Curated OER
Academic Raceway 500: Weather
This weather PowerPoint features a game in which students advance to the finish line with a race car as they answer questions related to weather. Topics include types of clouds, weather instruments, the water cycle, and various weather...
Curated OER
The Plasmasphere
In this plasmasphere worksheet, students read about the dilute region of gases 10,000 kilometers above the Earth where atoms are ionized. Students use a photograph taken by the IMAGE EUV instrument to answer 3 questions about the...
Curated OER
Sounds Like Science-Kazoo
Students demonstrate how energy is used to make a sound. In this sound instructional activity, students construct a kazoo from a comb and identify how a sound is made by using force.
Exploratorium
Straw Oboe
Trim the end of a straw to construct a vibrating wind instrument. Everyone in your class can make their own during a lesson on sound waves.
University of Colorado
Is There Life on Earth?
To find life on another planet, scientists look for gases (atmosphere), water, and temperatures that are not extreme. For this activity, groups of pupils become "Titan-ians," scientists who want to explore Earth for possible life forms....
Curated OER
The Same, But Different Part II
Learners characterize a physical change as something that changes to a different size, but retains its basic substance. They measure volumes using milliliters, and perform an experiment that proves that gases expand when hot and contract...
International Technology Education Association
Dampen That Drift!
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...
NASA
Keeping Nine Eyes on the Weather
Take a look at climate change from another angle. Readers learn about the MISR instrument on the Terra satellite and how it studies Earth. Pupils experience how the multiple cameras give scientists multiple views so they can better study...
Polar Trec
Global Snow Cover Changes
Snow is actually translucent, reflecting light off its surface which creates its white appearance. Pairs or individuals access the given website and answer questions about snow cover. They analyze graphs and charts, examine data, and...
Curated OER
Radiation Budget
Students examine the radiation budget and the launching of the Budget Satellite. They role-play as designers of the satellite and construct one with a power source, instruments, and sensors. they explain how their satellite functions...
Curated OER
Measuring the Volume of Water Discharge for a Stream or Canal
Students study how to measure and calculate the volume of water flowing down a stream or canal and use simple tools to make measurements. Next, students determine how many people cold live off the volume of water measured. Finally, they...
Curated OER
Teaching Dynamics
Second graders discuss the sounds of rainstorms. In this rainstorm lesson, 2nd graders listen to the story Down Comes the Rain and they discuss the change in sounds they hear in a thunder storm. They use percussion instruments to create...
Curated OER
The Listening Walk
Students play instruments that reflect sounds in the story: hoots, toots, creaking, shrieks, clacking, crunching, whooshing, etc. They make vocal sounds from the story: whispered, sniffled, sigh, giggled, croaked, laughed. The...
Curated OER
Bird Eggs
Learners perform an experiment with different types of bird eggs to determine what factors make them strong and able to stay on a cliff without rolling off.
Curated OER
Environment: Sounds of the Natural World
Second graders describe and imitate sounds from the natural environment including rain and snow. After listing materials that could be used to make rainsticks, they create their own instruments from cardboard tubes,beans, and sand. To...
Curated OER
Light, Sound and Energy
The students will be given opportunities to work independently and in teacher-directed situations to study and discover the many facets of light and sound, and the uses of energy in our environment. The grade 4 students will learn the...
Curated OER
Pop Rocket - Trash to Treasure
First off, Newton's laws of motion aren't often taught at 2nd grade, so this lesson plan may be more appropriate for upper elementary learners. It begins with a discussion and demonstration of the laws of motion, and then has individuals...
PHET
The Dynamic Nature of the Sun
In this second instructional activity of the series, pupils learn to observe similarities and differences in photos of the sun and record them in a Venn diagram. Then, small groups practice the same skill on unique images before...
Curated OER
Weather Instrument Use and Application
Eighth graders measure temperature, wind speed and pressure using Skymaster SM-28. In this earth science instructional activity, 8th graders collect data and record observations taken from outdoors. They explain why numerical values are...
Curated OER
Homeschooling Chronicles - Microscopes
Microscopes are more than instruments. They are windows into the scientific world.
Curated OER
Physics Lab Rockets
Learners construct and test balloon rockets and a model rocket. In this rocket science activity, students use an inquiry-based method to master balloon rockets and have a shoot-off with the goal of attaining the highest altitude. Next,...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Simple Machines
Here is a tri-faceted resource that has a slide show, a quiz, and a vocabulary list that you can use to teach simple machines. Six machines are introduced: wheels and axles, planes, levers, pulleys, wedges, and screws. Slides contain...
Curated OER
Hubble Space Telescope Webquest
Students research the Hubble Space Telescope. In this Hubble Space Telescope lesson, students complete a webquest about the Hubble Space Telescope.
Curated OER
Blast's Cosmic Carnival
Students, after analyzing the history of a concentrator, model how a Genesis spacecraft concentrator works by playing a game. In groups of three or four, after being given materials to work with, are challenged to roll the rubber balls...