Do domed structures have advantages over their less-than-spherical counterparts? Junior architects explore the pros and cons of domes through a design challenge. Teams work together to plan, sketch, build, and test domes created from an...

Explore ways to make research and writing more interesting. The first in a series of three challenge activities designed to accompany Theme 2: Give It All You've Got involve creating sports cards, designing cereal boxes, and using other...

Creating buildings that reach hundreds of feet into the sky is no easy task. The third instructional activity in this series begins with four activities that engage young architects in exploring the major challenges that are faced when...

If cubes have the smallest surface area, why aren't there more cube-shaped packages? Scholars take a box in the shape of a rectangular prism, cut it up, and make new boxes in the shape of cubes with the same volume. They then brainstorm...

It's time to slow your roll! Can your class create a track that allows a marble to roll as slowly as possible? Teams of science scholars collaborate to design, build, and test their tubes while learning about gravity and friction.

Mold your learners into materials engineers. Using glue, Borax, and water, scholars create a viscoelastic material. But your class might know it by another name—Silly Putty.

Fifth graders define density as the amount of mass per volume a material contains, compare the densities of several types of materials, especially those that sink in water compared to those that float. They use two different methods to...

Students study the similarities and differences of five different grains. They analyze the characteristics of corn, sunflower, milo, wheat, and soybeans.