Students discover ways to protect their pets.  In this animal safety lesson, students role-play as pet "safety officers" and discuss how to make sure cats avoid dangers in the home.  Students complete many pet safety worksheets...

First graders consider what effect their behavior has on their health. Students make a fist to indicate the size of his/her heart. They complete a worksheet on the heart, coloring the arteries red and the veins blue.

Students complete a series of activities related to forms of energy. In this energy lesson, students look at forms of energy in their school, how energy is conserved and used efficiently, how magnets are used to generate electricity, and...

How can you tell if something is living or nonliving? Introduce a set of criteria which can be used to determine which things are alive and which are not. The class discusses the basic needs of all living organisms, checks out an...

Biotechnology pros produce their own biofuel using waste oil and fresh vegetable oil. They test the quality of their product using titration techniques and pH analysis. They write their observations and report their findings. Be aware...

A phenomenal lesson on sound is here for your third graders! In it, learners engage in hands-on activities, watch video, take part in Internet activities, and complete tasks in cooperative groups in order to explore the world of sound...

Students build a device that captures and carries a pet rat safely back to its cage with out "harming" the rat or themselves. They build and experiment with wind-up or battery operated rat cat toys after predicting the outcome of their...

Students, in groups, use given materials to devise a way to deposit a ping-pong ball into a paper cup that is located in the middle of a 6-foot diameter circle, while standing outside the circle.

A solar cell is similar to a rechargeable battery in many ways. Science lab groups connect each in a series circuit to run a mini motor and then compare and contrast them by answering questions and completing a Venn diagram. This is an...

Middle school science stars observe and record data on the solar radiation reflected off or transmitted through various materials. They predict properties for various materials, and test their predictions by touch. This lesson becomes...

Science Students build a pooper scooper tool that helps them clean up after a dog without getting their hands dirty or their noses too close. They research the diseases that can be transported through animal waste and work in teams to...

Learners apply their knowledge of friction, drag, mass and gravity as they design, build, and test mini-bobsleds.

Sift through soil and learn about why it's important for organic processes. After discussing what makes up soil, such as the living organisms and what types of soil have more nutrients, kids sample layers of mulch and deeper soil to...

Clean up the environment with a lesson that focuses on replacing hazardous cleaning supplies with green, environmentally-friendly products. Using a dirty patch of surface as a control area, kids clean other parts of various surfaces...

Young scholars construct functional replicas of oceanographic tools and demonstrate and explain their use.

Learners design a pumping device that will effectively pump fluid through a model "cardiovascular system." They explore the effects of too much and too little pressure on a circulatory system.

A fabulous presentation on light is here for you. In it, learners view slides which cover many important concepts of light. They understand exactly what light is, what the main sources of light are, what opaque, transparent, and...

How many simple machines does it take to make a robotic arm? An inquiry-based lesson plan explores that topic and challenges pupils to build a robotic arm that can stretch, turn, and more. A few questions help guide them in the...

Though the walrus spends roughly one third of its time on land, it eats organisms that live on the bottom of the ocean. The first in a series of five, the lesson uses a variety of plant and animal cards to have scholars build an arctic...

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...

Excite scholars to design their own planet in this first of five lessons. The instructional activity starts with a pre-activity assessment, a complete lesson plan that is easy to implement, and a post-activity assessment that would...

Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...

This lab activity is geared toward experienced chemistry learners, in particular, those who are familiar with organic chemistry. They will create a synthetic elastomer  and then make observations and measurements of its different...

Students investigate space travel. In this space travel lesson students examine space exploration history, engineers and scientists involved in space exploration, and Newton's third law of motion. Students make rockets.