Virginia Department of Education
The Law of Conservation of Matter
The Law of Conservation of Matter can be complex for young scientists to fully grasp. Use this experiment to help simplify the process as pupils perform two experiments to determine mass: one that melts a substance and the other that...
EngageNY
Tides, Sound Waves, and Stock Markets
Help pupils see the world through the eyes of a mathematician. As they examine tide patterns, sound waves, and stock market patterns using trigonometric functions, learners create scatter plots and write best-fit functions.
Curated OER
The Martian Chronicles: Concept Analysis
If you're planning on including Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in your science fiction unit, use a concept analysis guide to frame your instruction. It covers literary elements such as setting, narrative voice, and theme, as well...
Curated OER
Class of Gold
How can you see a number in nature? Here, learners discover both Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio by exploring a number of different resources. Note: Some of the resources are older and may be missing some of the links, but the...
Curated OER
Germs and Your Body
Students study germs and ways your body fights against disease. In this germs lesson students complete an activity that demonstrates where germs can get into your body.
Curated OER
Mapping Where Animals Live
What type of reptiles live in New York State? This lesson plan gets the class thinking about what factors determine where particular animals live. They analyze the Hudson Valley environment, identify specific reptile and amphibian...
Curated OER
What's Up at the Rim?
Students are sent on a scavenger hunt to find as many plants as they can in nature.
Curated OER
What Is Your Explanation for the Evidence?
Students encounter an interactive computer program activity designed as a diagnostic of student beliefs related to the theory of evolution. Students process the Hypercard cascades structured around a set of biological topics related to...
Curated OER
Happiness is A Warm Puppy
Learners investigate dog breeds and write a short story from a dog's perspective. In this dog research and writing lesson, students watch the film, "Dog: The Early Years. They apply critical thinking skills to determine which type of dog...
Curated OER
The Value of Behavioral Variation in Homo sapiens
Students look at the behavioral characteristics of their peers from a historical perspective, and realize that, in the larger scheme of a community, these behaviors do have some value, and that a society as complex as ours does need the...
Curated OER
Camouflage and Protective Coloration: A Model of Natural Selection
Students collect data and compare whether protective coloration or camouflage provides better biological fitness in a given environment. They simulate predator prey interactions of two different species and use gene frequencies to...
Michigan Sea Grant
Food Web II
A food web consists of complex food chains and the more complex the web, the better likelihood of survival. Learners compare and contrast food webs and food chains and discuss concepts like the predator-prey and consumer-producer...
Teach Engineering
Bubbles and Biosensors
Bubbles aren't just for children. In the third installment of a seven-part series, teenagers use bubble solution to create bubbles and observe patterns of refraction on the bubble surfaces. Application of this concept to thin films in...
Education Development Center
Integer Combinations—Postage Stamps Problem (MS Version)
Number patterns can seem mysterious. Help your learners unravel these mysteries as they complete an intriguing task. Through examination, collaborative groups determine that they are able to produce all integers above a certain value by...
Teach Engineering
Weather Forecasting
According to the Farmers' Almanac, the weather will be nice today. Class members examine how weather forecasting plays a part in their lives with a resource that provides information on the history of forecasting, from using cloud...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Ebola: Disease Detectives
How did the Ebola virus first infect humans? Young virologists examine genetic sequences from the 2014 Sierra Leone outbreak to find similarities during a riveting activity. Following similar methods used by MIT and Harvard, partners...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Hospitality and Tourism 1: Safety and Sanitation
Math and science come alive in this career-related instructional activity on sanitation. Along the way, learners explore bacterial growth rates using exponential notation and graphs. A link to a very brief, but vivid video shows just how...
Knoxville Art Museum
Lee Walton: Codes in Drawings
Familiar with the systems-based sports drawing of experimental artist Lee Walton? If so, this drawing exercise if for you. Young artists observe an activity over time, develop a coded language for the activity, and then draw a...
Curated OER
Cloud Poems
First graders make daily observations about clouds, write in their cloud books, make cloud charts, and make a poem about clouds.
Curated OER
Environmental Studies: The Environment Rocks!
Rock exploration, so exciting! After reading the book Everybody Needs a Rock, the class makes sandwiches to better understand that the Earth is made in layers. They then use a description of the 3 types of rock to conduct an observation...
Curated OER
Curricular Correlations
An interesting lesson on different types of soils is here for you. In it, learners discuss what soil is, and consider three piles of soil - clay, sand, and loam. During the rest of the lesson, third graders discover all sorts of...
Curated OER
Exploring Hawaiian Mountain Zones
Fourth graders watch a video that describes the climate and vegetation zones of Hawaii. They describe the different physical conditions that create vegetation zones from the sea to the mountains. In groups, they create an illustrated...
Curated OER
Animal Tracks Program
Entice your learners with this lesson on animal footprints. After reading the story Footprints in the Snow by Cynthia Benjamin, they use photos to identify animals and their footprints. Then they participate in an activity to classify...
Curated OER
Seasons and Cloud Cover, Are They Related?
Students use NASA satellite data to see cloud cover over Africa. In this seasons lesson students access data and import it into Excel.