Curated OER
My Shadow and Me
Practice making shadows with a kindergarten science experiment. After deciding which picture would represent the biggest shadow, kids use a flashlight to experiment with their own shadows. For extra fun, have kids mark their shadows...
Curated OER
Play Ball: A Major League Review Game
Apply the game of baseball to a fun review activity. Pupils earn a "base" for each subject question that they answer correctly. This activity can be modified and used for any subject area, including math, social studies, and language arts.
Teach Engineering
Ranking the Rocks for Desired Properties
Math rocks! Cavern design teams determine the rankings of rock types based upon desirability points. The points are connected to the properties of the rocks and their usefulness in building a cavern.
Curated OER
Food chains at sea
Fifth graders interpret a table of data about food chains in the ocean. They create a food chain to represent the information on the table. Periwinkles eat seaweed, and crabs eat periwinkles - so who eats crabs? Extend the activity with...
Curated OER
How Light Can "Bend"
Examine the properties of light with a fifth grade science experiment. Pupils find out how light bounces off the surface of a mirror, as well as how a periscope works. For the science investigation part, kids build their own periscope...
Curated OER
Bird Ecology Unit
Tenth graders conduct various activities utilizing the scientific method to formulate a hypothesis, conduct a controlled experiment, collect and analyze the data and communicate their results through a poster. They also identify...
Curated OER
Name That Critter
Young learners classify five different animals into their proper category. The animals pictured are a pigeon, a lizard, a cat, a frog, and a goldfish. Pupils are also asked to tell why they know it's a certain kind of animal. An...
Baylor College
Pre-Assessment: Earth's Energy Sources
A ten-question, multiple-choice quiz assesses what your elementary earth scientists know about the atmosphere both before and after a unique unit on global atmospheric change. Make sure to check out the activities and lesson plans...
Baylor College
Plant Parts You Eat
Plants provide a variety of delicious foods essential for human survival. In the fourth lesson of this series on food science, young scientists investigate common fruits, vegetables, and grains in order to determine which plant part is...
Curated OER
Polymers and Products from Petroleum
Over four sessions, learners survey the production and use of polymers and petroleum products. First, they participate in a kinesthetic activity to demonstrate how polymers act, and review a list of common products made from...
Rivanna Regional Stormwater Education Partnership
Does It Soak Right In?
Which materials are best for groundwater runoff, and which are best for percolation? Discuss the water table with several experiments about different types of soil, pollution, precipitation, and filtration. The experiments assign...
Baylor College
How Much Water Is in a Fruit?
Compare the volume of an orange to the volume of liquid that can be extracted out of it. Also compare the mass of an apple before and after it has been dried out. In both of these activities, children find that there is an appreciable...
Baylor College
Healthy Snacks
Assess your pupils' ability to identify healthy food choices in the final lesson of this series on food science. Given five different food labels, young nutritionists will rank them from most to least healthy, supporting their choices...
Teach Engineering
Edible Rovers (High School)
Design and build a rover ... then eat it? This activity has groups of two design and build Mars rovers. The teams determine what instruments they want to include with their rover and plan a budget. They calculate the cost of the body of...
Teach Engineering
Energy Skate Park
Skate through a simulation on energy with an a activity that uses a computer simulation of a skater to reinforce the concept of conservation of energy. The resource guides pupils through scenarios using the computer simulation to...
Teach Engineering
Design Inspired by Nature
Let nature guide your engineering designs. By taking apart a flower, pupils learn about reverse engineering. They use the results to brainstorm designs for new products or ideas. This is the seventh installment of a nine-part Life...
Curated OER
Get the Picture!
Astronomers practice downloading data from a high-energy satellite and translate the data into colored or shaded pixels. As a hands-on activity, they use pennies to simulate high-energy satellite data and they convert their penny...
Curated OER
Our Solar System - Comparing Planetary Travel Distances
NASA presents a mini-unit on distances in our solar system. It incorporates scientific concepts of gravity, mass, density, and payload while your aspiring astronauts also employ mathematics skills. They calculate speed, they determine...
Curated OER
I Don't Believe My Eyes!
Young scholars develop their understanding of the effects of invisible air pollutants. In this invisible air instructional activity, students complete experiments with a rubber band air test, a bean plant experiment and by exploring...
Curated OER
Petro Products
In this petroleum products activity, students are given the components of crude oil and they graph the various products found in a 50 gallon barrel. Students complete an activity to determine if they have collected cards that represent...
Curated OER
Application of Linear Systems
Let the learners take the driving wheel! The class solves systems of linear equations and applies the concepts of systems to solve a real-world situation about parking cars and buses. They then use calculators to create a visual of their...
Teach Engineering
Energy Systems
Is electricity created in the outlet? Using posters of several energy systems, collaborative groups identify and describe the parts of their systems. The groups also look at the environmental impacts of the systems and present...
Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics
Where Are We Going?
Come take a ride on the space bus! Scholars go on an imaginary trip to pick up their peers from the inner and outer planets while reinforcing math skills. First, learners round decimals to identify each planets' distance from Earth....
Teach Engineering
Weather Alert
Every time a bell rings ... there is lightning in the area. The activity provides directions to build a model of a lightning detection system. Similar to a system designed by Benjamin Franklin, the system uses static...