Leaf toughness can add to its herbivore appeal. Learns design an experiment to quantify leaf toughness and then perform their procedures. They follow the experiment with a set of questions that ask them to think about how leaf toughness...

Elementary writers will create short stories with their classmates' help, publishing the books using computer programs. The first learner writes a sentence to start the story, and each classmate adds a sentence to the story. The original...

Make breaking a leg a less troublesome experience. Groups brainstorm designs for crutches that have devices that help carry items. They build prototypes of their devices to test out their designs.

Transform your class into a butterfly museum! Research different types of butterflies, their habitat, and life cycle. Interactive components such as PowerPoint presentations, Claymation movies, and webpages add pizzaz to the museum...

Start with a basic house created in JavaScript code and practice programming with loops as you add rows of windows, grass, flowers, or trees. How about some apples growing in the trees? You get the idea. Your coding students can let...

Move beyond buttons when designing user interfaces. In the fourth installment of a 21-part unit, young computer scientists learn to apply design mode, which gives users options for colors, fonts, etc. They learn to incorporate these...

Middle and high schoolers explore the concepts of architectural rigidity. They analyze a variety of polygons, and explain why some shapes add more strength to structures than others. The PBS video, "Building Big," is utilized in this plan.

The pupils practice modifying parameters in a function to add variations to their under the sea scene. The resource also introduces random number functions that alter the scene every time the program runs.

Balloons will go where you want them to. Young pilots first add paper clips to a balloon to make it neutrally buoyant. They then use cardboard to steer the balloon in different directions, taking air pressure into account.

You're on solid ground if you decide to use the resource. A simple activity has young engineers investigate the problem of liquefaction. A battery placed on dry sand will stay standing—but not if scholars add water to the cup.

Groups suspend objects within layers of liquids to determine the densities of different liquids and compare them to the densities of objects calculated in Part 1. The groups then carefully test their calculations by layering the...

Young mathematicians research and discuss real world math word problems and ways in which they apply math concepts in their everyday lives. They create a storyboard of a math word problem from which they create a slide for a multi-media...

This creative project may make your young programmers hungry as they practice their Java Script coding. The task is fairly open ended: add shapes using different shape functions, including the fill and stroke functions to add color and...

Create your own exotic aquarium, well, virtual aquarium. Fill it full of various fish and sea life, add animation, color, and interactivity using JavaScript. This task utilizes your classes' knowledge of functions, parameters, and local...

Hands-on experience with valves and water flow supports young researchers' understanding of valve operation. Attached resources for learners are text-dense; I'd break up the text into smaller pieces for groups to read and present...

Have your class draw the plans and design a structure. Learners discuss and investigate the variables in the stability of a 2D and 3D model. They also consider how to add a circuit to the design. Afterwards, they present their work.

Have young writers compose stories that add detail to the moments captured in personal photographs and create an annotated photo album. Rather than sending every member of the class home for the weekend with a digital camera, you might...

Create a small but useful little program that allows you move a dot with your mouse and see the coordinates change as the mouse moves.  Starting with a dot that moves with the mouse, add to this program the text of the points...

Practice creating and using functions in a simple JavaScript coding exercise. Move code inside the function definition and then add lines to call the simple function. Adding function parameters and return values are covered later in this...

Move the moles to the holes in this simple coding exercise on using parameters in function calls. The task is broken down for you and the function that draws the mole is already provided. Your job is to add JavaScript code to call the...

Now create your own graph paper with this JavaScript programming activity! First, change the while loop that draws horizontal lines into a for loop. Then, add another for loop that draws the vertical lines. For an added challenge,...

Drawing trees and grass over and over again is the perfect time to add a while loop to your computer code. This activity guides coders through the steps as they practice using this loop. 

Anyone hungry? Create a recipe object in this coding activity. Include a title, number of servings, and ingredients. All of this adds up to one delicious practice opportunity for your programming students who are just learning how to use...

Need some activities to go along with your unit? A collection of hands-on activities from PBS offers opportunities to add to your electricity, sound, and force units. The electricity activities revolve around building a...