STEM Lesson Plans

This is the first lesson in a series of four that are designed to help guide students to design and implement their own independent STEM research project.

This lesson combines math, science and art in a sparkling and engaging activity. Student will learn about rock classifications and draw an example using geometry. Students will gain an understanding

In this lesson, students use the Kepler’s Laws PhET Simulation to collect data on the period and average radius of the planetary orbits. They graph and analyze that data to derive Kepler’s 3rd Law.

This lesson uses a PhET Simulation to allow students to collect data on the orbits of planets around our Sun, then summarize and share their results. It is designed for students in Grades 9-12.

This is a high-school level hands-on project that allows students to build their own working sundial, make predictions and assess their accuracy. This lesson ties in with the study of Kepler's Laws.

Including themes of natural resources, art, and geography; this engineering lesson introduces students to the idea of mass conservation. While using the phenomena of the water crisis in Arizona,

Students learn about the Colorado River watershed and the impact of water rights and usage. They will read about the past and present water flow data, build a model of the watershed, calculate data

Three day lesson on garbage, recycling, and composting. Day 1: Students are provided a garbage bag and no instruction on recycling. *Collect all of your disposable garbage for 24 hours. Bring it back

This lesson is an activity to see what an angle is and how is can be used to approximate the time of day or even navigating vessels by measuring other celestial bodies. Students will use sextants to

In this project, students will create a professional blueprint of their real-life home. Students will then do research to find at least ten places in the home that impact the environment (positive or

In this project, students will choose an environmental problem to research. They will look up why this problem is occurring and how it is harming the environment. Students will then come up with two

I use this lesson as a fun activity to visualize unit conversions and the immense scale of the universe. I love this lesson because I find it challenging to teach unit conversions with hands-on

This high school lesson was created to discuss Martian and potentially future soil on Earth. The overall goal is to achieve biodiversity and health within the soil. It should hold moisture but not too

This hands-on lesson is for the use of a hydroponic system. Tower gardens were the systems used, however, if budget is a concern, there is a very affordable option in the plan as well using tanks

This lesson includes 1 or 2- 50 minute period(s) worth of particle pollution exploration. Students are creating an explanation of events for carbon dioxide and particle pollution detection, creating

This lesson includes 1 or 2- 50 minute period(s) worth of Greenhouse gas exploration. Students are creating and refining a drawn model of greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere, reading and discussing

Students use GIS and analyze another digital map before constructing a model to explain human impacts on different biomes across the globe.

Students play a game to model and graph the effects an invasive species on a local ecosystem before analyzing a case study and completing a research project.

This design challenge was open for any interested students from grades 9-12. Students met afterschool over the course of the second semester. This is the 4th sequence of lessons in a set of 4. This

This lesson and accompanying activity are designed to introduce students to the celestial coordinate system used for location objects and locations in the sky. This lesson will also introduce students

An introduction to Kepler's 1st Law and ellipses. The lesson includes some guided notes for students as well as a hands on activity where students will draw, measure, explore, and conduct calculations

This two-part lesson models STEM instruction in the context of an ELD classroom. In this lesson (part 2), students pose a research question about clouds, weather, and/or climate, and address it with

This engaging lesson is an introductory lesson regarding the size and scale of the Universe and objects within. This was designed for high school Astronomy but is easily useable with ages down through

This two-part lesson models STEM instruction in the context of an ELD classroom. In part 1 (this lesson), the goal is to promote scientific academic discourse in an ELD classroom. Students use a