Curated OER
Scaled Rubber Band Drawings
Students demonstrate the process of creating a scaled rubber band enlargement of a simple drawing. They observe and discuss a teacher-led demonstration, and create a scaled rubber band enlargement of simple drawings and their invention...
NASA
Newton Car
If a car gets heavier, it goes farther? By running an activity several times, teams experience Newton's Second Law of Motion. The teams vary the amount of weight they catapult off a wooden block car and record the distance the car...
PBS
No Slip Grip
The force will be with you during an inquiry-based lesson focused on friction. Young scientists explore the effect of different surfaces on friction. They use rubber bands to measure the amount of force needed to move an object on the...
DiscoverE
Design a Catapult
Just this once, it's okay to throw things in class. Out of craft sticks and rubber bands, pupils build catapults to launch an object of choice. This can be a ping-pong ball, a marshmallow, or any other small item. As long as it hits the...
GeoGebra
Triangle Dilations
Stretch the class' knowledge of dilations. With the aid of the rubber band stretcher tool, learners perform dilations. They dilate the triangle by a whole number scale and a fractional scale from two centers of dilation.
Curated OER
The Butterfly Project
In this project instructional activity, learners use rubber bands to enlarge pictures of butterflies found at the Butterflies of Illinois website.
Curated OER
Steep, Steeper, and Steepest
Fifth graders discuss ways to move large rocks. They relate this to building a rock garden, and the ways people might load boulders into a truck. Students discuss the use of a ramp vs. lifting the boulder straight up onto the bed of the...
Curated OER
Plastics and Rubber: What's the Difference?
Students observe how to classify things into groups based on physical properties. In this plastic and rubber lesson students group and sort items to help them to better identify properties.Â
Curated OER
Don't Slip!
Students measure, record, and graph the force of moving a block of wood along sand paper. In this friction lesson plan, students read a spring scale, collect data, construct a graph, and propose a model to explain how fiction works.
LABScI
Projectiles: Target Practice
Angry Birds prepared them, but now pupils must prove their skills with projectiles! Scholars test different variables to determine which ones impact the distance the projectile flies. The experiment provides connections to kinetic and...
Curated OER
Weightlessness
Students compare and contrast the terms "weight" and "mass". In this physics lesson, students observe an experiment in which objects are placed on a balance scale and weighed under different circumstances. Partners drop items and observe...
Virginia Department of Education
Permeability and Porosity
Covering both permeability and porosity, scholars perform a hands-on experiment testing various soil types. The material includes a pre-lesson worksheet to help focus pupils on the task at hand.Â
Teach Engineering
Super Slinger Engineering Challenge
How well can you launch a ping-pong ball? Small groups design launchers that can launch a ping-pong ball 20 feet into a target. The teams follow the engineering design process as they develop a solution that meets the design...
IMAX
Hubble
Explore what it takes to service the Hubble telescope. In the set of three activities, groups investigate several aspects of the Hubble telescope, including robotic arms used during repairs, spacesuits, and extravehicular activity (EVA)...
DiscoverE
Ocean Acidification
Combat ocean acidification with bubbles. Young engineers create a system that reduces the acidity of water. Dry ice in water helps simulate ocean acidity, and blowing bubbles into the water results in a gas exchange that neutralizes the...
Curated OER
Environment: Water & Air
The introduction to the lesson mentions a sailor's limited capacity to store drinking water on his ship. Pupils then set up an overnight experiment to remove freshwater from salt water by distillation. There is a math and map activity to...
Curated OER
Experiments with Levers
Students investigate levers. In this simple machine lesson, students study levers and the mechanical advantage of using levers. They will collect data and illustrate their systems for eight different tests.
Curated OER
Multiplication: Determining the Weight of Multiple Objects
Seventh graders use their knowledge of multiplication and problem solving to determine the total weight of multiple objects. In this multiplication lesson, 7th graders weigh various manipulatives, record the weight, and use...
Curated OER
Weather with Lewis and Clark: Then and Now
Fourth graders discuss how to accurately measure weather, gather materials in order to make instruments, and build weather instruments in which they measure and record different aspects of weather for a five-day period.
Curated OER
Buried Treasure
Students examine the role of micro and macro organisms in the decomposition process. They record their observations and discuss. They also read a book about decomposition.
Curated OER
What is a Class One Lever?
Fifth graders understand what a lever is, how it works and what the parts of a lever are. In this first class lever lesson, 5th graders label pictures and design a lab lever. Students predict the outcome of experiments with their lever...
Curated OER
What Orbital Dynamic Variables are Responsible for Earth's Weather?
Young scholars explore the changing of the seasons. In this astronomy and seasons lesson, students construct a model of the revolution of the sun and the moon. Young scholars compare the recorded solstice/equinox orbital positions and...
Curated OER
Desalination: Creating a Solar Still
To better understand how solar power can aid in creating desalinated drinking water, the class creates a model still. They will build a model of a solar still, make observations, and discuss how the process works. While the idea behind...
Curated OER
You Can Take the Pressure!
Young scholars construct and use a barometer over a period of 1-2 weeks to investigate and predict upcoming weather from barometric pressure.