Exploratorium
Stripped Down Motor
Mostly for teacher's use, here are instructions for making a traditional electromagnetic motor and a detailed explanation of how it works.
Star Date
Astronomy Day from McDonald Observatory Solar System Scale Activity
Add a visual aid to your solar system lessons. Enthusiastic astronomers create a model depicting the nine planets and their distance from the sun.
PBS
Robo Arm
Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second instructional activity of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.
Scholastic
Lesson Four: The Earth, Layers of Earth
Get your hands dirty with a set of earth science activities! Class members delve into a hard-boiled egg to find the similarities to the earth's layers, create a papier-mâché model of the earth, craft a simulation of the earth's...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Bees
A Reading Adventure pack explores the busy life of bees. After reading a fiction and nonfiction text, scholars complete three hands-on activities. Participants invent a robot that can do the work of bees, cheers to hardworking bees with...
Curated OER
Create a Food Chain
Students explore the food chain and the ways that animals depend on each other and on plants for food. They create a paper chain with different colors relating to carnivores and herbivores. The chains are linked to the sun to create a...
Curated OER
Koi Pond
Create this beautiful koi pond scene using watercolor paper, crayons, and paints. This would be a fantastic project to link to a scientific study of pond life or a historical study of Japanese culture.
Curated OER
Tomato Exploration
Create tomatoes in 15-20 minutes using this fun and interactive lesson plan! Learners listen to a book about tomatoes (recommendations listed), and focus on the vocabulary word tomato. They count the syllables...
Curated OER
Bouncing Bubbles
Students complete a variety of activities exploring the joys and science of bubbles. They listen to the book "Bubbles Bubbles" by Mercer Mayer, create a bubble picture using Kid Pix, and explore blowing bubbles. Students experiment...
Curated OER
Take a Deep Breath: Air Today, Air Tomorrow
This is the introductory lesson in a series about air quality. Why is it so important that we breathe clean air? How can we make sure we're keeping our air clean? A discussion is the central idea of the lesson, and example questions are...
Curated OER
Inheritance Patterns in Zorks
For this inheritance patterns worksheet, students create a visual of a Zork using chromosome strips to represent alleles from the father and the mother to determine the traits in the offspring. Students translate the genotype to the...
Curated OER
Interactive Question Asker
Students practice studying chapters from a unit by creating an electric circuit. In this electronic studying lesson, students utilize a file folder, hole punch, foil, light bulb and battery to create a wired circuit behind answers...
Curated OER
Interactive Notes-"Electricity"
Students explore electricity. In this interactive electricity instructional activity, students create static electricity with balloons, observe the rate at which ice melts to identify conductors and insulators, and create a static...
DiscoverE
Electrical Liquids
Liquid or not, here comes the electricity. Scholars test the conductivity of various substances using a circuit that includes a light bulb. If the light bulb lights up, then the liquid is a conductor. What a bright idea!
Center for Math and Science Education
Pocket Solar System
How in the world can something as big as the solar system possibly fit in your pocket? Complete this simple modeling activity and find out, as young scientists gain an appreciation for the incredible scale of outer space.
Curated OER
Citrus Batteries
High schoolers create models of voltaic cells using lemons. They place both a copper strip and a zinc strip into a lemon about a half inch apart and touch both leads at the same time to their tongue. After recording their observations,...
Curated OER
Creatures of the Sea
Fourth graders complete a two-month long unit on the physical characteristics of the oceans and animal environments. They create a "Creatures of the Sea" alphabet book in collaboration with a kindergarten class, conduct Internet...
Curated OER
Earthquake Machine
Students explore plate tectonics by conducting a class experiment. In this earthquake lesson, students utilize scrap wood, sandpaper, rubber bands and a sanding belt to create a model earthquake experiment which shakes a nearby building....
PBS
Four Corners
It's imperative to be as precise as possible. Future engineers learn about precision by building a cardboard machine. The base, corners, handles, and paddles must all be assembled with precision or the machine won't work.
California Academy of Science
Sorting the Solar System
Scientists are always sorting and classifying objects based on their characteristics. In a hands-on learning activity, young space explorers work together to categorize solar system cards based on their properties. It is up to the...
Curated OER
Energy
Wow! Colorful and simple, these 160 slides introduce the various forms of energy, along with a relevant image. Some of the images are animations, which help beginning physical scientists to visualize the flow of electrons or energy! This...
DiscoverE
Design a Wind Turbine
Discover the power of wind energy. Learners design, build, and test wind blades in a hands-on experiment. They analyze the results to determine if they can make any improvements before gathering as a class to discuss their designs.
Curated OER
Wild Moving Lizard Sculpture
Lizards are amazing! After a lesson on reptiles, take a look at this set of instructions. You'll be able to guide your class in making a paper lizard sculpture that moves. This idea also includes variations on the paper technique used...
Curated OER
Good Health from the Ground Up
Pupils examine healthy food choices and the benefits of growing their own food for consumption. They read the story "Favorite Things" and illustrate 5 favorite things. Students discuss types of foods that are healthy choices and why it...