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Harvesting Oil from the Earth
Fourth graders research sources of fossil fuels especially oil while determining how scientists take core samples from an Earth model. They look at oil consumption and production in the US and throughout the world.
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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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Conductivity
Students work together to create a simple conductivity tester. They discover the difference between conductors and insulators. They test different types of materials for their conductivity as well.
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Faulty Movement
Students discover the faults throughout the Earth. They describe the different types of faults and how they are related to earthquakes. They build models of the faults.
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What Color is Your Air Today?
Students investigate air quality. They analyze Air Quality Index data tables, interpret the graphs, complete a worksheet, and discuss trends in air quality.
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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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Drifting Continents
Students, through teacher-led demonstration, explore the idea of continental drift. They complete a worksheet involving the calculation of continental drift over time.
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Straining out the Dirt
Young scholars design and construct a water filter using activated carbon, cotton and other materials to remove chocolate powder from water. They test and record their observations, and complete a KWL chart.
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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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Moving without Wheels
Students observe a simple water cycle model to better understand its role in pollutant transport. This activity shows one way in which pollution is affected by the water cycle; it simulates a point source of pollution in a lake and the...
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TE Lesson: Kinetic and Potential Energy of Motion
Students 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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TE Activity: Does Weight Matter?
Students design and conduct experiment to determine if weight added incrementally to an object affects amount of friction encountered when it slides across a flat surface. They graph data from their experiments, and calculate...
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The Benefits of Biodiversity
Students examine the concept of biodiversity. They toss coins to determine what traits mouse parents have and the babies traits as well. They predict what would happen to the baby mice if the traits of the parents were different.
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The Squeeze is On
Students investigate the force of compression and how it acts on structural components through a hands-on group project. They use everyday products such as paper, toothpicks, and tape to construct a structure that will support the...
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Tightrope Trials
Students research the concepts of center of mass and how to make different things balance. They make symmetrical cut-outs of different "creatures" and experiment with how they balance on a tightrope of string.
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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...
TryEngineering
Here Comes the Sun
Students explore concept of how solar energy is gathered by solar panels and adapted to provide power to machines, disassemble solar powered calculator and explore component parts, and work in teams to suggest design enhancements to the...
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Build A Birdhouse
Students work together to design and build a birdhouse. They research a bird of their choice and build the birdhouse that means that bird's specifications. They discover the importance of designing.
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Seeing the World Through A Different Lens
Students participate in activities in which they model different disabilities. They discuss their experiences as a class. They work together in groups to discuss how to improve an adaptive device.
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Light Plants and Dark Plants, Wet Plants and Dry Ones
Students plant sunflower seeds in plastic cups, and once germinated, these are exposed to different conditions of light levels and/or soil moisture contents. Students measure growth of the seedlings every few days using non-standard...
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The Laws of Thermodynamics
Students investigate the concept of a thermodynamic system. The difference between a state and phase is defined as part of the experimental explanations given in writing. Students conduct experiments to demonstrate laws of science like...
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Advanced Critical Reading: Ethanol
In this advanced critical reading worksheet, learners read a passage about ethanol then answer questions. Students make inferences, determine author's purpose and use context clues to find the meaning of unknown words in the passage.
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Civil War: Generals at the Battle of Stones River
Students explore U.S. history by creating a computer presentation in class. In this Civil War battle lesson, students read assigned text about the Battle of Stones River and research individual generals from the battles. Students utilize...