CK-12 Foundation
Direction on the Earth: Using a Compass
Navigate the world of orienteering in an informative interactive. Earth science scholars learn practical direction skills, such as proper polar coordinates and pairing compasses with maps. The interactive map allows them to practice...
CK-12 Foundation
Earth's Magnetic Field: Compass Poles
You'll be strangely drawn to this activity! Physical science pupils learn how compasses work in an interesting interactive. The content covers magnetic poles, Earth's magnetic field, and what would happen if Earth's poles swapped places.
Science Matters
Magnetic Fields: Making a Compass
What better way to understand how an object works than to make one! Learners take what they learned in the previous lessons and construct their own compasses. Using a needle, water, and styrofoam, they build and test compasses and verify...
Space Awareness
The Sun Compass of the Vikings
Evidence shows the Vikings likely navigated by using a simple sundial to find their course. Videos, a short story, and discussion help bring this time period to life as they study European history with a hands-on experiment. Scholars...
Curated OER
Compass Building Instructions
Students build their own compass following a given procedure. In this technology lesson, students explain how a compass is used in navigation. They trace the history of its development.
Curated OER
Combining Map and Compass
Students practice using the map and compass to find a location. In this geography instructional activity series, students identify basic requirements needed when traveling in the wilderness. They plan a healthy menu for a backpacking trip.
Curated OER
Making A Compass
This interesting science lesson is about the compass. Students make a compass out of a magnet, sewing needle, cork, and a glass dish. The lesson includes both a pre and post-test for the students to take, and some very good links to...
Curated OER
Azimuth and Altitude
Students use a compass and their hands to find positions of stars and planets in the night sky or of the sun during the day.
Curated OER
Angles Activities
A series of geometry worksheets have mathematicians constructing, dissecting, overlapping, and measuring as they analyze angles in various contexts. Learners use symmetry and reflections in a compass rose to write instructions on...
Micron Technology Foundation
Electricity
Conduct four electrifying electricity experiments that challenge young scientists to explore positive and negative charges and magnetic fields without the shock.
Curated OER
Magnetism: What is a Magnetic Field?
Students make a compass. In this magnetism lesson, students use the Internet to research magnetic fields and perform an experiment to find the magnetic fields around different magnets. Students use the Internet to research compasses,...
Curated OER
Magnets
Young scholars explore how the earth is a magnet and that magnets have two "poles". In this magnetic lesson students complete an activity by designing their own compass.
Teach Engineering
Circuits and Magnetic Fields
Have your class use compasses to try to find the magnetic field around an electric current. Groups use the same technique to visualize magnetic fields as they did in the second activity in the series, but this time, the field is created...
Cornell University
Electromagnets
Discover the connection between electric current and magnets. Scholars create electromagnets by passing a magnet through a coil. They experiment with different materials to determine the variables that affect the strength of the current.
Mascil Project
Water Quality
How do you prevent the spread of water-borne illness in large public swimming areas? Scholars discover the challenges to identifying safe water through an inquiry experiment. They then produce posters sharing their understanding of water...
Science Matters
Magnetic Fields: The Earth Acts as a Giant Magnet
Attract learners to an interesting instructional activity! The third in a 14-part series of lessons on electricity and magnetism uses a hands-on approach to exploring magnetic fields. Scholars experiment with a compass to test Earth's...
Curated OER
Basic Orienteering
Learners study orienteering. In this science lesson, students study the parts of a compass and use the compass to set a bearing and follow the bearing on the compass.
Curated OER
Magnetic Mapping
Students draw arrows to show the direction the compass needle is pointing when it is placed around different points of a penny and a bar magnet. Students must then answer questions about the activity on a provided worksheet.
Curated OER
Forecasting Weather
In this weather instructional activity, students conduct an experiment where they record the weather observations for a week. Then they determine the air pressure using an aneroid barometer and estimate the amount of sky covered by...
Curated OER
Mapping with a Compass: A Simulated Survey
Students use compasses and grids to map the locations of artifacts found in a simulated dig site. In groups, they role-play as future archeologists excavating a school site. Groups begin at their assigned datum and site the artifacts...
Curated OER
Motions and Forces
Sixth graders investigate the construction of a magnet and the force it produces. They identify various materials as magnetic or non-magnetic, discuss the properties of magnetic properties, and conduct an experiment with a compass and...
Curated OER
Magnets are Attractive!!!
Students experiment with magnets. In this magnet instructional activity, students listen to the story What Makes a Magnet? by Franklin M. Branley. They explore different magnets to see what they attract and repulse and view their effect...
CK-12 Foundation
Right Triangles, Bearings, and Other Applications: Sailing Race
Help your class get their bearings when it comes to right triangles. Pupils determine distances traveled or components given the bearing of a sailboat using an interactive. The scholars develop a sense of finding the bearings of a given...
Curated OER
Plants 'n' Bugs
Second graders experiment to find if pollinators have color preferences. In this plant and bug instructional activity, 2nd graders gather information about how flowers pollinate. Students participate in a pollination experiment using...