lessons about energy in the realm of food and fitness. Using simple materials, groups will burn breakfast cereal and a pecan to see which one gives off...
NASA
Earth, Can You Hear Me Now?
How long did you say? Class groups plot the distances between Earth and Mars and determine the trigonometric function that models the data. Using a calculator, they graph the function to determine when the distance and communication...
Teach Engineering
Nanotechnology Grant Proposal Writing
Please, sir, can I have a few thousand dollars for my research? The last installment in a six-part lesson has the pupils develop a grant proposal. Class members apply their knowledge of skin cancer, ultraviolet radiation, human skin, and...
Teach Engineering
How Antibiotics Work
Take two pills and call me in the morning. The first lesson plan in a short unit of four introduces class members to delivery methods of medicines. The instruction introduces the question of which delivery method is best to get you...
Teach Engineering
Creepy Silly Putty
It might be silly to determine the creep rate of putty but groups will enjoy making different formulations of silly putty and playing with them to understand how the different mixtures behave. The second part of the activity has groups...
Teach Engineering
Keepers of the Gate Journal and Brainstorm
The second segment of a seven-part series reviews the challenge of determining whether gargling with salt water helps a sore throat. Individuals journal what they know about the challenge and what they are trying to figure out to...
Teach Engineering
How Effective is Your Sunscreen?
Protect skin from UV radiation! Groups design and conduct an experiment to test the effectiveness of UV safety products. The groups collect the data from the experiment and prepare a lab report. In the second day of the activity,...
Teach Engineering
Cell Membrane Experimental Design
Grandma said to gargle with salt water for a sore throat. Was she right? In the last part of the seven-part unit, lab groups design an experiment to test a cells reaction to salt solutions. The pupils conduct their experiment to answer...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
A Healthy Retirement?
Do men and women experience heart disease the same way? High school and college-level biologists examine a case study about a woman, Nancy, who is experiencing intermittent health issues; looking at her diet, exercise, and lifestyle...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Contemplating Nature vs. Nurture
Does having an addict in your family make it more likely to become one yourself? Explore the genetic risk factors, as well as the prominent environmental influences, for substance addiction in a lesson that encourages awareness and open...
PBS
Heart to Heart
Study heart health and math in one activity. After measuring their resting heart rates by finding the pulse in their wrists, learners build a stethoscope to listen to their heart rate, and note the differences between the two methods.
Curated OER
Basic Vitamins: Water-Soluble and Fat-Soluble
An incredibly thorough lesson on vitamins, and how to keep one's body at peak health. Learners access a variety of excellent worksheets embedded in the plan that have them consider raw vs. cooked foods, a vegetable nutrition summary,...
Teach Engineering
What is Going on with Grandma?
Pupils individually determine what they need to know about osteoporosis and how they will find that information. They share their thoughts with a partner before moving on to share with the class. The class arrives at a list of a set of...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Protecting Athletes with Genetic Conditions: Sickle Cell Trait
Should school and professional teams test athletes for sickle cell trait? Will it protect them by providing knowledge or lead to discrimination by not allowing them to participate in sports? After learning about this genetic disorder,...
Teach Engineering
Glowing Flowers
What a bright idea! Young scientists conduct an experiment on flowers to finish the last of a six-lesson unit on Cells. Putting the stems into dye-injected water and leaving it overnight results in flowers that glow. This is to simulate...
Smithsonian Institution
Weather Widget
What's so difficult about predicting the weather? Scholars work collaboratively to build a device that models how meteorologists use computers to forecast weather. Team members collect and interpret data while working together to...
Smithsonian Institution
Trait Tracker
Help mice beat the odds with an exciting activity about traits. Biologists discover the role of diet and other factors on animal traits by participating in a simulation activity. Teams collect and evaluate data to understand how certain...
Virginia Department of Education
World History and Geography to 1500 A.D.
Here's a great resource for your curriculum library. The 240-page packet, organized into units by topics, includes sample lesson plans, links to primary and secondary source documents, worksheets, activities, and sample assessments.