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Surgical Resident for a Day
Middle schoolers simulate the job of surgical resident by using surgical instruments to complete a task inside of a black box using a webcam and flashlight. They complete the task and complete a worksheet.
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Lights Out!
Young scholars examine static and current electricity, and discuss what their lives would be like without electricity. They listen to a teacher-led lecture about electrons and atoms, and explore static electricity using a comb or a...
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Rocking the Boat
Students work together to discover the concepts of stability and equilibrium. They examine how equilibrium is related to an item's center of mass. They create their own action scene in a literacy activity.
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Hot Stuff!
Students observe different demonstrations on the greenhouse effect. They build their own models to show the phenomenon. They discus the role of greenhouse gases on global warming.
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What's Hiding in the Air?
Fifth graders conduct experiments to study the effects of invisible air pollutants including one with a bean plant. They examine methods of invisible air pollutants.
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What's Gotten Into You?
Young scholars use models to investigate the process and consequences of water contamination on the land, groundwater, and plants.
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Ring Around the Rosie
Students work together to discover the concept of angular momentum. They participate in experiments in which they test rotation and relate it to an object's mass. They participate in a literacy activity in which they compare mythology...
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TE Activity: Tears in Rain
Students examine photographs before writing captions for them. They develop visual literacy as they see how photographs are manipulated to show the effects of acid rain. They rewrite the photo captions after a class discussion.
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How Tall Are We?
Students in a Kindergarten class measure each other's height using large building blocks and then visit a 2nd and a 4th grade class to measure those students. They display the results in bar graphs, comparing the different age groups.
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TE Activity: Racing with the Sun - Creating a Solar Car
Students use a purchased kit to build a solar powered car. They connect a solar photovoltaic panel to a motor which runs the car forward and backward. They determine how to wire the car to move in both directions.
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TE Activity: Space Shelter
Students simulate that they need to develop a new home on a different planet. They design a shelter that will ensure their survival after researching the characteristics of the other planet. They write an essay about their home design.
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Pop Rockets
Young scholars work together to design and build a paper rocket. They place a propellant in the contraption to make it fly. They discover Newton's third law of motion.
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Balsa Towers
Students build their own tower using concepts from previous lessons. They are given a set of materials to use and general guidelines. They share what they have created with their classmates.
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Bulbs & Batteries Side by Side
Students build parallel circuits, exploring how they function and looking at their unique features. They describe how current changes when batteries are added in parallel or removed from a parallel arrangement, demonstrate the process of...
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How Far?
Students explore how different textures provide varying amounts of friction to objects moving across them. They build a tool to measure the amount of friction between a note card and various surfaces by measuring the distance that a...
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Strawkets and Thrust
Young scholars investigate the effect of thrust on rocket flight. They construct two paper rockets, one with a smaller exit nozzle, and compare/contrast the distances traveled by the rockets.
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For Your Eyes Only
Students identify two major types of visible pollutants, smog, and particulate matter, They explain that air pollutants are generated during incomplete combustion. They measure and rank collectors from the most pollutants to the least...
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TE Lesson: Kinetic and Potential Energy of Motion
Learners investigate the difference between potential and kinetic energy. They examine the formulae associated with both types of energy. They complete how quickly a pendulum with swing by converting potential energy into kinetic energy.
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What's down there?
students analyze how oil is formed and where in the Earth we find it. Students take a core sample to look for oil in a model of the Earth. They analyze their sample and make an informed decision as to whether or not they should "drill...
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TE Activity: A Roundabout Way to Mars
Students investigate Hohmann orbit transfers using cardboard and string while focusing on the orbits of Earth and Mars. They look at the planets orbits around the sun and transfer orbit form one planet to another to determine what a...
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Waterwheel Work
Students investigate the history of the waterwheel and common uses for water turbines today. They construct an experimental waterwheel using a two-liter plastic bottle, measure the rate of revolution of a waterwheel, and complete a...
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Switcheroo
Students construct a simple switch and determine what objects and what types of materials can be used to close a switch in a circuit and light a light bulb.
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Endocrine Excitement!
Students are divided into a group of hormones and a group of receptors. The hormones have to find their matching receptors, and the pair, once matched, perform a given action. This activity helps students examine the specificity of...
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Bouncing Balls
Students work together to examine how different types of balls react to colliding with different surfaces. They discover the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions. They practice calculating momentum as well.