Discovery Education
Perfectly Decomposed!
We all know someone who won't eat the banana with a brown spot, the grape with a dimple, and the apple with a bruise. Scholars use different fruits to explore what happens when fruits really start to decompose. They set up an experiment...
Discovery Education
Smoke on the Water
How do clouds form? Learners demonstrate the formation of clouds and the water cycle by testing four different setups in a plastic bottle. They identify the key components of a cloud to help them understand the process of cloud...
Curated OER
Electrical Connections
In this electrical connections worksheet, students answer 13 questions about conductance, resistors, how to build a circuit and electrical connections.
Curated OER
Electrical Circuits
Wow! Here is a coherent and cleverly designed tool for teaching physical scientists about electric circuits. Animations help learners to visualize what is happening within the parts of a circuit. Components are displayed to teach them...
Curated OER
Splish! Splash! From the Bath to my Glass
An excellent instructional activity on the water cycle! In it, learners should gain a general understanding of the water cycle, along with how water first falls as precipitation, then ends up coming out of our faucets. This instructional...
Curated OER
A Shocking Experience
Learners differentiate between current and static electricity, conductors and insulators, explain how energy is converted from chemical to electrical, measure voltage of batteries, collect data on voltage, and predict voltage of...
Curated OER
Can You See the Light?
Third and fourth graders use this worksheet to help them draw their own version of a fully functioning circuit. They see the battery, the light bulb, and two wires with clips. They must draw the complete circuit, using these elements, on...
Virginia Department of Education
Electricity and Circuits
Electrify your classroom as you lead pupils through a series of steps to demonstrate basic principles of electricity and magnetism. They design a simple circuit and test this for static electricity and current electricity. Next, they...
Cornell University
Making a Battery
Don't be shocked when your class has a blast making their own batteries! Science scholars examine a dry cell battery, then design and construct a wet cell battery. The activity guides them through the parts of a battery, the variables...
DiscoverE
Hidden Alarm
It's time to wake up! Young engineers build an electric circuit that will activate an alarm. The use of switches in the circuit is a must—because you don't want the alarm to keep beeping forever!
Curated OER
Hazards: First Grade Lesson Plans and Activities
Examine the environmental hazards associated with volcanoes with a three-part science lesson. In the pre-lab, first graders learn that gas, landslides, ash, and lava are all hazards that come from volcanoes. They then explore hazardous...
US Department of Energy
Electric Avenue: Parallel and Series Circuits
Can you infer the wiring diagram of a series of lights based on their behavior alone? Scholars work with multiple boxes of four lights. They must flip the switch and decide how the lights are wired. By applying their knowledge of...
Curated OER
Message in a Bottle - A Satellite Journey through the Gulf Stream
The Gulf Stream has historically provided humans with a faster trade route because of its swift-moving waters. It continues to be a source of information and fascination for oceanographers today. As your class views this collection of...
PBS
Hidden Alarm
It's time! The fourth lesson in a five-part series has teams of scholars build a circuit for an alarm. A switch lets them turn the alarm on and off and allows them to hide the alarm—just as long as they don't hide it in the classroom!
American Museum of Natural History
Volcanoes Magma Rising
Get ready for an explosive lesson! Learners read and interact with an online lesson describing the characteristics of volcanoes. They study specific historical volcanoes as well as the science of volcanic eruptions using animations and...
Curated OER
Build a Model Watershed
Collaborative earth science groups create a working model of a watershed. Once it has been developed, you come along and introduce a change in land use, impacting the quality of water throughout their watershed. Model making is an...
Curated OER
Nervous System
After reading through this presentation about nerve impulses, students should be able to complete the sentences given with the correct terms and scientific vocabulary. The basics of the ion channel behavior are detailed along with a...
Curated OER
Electricity
Each of these slides presents the basic scientific details and situations where charge, or static may appear. Handouts of the empty PowerPoint slides could be provided so that students could work through these examples and correctly...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.8
Demonstrate the importance of evaluating and citing sources. Pupils can complete the suggested assignment provided here, or one of your choosing, while focusing on checking that the resources are credible and citing those sources...
DiscoverE
Rocket Challenge
You might just be responsible for launching a future career in rocket science. Pupils use Alka-Seltzer® tablets as the power source for a film-canister rocket. These rockets must able to carry a clay payload and hit a target on a wall.
Science Matters
Ecosystem Pre-Assessment
Test scholars' knowledge of ecosystems with a 20-question pre-assessment. Assessment challenges learners to answer multiple choice questions, read diagrams, and complete charts.
Curated OER
Cave Formation Age Estimation
Students investigate growth rates of flowstone formations. They view a virtual field trip and discuss how flowstones form. They observe the cave fieldtrip and predict the growth rate for a cave formation. They graph growth rates and...
Curated OER
Electricity
Twenty-one slides cover all aspects of electricity; from electric charge, to protons, lightning, currents, the calculations for wire resistance, circuits, household devices, and fluorescence. The amount of detail and the range of topics...
Curated OER
Protests against Bush
Non-violent conflict resolution is the focus of this lesson, which addresses the protests against President Bush in the UK (2003). Pupils list the strengths and limitations of non-violent conflict resolution, and chart the cycles of...