Curated OER
Build It Better!
Young scholars work together to review what they know about damage during tornadoes. They design a structure that they hope protects people against tornadoes. They share their structure with the class.
Curated OER
Chinese Lanterns - Technology
Fifth graders investigate the type and use of lanterns in Chinese history, their cultural significance and their role in today's society. They watch a lantern maker and describe the process. Students compare and discuss a range of...
Curated OER
Database Detectives Solve a Mystery ~ Part 2
Young scholars work together to solve a classroom mystery. They collect and organize their information into databases. They educate the school on how databases benefit life in a democracy.
Curated OER
Designing Tools for Ocean Exploration
Students research the methods and tools used in ocean exploration. They, in groups, simulate an ocean exploration and consider what tools facilitate the exploration's objectives.
Teach Engineering
Weather Basics
Weather — there's more to it than meets the eye of the storm. With this resource young meteorologists learn about the basics of weather, including information about the factors that influence the weather, common weather vocabulary,...
Teach Engineering
Electromagnets
Show your class what goes on with a magnet that can be turned on and off with a resource that provides the information needed to build an electromagnet. The information allows the class to understand that creating loops with the current...
Teach Engineering
Investigating Torque
Torque--a teachable moment? Here's a lesson on torque (or moment) and variables that include size, reinforcement, structural bracing, and material that affect torque.
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields Matter
Help your young scientists learn which materials are affected by magnetic fields with an activity that presents the information about different types of materials — diamagnetic, paramagnetic, and ferromagnetic — and their interaction...
Teach Engineering
Magnetic Fields
Introduce your class to magnetic fields with an activity that demonstrates that a compass is affected by the magnetic field of the earth, unless a closer, stronger magnetic field is present. Pupils can use this fact in the...
Teach Engineering
How a Hybrid Works
Work with your class to connect series and parallel circuits to hybrid cars. The instructional activity introduces basic circuit diagrams before having scholars apply the understanding of the difference between parallel and...
Teach Engineering
Levers that Lift
Introduce your class to to the remaining three simple machines-- the lever, pulley, and the wheel-and-axle with a plan that includes the three different types of levers in the discussion of levers. The lesson continues with the...
Teach Engineering
Solenoids
Metal slinkies, coils of wire, magnetic fields, and MRIs. To determine the safety hazards of MRI machines, class members use the provided formula to calculate the magnetic field along the axis of the solenoid.
Teach Engineering
The Advantage of Machines
Show your students how to make their work easier. The first lesson in a series of 10 introduces the class to work and the way simple machines can be make work easier. The simple machines scholars can find in everyday items are...
Nature
Non-Structural Hazards
Buildings often have decorative components and furnishings that can pose a hazard during an earthquake. Learners examine the classroom for such non-structural features. They consider fictional scenarios and discuss what actions...
Curated OER
Hunt the Fact Monster Hunt #21
In this internet research worksheet, students answer ten unrelated questions by using the Fact Monster search engine. A sample question asks: "Achilles, one of the strongest heroes in Greek mythology, met his death when he was wounded in...
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...
Teach Engineering
Get Me Off This Planet
What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits...
International Technology Education Association
Make a Pinhole Camera
With a little light and a lot of time, you can create some amazing images. This NASA-related task instructs pupils to build a pinhole camera. The lesson provides suggestions for different pictures to try with the pinhole camera...
Discovery Education
It's Too Loud!
STEM scholars investigate sound attenuation by conducting an experiment in which they compare the farthest distance that they can hear a sound with and without ear protection.
DiscoverE
Hoop Glider
Fly into an engineering lesson sure to get your scholars' interest off the ground. Young pupils create hoop gliders out of straws and paper hoops. Adjusting the size and number of the hoops lets them investigate the effect on flight...
Dr. Panda
Dr. Panda's Veggie Garden
Friends arrive at the farm and aspiring agronomists help the farmer to grow what the friends want. With adorable animation and charming background music, little ones practice virtual gardening and farming while developing cognitive...
Teach Engineering
Constructing Sonoran Desert Food Chains and Food Webs
Investigate desert biomes by creating food chains and food webs. Groups first research feeding habits of organisms in the Sonoran Desert. This information helps pupils draw food chains and webs to determine relationship between organisms.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Colour—Gifted and Talented Chemistry
Add a splash of color to your chemistry class! Science scholars discover the principles behind color through a wide variety of hands-on activities. Lessons include dyes, chromatography, and flame tests.
Statistics Education Web
Saga of Survival (Using Data about Donner Party to Illustrate Descriptive Statistics)
What did gender have to do with the survival rates of the Donner Party? Using comparative box plots, classes compare the ages of the survivors and nonsurvivors. Using the same method, individuals make conclusions about the...