Students review previous lessons about volcanoes and name the phenomena they think the eyewitnesses of the Mount St. Helens witnessed. They play the roles of reporter, eyewitness and scientists who are serving on a committee...

Learners investigate which objects sink and which ones float. Learners engage in an experiment, make predictions, and record results on a graphic organizer. This is a comprehensive and easy to follow resource.

Students examine the characteristics of the ocean floor and the importance of of extreme environments.  In this investigative instructional activity students use four methods to sample populations, gather, record and analyze data...

Fourth graders identify basic properties of minerals and rocks. They access websites and utilize worksheets imbedded in this lesson to further their understanding of rock classification.

Go with the flow and use a helpful resource. A set of two activities has learners investigate flow rates. They first determine the flow rate of a faucet by measuring how long it takes to fill a bucket. Using the results, they make a...

Winter, spring, summer, and fall—take the learning of the seasons beyond the elementary level to the middle school classroom. Curious learners begin by watching videos about the seasons and the rotation of planet Earth. Then,...

Comparative anatomy prevails in the lesson exploring diversity among invertebrates. Biologists examine physical characteristics of an earthworm from phylum annelida and a meal worm from phylum insecta. They also inspect a cricket and a...

Give your class a chance to show what they know. In the last installment of a seven-part series, pupils summarize and review what they have learned in the series. They present their solutions for creating a biosensor to detect cancer...

How does your garden grow? An inquiry-based, organic gardening unit asks young scientists to research a vegetable or flower, create an environment for it, and then plant and tend to the seedling. Gardeners develop their own research...

Young scholars 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.

Students develop simple observations. They observe bleeding of colored inks with water, to understand mixtures, and to make generalized inferences from their observations.

Second graders study Earth's materials. In this air and weather lesson, 2nd graders note changes in the weather and examine tools that help us study the weather. Students analyze how changes in the environment make changes in the...

Students conduct a series of experiments to observe factors that impact molecular movement. In this molecular chemistry lesson, students drop food coloring in water with different properties (hot, with ice, with alcohol) and observe how...

Middle schoolers create a dichotomous key. In this categorizing lesson, students create a dichotomous key for different types of cereal. Middle schoolers classify the cereal into groups such as flakes and cereal with holes. Students...

Students use diagrams to compare structural differences that taxonomists use to classify animals. In this classification lesson plan, students compare structures of different species from given diagrams. In one diagram they identify the...

The best inventions come from a problem that needs to be solved! Given a container with holes in...

Middle schoolers explore a specific method of identifying fungi, using a written key and an illustrated key. Powdery mildew fungi can be identified to genus by the morphology (appearance) of the sexual stage (cleistothecia).

Learners minerals and how they form. They investigate the classification of minerals according to physical properties. Students watch a video about mineral characteristics. In groups, learners participate in hands-on activities and...

In this introduction to chemistry worksheet, learners answer 9 questions regarding the study of chemistry. The first part is matching, then they "think like a scientist" and then they problem solve.

Middle schoolers compare the absorbency of a regular diaper and a swim diaper in fresh water and salt water. In this absorbency lesson plan, students mass the diapers and place them in water and determine the change in mass. They do the...

Students explore matter. In this physical science instructional activity, students role play the 3 states of matter forming "liquid" molecules and "solid" molecules with teammates. Students perform an experiment in which the result...

Students study how matter changes from solids to liquids or liquids to solids. In this physical science lesson, students discuss heat energy and experiment with heat by changing a candle into a liquid using a hot plate.

Students investigate biology by completing a group classification activity. In this animal characteristics, students discuss the different families in the animal kingdom and the small differences that separate the animals. Students...

Pupils design and conduct an open-ended investigation using a variety of earth materials to answer a questions posed by the teacher: How does the erosion of sand compare with the erosion of gravel? After producing evidence that...