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.

Heat-sensitive liquid crystal sheets are available in a variety of sizes and temperature ranges. Purchase a class set of hand-held sheets and color half of each with a silver permanent marking pen. Learners of light can hold them under a...

After a brief reading on conduction and home heating systems, middle schoolers design a comparison experiment of temperature change in both hot and cold water. They will need to write up their own lab reports even though the procedure...

After viewing images of energy resources used for generating electricity, the class discusses the process of transformation. In pairs, they work on describing what they see in a diagram of a power plant and in graphing its energy data. 

Environmentally friendly engineering teams construct a water wheel and experiment with its speed and the resulting amount of weight it can lift. Consider following this activity with two more of the same title by the same publisher when...

Mike and Kellie, a team of electrical engineers, demonstrate how to to design a contraption that accurately drops a marble onto a target. The materials needed and general instructions are provided on the website or via a downloadable...

After Sam knocks a glass off the lunchroom table, he uses it as a springboard for explaining kinetic and potential energy. He mentions that sound is a type of kinetic energy and introduces the different forms of energy: thermal,...

How cool would it be to build a trebuchet 1/40th the size of one that would have been used to knock down a castle wall? Build this project with middle or high schoolers at any level (varying the information provided for each), and have a...

If you can find Tinker Toys™, then this may be a fun assignment for your physical science class. Using the construction set and a few other toys, they examine the forces involved when it they are being played with. For each, they...

While science Jeopardy games are a dime-a-dozen, this one has some pretty unique categories that are still relevant to a middle school physical science curriculum. The topics include: leading nations, famous Americans (who invented...

Middle schoolers research the type of chemical reaction that occurs when metal rusts. They conduct an experiment looking at the rate of corrosion in steel wool. This is lesson three in a three lesson unit on the transfer of energy.

Here is a nifty worksheet on energy transfer. Physics fanatics analyze a diagram and state whether or not friction is involved. They sketch bar graphs and draw energy flow diagrams for each system as well. Circular motion, movement up...

Five basic law of physics and energy are listed here, with a simple explanation of what each actually means in the real world! Your young physicists will appreciate the concepts being made more relevant and the language being made more...

As the title says, some basics of energy are given here. The first section of the slide show focuses on heat energy, differentiating between it and temperature. Chemical and sound energy are introduced, and then the three are combined to...

Budding chemists achieve a basic understanding of the role of heat in chemical reactions. An online worksheet gives learners instructions and questions to answer as they investigate the Chem4Kids website and perform a hands-on lab...

The laws of thermodynamics raise the temperature in your classroom when physics pupils complete this instructional activity! They demonstrate their understanding by calculating specific heat capacity, final temperature, amount of work...

This worksheet would make a nifty quiz on the laws of thermodynamics. Nine multiple choice questions assess high schoolers' understanding of energy transfer, specific heat capacity, phase change, fusion, and vaporization. It is short but...

Students explore energy by participating in a role-playing activity. In this energy transfer lesson, students discuss how humans retain and disperse their energy and the similarities we have with all organisms in that regard. Students...

Teacher's notes, a materials list, detailed procedure, tips, and extension ideas are all included to make teaching this instructional activity on photovoltaic cells a sunny spot in your day! After some brief background reading, physical...

Elementary school physical scientists explore kinetic mechanical energy by dropping a golf ball on different surfaces. They discuss how human made materials might react to light differently from nature made materials. This lesson plan...

Emerging ecologists need a full understanding of life, from the inner workings of a cell to the complex relationships among organisms. This examination is meant to assess high schoolers after an entire year course on the living...

Environmental science enthusiasts show what they know at the end of the year by taking this full-fledged final exam. They answer multiple choice, graph interpretation, and essay analysys questions, 73 of them in all. Topics range from...

Two sequential parts to this lesson introduce your class to the electromagnetic spectrum, the ability to absorb radiant energy, and the pigments in leaves that are responsible for collecting sunlight to be used in the photosynthetic...

When high school physics learners are studying specific heat, you can offer this resource to help them practice performing calculations. There are two pages of problems to solve. You could assign them together as homework, or separate...