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Manufacturing Technologies: Making a Picture Frame
Students use cereal boxes, paint, buttons and glue to design and make a frame for a photograph. They consider the different processes involved in making the frame and discuss how their observations apply to manufacturing systems that are...
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Ohm's Law I
Students work to increase the intensity of a light bulb by testing batteries in series and parallel circuits. They analyze Ohm's Law, power, parallel and series circuits, and ways to measure voltage and current.
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What is the Best Insulator: Air, Styrofoam, Foil, or Cotton?
Students investigate the properties of insulators by attempting to keep a cup of water from freezing, and once it is frozen, to keep it from melting. They conduct the experiment, record and analyze the results, and answer discussion...
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Engineering: Which Roof Is Tops?
Students determine regional climates by examining photos of house roofs. They observe teacher-constructed examples of roofs and make predictions as to which style is best for snowy climates. After evaluating the examples, they record...
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Kim's Nuclear Gamble
Students view a video clip on North Korea's nuclear weapons. They identify issues between the United States and North Korea. They write any questions they have about the documentary and participate in a class discussion.
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Compare Human-made Objects with Natural Objects
Young scholars examine and observe how many human-made objects get their basic design from things in nature. They listen to the book "Nature Got There First," compare/contrast hollow bones with drinking straws, bird beaks and tool...
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Construction Technologies: Construct the Strongest Bridge
Middle schoolers investigate how engineers use different types of bridges for different places. In small groups they design and construct bridges for three different scenarios, and answer a series of investigating questions applied to...
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Design a Recycling Game!
Students discover that recycling is using a product more than once so that natural resources can be saved and so that we won't need so many garbage dumps and landfills. They see that there are different ways to recycle. Students design a...
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Design a Parachute
Young scholars engage in a discussion about what a parachute is and how it works. They create a parachute using different materials that they think will work best. The students test their designs, which will be followed by a class...
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Design a Bicycle Helmet
Students are introduced to the biomechanical characteristics of helmets. They incorporate these characteristics into designs for helmets for various applications. They understand that using a bicycle helmet helps to protect the brain and...
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Density Rainbow and the Great Viscosity Race
Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment...
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Do As the Romans: Construct an Aqueduct!
Middle schoolers explore how the Romans engineered and built aqueducts. They read a manual, explore the Construct a Roman Aqueduct online activity, and construct an aqueduct that will transport two liters of water across a short...
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Design Your Own Rube Goldberg Machine
Students design and construct a Rube Goldberg machine that accomplishes a simple task in at least ten steps. They view and discuss various Rube Goldberg designs, identify types of simple machines, and in small groups produce a schematic...
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Floating and Falling Flows
Students discover fluid dynamics related to buoyancy through experimentation and optional photography. Using one set of fluids, they make light fluids rise through denser fluids. Using another set, they make dense fluids sink through a...
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Forces and Graphing
Middle schoolers analyze graphs to determine relationships between variables and rates of change. They determine the basic concepts about static reaction forces. They determine the slope and equation of a line.
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Make Your Own Recycled Paper
Paper Lesson Plan - Students discover how paper is made. Working together, they make their own paper. This activity introduces students to recycling; what it is and its importance. Students study the process of how paper is made, and...
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Smart Move!
Students visualize a communication system. They encode, decode, transmit, receive and store messages. Students use a code sheet and flashlight for this process. They will also maintain a storage sheet from which they can retrieve...
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TE Activity: Yogurt Cup Speakers
Sixth graders build a speaker as they investigate the roles of electricity and magnetism. They discover the properties of magnets, create an electromagnet, and determine the direction of a magnetic field. They show cause and effect...
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Ellis Island Tapestry
Students participate in a simulation activity. They explore Ellis Island and experiences that immigrants in the late 1800's had on their way to the United States. The role play includes questioning by inspectors, a manifest list, and...
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The Fabulous Four
First graders examine the four seasons and identify appropriate attire for various seasonal activities. They listen to various books about each season, identify activities for each season, draw a picture of their favorite parts of the...
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Charlotte's Web Trading Card
Students read Charlotte's Web, view variety of trading cards, discuss what they know about trading cards and their purpose, choose character from story, complete bubble map about character, and create character trading card using...
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Thanksgiving Acrostic Poems
Students watch streaming video, Holiday Facts and Fun: Thanksgiving, define and discuss acrostic poetry, complete circle map using words associated with Thanksgiving, and create acrostic Thanksgiving poems to be typed in Microsoft Word...
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My Family: Past, Present,
Second graders explore the lives of actual people who make a difference in their everyday lives. They differentiate between events that happened long ago and events that happened yesterday by studying their family histories. The unit...
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Using Comic Strips to Teach the Use of Quotation Marks
Learners identify when and why quotations are used. Using comic strips and speech bubbles, they read and discuss examples of quotation marks, and in pairs write text for a cartoon on a piece of paper using quotation marks around the...