US Environmental Protection Agency
Mapping Greenhouse Gas Emissions Where You Live
After investigating the US Environmental Protection Agency's climate change website, your environmental studies students discuss greenhouse gas emissions. They use an online interactive tool to look at data from power production...
Discovery Education
Wind Power
How do engineers turn something that is readily available, like wind, into energy? Scholars create a prototype of a wind turbine and attach it to a motor. They test out their prototypes and decide on their effectiveness. They also...
Royal Society of Chemistry
Electrochromic Polymer—Chemistry Outreach
From windows that tint themselves to OLED technology, electrochromic polymers are redefining our ideas about conducting materials! Introduce your chemistry class to the emerging trend with an exciting lab activity. Budding materials...
American Museum of Natural History
What's This? Sensing
There is a scallop that relies on sight so much that it actually has more than 100 eyes! There are many species that rely heavily on one sense or another. An online interactive resource has youth read about several of these animals. The...
Teach Engineering
Household Energy Conservation and Efficiency
Are your household devices eating up a lot of energy? Pupils investigate household energy efficiency through a set of activities. They find ways to improve energy efficiency and reduce consumption. This is the 21st installment of a...
It's About Time
What Determines and Limits an Atom's Mass?
Provide learners with the tools to further understand nuclear energy and isotopes. Young chemists investigate the components of an atom's nucleus, use symbols to represent various isotope forms, and use the percent abundance of an atom's...
Discovery Education
Market Research and Design: The Headphone Challenge
Watch augmented reality bring classrooms to life. Scholars work in groups to design, build, and market a new pair of headphones meant for children under three. They use an augmented reality app to show their headphones in action as they...
Teach Engineering
May the Magnetic Force Be with You
Class members use mathematics in order to better understand magnetic forces and their interaction on charged particles. After a demonstration of the interaction between a magnet and an electron beam using a CRT computer monitor, learners...
Rochester Institute of Technology
Artificial Hearing
Your sense of hearing depends upon tiny hairs deep inside your ear and if you lose these hairs, you lose your hearing. Here, groups explore hearing through the decibel measurement of common sounds. As a class, participants discuss...
Savvas Learning
Let's Get Moving
Scholars examine, cut, paste, and sort 12 images featuring different types of movement in order to show what they know about energy—potential and kinetic.
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Wet Etching in Nanofabrication
Chemistry and physics combine forces to benefit nanofabrications. Learners examine the process of wet etching in nanofabrication. Using corrosive substances such as lemon juice and Coca-Cola, they model the etching process. They then...
Bowels Physics
Newton's First Law
Force acts on objects in mysterious ways ... until now! A comprehensive presentation explains the balance of forces acting on objects. Learners draw free body diagrams to show these invisible forces and make force calculations.
Curated OER
Home Electrical Safety
Students explain the danger of incorrectly wired plugs. In this physics lesson, students construct their own safe plug. They share the finished project in class.
Curated OER
If I Were a Device That Uses Electricity...
For this electricity worksheet, learners imagine they are a device that uses electricity and answer 5 short answer questions. Worksheet contains a link to additional activities.
Curated OER
Electromagnets
Students are introduced to the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Using a compass, they observe and record the effects of placing the object near magnetic fields and electric currents. They also experiment using a steel and...
Curated OER
TE Activity: Build a Charge Detector
Young scholars examine how electrical force takes place between two objects by building an electroscope. They apply the electroscope to determine an objects' charge intensity and to see what factors influence electric force.
Curated OER
Let's Light Up a Light Bulb!
Third graders investigate the concept of how electricity works in the lighting of a light bulb. They construct a circuit in order to follow the path of electricity and test how it can travel in a wire system. Then the light bulb is lit...
Curated OER
Wire Maze
Pupils investigate what causes electrical circuits to work. They construct a wire circuit and pass a paperclip through the maze, trying not to touch the wire, and answer discussion questions.
Curated OER
A Bright Idea
Pupils establish an understanding of electricity and then demonstate that understanding by creating a basic experiment involving a lemon battery. They reflect on the importance of electricity.
Curated OER
The Invention of Faraday Cage
Students demonstrate how Faraday's cage work by building their own electroscope. In this physics lesson, students explain how Faraday's cage work. They cite several applications of this principle in the real world.
Curated OER
Series/Parallel Circuits
Young scholars engage in a lesson that is concerned with the concept of series and parallel circuits. They conduct research using a variety of resources. They have class discussion and the lesson includes information for the teacher to use.
Curated OER
Current Thinking About Magnets
Students construct their own magnet and wire device. In this inquiry instructional activity, students investigate the factors affecting the strength of magnetic forces. They manipulate different variable to determine their effect.
Curated OER
Windmill activity
Students explore how to build an efficient windmill design by taking into account how the lift and drag caused by the movement of wind can be used to make the blades of the turbine move. Through their readings, hypothesis and by trail...
Curated OER
Coin Battery
Students explore basic principles of electricity and create their own battery.