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Hatching Chickens
Students observe chicks hatching from eggs. In this science lesson, students view a video to develop an understanding of the proper care and needs of eggs and live animals. This is a great precursor activity for hatching eggs in class.
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Household Things that Fly and Why!!!
Students examine the four forces of flight. In this flight lesson, students test to see which types of items will fly. Students make predictions on whether the item will fly or not. Students gain knowledge about lift, gravity, thrust and...
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Washington/Lincoln Compare and Contrast
Students examine the lives of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Using the information, they complete a Venn diagram discovering what the two men had in common. In groups, they review a timeline made in an earlier lesson and view a...
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How Much is that Name?
Students explore money counting. In this money problem solving lesson, students calculate how much money their name is "worth" using the corresponding alphabet letters which have been assigned a coin value.
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Group Dynamics
Middle schoolers define the purpose of different groups. Using photographs, they practice identifying the group affiliation to one another and describe their characteristics in the picture. They discover the similarities and differences...
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Coat Caper
Students examine pollen and fibers taken from a garment. They analyze pollen from new hybrids and compare it to the samples from the garment then make individual conclusions concerning the specific historical authenticity of the garment.
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The effectiveness of Antacids
Students design and conduct a scientific experiment to test which of four antacids would be most effective for neutralizing acids. They rank the antacids in order from most effective to least effective and explain how they determined...
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That's the Way the Ball Bounces
Students investigate and compare the bouncing ability of the materials from which four different balls are made. They determine which material performs the best for use as a basketball. After collecting data in a small group they...
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Biofilms Are Everywhere
Students research biofilms and create brochures. They role play as advertising firm members assigned to educate the general public about biofilms. They create "wanted dead or alive" posters about harmful and helpful biofilms respectively.
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Coffee Cooling
Young scholars explore the factors that affect how long coffee stays hot. They develop a question and a testable hypothesis for one factor such as initial temperature or size of opening of the container. Then they design and conduct an...
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Interdisciplinary Task: Weather
Students design a chart to use to record the weather for five days. They then build an anemometer to record wind speed and discover why they are used for this purpose.
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The Captain And Lake Wilmar
Tenth graders examine the ecosystem of Lake Wilmar through three coordinated performance tasks. They first investigate the effects of pH on freshwater animals by comparing the zooplankton counts from three different areas. They then...
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Survival
High schoolers determine the best material from which to make a jacket to keep the body warm in a cold, dry, windy climate. This task assesses the student's abilities to perform an entire investigation.
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Ice Cold
Students design and conduct an experiment to investigate what happens when salt and ice come together and to determine if one form of salt is better for melting ice on steps and sidewalks.
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Car Wash
Students determine the most appropriate site for a car wash, based on each site's soil characteristics (chemical, physical) and topographic features. They perform an experiment to determine the changes to three different soil types when...
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Tadpoles
Students examine tadpoles at various stages of development. They make careful scientific observations and compare the changes that occur at five different phases of a frog's life.
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Hooke's Law
Students explore the relationship between the force applied to a spring and its stretch. They design and conduct an experiment to determine the stretch of spring with 15N of force without having an actual 15N mass.
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PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND INCENTIVES
Fifth graders design a web page. They include features he or she would typically like to see when visiting web pages. They title the topic of the web page "Features That Make a Great Web Site." They explain that there are incentives...
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My Autobiography!
Fourth graders create autobiographical bookets using an already written rough draft. Using illustrations, scanned photos, and word processing software, they type and print their booklet to share with their class.
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Let's Create An Ecosystem
Seventh graders create ecosystems in a jar which they observe over the course of the school year.
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Water Cycle -- Presentation Teaching Model
Students continue their examination of the water cycle. In groups, they present their findings to the class after researching a specific topic related to the water cycle. They spend the rest of the lessons asking questions and answering...
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Friction Force
Students investigate friction force on a variety of objects such as bricks and cardboard boxes. They use a force probe to collect data on the changes in force required to drag the objects across a variety of surface types.
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Snell's Law
Students determine whether the index of refraction of sample of Corn Syrup meets Federal standards. This task assess students' abilities to explain the procedures for investigation, plan for recording and organizing observations and...
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Hydrated Salt
Students plan, design, and carry out an experiment to determine an empirical formula for a hydrated salt X that tell students when all the water has been removed from hydrate crystals.