Curated OER
Using Microscopes
Learners do an experiment using a microscope. In this lesson, about cells, students examine different slides using a microscope. Learners look at an onion skin, cheek cells, and potato cells. In each of these, students find cell walls,...
Curated OER
How Does Who I Am Relate to Employability?
Sixth graders participate in question and answer sessions and develop a skill-based resume. They identify and explain resume-writing situations in which an ethical dilemma may present itself. Finally, 6th graders identify and project the...
Curated OER
How Do We Learn About the Past?
Sixth graders discuss the role of an archaeologist as a class. After viewing photographs, they relate the objects found in their local area and Ancient Egypt. They draw a picture of an object that represents their own culture and gives...
Curated OER
The Science of Papermaking and Paper Recycling
Students practice bleaching recycled fibers. Using colored copy paper, they cut it into strips and put it in a blender with water. They filter the pulp and stir in the bleach. They compare the original paper with the bleached sample...
Curated OER
Learning About Our Five Senses
Students study the sense of touch and various degrees of heat. They design a model that displays how the human hand reacts to heat using a touch sensor.
Curated OER
"Charlotte's Web" - Transfer of Learning Across the Curriculum: From Literature to Science
Students research and write about the parts of a spider's body using educational software. They draw spiders using computer software.
Curated OER
Scientific Inquiry
Middle schoolers make inferences about what activities occur at different places in school. They form a hypothesis as to how space is used. They simulate how archeaologists explore past people by designing and conducting a research project.
Curated OER
Bacterial Transformation: Laboratory Experiment
Students participate in a group lab in which they complete the process of bacterial transformation. If lab procedures are followed correctly, Students see their results in a few days...bacteria glowing green.
Kenan
Respiratory System
Explore the respiratory system with a model. First, pupils build a set of lungs to experiment how they inflate and deflate. Then, they delve deeper into the topic with a web quest to discover new information about the nose, trachea, and...
Curated OER
Population Biology Case Study
Students are focused on the big question: What makes a population grow and how could that growth stop? They use these concepts to help answer the big question: carry capacity, density dependent v. density, independent factors, predation...
Curated OER
Semipermeable Membranes and Bioaccumulation
Beginning biologists place a drop of food coloring into water of differing temperatures to observe the effect on the diffusion rate. They remove the shells from raw eggs and then experiment with osmosis over the remaining membranes....
NASA
Tools of the Trade
Did you know every state in the U.S. has at least one observatory? During the lesson, scholars research the cost of building and maintaining an observatory. They must present their information in a proposal to build a new observatory,...
Curated OER
Perceived Risks
Learners rank a list of everyday risks to compare with classmates. They rate each risk on both its ability to be controlled and its observability in the environment. Results are graphed.
Curated OER
The East Fork Project
Students identify possible sources of health risks, types of exposures, routes of exposure, and populations that could be affected after discussing water pollution and environmental health hazards. After discussion, students conduct a...
Columbus City Schools
It’s All Relative
Are the people on the other side of the world standing upside down? Pupils discuss the relationship between movement and position words. The unit explores the concept of reference points through animation, modeling, photography, and more.
Curated OER
Skin Cancer Investigation: A Multi-Component Project
Students compare the perceived and actual risks of getting skin cancer, while looking at ways to minimize these risks. They may have very little grasp of the severity of the threat of skin cancer or be unaware of the increase in the...
Curated OER
Kildare, USA: An Environmental Health Simulation
Your biology class plays the role of epidemiologist when a mysterious illness breaks out in Kildare, USA. Using interviews with doctors, patients, and local citizens, maps, the results from different materials sampling, they work to...
Columbus City Schools
It's the Heat and the Pressure?
Ready for a change? Give a comprehensive collection of metamorphic materials a try! With the assortment of printables and lab activities, you won't be under pressure to keep things lively. The unit culminates by having pupils complete an...
Cornell University
Classification
Explore the scientific method of classification. An interactive activity asks learners to create a classification system for a group of objects and develop a flow chart to communicate their systems. In addition, individuals use a...
Curated OER
The Five Classes of Vertebrates
What a terrific lesson! Learners discuss the animal kingdom, and classify them as vertebrates and invertebrates. They also identify them as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There is even a taxonomic breakdown of popular...
Curated OER
Night Here, Day There
Explore astronomy with a lab sheet for fifth grade scientists. After reading a short explanation about the earth's rotation, they solve a word problem about the differences in times across the world. Next, they make a model of the solar...
Curated OER
Plants have needs, too!
Plants can die if they don't get enough sunlight and water. Kindergartners observe a picture of a hanging plant and grass under a tree, and interpret which each plant has died. Next, they grow watercress seeds in wet cotton to compare...
Curated OER
Ring-A-Ding-Ding!
What sound does metal make when you hit it? Kindergartners and first graders conduct an experiment about the properties of metal. First, they draw a line between metal items and descriptions of each. Next, they use a magnet to see which...
Curated OER
Backyard Bacteria
Young scholars demonstrate safe ways to handle bacteria, prepare agar plates, and grow bacterial cultures. They identify different kinds of bacterial colonies, and devise a controlled experiment.