Mascil Project
Design and Build Your Own Vacuum Cleaner, Hair Dryer or Toy Car
No vacuum cleaner? No problem, just build your own. Scholars apply knowledge of currents to build a model of either a vacuum clear, a hair dryer, or a toy car. While the class completes the activity, instructors consider gender...
Curated OER
Newton Rocket Car
Young scholars observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and...
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Build a Cardboard Bridge That Can Hold Potatoes
Students identify the characteristics of a bridge and build with junk materials. In this bridge building lesson, students use cereal boxes, paper towel or toilet paper tubes and tape to create their bridges. Bridges must be a certain...
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Building Homes
Students investigate architecture and construction by building a home from cardboard tubes. In this housing lesson, students collaborate in groups to plan and create buildings they can fit in made from cardboard tubes, newspaper and...
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Balloon Powered Race Cars
Students examine Newton's Law of Motion and use the formula to calculate speed. For this laws of motion lesson students create a balloon powered car and calculate its speed and distance.
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Building Bridges
In this bridge building worksheet, students follow a set of instructions, making a bridge using books, poster- board, a ruler, toy car and sheet of paper.
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Simple Machines I - Inclined Planes, Wedges, and Screws
The principles and uses of inclined planes, screws, and wedges are the focus of a science lesson. In it, youngsters come up with every day examples of simple machines, and build an example of one in class. That project is then used to...
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Junkyard Wars: Mechanical Monsters
Students examine slope and build a Lego car that can take a steep slope. In this mechanics lesson students build a car and demonstrate them in class and describe what they did.
It's About Time
Electromagnets
Young scientists build their own electromagnet and test it by picking up paperclips. Analysis questions evaluate knowledge at the end of the activity.
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Beep Beep!
Students use sidewalk chalk to draw roads,streets, houses and buildings. Students use matchbox cars and trucks to drive on streets and roads they drew.
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Ride on a Slide
Young scholars investigate gravity and engineering by participating in a slide building experiment. In this early physics instructional activity, students utilize cardboard boxes to create a model of a children's slide. Young scholars...
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Repeated Addition
Toy cars are used to show the relationship between addition and multiplication. Learners first view the array of cars, then see the related repeated addition and multiplication equations. A great way to build mathematical connections.
US Institute of Peace
Mediating Conflict
Two's a negotiation, but three's a mediation! Demonstrate the differences between the two processes through a role-playing instructional activity. The activity familiarizes pupils with the role of a mediator and examines the types of...
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Maglev Trains
Students explore how Maglev trains work. In this technology lesson plan, students discuss the pros and cons of Maglev compared to conventional trains. They build a simple Maglev train model.
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Community Building
Seventh graders discover the similarities and differences between cities, towns, and rural communities. Using a Neighborhood map Machine, they create a Venn diagram and map of their own community. Students build a 3-D representation of...
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Electricity: Will It Conduct?
Young scholars build conductivity testers and investigate which solids and solutions conduct electricity. Working in groups, they predict which items will conduct electricity and record their answers on worksheets.
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Wind Power! 2
Fourth graders explore how engineers transform wind energy into electrical energy by building their own miniature wind turbines and measuring the electrical current it produces. They see how design and position affect the electrical...
Lied Center of Kansas
The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare
Both The Ugly Duckling and The Tortoise and the Hare are great additions to an elementary language arts instructional activity. Young readers focus on the literary elements of each story, including characters and plot development, and...
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Forces and Motion-The Downhill Racer
Students calculate a toy car's velocity and acceleration. In this force and motion lesson, students build ramps and attach a dropper to a toy car, which is released down the ramp. Students calculate and graph velocity and acceleration...
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Mechanical Monsters
Students experiment try to build a Lego car. For this physical science lesson students present and demonstrate the vehicle that they constructed.
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Twenty Green Gates
Second graders explore mathematics by participating in a pattern building activity. For this geometric construction lesson, 2nd graders discuss a story problem in which a gate needs to be built from triangles and trapezoids up to a...
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All Hands on Deck: A Harbor Education Program
Students build a model of an estuary. In this wetland lesson, students build a model estuary with a paint tray and modeling clay. They use the model to illustrate the impact of non-point pollution on the watershed.
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Before You Were Mine
Students discuss animal adoption and pet care. In this pet lesson, students listen to the story Before You Were Mine by Maribeth Boelts. They discuss animals body language, feelings, and how to best car for them.
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Speed Trails
In this Algebra I/Algebra II learning exercise, students conduct an experiment with toy cars in order to calculate and compare average, instantaneous, and constant speed. The two page learning exercise contains three questions. Answers...