ARKive
Biodiversity and Evolution – Darwin’s Finches
Teens experience natural selection firsthand (or first beak) in an activity that has them act as finches foraging for food. Using different household items to act as different beak styles, your little finches will collect as much food...
Kentucky Educational Television
What Is Honesty?
This is an absolute must-have resource for exploring honesty with your learners! Youngsters role play four scenarios that involve honest and dishonest actions, and then engage in meaningful discussion and activities regarding those...
Portland Public Schools
Opinion: Persuasive Essay Unit Introduction
Opinion, audience, purpose. Fourth graders are introduced to the three characteristics of persuasive writing in the third unit of a year-long writing program. The 98-page packet is complete with plans, model essays, graphic organizers,...
Curated OER
Hedgerows
Hedgerows prevent soil erosion, capture pollutants running off fields, store carbon to help combat climate change, and provide homes for predators of many pest species. The biodiversity lesson begins with an activity that discusses why...
Integrated Physics and Chemistry
Law of Conservation of Matter
Does mass change during a chemical reaction? Demonstrate the Law of Conservation of Matter while encouraging class members to be creative with a two-part lesson. First, learners use Alka-Seltzer® tablets and water to demonstrate the...
Virginia Department of Education
Prokaryotes
Lead your biology class on a cell-sized adventure! Emerging scientists construct models of prokaryotes, then design an experiment to properly grow a bacterial culture. They conclude the activity by viewing the culture under a microscope....
Facing History and Ourselves
Citizen Watchdogs and the News
To conclude their case study of media coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer, class members consider the role of citizen watchdogs in a democratic society, develop strategies for combating...
National Wildlife Federation
Get Your Techno On
Desert regions are hotter for multiple reasons; the lack of vegetation causes the sun's heat to go straight into the surface and the lack of moisture means none of the heat is being transferred into evaporation. This concept, and other...
Autism Speaks
Supporting Learning in the Student with Autism
Learners with autism face many challenges. Help them to meet these challenges with a packet loaded with practical suggestions, activities, and materials.
Columbus City Schools
Force Field Physics
Attracted class members to an activity-packed journey through the science behind the invisible forces at work all around us. From jump rope generators to junkyard wars, there's never a dull moment when eighth grade physics scholars...
National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Air Quality
Some scientists argue that air pollution now causes more deaths than smoking. The second unit in a six-part series focuses on air quality. Scholars learn what's in the air, how clean the air around their school is, and what they can do...
National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Runoff, Impervious Surfaces, and Smart Development
Can a sidewalk increase the amount of pollution in local streams? Scholars learn the answer to this question though research and experimentation in the fifth unit in the six-part series. Pupils study runoff, impervious surfaces, and the...
National Library of Medicine
Your Environment, Your Health: Food Safety
Did youknow that chicken causes the greatest risk of food-borne illness. The fourth unit in a six-part series addresses food safety. Scholars research common scenarios of food causing illness through the National Institute for Health....
Science 4 Inquiry
A Whole New World: The Search for Water
Scholars find Earth won't support humans much longer and need to identify a planet with water to inhabit. They test four unknown samples and determine which is the closest to water. Then they explain and defend their results.
Queen's Printer for Ontario
Evaluating Wartime Posters: Were They Good Propaganda?
"Back Him Up!" Scholars will analyze how World War I posters displayed, on the home front, often attempted to stir up emotions. As they examine the different ways people used propaganda posters during the war, they will create their own...
Curated OER
Kildare, USA: An Environmental Health Simulation
Your biology class plays the role of epidemiologist when a mysterious illness breaks out in Kildare, USA. Using interviews with doctors, patients, and local citizens, maps, the results from different materials sampling, they work to...
Curated OER
Linear Regression and Correlation
Learners explore scatter plots. In this linear regression lesson, groups of pupils graph scatter plots and then find the line of best fit. They identify outliers and explain the correlation. Each group summarizes and shares their...
American Statistical Association
Don't Spill the Beans!
Become a bean counter. Pupils use a fun activity to design and execute an experiment to determine whether they can grab more beans with their dominant hand or non-dominant hand. They use the class data to create scatter plots and then...
American Statistical Association
How Long is 30 Seconds?
Is time on your side? Pupils come up with an experiment to test whether their classmates can guess how long it takes for 30 seconds to elapse. They divide the class data into two groups, create box-and-whisker plots, and analyze the...
Curated OER
Buying Cars/Financing Cars Compound Interest
Provide a real world context in which exponential functions are used to determine a eal world phenomena such as compound interest and exponential growth. This lesson should be taught after students have mastered the laws of exponents and...
NASA
Let's Investigate Mars
Take your science class on a hypothetical field trip to Mars with an engaging astronomy lesson. After first learning about NASA's Mars rover missions, young scientists plan their own scientific investigations of Earth's nearest neighbor.
Curated OER
Perceived Risks
Students rank a list of everyday risks to compare with classmates. They rate each risk on both its ability to be controlled and its observability in the environment. Results are graphed.
Curated OER
Sources of Potential Groundwater Contamination
Students construct models that demonstrate potential sources of contamination. Students select one type of contamination model (septic system, sinkhole, landfill, disposal lagoon, leaky barrels, oil spill, agricultural contamination) to...
Curated OER
Toxicants and California Blackworms
Students determine the normal behavior of California blackworms. They determine how various concentrations of assigned toxicants affect the worm's behavior. Students are introduced to testing of potential toxicants, an important...