Upper graders analyze basic concepts about the consumption, importation and exportation of the worlds oil production. They create several graphs to organize the data and draw conclusions about the overall use of oil in the world.

Young scholars investigate the effect that weight has on rocket flight. They construct a variety of straw-launched rockets that have different weights, observe what happens when the weight of a rocket is altered by reducing its physical...

What is water worth to you? The answer probably depends on many different variables. Learners explore the value of water in space and what it takes to transport the resource to locations in a galaxy far far away. They then consider...

Make solutions to projectile motion problems magically appear using equations. Pupils watch a clip from a Harry Potter movie and find the length of time it takes for a remembrall to fall into Harry's hands. They use a projectile motion...

Students experiment with the concepts of surface tension. They participate in a number of different experiments that introduce them to surface tension. They work in a small group in order to conduct these experiments.

Young scholars create a working radio by soldering circuit components supplied from an AM radio kit. They demonstrate an efficient soldering technique, identify the circuit components used to construct their radio, and explain how their...

Students design a skydiver and parachute constraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. They experience how gravity pulls the skydiver toward the earth and how...

Students create a polymer out of glue, water, and borax. They discuss the resulting substance and perform several experiments with it.

Explore optics using an inquiry-based experimental approach! Young scholars use a set of materials to design and build a unit capable of focusing a beam of light. They experiment with different lenses to determine the best approach to...

Students design a proportional model of blood out of red gelatin, a plastic bag, and rice. They study the components that make up blood and investigate what happens when the arteries in different scenerios. They work in pairs in order to...

Learners examine how the movements of bones are dependent on the interaction of pairs of muscles. They design and construct a prototype of an artificial limb using a syringe system, and determine whether water or air makes the appendage...

Students participate in an activity that replicates the creation of sea floor bathymetry by taking a simplified form of soundings in the classroom. They discuss sea floor mapping technologies, sonar, soundings, and remote sensing,...

Students recognize epoxy glue formation as two part polymerization (usually the curing agents act as co-monomers). They monitor the reaction by the changes in viscosity of the reacting mass, the temperature rise and fall, and the...

Wearable devices have become more the norm than the exception. Learners analyze data from a sample device with a regression analysis in a helpful hands-on lesson. Their focus is to determine if there is a connection between temperature...

Students research the quality of water in a regional lake of West Bloomfield in the past and present. They compare conditions of the lake, past and present. They then give examples of local and regional human activities that may have had...

Future chemists practice laboratory techniques by creating a monochloramine solution. The objectives are to use of dilution, 9concentration, and measurement skills and to prepare a solution that will be used in a water treatment...

Students examine elastomeric polymers in a lab activity in which they design a bungee cord. Students must determine the tensile strength, percent elongation, and plot stress versus strain graphs for their experiments on rubber bands...

Students are introduced to the analysis of health risks in the laboratory, particularly from vapors from organic solvents. They consider quantitative measure of risk such as threshold limit values (TLVs), the amount of the compound that...

This lesson is preparation-intensive, but well worth the investment. You will construct five or six portable testing stations with which lab groups will gather data on the best position for collecting sunlight with a solar panel. This is...

To underscore the importance of practicing good listening skills class members engage in a series of activities that model poor listening skills. In pairs and then as a whole group, class members enact different, more positive techniques...

Physics fanatics will shriek over this monster-themed construction application! They design an invention with the intention of competing one of 50 missions and test it out with real physics applications. 

Time to study the most sensible function — rational functions! The seven-lesson unit develops the concept of a rational function through a connection to rational numbers and fractions. Scholars graph functions, solve equations, and...

What does size have to do with it? Learners analyze different mixtures, both homogeneous and heterogeneous, to discover the properties related to the size of their particles. The activity connects these properties to those of...

Capillary action is the frugal chemist's dream ... the less liquid used, the more tests they can run! Learners experiment with the best design to maximize the benefits of capillary action. Using a liquid sample, they design a capillary...