Curated OER
Simplicity of Electricity
Students examine how to make an electrical circuit. They listen to a teacher led discussion, design a switch to control a circuit, and construct a signaling device.
Curated OER
Fire Brigade
Young scholars examine how a community works together to protect them from fire. They work together to design a functional tool that could be helpful in fighting fires. They share their tool with the class.
Curated OER
Rover Landing Design Challenge
Students examine the concepts of forces and motion. They work together to design protective devices for their egg rovers as they are dropped from a specific height. They record their observations and discuss.
Curated OER
Tree House Escape!
Students participate in a role play in which they use simple machines to do the work of retrieving their sibling from a tree which lost its ladder. They investigate how work is accomplished when an object moves in the direction of the...
University of Southern California
Wave Erosion Lab
Using a stream table, erosion enthusiasts examine how the density of sediment and how the slope of land contribute to the amount moved by waves. You will not be able to use this entire resource as is; there are teachers' names and...
Curated OER
Insulators and Conductors
Students conduct an experiment in which they create open and closed circuits. In this insulators and conductors lesson, students review open and closed circuits and then get in groups to make both kinds of circuit. Students use a...
Curated OER
Comparing Data
Eighth graders create a survey, gather data and describe the data using measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode) and spread (range, quartiles, and interquartile range). Students use these measures to interpret, compare and...
Curated OER
Building a Terrarium System
Students create their own terrariums. In this ecological model lesson, students create terrariums using soil, seeds, pebbles, and two liter bottles. Students compare the elements of a terrarium to a food web.
Curated OER
Convection Activities
Young scholars conduct a series of hands-on activities to demonstrate that heated air expands and that warm air rises because it is less dense.
Curated OER
The Physics of Hummingbirds: Magic in the Air
Students study hummingbirds and how they use Newton's law. In this motion lesson plan students complete several activities and view videos of hummingbirds.
Curated OER
Friction Flyers
Learners explore the principles of magnetism and friction. They complete an interactive puzzle on the Gizmos and Gadgets computer software, construct a vehicle, build and modify ramps and vehicles to produce various outcomes, and...
Curated OER
Is there a Lunar Meteorite Hazard?
In this lunar meteorite hazard worksheet, students read about the speed of meteorites that crash into the Moon. Students solve 2 problems including finding the impact rates of the meteorites on the Moon, determining the number of years...
Curated OER
Paper or Plastic: Exploring Renewable Resources.
Students discuss, develop, invent, and implement a plan for making informed personal economic decisions about renewable resources.
Curated OER
The Sonoran Desert
Little learners examine a map of the southwestern United States and identify the Sonoran Desert. They locate different cities and rivers, determining whether or not each is found within this special ecosystem. A student handout is...
Curated OER
Electricity and Magnetism
Fourth graders compare electricity and magnetism. In this science instructional activity, 4th graders discuss the concepts of electricity and magnetism and brainstorm examples of electrical and magnetic forces.
Curated OER
Describing an Object's Position
Learners explore language arts by participating in a shape identification activity. In this geometry shape lesson, students discuss the vocabulary terms used to describe the location of an object. Learners complete a worksheet based upon...
Curated OER
Quiz: Weather Phenomena #1
In this science worksheet, 3rd graders focus on the weather. Students respond to ten multiple choice questions about various aspects pertaining to our weather.
Curated OER
Electricity Newsletter
Students create a newsletter about electricity. They view a completed newsletter and discuss its information and format and research the Internet to find facts about electricity. After researching their facts, they write a rough draft of...
Curated OER
Latent Heat and Clouds
Students explore latent heat and how it relates to clouds in the atmosphere. For this earth science lesson students investigate how clouds are formed. Students examine clouds and the water cycle.
Curated OER
The Seven Characteristics of Life
Third graders investigate the characteristics of living and nonliving things. They conduct a research quest in order to identify the seven characteristics of life. Then students pick one aspect and use it to create a song meant to be...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Ohm's Laws
Students explore the relationship of resistance, voltage and current in series and parallel circuits. Then they discover Ohm's Law by constructing series circuits with one resistor and putting the resultant resistance, current and...
Curated OER
Electromagnetic Wave Spectrum
Fifth graders examine electromagnetic wave spectrum. In this science lesson, 5th graders discuss the aspects of the electromagnetic wave spectrum and complete a worksheet identifying the parts of the spectrum.
Curated OER
Investigation of Hooke's Law Lab
Young scholars determine the spring constant by conducting an investigation. In this physics lesson, students collect data and create a graph of force vs. displacement. They compare the results of two different methods to find spring...