Investigate sound waves with acoustic mirrors. Using audio software, groups make recordings of musical instruments, both with and without acoustic mirrors. They compare the recordings to see the effect of acoustic mirrors on sound...

Ahoy, matey! Here is an engineering expedition that mini mariners are sure to be swept away by! After reading a brief description and history of periscopes, they work in crews to construct one. Use this activity to enhance a lesson on...

Students investigate the law of reflection by using mirrors. In this physics lesson, students operate a robot using IR controllers. They explain the path of light as it reflects through a surface.

Learn how the professionals at NASA send information across space. Engineers use a microdevice, laser pointer, and mirrors as relays to model data transmission in space. Scholars program a microdevice to detect light received and test...

First graders create symmetrical designs using a computer program.  In this lines of symmetry lesson, 1st graders review their symmetrical designs and discuss other ways symmetrical designs can be made.  Students work in pairs...

Make sound visible with an activity that provides directions for how to build a vocal visualizer meant to create light patterns. Making noise into the visualizer causes a mirror to vibrate, reflecting a laser beam, and creating...

Help your class become laser focused on the connection between sound and light. Scholars set up mirrors to bend and direct lasers that are connected to a music source. Music should start playing when the laser hits the photoresistor.

Here's the perfect lesson for those who think the world needs faster pumps. Building on the previous activity, scholars work to make the pumps function faster in transferring water between containers. They try adding an additional solar...

Bubbles aren't just for children. In the third installment of a seven-part series, teenagers use bubble solution to create bubbles and observe patterns of refraction on the bubble surfaces. Application of this concept to thin films in...

Explore optics using an inquiry-based experimental approach! Young scholars use a set of materials to design and build a unit capable of focusing a beam of light. They experiment with different lenses to determine the best approach to...

Just because a question was on a previous exam doesn't mean it will show up on a future one, but at least it helps to review. Learners try out some free-response questions for AP Computer Science A. The questions all come from the 2014...

Learners use Kid Pix to create self-portraits. Using mirrors, they create accurate renditions of themselves on the computer. They print the portraits and display them in the classroom.

Middle school science stars observe and record data on the solar radiation reflected off or transmitted through various materials. They predict properties for various materials, and test their predictions by touch. This lesson becomes...

Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson plan from Media Smarts that asks students to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible...

Youngsters examine resource maps to find out which states are using solar and wind power and discuss as a class various other renewable energy sources. They use a provided data table to record pros and cons to each technology, build and...

Amateurs of alternative energy build a mini parabolic-trough solar energy collector and use it to heat water. Temperature is recorded over a three-minute period and the data is graphed and analyzed. Note that in order to paint aquarium...

Help your class determine the types of pollutants coming from vehicle exhaust. Groups use an air quality monitor to determine the emissions from different vehicles, to gain knowledge about combustion energy, and to predict how the...

Nobody is as smart as all of us together. In a collaborative learning activity, scholars learn it takes a team to be successful in laparoscopic surgeries. Groups complete the laparoscopic task as a team and discuss their results to...

The spacecraft is drifting too far off course! Two games help explain how a spacecraft can use its thrusters to maintain its position. The games have pupils be the components of vectors in order to create and counteract the...

Scholars continue their study of event-driven programming by creating a multi-screen app in the fifth lesson of the series. They incorporate previously learned elements and events in the mini-project.

Future engineers create robotic arms like those on rovers built by NASA in the second instructional activity of the series. They test their devices by attempting to pick up and move cups to a specified location.

Investigate thermoset polymers through experimentation. In an effort to determine the strongest, most flexible mixture, groups conduct an experiment on different-ratio epoxy-amine polymers to finish the set of two lessons.

Students use the Archimedes method to demonstrate scientific principles behind observations.

Students explore symmetry in architecture.  In this cross curriculum art  and architecture lesson, students fold paper to illustrate symmetry and identify symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes.  Students observe photographs...