After taking in background information on teeth, marble, eggshell, and fluoride, chemistry aces design an experiment. Their goal is to demonstrate whether or not fluoride has a similar effect on marble or eggshell as it does on tooth...

Middle schoolers design, revise and construct a method for protecting an egg from cracking when it is dropped from a height. They work in small groups to develop their protection method and then collect and analyze data as a class when...

Students write a rough draft book review over a book they have finished recently. Using their peers, they revise and make suggestions to correct spelling and grammatical errors. In groups, they practice giving their book report to the...

Fourth graders identify rocks in this discovery lesson by examining rock characteristics and processes. They identify basic properties of minerals and rocks. They revise their theories of the natural world, once they see and learn new...

Students collect weed seeds from three varieties of weeds (knapweed, thistle, or toadflax, for example they may choose others in addition to the spotted knapweed.) They sterilize soil for thirty containers, plant seeds in sterile soil,...

Students consider what happens to herbicides or insecticides that are used in agricultural practices, especially herbicides that are used to control noxious weeds. They become acquaint with a chemical assessment method known as...

Students comprehend what makes up the physical community. Read and construct scale drawings and models. Explore the history of infrastructures and how the contributions of science, math and industry have led to the development of their...

Direct your class’s attention to the elements that make their community unique. After examining sample travel brochures, groups select something from their community to use as the subject, and then research, create, and publish a...

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...

High school physicists demonstrate Bernoulli's Principle by blowing on different items and finding that they do not move in the expected direction! They apply Bernoulli's equation to the flight of an airplane. This well-organized lesson...

Investigate the water cycle and how water moves from the land to the air and back to the land. Create a terrarium and observe the water cycle at work. Define weather terms including evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.

Students 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.

Students determine the normal behavior of California blackworms. They determine how various concentrations of assigned toxicants affect the worm's behavior. Students are introduced to testing of potential toxicants, an important...

Darwin kept a travel diary as he voyaged to South America, noting the politics, geography, cultures, animals, and interesting facts he encountered. Your class will do the same. Each student chooses a country to research and keep a five...

How should a cashier stock a cash register with coins? Learners use mathematical modeling and expected value to determine how many rolls of coins of each type they should place in a cash register.

Students investigate how many seasons it would take for wind to disperse seeds one mile downwind from an initial growth of one spotted knapweed plant. They construct and use a wind tunnel as part of their experiment and graph their results.

Here's a fun way to incorporate technology into your curriculum. E-mail each of your class members a picture and 10 questions about the photo. Individuals then imagine the story behind the image and e-mail back their responses. Although...

Examine the concept of an electromagnetic spectrum with your students, as they observe a demonstration of a model, construct and compare a different model of the spectrum commonly used in textbooks, and construct their own models of the...

Students identify when uniform motion occurs. They watch a teacher made PowerPoint explaining the concept of uniform motion and carry out an experiment to understand the concept.

Sixth graders present a PowerPoint presentation on Greek columns. They realize that Greek culture is centered around religion. Students create a model of one of the columns. Also they find examples of Greek architecture in major Greek...

Young scholars research what laws relate to cell phones. They interview local law enforcement personnel to find out if cell phones have caused accidents. Students survey classmates to determine how many talk on their phones when driving....

Fourth graders use a database on animal diversity to complete the instructional activity. Using the information, they discover how organisms are linked to one another by their dependence on each other for food. In groups, they develop...

High schoolers investigate the refraction properties of gelatin to calculate its index of refraction. They discover that as the light travels through the gelatin, its speed and wavelength also change. Students find th indes of refraction...

Students explore, experiment and study how the Earth orbits the Sun once a year and how the moon takes approximately 29 days to orbit the Earth. They access an online activity to examine the process of how the Sun is at the center of the...