California Academy of Science
Greening Your Middle School
Middle schoolers redesign their school to make it more energy efficient, and create a model of their design. Learners get together in groups of 5, and they take on the task of making their school more energy efficient. To do this, they...
Curated OER
19th & 20th Century Composers: Exoticism
VH1 Music Studio has put out another great lesson that incorporates analysis, compare/contrast, and musical terminology. Kids will listen to the song "Habanera" considering the use of specific instruments in evoking a sense of location....
Public Media for Northern California
An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Gun Control Issues | The Lowdown
The topic of gun control is vast, controversial, and difficult to introduce to students. This gem of a resource covers both sides of the issue and provides topic background, various multimedia and print resources, analysis questions, and...
Curated OER
Alleluia
Singers practice perfecting the song, Alleluia. They focus on singing techniques, style, phrasing, and working with syncopation. This lesson is a microteahing lesson and includes a warm up and vocal exercises.
NOAA
Ocean Exploration
Where am I? The second installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program starts with pupils guessing the years in which major ocean exploration events took place. The instructional activity then...
University of Colorado
Are All Asteroids' Surfaces the Same Age?
There are more than 600,000 asteroids in our solar system. Pupils analyze images of two asteroids in order to determine if they are the same age. They count craters for each asteroid and compare numbers.
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Prescription Drug Abuse Awareness Campaign
The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...
PHET
Where to See an Aurora
Where can you see an aurora in North America? After completing an astronomy activity, scholars can locate the exact coordinates. Pupils plot points of the inner and outer ring of the auroral oval and answer questions based on their...
PHET
CME Plotting
Young scientists build on their previous knowledge and apply it to coronal mass ejections. By plotting the path of two different coronal mass ejections, they develop an understanding of why most don't collide with Earth.
Sargent Art
Rainsticks
This rainstick instructional activity isn't just about making art; it's about understanding Native American symbols and culture. Kids read about the use of rainsticks and why specific symbols were used to decorate them. They then make...
Sea World
Ocean Discovery
Immerse your young marine biologists in the world of marine animals. The lesson includes several activities that are age-appropriate for preschoolers and kindergartners, including coloring pages, gluing feathers and sand onto paper...
Sea World
Marine Animal Husbandry and Training
Step into the role of a zoo director with several activities about animal training and running a zoo. Kids calculate the amount of food each animal needs, design a habitat for penguins, decide how to breed bottlenose dolphins, and train...
Inside Mathematics
Patterns in Prague
Designers in Prague are not diagonally challenged. The mini-assessment provides a complex pattern made from blocks. Individuals use the pattern to find the area and perimeter of the design. To find the perimeter, they use the Pythagorean...
Teach Engineering
Stay in Shape
Using their knowledge of right triangles, pupils find out how far a ship is from a light house. Class members determine how far around the world a ship would be sailing at a constant speed.
Pyro Innovations
Get into Shape
Shapes are so fun! Little ones explore, identify, and create shapes using tangrams or pattern blocks. The activity is intended to stimulate critical thinking while engaging learners through play and shape identification. Each child will...
Curated OER
Capacitors: What Are They?
Students discover how capacitors help store data. In this computer science activity, students investigate how capacitors can store an electronic charge, eventually helping computers store data. Students create their own capacitors with...
Curated OER
Sun and Shadows
Why do shadows look different in the summer than in the winter? What causes day and night? How can a sundial be used to tell time? Answer these questions and more through two engaging lessons about light and shadows. Fourth and fifth...
PHET
Science and Engineering Conference
Young scientists present their experimental designs from the previous experiment. The ninth lesson plan in the series outlines what learners should present, what class discussions should happen, and the solution NASA came up with for the...
Intel
Energy Innovations
Collaborative groups examine the importance of energy resources on quality of life by researching different energy sources and alternative energy sources through data analysis. They make a comparison of different countries and cultures,...
Curated OER
Emergency? Ask A Kid!
What is an actual emergency situation and what should you do to prepare for it? Learners will identify a variety of emergency situations and the appropriate way to address first aid concerns to minimize injuries. They will also discover...
Curated OER
Area of Tangram Pieces
Mathematicians calculate the area of a tangram piece without using formulas. They use a geometry journal to record activities during this lesson. They make a set of tangrams and use them to compute area. They use what they discover to...
Teach Engineering
Computer Simulation of the Sonoran Desert Community
See how changes in initial populations and parameters affect a biological community. Individuals use a special software program to simulate a desert community with five species. They adjust initial populations to see how the community...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Historical Climate Cycles
Scientists use ice core samples to obtain temperatures of the earth from 400,000 years ago! The third of five lessons instructs pupils to interpret historical climate data to see changes over time. In part I, participants interpret...
Curated OER
Good Vibrations Remote Sensing data Collection: Thermal Emission Spectrometer
The Mars Global Surveyor spent two years creating a mineral map of the planet Mars using thermal emission spectrometry. To help young astronomers understand this remote sensing instrument, have them simulate how data is collected and...