Teach Engineering
Magical Motion
Make solutions to projectile motion problems magically appear using equations. Pupils watch a clip from a Harry Potter movie and find the length of time it takes for a remembrall to fall into Harry's hands. They use a projectile motion...
Teach Engineering
Discovering Relationships Between Side Length and Area
Consider the relationship between side length and area as an input-output function. Scholars create input-output tables for the area of squares to determine an equation in the first installment of a three-part unit. Ditto for the area of...
Teach Engineering
Considering Trade-Offs and Maximizing Efficiency in a Fast Food Restaurant
Make fast food restaurants even faster. Groups consider trade-offs when maximizing efficiency in fast food restaurants. Restructuring schedules and floor plans, as well reassigning job duties, all fall under this directive.
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Geometry in Architecture #1
Discover how to analyze architecture from a geometric standpoint. The fourth installment of an 11-part unit on architecture first provides a presentation on axis, balance, basic form, formal, pattern, proportion, symmetry, and tripartite...
Teach Engineering
Energy Forms, States and Conversions
Even magicians can't make energy disappear. In a discussion-based instructional activity, young scientists learn about energy forms and conversions. They see how energy is neither created nor destroyed; it just changes forms. This is the...
K12 Reader
The Magna Carta
A passage about the Magna Carta provides readers with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in an article.
Teach Engineering
Fluid Power Basics
What can bulldozers and screen doors have in common? Use this lesson plan on fluid power to find out. It begins with some simple teacher demonstrations, includes a couple of videos, and culminates with an inquiry-based activity to...
Teach Engineering
Buoyant Boats
Eureka! Using the clay boats made in the previous lesson, learners investigate the idea of buoyancy and water displacement to finish the last installment of five in a Floaters and Sinkers unit. Their observations during the activity...
Teach Engineering
Clay Boats
Clay itself sinks, but clay boats float. Why? Young engineers build clay boats to learn about buoyancy. They test the weight the boats can hold using washers and then tweak their designs to make improvements, following the engineering...
Teach Engineering
Floaters and Sinkers
Whatever floats your boat. Young engineers learn about density by measuring the masses and volumes of boxes filled with different materials. Using their knowledge of densities, they hypothesize whether objects with given densities will...
Curated OER
Strong as the Weakest Link
Students recognize that compression and tension forces are important considerations in building structures. They construct their own building structure using marshmellows and spaghetti to see which structure can hold the most weight.
Curated OER
Ball Bounce Experiment
Students investigate different balls' abilities to bounce. They conduct a Ball Bounce Height Comparison and Ball Bounce Time Comparison, complete a worksheet, graph the results of their experiment, and answer investigating questions.
Curated OER
Map that Habitat
Young scholars participate in an activity that replicates the creation of sea floor bathymetry by taking a simplified form of soundings in the classroom. They discuss sea floor mapping technologies, sonar, soundings, and remote sensing,...
Curated OER
Strum Along
Students engage in a lesson which takes something constructed by the class, that would be normally classified as just sound, then work together to make what can be perceived to be music. Students construct a basic stringed instrument...
Teach Engineering
Future Flights: Imagine Your Own Flying Machines!
What will flying look like in the future? The 21st lesson in a 22-part unit on aviation reviews the major aspects of the lesson. Pupils brainstorm ideas of a future flying machine.
Curated OER
Hummingbirds and Flowers: A Study of Co-Adaptive Relationships
Hummingbirds and flowers need each other to survive! Pupils explore the co-adaptation of hummingbirds and the flowering plants. They explain how a flowering plant has adapted to be pollinated by a hummingbird and how the hummingbird has...
Teach Engineering
May the Magnetic Force Be with You
Class members use mathematics in order to better understand magnetic forces and their interaction on charged particles. After a demonstration of the interaction between a magnet and an electron beam using a CRT computer monitor,...
Teach Engineering
Understanding Elements
Nothing says organization quite like a table. The third lesson in a six-part Mixtures and Solutions unit teaches young scientists about elements and the periodic table. They learn how the periodic table is organized and about the...
Teach Engineering
Global Climate Change
The greenhouse effect and its relationship to global warming is the focus of an activity that asks class member to consider the effects of climate change on weather. Pupils work with their families to determine their carbon...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Euthanasia
Students analyze euthanasia as a possible way to die. In this controversial instructional activity, students reflect and discuss euthanasia as a possible way to enter death. Classroom discussion allows students to voice their...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Freedom of Movement
Class members examine human migration. For this population lesson, they read an article entitled, "Freedom of Movement" and respond to discussion questions about the article related to guest worker programs.
EngageNY
Getting Ready to Learn About Human Rights: Close Reading of Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
Introduce young readers to informational texts with a well-designed, ready-to-use, and Common Core-aligned unit. Young readers learn a variety of skills while studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). As the first...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Predators and Prey
Reading is fantastic, especially when it's reading about bullfrogs. Kids get cozy with predator/prey relationships as they hone their information-reading skills. They start out as they read a portion of the text aloud, then they...
Lerner Publishing
Living or Nonliving
It's alive! Or is it? Through a series of shared readings, whole class activities, and independent exercises children explore the difference between living and non-living things, creating a pair of printable books...