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Bacteria: The good, the bad, the ugly
Seventh graders conduct an experiment. In this bacteria lesson, 7th graders list living and nonliving things and brainstorm the characteristics they share. Students are divided into two groups where they put samples of hand...
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Rock Solid
Students investigate the three types of material stress related to rocks. They watch a PowerPoint Presentation, view an online animation of the three types of rock stress, identify the various types of rocks, answer true or false...
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TE Lesson: What's Dominant?
Students study the number of chromosomes in the body cells, sperm cells, and egg cells of humans. They define allele, and examine the difference between dominant and recessive alleles. They complete an activity with jelly beans that...
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Build an Approximate Scale Model of an Object
Students create a model of an object of their choice using sketches that they have drawn. They study what a scale model is and how to construct one. They examine the uses for scale models and why they are produced.
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Carve That Mountain
Learners investigate major landforms (e.g., mountains, rivers, plains, hills, oceans and plateaus). They build a three-dimensional model of a landscape depicting several of these landforms. Once they have built their model, they act as...
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Construction Technologies: Construct the Strongest Bridge
Middle schoolers investigate how engineers use different types of bridges for different places. In small groups they design and construct bridges for three different scenarios, and answer a series of investigating questions applied to...
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Design Your Own Rube Goldberg Machine
Middle schoolers design and construct a Rube Goldberg machine that accomplishes a simple task in at least ten steps. They view and discuss various Rube Goldberg designs, identify types of simple machines, and in small groups produce a...
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Planting Parts
Each student plants two lima beans in a plastic cup with a paper towel so they can be observed growing. The beans are misted with a spray bottle, and placed in a warm sunny area. Students view the beans each day for the next two weeks,...
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What Are Your Human Rights?: Post World War II and Human Rights
Students define and discuss human rights, make lists of human rights they think everyone deserves, and create class list of ten most important rights. Students then translate formal language of Universal Declaration of Human Rights into...
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The Lewis and Clark Expedition
Students explore the challenges of the Lewis and Clark Expedition through a physical education simulation. In this cross-curriculum physical education lesson, students work in groups of three to log 8000 steps, stopping to participate in...
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With Liberty & Top Soil for All
Learners compare the basic needs of plants to the basic needs of democracy. For this democracy comparison lesson, students complete a worksheet on what happens to a plant that's not nourished. Learners draw a correlation to the basics of...
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Investigating the Relationship of Mass to Volume
Third graders explore the relationship of mass to volume. In this physical science instructional activity, 3rd graders participate in an investigation with a several materials and measure the mass and volume using scientific tools....
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A Salute to American Symbols
Students research American symbols. In this American History lesson, students listen to the story The Wall and discuss the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. They also listen to One Nation and research an American Symbol to create a...
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Fall vs. Spring
Students compare fall and spring. For this seasonal changes lesson, students read the book Apples and Pumpkins and discuss the fall season. The students then read It's Spring and describe the spring season. As a culminating activity,...
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What's Your Favorite Planet?
Fourth graders, after listing the nine planets and their differences, choose one planet as their favorite. From the information acquired on each students favorite planet, they make a graph illustrating their favorites and then transform...
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Students Press Law and Ethics
Learners research the rights and the responsibilities of journalists in dealing with First Amendment issues. In this First Amendment lesson plan, students research the Alien and Sedition Acts and study the five elements of...
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Getting to the Point
Students determine location by using the technique of triangulation. They imagine that they are out in the wilderness and have come to the top of a ridge. How can one identify the ridge on the topo map? How can one figure out where you...
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Dangerous Air
Students investigate how pollution is a global issue. They locate the countries affected by radiation from Chernobyl, sequence the progress of radiation transport from Chernobyl and plot the pollution points on a world map, and read and...
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Do As the Romans: Construct an Aqueduct!
Students explore how the Romans engineered and built aqueducts. They read a manual, explore the Construct a Roman Aqueduct online activity, and construct an aqueduct that will transport two liters of water across a short distance in the...
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Floating and Falling Flows
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
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TE Activity: Muscles, Muscles Everywhere
Students study three different muscle types and investigate the affect of space travel on astronauts' muscles. They examine how exercise has a positive affect on muscle both on Earth and in space while looking at engineers' roles in...
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TE Activity: Oil Spill Cleanup
Students experiment by creating an oil spill and trying a number of clean up methods. They determine which methods are the least costly and most effective. They role play as an environmental engineer and as an oil company owner who must...
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Swing in Time
Young scholars examine the motion of pendulums and come to understand that the longer the string of the pendulum, the fewer the number of swings in a given time interval. They see that changing the weight on the pendulum does not have an...
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Walk, Run, Jump!
Students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. They compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space. They list the three types of...