Curated OER
Pyrites
Students examine the mineral pyrite and discover the differences between it and gold. In this mineral activity students identify minerals using their common properties.
Curated OER
Science Hits Activity
Students listen to a song that teaches the elements of the periodic table and write their own song to be used as an aid in remembering scientific information.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Making of the Fittest: Got Lactase? The Co-evolution of Genes and Culture
Got milk? Only two cultures have had it long enough to develop the tolerance of lactose as an adult. Learn how the responsible genes evolved along with the cultures that have been consuming milk. This rich film is supplied with a few...
Curated OER
Fingerprinting Lab
Learners recover latent prints by iodine fuming, cyanoacrylate fuming, and dusting with powder, after a lecture/discussion on fingerprinting techniques. They each provide a fingerprint for identification by another student. A database of...
Curated OER
Telling Our Own Stories
Explore online profiles and social media with your middle and high school classes. Use blogs to inspire your class to craft a well-written, thoughtful response to a prompt you give. A few example prompts are given.
Curated OER
Museum Practice for Students
Before any of us can learn to enjoy a trip to an art museum, we need to learn how to behave. This list of activities describe the behavior expected on a trip to an art museum. Each behavior comes with an activity intended to demonstrate...
National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network
Can Small Pollutants Harm Aquatic Organisms?
Nanoparticles have toxic effects on plant and animal life—even though you can't see them. The second lesson of a two-part series has young scientists conduct an experiment that exposes plant and animals to nanoparticle pollutants. They...
Curated OER
Preserving the Harvest: Dry it Out!
Students explore how people preserved their food in the past. In food preservation instructional activity, students create different models that enable someone to dry out food, such as a food dehydrator. Students also learn how to...
Curated OER
Rust Never Sleeps
High schoolers investigate oxidation-reduction reactions involving iron by conducting an experiment in which they expose iron filings to different atmospheric and ocean conditions. They relate the results to the oxidation banding...
Curated OER
Make a Comet Model and Eat It!
Young scholars construct a comet model based on procedure provided. In this space science lesson, students compare the physical properties of comets to the models they made. They record their observations and share them with the class.
Curated OER
The Challenge to Deliver Insulin
Students study the types of diabetes and why insulin is important. For this diabetes lesson students build molecular models and create a healthy lifestyle plan.
Curated OER
Are You a Trend Setter?
Learners are introduced to the periodic table of elements. They devise and perform and experiment in which they determine the density of specific elements. They use their results to predict the density of other elements in the same group.
Curated OER
Acid Stomach
Students develop an understanding of how aspirin works and how understanding it's interaction with other chemicals in the body aided doctors in medical research. They complete a lab that compares the reaction of regular aspirin and...
Curated OER
Destructive Impact of Environment on Artifacts
Students recognize that artifacts are destroyed over time. In this environmental factors on artifacts lesson, students experiment and observe through the microscope to find the environmental impact on artifacts. Students make a list of...
Curated OER
Rockin? Chalk (Integrating science - make own chalk)
Students use plaster of Paris, talc, and cornstarch to create their own chalk. They hypothesize what mixture of ingredients produce the "best" chalk. Students discuss what they think are the characteristics of the "best" chalk.
Curated OER
Numbers in Art
Students choose a number from one to twelve and tell a number story about it. They listen to the teacher read "Numbers in Art" by Lucy Micklethwait. Students choose three numbers from one to twelve and view works of art while looking for...
Curated OER
Acid Neutralization Lab
Students discuss and design a lab to measure pH of limestone, pyrite, limestone-pyrite mixtures and their control. They have their labs approved by the instructor before they begin. Students preform the lab and explore the acid-base...
Curated OER
Candy Bar Subsurface Geology
High schoolers are introduced to drawing and interpreting topographical maps. They each cut through there Jell-o mountain at regular height intervals, and trace around the shape of the Jell-o cut off at the height, overlaying the...
Curated OER
Flambe Elements
Eighth graders discuss atoms and electrons as well as atoic structure. They view atomic structure via the computer. Students watch a demonstration in which the teacher demonstrates glass tubing turning yellow in a Bunsen Burner flame....
Curated OER
What is Soap?
Students investigate soap, how it is made and its structure. In this soap lesson, students observe a demonstration of soap being made. Students observe the properties of soap and how soap performs in "real-life" situations like cutting...
Curated OER
Periodic Table of Elements
Beginning chemists examine a collection of elements and compounds as they are introduced to the periodic table. The lesson plan is not cohesive and does not provide detailed instructions on how to teach it. However, it does includes a...
Curated OER
The Frog Experiment
Your science class reads a silly story in which a mad scientist makes absurd conclusions about an experiment that he conducted. One at a time, he cuts off a frog's leg and commands it to jump. With three, two, and one leg, the frog...
Curated OER
Atoms: The Building Block of Matter
Young scholars examine how scientific theories are developed. In this matter lesson, students explore the basic idea of quantum theory. They create a timeline of scientists, their contributions, and discoveries.
Curated OER
Carbon: Structure Matters
Students read the Who We Are Section on Calfee Designs Webpage and discuss carbon usage. They work in pairs to look up the minerals diamond and graphite then create a chart on the properties of each mineral then compare how they differ...