Curated OER
Half Lives
Students investigate the concept of half-life by conducting an M&M experiment. In this chemistry lesson, students differentiate nuclear fusion and fission. They present investigation findings to class.
Curated OER
Learning Cycle Lesson Plan #6 (Misconception)
Ninth graders investigate evolution via natural selection and form an opinion. They support their opinion using scientific evidence and apply this to adaptations that have allowed certain organisms to survive.
Curated OER
It's All in the Genes
Twelfth graders investigate the inheritance of traits through several hands-on activities that illustrate the transmission of genetic characteristics. Students study advanced topics including multiple alleles, polygenic traits,...
Curated OER
Native American Misconceptions
Students use their drawings to explore sterotypes of Native Americans and others.
Curated OER
Pendulum Motion Experiments
High schoolers experiment with simple pendulums to determine the validity of an equation for all angles. Students discover the usefulnes and limitations of approximations in science. Using spreadhseets and a java applet, high schoolers...
Curated OER
Stellar Fingerprints: the Spectra of Stars
Students explain how an element can be identified using emission spectra. They relate the emission spectrum of hydrogen to its absorption spectrum and identify hydrogen absorption lines in the spectrum of stars.
Curated OER
Plastics: Field Trip - Vancouver Landfill
Students examine the amount of garbage that is produced by the City of Vancouver. In this landfill lesson, students participate in a field trip to the City of Vancouver Landfill. They look at what happens to garbage, recycling, and yard...
Curated OER
Water 1: Water and Ice
Students explore forms that water can take and examine the water cycle. In this hands-on science lesson, students participate in activities that require them to change water to a solid and back to a liquid again.
Education Development Center
Similar Triangles
Model geometric concepts through a hands-on approach. Learners apply similar triangle relationships to solve for an unknown side length. Before they find the solution, they describe the transformation to help identify corresponding sides.
Teach Engineering
Magnetic or Not?
The class must determine the magnetic properties of different materials, including aluminum and steel by sorting through materials using a magnet. Groups make a prediction on whether a material is magnetic and then perform tests to...
Curated OER
Work Made Easy
Second graders maneuver placement of the fulcrum on the lever to see how to lift weight most easily. They role-play as archaeologists with the task of lifting a heavy rock from the dig site. They write in science journals about what...
Curated OER
Prior Knowledge Investigation-Food Webs
Students explore food webs. They identify any misconceptions of producers, consumers or decomposers and their relationship within a food web. Students draw an example of a food web for each of the examples that are given. They address...
Curated OER
Optical Illusions
Students investigate optical illusions. In this optical illusions instructional activity, students explore perception. Students analyze optical illusions and determine common misconceptions.
Curated OER
Scientists
Students explore the role scientists play in research. They research current important areas of scientific interest. They write about how this issue could affect them. They create posters about their chosen scientific issues.
Georgia Department of Education
Living Things/ Nonliving Things
How can you tell if something is living or nonliving? Introduce a set of criteria which can be used to determine which things are alive and which are not. The class discusses the basic needs of all living organisms, checks out an...
American Chemical Society
Defining Density
Three simple activities kick off a unit investigation of density. Your physical scientists make observations on the volume and mass of wood, water, and rocks, and make comparisons. Though this is written for grades three through eight,...
Columbus City Schools
Igneous Rock
These rocks are HOT! Well, they used to be, anyway. Take young geologists on a two-week journey through the life and times of the average igneous rock. Lab groups work together to hypothesize about intrusive and extrusive igneous rock...
Curated OER
It Counts
Students classify and compare plants using specific information, observations, and numbers. In this mathematical inquiry lesson, students use plant characteristics to describe, compare, and classify them. They attempt to develop a system...
Noyce Foundation
Ducklings
The class gets their mean and median all in a row with an assessment task that uses a population of ducklings to work with data displays and measures of central tendency. Pupils create a frequency chart and calculate the mean and median....
Curated OER
Pilgrims and Puritans
With graphic organizers galore, learners will follow the changes of church and state in early colonial America. They look at the differences between the pilgrims and the puritans in terms of beliefs and life ways. Myths and...
Curated OER
Sketch a Scientist
Learners draw their perceptions of a typical scientist, evaluate stereotypes in their drawings quantitatively, and then discuss the origins of these stereotypes.
Curated OER
Technological Advances in Health
High schoolers explain how technology influences human existence by examining the benefits and risks of different biotechnological advances.
Curated OER
Lamarck vs Darwin: Dueling Theories
Students, in groups, study cheetah, blind cave organisms, and naked mole rats to explain facets of evolution.