Curated OER
Fish and Zooplankton Through Remote Sensing
Ecology aces examine sea surface temperature maps and relate temperatures to concentration in fish and zooplankton populations. Take your class to a computer lab and provide experience with actual remote sensing data. Some of the links...
Journey Through the Universe
Going through a Phase
Ignore the full moon, it's just a phase. Young scholars observe and record the moon during a full cycle before learning to predict future phases. Then the instructor leads a discussion on the other solar system objects that also go...
Concord Consortium
Target Game—Distance/Force Relationship
Explore the relationship between the distance and the force of charged particles. Scholars adjust the location of charged particles to change the path of a launched particle. By displaying the electric field, they can make a connection...
American Chemical Society
Density and Sinking and Floating
Keep your class afloat with a hands-on density lesson. The challenging lesson has learners experiment with different materials to compare their densities. They learn that increasing or decreasing the amount of the material doesn't change...
Curated OER
Learning Secondary Colors
Students identify secondary colors. In this visual arts lesson, students predict what color will be made when two colors are mixed. Students create their own painting using secondary colors and write about their painting in their journals.
Curated OER
Clouds
Students explore clouds. In this weather lesson, students identify the steps in the water cycle, define condensation and evaporation, and relate this information to cloud formation. Students perform a cloud experiment, predict weather...
Curated OER
Making Waves
Students predict and test how the effects of velocity and force of an object or air on water affect the waves created. They diagram a water park ride using their knowledge of these effects to create their desired outcomes.
Curated OER
The Will to Drill?
Students read a New York Times article about plans for oil drilling in the Arctic. They examine and debate both sides of the plan to explore for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Curated OER
TI-Nspire Activity: What Does Your Representation Tell You?
By learning to select the best representation for three meal plans, students compare three meal plans to determine the best choice. Data for the meal plans is sorted on a table, as an algebraic equation, and graphed on a coordinate grid....
California Academy of Science
Human Evolution
As the great and hilarious Tim Minchin once said, "Science is simply the word we use to describe a method of organizing our curiosity." Science is more than just a guess; it is based on questions, observations, and evidence. High...
Curated OER
Deep Convective Clouds
Learners observe clouds. In this deep convective clouds instructional activity, students analyze cloud data recorded over one month and draw conclusions based on results. Learners predict "Thunderstorm Season" and prepare to defend...
NASA
Erosion and Landslides
A professional-quality PowerPoint, which includes links to footage of actual landslides in action, opens this moving activity. Viewers learn what conditions lead to erosion and land giving way. They simulate landslides with a variety of...
Science Matters
Thermal Energy Flow in Materials
The sun sends the earth 35,000 times the amount of energy required by all of us on the entire planet, every day. The fourth lesson in the 10-part series looks at how light energy from the sun transfers into thermal energy. Scholars build...
NASA
Soda Straw Rockets
Three, two, one, blast off to a better understanding of force and motion with this exciting science instructional activity! Beginning with a discussion about rockets and gravity, young scientists go on to complete a series of worksheets...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
Science 4 Inquiry
Layers of the Earth
We can't dig a hole through the Earth, so how do we know about the layers beneath our feet? Scholars learn about layering through hands-on exploration of common materials. They study the characteristics of each layer and apply their...
Science 4 Inquiry
Levitation Engineers: Exploring Forces
Levitation tricks have been documented from the early 1900s, so how do they do it? Scholars learn about the force of magnetism in an attractive resource. They watch videos and design experiments to understand the strength and...
Science 4 Inquiry
An Investigative Look at Florida's Sinkholes
In May of 1981, the Winter Park Sinkhole in Florida first appeared and is now referred to as Lake Rose. Scholars learn about the causes of sinkholes through an inquiry project. Then, they analyze recent data and draw conclusions to...
Science 4 Inquiry
Edible Plate Tectonics
Many people think they can't observe plate tectonics, but thanks to GPS, we know that Australia moves at a rate of 2.7 inches per year, North America at 1 inches per year, and the Pacific plate at more than 3 inches per year! Scholars...
PBS
Lessons - Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!
Volcanoes are among the most spectacular geological features on the planet. Jump into an exploration of these amazing phenomenon with this multimedia lesson plan series. Working collaboratively in small groups, young scientists view...
Curated OER
How Scientists Work
The arsenal of tools a scientist uses to observe the world are varied. This great presentation gives students a look at some of the strategies they should use when looking at the world around them. The information can be used as a...
Scholastic
Science Method Printables
Six color posters are included, one for each step of the scientific method. Each step in the process is named, and three points to remember or questions to ask are also included to stimulate thinking.
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
Science 4 Inquiry
Genetics, Genetics, and More Genetics: Exploring Independent Assortment and Non-Mendelian Genetics
Two individuals share 99.9 percent of their genetic codes, yet diversity is observed everywhere. Young scientists learn about diversity through hands-on activities and an experiment. They apply the concepts of independent assortment and...