Devote an hour to computer coding ... it's time well spent! The activity has young computer scientists write code to solve puzzles in the Minecraft game. They learn how to apply block codes and repeat loops.

Students investigate energy consumption by researching wattage.  In this electricity lesson, students discuss how electricity works and gets transferred to our electronic devices through generators and circuits.  Students...

Planning a unit on simple machines? Save some time and energy with this collection of lessons and activities that explores how these devices are used in the real world to make life a little easier. 

Did you know that people, known as computers, performed the complex calculations that are now done by electronic computers? Three of these human computers, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Melba Roy Mouton are featured in a...

Students conduct research on four fast food restaurants to determine where they might apply for a job. They conduct research on hourly rate, working conditions, and benefits, construct a spreadsheet with a graph, and present their...

Young scientists investigate the scientific concepts and principles that help make common toys such as hula hoops, yo-yos, slinkies, and silly putty work. As a class, they read "Backyard Rocket Science, Served Wet" to get a look behind...

Share pupil responses to an interactive slide show about a design initiative intended to help the world's poor. The class works in groups to brainstorm ideas, and then prepares sketches of their own design solutions. Each rendering...

If you use the resource, then pupils will understand conditional block instructions. In the first lab of a six-part unit, pupils learn how to use conditional statements (if/then) in block instructions for computer programming. They apply...

Students brainstorm a list of potential uses for micro-video technologies. After reading an article, they analyze the development of a new pill-sized camera. In groups, they create a children's book that shows them the various systems of...

Judy Clocks are a great invention. Here, learners review telling time to hour and half hour on Judy clocks, begin telling time to quarter hour, use clock stamps to practice, and play computer games using Trudy's Time and Place House...

Help overcome challenges in eating pizza. Scholars work in groups to design a device that assists a physically handicapped person eat pizza. They build a prototype of such a device to test their designs before building. To...

This cool lesson plan is ideal for elementary engineers or physical scientists, especially when learning about heat transfer and insulation. After reading a page of background information, engineering teams collaborate to design and...

What can bulldozers and screen doors have in common? Use this lesson 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 investigate...

Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...

The challenge: determine whether a tank will float. A design activity has groups work as engineering teams in order to determine the stability of given tanks and liquid contents. The teams need to determine the equations to...

High schoolers work with pre-loaded images as well as with a digital camera to manipulate digital images. At the end of the lesson, they analyze and write about their work using complete sentences, correct grammar, and spelling. For a...

Have your class draw the plans and design a structure. Learners discuss and investigate the variables in the stability of a 2D and 3D model. They also consider how to add a circuit to the design. Afterwards, they present their work.

Challenge small groups to build a structure that catches a raw egg without breaking—working collaboratively and applying mathematical and engineering principles. Pretending the frame was made by a business, scholars create a marketing...

Get siblings to do your work. Scholars learn how to perform summations of arithmetic sequences in an innovative lesson. They use iterations, smaller siblings (tail-end recursion), and the divide-and-conquer approach.

Introduce environmental science or engineering explorers to different forms of sampling. They read an article about "Robo-lobsters," lobsters being studied to help design robots that can used to sniff out pollution in ocean waters. The...

What is this? What is it for? How does it work? Challenge the class to think about to how to design a new chocolate factory for the Oompa-Loompas to make it easy to use. The activity is the first of a three-part series on...

High schoolers develop a working model computer program of a recycling center addressing the material management, work schedules and business finances of running the recycling center.

What a bright idea! Working in groups, scholars design a solar phone charger by applying concepts from the unit. They use solar modules and buck and boost converters in their creations, which must be able to charge a phone after...

Planning an elementary science unit has never been simpler! These twelve lessons guide young scientists through an exploration of simple machines and their many uses in the real world before asking them to apply their learning...