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Cookie Caper

For Teachers 4th - 6th
Students determine the best chocolate chip cookie. In this comparison investigation, students create a quantitative scientific study to determine the best chocolate chip cookie using the steps of the scientific method.
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Boat Design

For Teachers 8th - 10th
Students build a boat and make predictions. In this geometry lesson, students design a cargo boat. They must show that the boat they designed can carry the cargo.
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Scientific Method "Lab Writeup"

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students analyze and experience the scientific method. They discuss the various steps of the method, conduct various experiments, and write a three-paragraph essay regarding their conclusion.
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Project Geode

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Young scholars predict the appearance of a geode's internal structure based on its mass and density. They form a hypothesis based on the data they collect. They also identify common minerals found in Illinois.
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Heavy Ice: Day Five

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students explore physics by conducting a class experiment. In this density lesson, students examine a list of items and discuss whether they will sink or float and then determine their density. Students examine the objects over five days...
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Qualitative Vs. Quantitative

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders examine the difference between qualitative and quantitative observations by doing a simple lab activity. This lesson can be used at any grade level. It involves the basic observation process skill.
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CheMATHstry That Sticks Right to You

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students find the percent composition of sugar in the gum. In this chemistry lesson, students calculate percent error from the experiment. They use dimensional analysis to convert between units.
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What Floats Your Boat?

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Students discover the Archimedes principle through a buoyancy experiment. They measure the water displacement of a lump a clay which is denser than water then reshape the clay into a bowl which floats but displaces more water.
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Selecting Soil Organisms in Compost

For Teachers 12th - Higher Ed
Learners conduct an experiment to demonstrate that many of the enzyme systems needed to break down society's wastes exist in nature among the decomposers in a compost pile. They culture compost bacteria on starch agar to examine the...
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Permeability of Earth Materials

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students observe and classify the permeability of a variety of materials.
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Mining for Natural Resources

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Students discover that mining for nonrenewable natural resources has a dramatic effect on our environment. They gain an understanding of the processes involved in harvesting a natural resource and the impact it has on the earth.
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The Air Up There!

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students create a model of a column of air and discover one of the reasons why low and high pressure systems exist and why low pressure is often associated with bad weather.
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Move that Tower

For Teachers 9th - 11th
Students investigate ways to find the density of irregular shaped objects. In this physics lesson, students calculate density using its mass and volume. They explain why some objects float or sink in water.
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Acceleration 2

For Students 8th - 10th
In this acceleration instructional activity, students experiment with varying amounts of mass to observe the effects on the force needed to move an object. Students apply Newton's Second Law of Motion to describe the relationship between...
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Metric Mania Worksheet

For Students 6th - 9th
In this metric worksheet, learners complete 28 different metric calculations consisting of density, volume, mass, length, temperature, and time.
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Can you Find the Expression

For Teachers 10th - 11th
Students collect data from measurements and weights for this experiment. In this algebra lesson, students analyze graphs they create form their data to find the expression representing the data. They label which graph provided the best...
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Gravity, Seasons, and Time

For Students 7th - 10th
For this Earth worksheet, students read about Earth's gravity, the reason the Earth has seasons, and time zones. Then students complete 21 multiple choice, 2 true or false, and 1 short answer question.
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Big Enough?

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students explore the concept of density and buoyancy. In this physics lesson, students discover the different factors that affect an object's density and buoyancy in water. Students conduct several investigations to further...
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Bathtub Physics - Density, Buoyancy and Flotation

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students study Archimedes' Principle, flotation and the reaction of buoyant forces and explain the relationship between density and flotation.
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Testing Density of Various Soap Products

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners have the opportunity to observe, measure and analyze the density of aerosol shaving creams and foams generated from shampoo and dishwashing liquids or detergents.
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Selecting Soil Organisms in Compost

For Teachers 12th - Higher Ed
Students demonstrate that many of the enzyme systems needed to break down--and therefore clean up-society's wastes already exist in nature among the decomposers. They select the best starch-munching organisms by altering the environment...
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Towel Testing

For Teachers Pre-K - 6th
Students examine how to design and implement experiments.  In this paper towel experiment lesson students test the strength of paper towels. 
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Testing Termites to Discover

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers design an experiment to discover how termites respond to their environment.
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The Average Atom - Isotopes

For Teachers 7th
Seventh graders, in groups, complete an Isotopes model and notice that atomic masses are decimal numbers. These masses are an average of all the isotopes of that element.