Curated OER
How Do Airplanes Get Off the Ground
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.
Curated OER
Estimating Altitude of Water Cloud Base
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.
Curated OER
Herb is the Word
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...
Curated OER
What Do Concentrations Mean?
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...
Curated OER
Poetry
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.
Curated OER
Get Connected With Ohm's Law
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...
Curated OER
Cleaning Water: How Filters Work
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.
Discovery Education
Sonar & Echolocation
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...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
How is Flowing Water an Energy Source? Activity B
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...
Curated OER
Surface Air Temperature Trends of the Caribbean
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...
Captain Planet Foundation
Solar Cooking Race
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.
Curated OER
Measure for Measure
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...
Exploratorium
Whack-a-Stack
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...
Curated OER
A Whale of a Story
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...
Curated OER
Force and Motion
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...
Cornell University
Glued into Science—Classifying Polymers
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...
US Department of Energy
The Ring Fling Machine
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...
Curated OER
Speed
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...
California Academy of Science
Snakes and Lizards Length and Movement
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...
Foundation for Water & Energy Education
How is Flowing Water an Energy Source? Activity C
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...
Curated OER
The Parachute
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...
Texas State University
Earth: Deposition and Lithification
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...
Curated OER
What are Metamorphic Rocks and How are They Formed?
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...
Curated OER
Water Pressure Blaster
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.