Curated OER
Scale Activities
How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...
CK-12 Foundation
Area Between Curves: Income and Expenses
Use the area of polygons to calculate the area between curves. Pupils calculate areas under income and expense curves by filling the space with squares and right triangles. Using that information, they determine the profit related to the...
Royal Society of Chemistry
Aspirin—The Wonder of Medicine
What do aspirin and the willow tree have in common? Scholars of chemical synthesis engage in a fascinating reaction to make their own aspirin samples. The lab uses thin layer chromatography analysis, includes stoichiometric calculations,...
California Department of Education
Slap Tubes, Flutes, and Xylophones: The Physics of Pipe-Based Instruments
It's the encore to a wave unit. Individuals build either a slap tube, flute, or xylophone as a culminating activity for a physics unit on waves. Scholars calculate the lengths of pipes needed to produce the specific notes for their...
Shodor Education Foundation
Conic Flyer
Graphing conics made easy. Individuals use an interactive to graph conic sections. The app can handle circles, vertical and horizontal parabolas, ellipses, and vertical and horizontal hyperbolas.
US Environmental Protection Agency
Protecting Your Drinking Water
Having a clean, reliable source of drinking water is essential for any community, but in many cases this is easier said than done. Engage young environmentalists in exploring the five factors affecting vulnerability of a groundwater...
Colorado State University
What Causes Pressure?
Are you feeling the pressure? Let loose a little with a kinesthetic activity that models molecular motion in a closed space! The activity varies conditions such as volume and temperature and examines the effects on molecules.
National Institute of Open Schooling
Spontaneity of Chemical Reactions
Do spontaneous reactions really occur? Activity 12 in a series of 36 focuses on spontaneity of chemical reactions. Learners read about, discuss, and answer questions pertaining to entropy, explain the third law of thermodynamics, explore...
Didax
Pi Day #1a – Discovering Pi
Unravel the mystery behind the infamous number pi. Scholars complete a series of activities that explores where pi comes from, its digits and estimation strategies. Pupils should be ready to measure, calculate, and look for patterns to...
Radford University
Snappy Stair Sprints
Let's go for a run. Small groups determine a way to collect data to determine the time it would take to run a set of stairs. After creating a plan, teams collect data and graph their results, calculating the equation of best fit and...
EngageNY
Conditional Relative Frequencies and Association
It is all relative, or is it all conditional? Using an exploration method, the class determines whether there is an association between gender and superpower wish through the use of calculating conditional relative frequencies. The...
Arizona Department of Education
Be Independent / Life Management Skills
Living independently is about more than managing money. Learn how to manage time, balance responsibilities, and calculate overtime and income with a set of activities about life management skills.
EngageNY
Searching a Region in the Plane
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...
EngageNY
Sampling Variability in the Sample Mean (part 2)
Reduce variability for more accurate statistics. Through simulation, learners examine sample data and calculate a sample mean. They understand that increasing the number of samples creates results that are more representative of the...
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Schoolyard Biodiversity Investigation Educator Guide
In 1980, in the tropical rainforests of Panama, scientists discovered 1,200 species of beetles living in and around just 19 trees, with most of the species new to science—that's biodiversity! In the activity, learners work in teams to...
Project WET Foundation
The Blue Planet
What a neat interactive that interacts with the amount of water on Earth's surface. It begins with a brief audio introduction of the Blue Planet and how it got its name. Then, users click on the activity to play a game...
Colorado State University
How Far Away Is Space?
Outer space may be a lot closer than you think! Science scholars model the layers of the atmosphere using transparencies to gain insight into the scale of space. The resource includes ideas to tailor the activity to the skill level of...
101 Questions
You Pour, I Choose
Tall and skinny or short and stout, which glass hold the most liquid? Learners analyze dimensions of cylindrical glasses to determine the one holding the greatest amount of liquid. They brainstorm the relevant dimensions before making...
Sea World
Marine Animal Husbandry and Training
Step into the role of a zoo director with several activities about animal training and running a zoo. Kids calculate the amount of food each animal needs, design a habitat for penguins, decide how to breed bottlenose dolphins, and train...
Heather Sparks
Integer Football
They could go all, the, way...to a deeper understanding of integers with this fun math game. Using the included printable materials, young mathematicians practice adding integers and calculating absolute values as they compete in a...
Houston Area Calculus Teachers
Cubic Polynomial
Birthdays are a time for celebration, and now they're a time for calculation! An AP calculus lesson uniquely explores relationships between a polynomial function and its derivative. Learners create a cubic function based...
Curated OER
Plate Tectonics: Fourth Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
The pre-lab portion of the lesson introduces emerging geologists to the various layers that make up Earth. After completing a sheet on the identification of the layers, class members simulate plate boundaries and their...
Cornell University
Building a Compound Light Microscope
What better way to learn how to use a microscope than building your own? A lab investigation has scholars use lenses from magnifying glasses and sheets of cork to design their own compound microscopes. They calculate focal length...
Federal Reserve Bank
Making Sense of the Ups and Downs of Prices
What are the consequences and costs of inflation? What is CPI, and how do we calculate it? This resource answers these questions in an organized and in-depth manner, and also includes a worksheet of follow-up questions designed for...