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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Do Airplanes Get Off the Ground

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct various types of paper airplanes, exploring action and reaction forces by conducting a paper airplane rodeo. Students then discuss how Newton's Third Law of Motion affected their planes.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Estimating Altitude of Water Cloud Base

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students conduct an experiment to determine dew point and use a formula to detemine altitude. They construct a chart and predict what altitude clouds would form, given the dew point on the ground.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Herb is the Word

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Students conduct an experiment to determine how different soils affect plant growth over a six-week period. After determining the physical properties of different types of soil, students plant various types of seeds into the soil...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Do Concentrations Mean?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate the concept of climate gases and practice using the appropriate measurement terms. The instructional activity includes information that is used by the teacher to conduct class discussion or as a source of background...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders research famous poets. In this poetry instructional activity, 6th graders investigate poets and discover their famous literary works. Students conduct research using Internet resources and prepare a presentation.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Get Connected With Ohm's Law

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students engage in a study of Ohm's Law and conduct research into how the law functions in relationship to the functions for light bulbs. They conduct hands on activities and use digital multi-meters to collect data and plot it for...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cleaning Water: How Filters Work

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students construct their own water filter to obtain clean water. In this filtration lesson, students produce tainted water in order to properly filter it with filtration devices made in class.
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Lesson Plan
Discovery Education

Sonar & Echolocation

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
A well-designed, comprehensive, and attractive slide show supports direct instruction on how sonar and echolocation work. Contained within the slides are links to interactive websites and instructions for using apps on a mobile device to...
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Lesson Plan
Foundation for Water & Energy Education

How is Flowing Water an Energy Source? Activity B

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Explore the world's water without leaving the classroom! In this second of three uncomplicated but wonderful activities, physical science learners feel the pressure of water. They discover that the deeper the water, the stronger the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Surface Air Temperature Trends of the Caribbean

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students use real satellite data to determine the changes in near-surface air temperature at different times of the year over the Caribbean Sea. They discover how Earth's tilt causes seasonal differences in incoming solar energy. They...
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Lesson Plan
Captain Planet Foundation

Solar Cooking Race

For Teachers 3rd
Study heat transfer with activities that focus on how heat energy works. Using a solar cooker, ice cubes, and heat transfer bracelets, kids experiment and record what they find by keeping ice cubes cold and vegetables hot.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Measure for Measure

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Young mathematicians work to recognize the relationship between their scale models of the Joides research vessel and the real vessel. They calculate the relationships between various parts of the ship using fractions, ratios, and...
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Activity
Exploratorium

Whack-a-Stack

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Go wild as you hit a stack of wooden blocks to demonstrate Newton's first and second laws of motion. The blocks at the top of the stack stay put as you knock one at a time out of the bottom. Note, however, that you will need to...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

A Whale of a Story

For Students 3rd - 4th
Does sound travel faster in water or in the air? Put the question to the test with a science experiment. After reviewing a table of data, third and fourth graders decide which statements are true and which ones are false. The bottom of...
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PPT
Curated OER

Force and Motion

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Each of the slides here gives a definition, equation, or calculation example for a component of force and motion. This large collection covers topics from momentum and Newton's laws to centripetal forces and simple machines. Animations...
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Lesson Plan
Cornell University

Glued into Science—Classifying Polymers

For Students 6th - 12th
Explore the unique characteristics of polymers. A complete instructional activity begins with a presentation introducing polymers. Following the presentation, young scientists develop a laboratory plan for creating substances using...
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Lab Resource
US Department of Energy

The Ring Fling Machine

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed Standards
Class members build a machine to demonstrate Lenz's law and help this scientific principle come to life. After building a ring fling machine, instructions for properly operating the machine and a few thought-provoking questions lead to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Speed

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Fifth and sixth graders practice working in pairs to determine whether they can walk with constant speed. They test themselves, collect their data, draw graphs with their data collected, manipulate the data, and then draw conclusions...
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Lesson Plan
California Academy of Science

Snakes and Lizards Length and Movement

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
Snakes and lizards can be very tiny or very long. Your class will get out their rulers to see just how big snakes and lizards can be. They discuss several different reptiles by reading the included animal fact cards, then each small...
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Lesson Plan
Foundation for Water & Energy Education

How is Flowing Water an Energy Source? Activity C

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Can the force of falling water through a tube vary by altering the diameter of the tube or its height? That is what physical scientists aim to discover in this activity, the third in successively more revealing activities on the power of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Parachute

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students discuss parachutes and write a procedure to determine the effect of different size parachutes and different masses on the time it takes the masses to fall. They record all their data from their experiment then write three...
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Lesson Plan
Texas State University

Earth: Deposition and Lithification

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Geology geniuses analyze sediment samples with a hand lens and sort according to physical characteristics. They also learn about the processes of cementation, compaction, and lithification within the rock cycle. The lesson plan is...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What are Metamorphic Rocks and How are They Formed?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Even though the student handouts are not included in the write-up, this lesson contains the instructions for terrific activities to use when teaching middle schoolers about metamorphic rocks. First, they compare granite to gneiss and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Water Pressure Blaster

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders complete an experiment to introduce them to the concept of water pressure. In this water pressure lesson plan, 3rd graders create pressure in a water bottle and observe the force of water that is created.