It's About Time
Elements and Compounds
Young scientists use electrolysis to separate water into its elements before experimenting with fire to learn about their properties. A helpful resource provides a reading passage and analysis questions.
NASA
Gravitational Waves
Young scientists participate in a hands-on experiment to explore Einstein's theory of relativity in a creative manner. They investigate various waves and compare their characteristics as they discuss how each wave is created. Next,...
University of Chicago
Don't Be Too Flaky
Snow, ice, and water are all composed of H2O. Does that mean they all have the same volume? Discover the ways that the densities of these substances determine their volumes, and how they change based on their current states of matter....
Science Friday
Capturing Carbon Dioxide
Why don't we just capture carbon dioxide in the air and store it somewhere else? A hands-on lesson allows scholars to explore a complex concept. First, they will create a carbonated beverage, and then they will determine if liquid...
Scholastic
Lesson One: The Earth, Background and Glossary
How much do you really know about our planet? Middle schoolers build up their prior knowledge about Earth, its placement in the solar system, its composition, and important geological vocabulary with an introductory earth science lesson.
Colorado State University
What Makes a Gas, a Greenhouse Gas?—The Carbon Dioxide Dance
Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...
LABScI
Viscosity: The Fluid Lab
There's more to fluids than meet the eye—they include gases, liquids, and polymers, too! Scholars complete three hands-on activities exploring different properties of fluids. They explore viscosity by measuring the resistance, or...
Discovery Education
The Time of Our Life
Mammals are some of the newest organisms to appear on Earth. Young scholars complete an activity that results in a timeline showing the appearance of different types of living organisms. Provided with a list that spans from prokaryotes...
Windows to the Universe
All About Magnetism
Enjoy magnets and space science with a fun learning exercise. With a word search, a coloring page of Jupiter, and a connect-the-dots activity, kids are sure to learn about magnetism and astronomy.
Vosonos
Interactive Minds: Solar System
Travel through space as you learn about the galaxy, solar system, planets, and much more. An extensive resource for studying astronomy in upper-elementary and middle school classrooms.
American Chemical Society
Air, It's Really There
Love is in the air? Wrong — nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide are in the air. The final lesson plan in the series of five covers the impact of temperature on gases. Scholars view a demonstration of gas as a type of matter before...
Curated OER
Glaciers and Ice Wedging
Fourth graders observe and identify a variety of weathering and geological activities in the area in which they live. This focuses primarily on what happened during the Ice Age, and how, even today, glaciers are shaping and re-shaping...
Curated OER
Solar Cycle
Students explore the solar cycle through a series of experiments. In this space science lesson, students construct and evaluate solar cycle graphs. They explain how this phenomenon affects the Earth.
Curated OER
Simple Rocket Science
Students demonstrate Newton's Third Law of Motion. They discuss the history of rockets, observe how a rocket works, and draw a picture and write an explanation of the balloon experiment.
Curated OER
Strange New Planet
Students simulate different spacecraft missions using materials provided. In this space science instructional activity, students observe and record a planetary model's features from a distance. They relate this activity to scientists'...
Curated OER
Just a "Fellow Traveler" in the Human Experience
Pupils connect the events of early space exploration to their lives today. After viewing a teacher created gallery, they discuss how the launch of Sputnik and how space exploration in general has positively or negatively affected their...
Curated OER
Settlement Exploration: Then and Now
NASA has crafted an imaginative and memorable series of lessons, "NASA and Jamestown Education Module." This instructional activity is one of the five components. In it, middle schoolers connect history and science by comparing the...
Curated OER
Health Issues Related to Space Experiments
Students participate in a science instructional activity that integrates connections between health issues on Earth and how those issues are related to studies conducted on the International Space Station. T
Curated OER
It's a Matter of Space
Students explore matter. In this physical science lesson, students role play the 3 states of matter forming "liquid" molecules and "solid" molecules with teammates. Students perform an experiment in which the result illustrates that two...
Curated OER
Matter: Solids Liquids and Gases
Young scholars participate in a science experiment to understand that matter takes up space. In this matter instructional activity, students experiment with solids, liquids and gases to recognize that matter is everywhere. Young...
Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)
Lost in Space - A Solar System Study
Fourth graders study the planets of our Solar System collecting data on a worksheet. They use online tools to create a puzzle or other digital product using the information from their research.
Curated OER
Rocket Science
Students conduct an experiment. In this physical science instructional activity, students learn about Isaac Newton's theory that for every action there is an equal but opposite reaction. Students show this theory by looking at how a...
Curated OER
Special Edition: World Space Congress 2002: The New Face of Space
Students experience and study how space offers expanding resources for commerce, science, technology and education. They view how advances in space can and do improve life on Earth. Each student views a geological exploration within this...
Curated OER
Sitting on Nails-Boyle's Law
Learners experience pressure as a force per unit area in this experiment with a board of nails. In this physics lesson, students discover Boyle's law as they perform experiments with pressure.