Fifth graders discuss the effects of scarcity.  In this survival lesson, 5th graders use strategies that would help them survive in a survival situation. Students write letters about bears in need of help to survive. Students answer...

Students explore the infrared radiation and the part of the spectrum that is not always visible.  In this electromagnetic lesson students complete a lab activity on the different wavelengths.

Students investigate planaria of the phylum platyhelminthes. They use DigiScope technology to observe and describe the structure and movements of planarians.

Students participate in a demonstration in which they role-play polar bears and habitat components to demonstrate the impacts of climate change on the Arctic Ocean ecosystem.

Young scholars observe how measurements are made with different instruments.  In this remote sensing lesson students investigate the physical state of surfaces including the surfaces of the solar system. 

Students engage in a fun, creative way to discover how the Earth moves. This lesson helps students explain why there is day and night. It can also create curiosity to further study the solar system and eclipses!

Third graders place everything in their desk or back pack onto their desk top. They explain why each item is needed. They receive a set of pictures and write a list of things each person or animal needs to survive. They compare people,...

The purpose of this activity is to determine how the location of a place on the Earth (hemisphere) determines what season that place is experiencing relative to the Sun's rays. Day one the students will be introduced to the terms...

Students study the concepts of motion, velocity, and acceleration through graphing their own movement using LoggerPro. They explain the difference between speed and velocity using the weather vane example. They discover the difference...

Students discover the fundamentals and daily applications of simple machines. They practice basic engineering theory through their hands-on demonstrations of levers.

Young scholars investigate how mold grows on food. In this mold lesson, students review the food pyramid before growing mold on different foods in Zip-Loc bags. They create graphs that show how long it takes for mold to grow on different...

Students explore "matter." In this literacy and three states of matter lesson, students listen to Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss, then work in groups to explore "oobleck" (cornstarch and water mixture) with their five senses....

Young scholars conduct a simple inertia demonstration by spinning a hardboiled and raw egg. They push a wagon to demonstrate inertia. They explore Newton's first and second laws of motion.

Students explore how the amount of sunlight and heat change in areas that are shaded.

Students observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and record...

Sixth graders explore the Tropical Rainforest and come to understand what it is and how it affects the ecosystem. In this rainforests lesson, 6th graders write about the Tropical Rainforest, imagine they are in the Tropical Rainforest,...

Students explore the possibility of life on Mars and what that might look like.  In this planetary lesson students complete several activities on looking for life on Mars. 

Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling water can...

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...

Young scholars discuss physical places in which had good or bad acoustics. After reading an article, they discover the relationship between the physics of sound and concert hall acoustics. They calculate the speed of sound and compare...

Young scholars explore how pitch changes when using instruments that are plucked, blown, and hit. In this sound and pitch lesson, students blow across the top of bottles that are filled with water to create sound. Young scholars use...

Learners attempt to blow a wad of paper into a soda bottle.  In this physics lesson, students discover that air pressure inside of a soda bottle prevents new air from going in.

Students build simple mobiles. For this equilibrium lesson, students investigate the functions of three types of levers as they analyze artwork by Alexander Calder. Students then create their own simplified mobiles.

Students will examine how floods work and why they can cause so much damage and destruction. They use a stream table to observe the processes that lead to flooding and the effects of floods on human-made structures. Includes a guide to...