STEM Lesson Plans

What would you do if you were dropped into the wilderness, with nothing but what you could fit into a backpack, and had to survive harsh weather, a hostile location, and possibly aggressive wildlife

Students will create an engineering notebook that documents their progress through the engineering design process as it applies to their choice of project, either creating a toy from “trash” or a

In this lesson, students use real-world data to explore criteria for air pollutants. If students continue to the next lesson in this series, they create data-based art to deepen and demonstrate their

This lesson is designed because kids love to compete and it primes them to use the Engineering Design process to build a boat and revise their design as needed. Students must use at least one rubber

This STEAM lesson is ideal for Tucson/Pima County Middle School Students who can participate in the annual KIDStruction building contest, but you can also duplicate many of the learning opportunities

Students read the story "Just a Second" to introduce students to geologic time. Next, they are given an activity to understand how long is 4.6 billion years. Then students complete a lab that allows

In this 3 day lesson plan, students will discover the relationships between the sun, earth, moon, solar/lunar eclipses and the tides.

In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of solar angle and how Earth’s tilt on its axis and revolution around the sun are responsible for seasonal changes in temperature, daylight

Students use an interactive map and ArcGIS software to analyze the impacts of climate change on global populations.

This lesson walks students through the movement of air in the atmosphere and the energy that drives it. It contains a PowerPoint, activity, worksheet and assessment.

In this lesson, students will be creating a working model demonstrating Earth’s rotation and revolution. Students will be able to explain the differences between Earth’s rotation and revolution

This is part 2 of a two-part series focused on the effects of grafting tomato plants to potato root stock in order to create "pomato" plants. This lesson is written for junior high students but can be

This is a junior high lesson on plant grafting that can be done in a classroom setting or with an after-school club such as botany. This lesson can be easily modified for any grade level. In this

Explore how cells can only be so big by studying how things move in and out of them, and discover why the size of a cell is connected to its surface area and volume.

Students will go through the process of counting pumpkin seeds and analyzing data through mean, median and mode as well as creating correlating graphs. Students will learn what causes fruit

Students will explore the drought in Arizona and design a solution for it. They will create their design in a 3D design program, write an informational paper, and present the design and information to

Students will use geometric reasoning and the engineering design process to construct solar ovens while learning about renewable energy.

Students will research what techniques engineers use to help a building withstand an earthquake and implement two researched strategies into a cardboard structure that will survive a medium sized

Students will focus sunlight through a pinhole onto a sheet of paper. Knowing the distance between the projection and the pinhole allows students to calculate the diameter of the Sun using ratios.

Within this lesson students will present their master-planned community to a test audience and potential clients. Focus on presenting to the client rather than reading information off the slide

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.

Students will build an ice snowman and a house for him to live in. They will collaborate to design a structure to keep him from melting. This project uses basic materials to study insulation and

In this five days lesson plan or a class project, I used a picture book, "Seeds of Change: Exploring Wangari Maathai's Tree-Planting Efforts". This lesson plan is great for 6th -8th-grade students. In