Similar to the game Battleship®, partners try and determine where the opponent buried their treasures on the hidden coordinate plane. Two types of planes are provided, one with only quadrant one and one with all four for a higher...

Amaze your scholars with an activity that uses a Cartesian diver to demonstrate Pascal's Law, Archimedes' Principle, and the Ideal Gas Law. Groups then repeat the process and make their own diver move up and down in a bottle.

Ramp up the study of slope. The class participates in a discussion about the physical aspects of stairs and ramps they encounter. Small groups work together and measure a staircase and corresponding ramp to calculate the slope of each....

Working with a map that does not have a coordinate system on it, small, collaborative teams must come up with a coordinate system for their map. Groups then explain their coordinate structure to the class.

Sometimes the simplest experiments leave the biggest impression! Introduce young chemists to the Cartesian Diver by having them make one of their own. Use the Diver to further their study of liquids and gases, as well as compression.

Challenge young mathematicians' understanding of the coordinate plane with this series of skills practice worksheets. Offering 10 different exercises that involve identifying ordered pairs,...

Turn a lesson on the coordinate plane into a class game of battleship with this fun math resource. Providing two coordinate grids and and places to fill in the ordered pairs that are guessed, this activity is a great way...

Take graphing outside and make a giant coordinate plane to plot your human points. Young graphers are each given a coordinate for a particular shape and asked to make the geometrical shapes one by one. Those not plotted are to write down...

Support young mathematicians with learning the concepts of midpoint and distance with this foldable resource. Offering both graphic examples and written equations, this reference clearly demonstrates for students how these...

Programming a robot is a mathematical task! The activity asks learners to examine the process of programming a robot to vacuum a room. They use a coordinate plane to model the room, write equations to represent movement, determine the...

Precise measurements make the job easier! One of the challenges when using an inclined plane for testing comes from pupils not using exact measurements. They often rely on books that slide or different ramp lengths when experimenting. By...

Take foldables to all new heights. Pupils build and fly different types of paper airplanes in the 14th portion of a 22-part unit on aviation. Groups collect data on distance and flight time for each plane and compare the data from the...

Looking for the best inclined plane for the job? Groups calculate the theoretical mechanical advantage for four different inclined planes. They determine the actual mechanical advantage by measuring the amount of force needed for the...

Teach young engineers that all machines, no matter how complicated or complex, are made up of just six simple devices with this hands-on physical science lesson. Using the included templates, students first create paper models of...

An interesting lesson takes pupils on a trip through the carbon cycle. A reading passage allows scholars to take notes and make choices about what happens to the carbon on its journey. This third lesson in a series of 21 discusses...

Motion is the focus of ten hands-on activities that challenge scholars to build machines invented by Leonardo da Vinci. Following several steps, small groups work collaboratively to recreate machines including levers, pulleys, wheels,...

Pupils gather measurements of real-world objects that have slopes. They then plot the measurements and find an equation of a line that fits the measurements. Finally, groups investigate the ADA and determine whether different ramps meet...

What do animated videos have to do with mathematics? Using operations of complex numbers and their representations on the complex plane, high schoolers observe how mathematics could be used to move animations. The instructional...

Change where an object floats in water. Pupils experiment with a Cartesian diver by squeezing on the side of a plastic bottle. Learners pay attention to the bulb of the pipette as the bottle is squeezed to determine what is happening...

Pique interest in water pressure, demonstrate buoyancy, and explore water displacement concepts with a homemade Cartesian diver. You may want to change the name of the toy, however, as is is not documented the Rene Descartes...

Swimmers know to float by turning their bodies horizontally rather than vertically, but why does that make a difference? In an interesting lesson, scholars explore buoyancy and the properties of air and water. They test cups to see which...

Reflected waves of light move within a plane, and because of this, polarizing materials can reduce the glare our eyes see. This resource explains how to set up a demonstration of this effect. Consider it for use in your physical science...

Your middle schoolers will show what they know with their bodies when they become the coordinate plane in this conceptual development unit. Starting with the characteristics of the coordinate plane, learners develop their skills by...

Compare graphing an inequality in one variable on a number line to graphing an inequality in two variables on a coordinate plane. Young mathematicians work on a puzzle matching inequalities and their solutions. They then complete a...