Learners explore the impact of inventions on society, specifically Edison and the light bulb. In this technology lesson, students use online resources and listen to a story about Edison to develop an understanding of how the light bulb...

Fifth graders participate in scientific inquires regarding the concepts of photosynthesis and cell respiration. For this photosynthesis and cell respiration lesson, 5th graders describe the process of photosynthesis with relation to...

Students creat a ramp using cardboard and tape. They follow directions to perform an experiment to determine the degree of tilt needed to cause an empty milk carton to tip over. Students discuss their results in terms of center of gravity.

Young scholars are able to identify start and stop sequences in DNA. They are able to model using restriction enzyme and ligase to remove sections of DNA and reattach them. Students are introduced to the process of recombinat DNA...

How does NASA transport people and cargo to planets? The five-lesson unit breaks down the transportation system that scientists use to transport cargo to space. Pairs team up in order to devise a transportation system that will...

What will it take to explore space? Teams of pupils determine the needs of a lunar outpost and research the required systems. The pupils then learn about the past space exploration vehicles. The third and final lesson challenges project...

Imagine recycling food scraps and using them to make paper. The directions are all here in a seven-page packet that details several paper-making strategies.

Shake things up in your STEM or earth science classroom when you have small groups construct their own seismographs. A reading assignment on the history of seismographs, the Richter scale, and current technology sets the stage for the...

How do you properly illustrate the extreme size difference between two planets—Earth and Jupiter? With the help of jellybeans, of course! Create a scale model of Jupiter's mass compared to Earth using a fishbowl, 1,400 beans, and a...

Jupiter has 67 moons! As the seventh in a series of 22, the exercise shows learners the size and scale of Jupiter and its Galilean moons through a model. They then arrange the model to show how probes orbited and gathered data.

Space shuttles traveled around Earth at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour, way faster than trains, planes, or automobiles travel! In the 13th installment of 22, groups graph different speeds to show how quickly spacecraft move through...

Watch as your class makes the transition from pupils to researchers! A well-designed instructional activity has scholars pick a solar wind characteristic to research. They then collect and analyze official data from the LANL...

It was the single bloodiest day in Civil War history. Now, class members have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of soldiers who fought in the Battle of Antietam using an interactive website. Supplemental resources include...

During this game, kids become migratory shorebirds and fly among wintering, nesting, and stopover habitats. If they do not arrive at a suitable habitat on time, they do not survive. Catastrophic events are periodically introduced that...

Students study cloud data and weather maps to explore cloud activity.  In this cloud data lesson students locate latitude and longitude coordinates and determine cloud cover percentages. 

In this second of three activities, energy engineers plan and create a hydropower dam as they learn how hydroelectric power plants generate electricity. A hydropower puzzle is also included, which can be worked on by teams that finish...

When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to best...

Develop an online newspaper covering the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The class publishes their newspaper on the school's Web site and analyze both primary and secondary sources.

Students examine various modes of transportation. They explore regional transportation options and discover options available in their area. Students survey types of transportation people use in their area. Using spreadsheet data,...

Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing lesson. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The lesson includes several options to complete...

Florida's state quarter has an image of a space shuttle and a Spanish Galleon on its reverse side. Pupils will examine the state quarter and think about how the Spanish explorers and Space explorers are the same and different. The class...

Sensor technology is amazingly accurate and useful. Combining the sensor technology and mathematical knowledge, scholars design experiments to answer a question they have developed. Questions may focus on light sensing, temperature...

Germination is an amazing process that results in amazing things. The book The Tiny Seed is the inspiration for a set of activities that will help build early literacy, observation, language, and writing skills. The class observes how...

See how estimation is essential to making temperature weather maps. Scholars use ratios and rates of change to estimate temperatures at locations where temperature readings have not been made. They connect this idea to linear functions.