US Environmental Protection Agency
Aquifer in a Cup
Young scientists create their very own aquifers in this science lesson on ground water. After learning about how some people get their drinking water from underground wells, young learners use sand, modeling clay, and aquarium rocks to...
Olomana School
Mixtures and Solutions: Paper Chromatography Experiment
Why does some ink bleed through paper, and other ink doesn't? Practice some paper chromatography to separate the colors from a pen with an interactive experiment for middle and high schoolers. Learners use a variety of solutions to track...
NOAA
What Killed the Seeds?
Can a coral cure cancer? Take seventh and eighth grade science sleuths to the underwater drugstore for an investigation into emerging pharmaceutical research. The fifth installment in a series of six has classmates research the wealth of...
Curated OER
Silly Semi-Solids
Students create a polymer out of glue, water, and borax. They discuss the resulting substance and perform several experiments with it.
Teach Engineering
Things That Matter to Flocculants
How does the dirt get out of your drinking water? A hands-on activity introduces the use of flocculants to help clear solid particles out of water. The plan walks learners through the process of setting up an experiment that controls the...
US Environmental Protection Agency
Role of Plants in Water Filtration
Investigate the amazing ability of plants to filter contaminants from water with this series of in-class demonstrations. After placing six small, potted plants in plastic cups, different solutions and mixtures are poured into them that...
Virginia Department of Education
Electricity and Circuits
Electrify your classroom as you lead pupils through a series of steps to demonstrate basic principles of electricity and magnetism. They design a simple circuit and test this for static electricity and current electricity. Next, they...
Teach Engineering
Water Remediation Lab
Water filtration — that's pure genius! Groups test the ability of a water filter to purify water by running chlorine contaminated water through a filter and measuring the chlorine concentrations as they filter the water. They then graph...
Teach Engineering
Density Column Lab - Part 2
Groups suspend objects within layers of liquids to determine the densities of different liquids and compare them to the densities of objects calculated in Part 1. The groups then carefully test their calculations by layering the liquids...
Teach Engineering
Surface Tension Basics
Back to the basics (of surface tension). The first installment of a nine-part series teaches young scholars about the basics of surface tension and how it relates to water droplets. They also learn how this concept allows for the...
Curated OER
LD50 of NaCl to Gammarus spp.
Students learn the meaning of LD50 through lecture and discussion. Through experiment, students graph and calculate the LD50 of salt on fresh water amphipods. Students compare results of the experiment with pesticides and pollutants.
Curated OER
Super Glue Fuming of Latent Fingerprints
Students explore latent fingerprinting. They observe a supervised demonstration of the process that real-life crime scene investigators sometimes use to identify latent fingerprints. In addition, they brainstorm ways to improve the...
Curated OER
Pollution - What is It Doing to Us?
Young scholars recognize some forms of pollution. In this science lesson plan, students recognize and understand some of the devastating effects of the acid rains and other possible factors that are contrary to the pH balance of nature.
Curated OER
Exploration Watershed
Students discuss what a watershed is, and locate watersheds on a map. For this watershed lesson, students use the information they have been introduced to and create a color coded watershed map of their own.
Curated OER
Be a Watershed - Create a Living River
Learners investigate water ways by conducting an experiment with classmates. In this natural resources instructional activity, students define a watershed and identify where large ones are located within the United States. Learners...
Curated OER
Soaps and Detergents
In this chemistry worksheet, students look for the solutions to the crossword based upon the theme of soaps and detergents. This is helpful to vocabulary acquisition.
Curated OER
How to Think Like a Scientist
Fifth graders study the scientific method and understand how to apply it. In this "thinking like a scientist" lesson plan students complete several activities.
Carnegie Mellon University
Battery Workshop
Introduce your class to the workings and parts of a battery-operated circuit. Pairs of pupils use lemons to make batteries and measure voltage and current with a multimeter. An accompanying worksheet is used for recording values and...
Curated OER
Crystal Growing
Students grow crystals and document their observations by recording timeing and growth. Additional characteristics of crystals are observed under a black light, by growing under different conditions and mineral content is determined.
Curated OER
Static Electricity
In this electricity worksheet, students read about static and current electricity and then draw pictures of an electric cell and circuits. Students draw 3 pictures total.
Clean Up Australia
Why are Batteries Harmful to the Environment?
Open this lesson by reading together about primary and secondary batteries (such as nickel-cadmium cells), problems they can cause in the environment, and how humans can minimize the damage. Afterward, little ones examine a collection of...
Curated OER
Waste: Where Does It Come From? Where Does It Go?
Students work together to identify sources of hazardous waste in their community. They discover the threat it poses to the environment. They examine how to properly dispose of hazardous waste as well.
Curated OER
Pollution Prevention in Schools
Young scholars review P2 concepts they learned in previous lessons and explore how to reduce the pollution in their school. They also examine ways to conserve energy.
Curated OER
Adhesives: Measuring Stickiness
Students test the stickiness of natural substances. In this adhesion as a property of matter lesson, students build a tool to test the adhesion of natural "glues" such as honey, peanut butter, flour and water paste, and jelly. Students...