During a unit on density, pupils ponder whether or not temperature affects this property. By carefully inserting blue cold water and yellow hot water into a room-temperature sample, they will see the answer. Make sure to have done the...

Scholars find Earth won't support humans much longer and need to identify a planet with water to inhabit. They test four unknown samples and determine which is the closest to water. Then they explain and defend their results.

Engage young scientists in the upper-elementary and middle school grades with this collection of simple experiments. Whether you're teaching about heat transfer, density, or potential energy this resource has a lab for you.

Is your current lesson plan for salt and freshwater literacy leaving you high and dry? If so, dive into part one of a seven-part series that explores the physical features of Earth's salt and freshwater sources. Junior hydrologists...

Snow, ice, and water are all composed of H2O. Does that mean they all have the same volume? Discover the ways that the densities of these substances determine their volumes, and how they change based on their current states of...

How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...

Science learners simulate what happens when ice breaks up and floats on water and how increased pressure on ice causes it to melt faster. They view a clip from the movie, The Day After Tomorrow, and relate their lab activities to what...

How does chemistry help deep-sea explorers? Part four of a five-part series of lessons from aboard the Okeanos Explorer introduces middle school scientists to technologies used in ocean exploration. Groups work together to analyze data...

Note that this lesson is best paired with the preceding lesson in the unit. In that lesson, elementary physical scientists observed that the color coating of M&Ms® candies do not mix when dissolved off of the chocolate surface. Now...

Model an oil spill cleanup. An engaging engineering lesson has groups using aerogels to simulate an oil spill cleanup (vegetable oil in water). Along the way, they learn about nanotechnology and hydrophilia/hydrophobia.

There is a specific zone, or distance from a star, that a planet must be in order to have water in a liquid form. The activity demonstrates how flux density depends on its distance from the source. A photovoltaic cell gets power to...

What do we do when a dive is too dangerous for humans to accomplish? Send in the robots! Middle school scientists get acquainted with several different models of submersible robots in the second lesson of six from NOAA. Lab groups then...

Not all liquids are the same. Investigate the viscosity of different fluids with a series of activities designed for eighth grade science. As learners move through learning centers with different experiment setups, they determine...

Covering both permeability and porosity, scholars perform a hands-on experiment testing various soil types. The material includes a pre-lesson worksheet to help focus pupils on the task at hand. 

Written for an exploration of shoreline ecosystems on Sheffield Island, this gives ecology or marine biology buffs a hands-on experience. Using GPS or visual triangulation techniques, they lay transect lines on a high and a low energy...

Outer space may be a lot closer than you think! Science scholars model the layers of the atmosphere using transparencies to gain insight into the scale of space. The resource includes ideas to tailor the activity to the skill level of...