Curated OER
Energy in the Form of Calories
Students calculate the amount of food calories found in an individual peanut. In small groups, they set up the experiment so that a burning peanut will heat water above it. Using the temperature change and volume of the water they...
Cornell University
What Happens When We Excite Atoms and Molecules?
Excited atoms lead to exciting lessons! Learners use heat and light to excite both atoms and molecules. They display their learning in the form of Bohr models depicting the excited state of the atoms.
Curated OER
What Causes Day and Night?
Why do we have four seasons? A series of questions about the Earth's orbit and its impact on seasons challenge Earth science students.The second page of the resource has nine multiple choice questions, such as "One year on Earth is one...
Curated OER
Motion Commotion!
Students explore the drawings of Rube Goldberg to design and construct a simple machine. They discuss simple machines, and using various materials and toy parts, design and construct a "Rube Goldberg" style machine to ring a bell.
Curated OER
The Shadow Knows - Creating Shadows
Young learners recognize a shadow and witness how shadows occur when light is blocked. They access streamed video, standard video, and websites in order to engage in their study of how light is naturally blocked to create shadows. An...
Curated OER
What things let Light Pass Through?
Second graders classify objects according to how well light can pass through them and predict how well objects will transmit light. They experiment with objects to verify predictions while collecting, recording, and interpreting data...
Curated OER
To See or Not to See: The Colors of Light
Seventh graders describe and conduct an experiment that identifies the physical properties of light. They explore sources of visible light and an electromagnetic spectrum. Students explain the conversion of one form of energy to another.
Curated OER
Solar Hot Dog Cooker
Young scholars create a solar hot dog cooker. In this solar energy lesson, students use various materials such as tin foil and cardboard to build a hot dog cooker. Young scholars cook their own hot dogs.
Curated OER
Bounce!
Students investigate the relationship between potential and kinetic energy. In this energy lesson students investigate the height a ball will bounce when dropped from various heights.
Curated OER
Conserving Energy Resources
Seventh graders research on energy conversion. After they have researched several types of energy resources, teams of two to four create posters which depict how these resources can be conserved.
Curated OER
Solar S'Mores
Students investigate solar energy. In this solar energy lesson, students compare how heat is absorbed in light-colored objects and dark-colored objects by making S'mores.
Curated OER
Solar S’Mores
Learners cook with the power of the sun. In this solar energy lesson, students explore solar cooking as they apply scientific principles to cook s'mores.
Curated OER
What is Light?
Learners explore different types of light, and demonstrate reading comprehension skills, including reading strategies, inference, literal meaning, and critical analysis.
Trash For Teaching
The Light-House Project
Groups work together to design a lighthouse, from designing and drawing the wiring diagram, to creating prototypes of the switch and circuit, to envisioning and building a scale model along with a blueprint. By including different...
Curated OER
Solar Energy: Become a Sun Chef!
Students design and construct a solar cooker. They use the Internet to research solar collectors and the process of changing light energy into heat energy.
Curated OER
What’s That, I Can’t Hear You?
Students investigate forms of energy as well as light and sound. In this science lesson, students participate in hands-on activities that require them to evaluate how sound affects astronauts in flight. A video of this lesson being...
Curated OER
Unit 2 Sun & Stars
Students describe stellar objects using terms such as stars, planets, satellites, orbits and light. In this sun and stars unit, students research stellar objects through seven individual lessons discovering star characteristics, how...
Curated OER
Solar Kit Lesson #1 Solar Cell Inquiry
Students use a selection of solar panels, lamps, motors, and an AA battery to get as many motors or lights to operate as they can in an allotted time period. For each successful arrangement, they draw a diagram of their setup, label the...
Curated OER
Latent Heat and Clouds
Students explore latent heat and how it relates to clouds in the atmosphere. In this earth science lesson plan students investigate how clouds are formed. Students examine clouds and the water cycle.
Texas State Energy Conservation Office
Unit 2 - Section 2 - Fuels for Everything
In this alternative energy instructional activity, 6th graders read and study the varying types of fuel. Students read examples and ways that alternative fuel can be used.
Curated OER
Hot Stuff
Learners investigate mechanical and electrical machines in the classroom and school, and identify which produce heat while operating.
Curated OER
Let the Sunshine in
Students collect and analyze data to study wavelengths of visible light. They cover Styrofoam cups with three different colors of sun filtering products and shine a lamp directly on the cups. They determine the most effective filtering...
Curated OER
Looking into Surface Albedo
Young scholars demonstrate how the color of materials on Earth affect the amount of solar energy that is absorbed. In this solar energy lesson plan students complete a lab to explore how the color of materials on the Earth's...
Curated OER
Energy in Cells
In this biology learning exercise, 9th graders explain how producers make their own food. Then they describe the food chain and what the end products are of respiration. Students also describe how muscles continue to get energy during...