What is an alien's favorite game? All-star baseball! Scholars start defining living and non-living. Then, they conduct experiments to research if life exists, keeping in mind that life could be in many forms, not just human. 

The Galle crater on Mars is also known as the Happy Face crater because of its appearance. First, scholars use pebbles and flour to simulate craters and study their properties. They then apply this knowledge to help decipher the history...

Young scientists learn how to select a scale factor for a large scale model. Then they figure the scale for each of the planets and the distance between them. Finally, they construct a giant scale model of the solar system and answer...

The 20th lesson plan in a 21-part series connects the wind data and expectations of a turbine to whether such devices should be built in your area. Scholars begin with estimating the wind potential at school by using long-term...

School budgets don't have a lot of extra money, so when young scholars propose saving the district money, everyone jumps on board. The first instructional activity in the series of 21 introduces the concept of an energy audit. Scholars...

Isn't technology great? The 12th installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program introduces technology that marine scientists use. Pupils take part in an activity using conductivity,...

Tune in! Young scientists use an AM radio at home to monitor solar output. The long-term project would be ideal in a flipped classroom or as an out-of-class project. 

Introduce learners to set of complete instructions that describe how to build a magnetometer that works just like the ones professional photographers use to predict auroras. The diagrams are wonderfully descriptive, and the written...

Learners engage in science, math, and language activities as they do research on the components of the solar system. The class begins with some anticipatory activities and discussions before it is divided into small groups to conduct...

To find life on another planet, scientists look for gases (atmosphere), water, and temperatures that are not extreme. In this activity, groups of pupils become "Titan-ians," scientists who want to explore Earth for possible life forms....

The density of the huge planet of Saturn is 0.7 g/cm3, which means it could float in water! In the second part of 22, science pupils explore the size and order of the planets. They then calculate weight and/or gravity and density of...

How do spacecraft detect magnetic fields? The fourth installment of a five-part unit has learners develop a device with magnets that allows for the detection of magnetic fields. They use a map of an imaginary planet to try out their...

Each color holds its own feeling and these feelings are used to describe the four seasons. Youngsters create a color palate based on the four seasons, assigning various colors to each season. They each create four clay tiles, painting...

Make the connection between Hooke's law and elasticity with an activity that introduces the class to the behavior of elastic materials. The resource defines stress and strain to calculate the modules of elasticity of...

How do you properly illustrate the extreme size difference between two planets—Earth and Jupiter? With the help of jellybeans, of course! Create a scale model of Jupiter's mass compared to Earth using a fishbowl, 1,400 beans, and a...

The propellant needed for space explorations runs in the thousands, while paying to get the craft into orbit costs millions! In the second installment of three, two activities explore laws of conservation of energy and momentum. Using...

Space shuttles traveled around Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour, way faster than trains, planes, or automobiles travel! In the 13th installment of 22, groups graph different speeds to show how quickly spacecraft move through...

Students examine stained glass art techniques in this introductory lesson provided by Oregon Public Broadcasting. The unit emphasizes student created representations of stained glass art.

There are more than 600,000 asteroids in our solar system. Pupils analyze images of two asteroids in order to determine if they are the same age. They count craters for each asteroid and compare numbers. 

Did you know scientists can tell the age of an asteroid by looking closely at its craters? This final activity of a six-part series focuses on two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida, in order to demonstrate the concept of dating asteroids....

Young scholars identify and describe the moons of Saturn. They sort the moons by their characteristics. They write a paragraph describing the moons to end the lesson.

Students investigate the use of latitude and longitude to locate specific locations on Earth and evaluate that location as a potential landing site for researchers, terrestrial or alien space missions.

Students simulate driving a rover on the surface of Mars. In this space science lesson, students identify the challenges experienced by astronauts in operating a vehicle. They recommend some changes to make their 'rover' better.

Between the time scientists discovered Pluto and reclassified it as a dwarf planet, it did not even make one full revolution around the sun. In two activities, scholars investigate scale models and their properties. Pupils find that it...