STEM Lesson Plans

With this hands-on lesson, students will compare and contrast the growth of plants cultivated in an SPV lab environment with those grown in natural sunlight, understanding the impact of light sources

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

Students create a scale model representing earth's history in order to analyze how life has changed on earth over time.

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

This investigation provides a fun and engaging way for students to learn about data collection, graphing, and proportional relationships while exploring the power of renewable energy. By applying

In this lesson, students will work in groups to design a model that will demonstrate the best erosion techniques for the model of a road experiencing flooding or heavy rainfall. Students will be given

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

This lesson allows students to visualize the vast scale and immense sizes of object in the solar system. This activity can be calibrated by the math levels of your students, so they are not left

This lesson allows students to explore why volcanoes are shaped differently and why they erupt differently. Students will investigate viscosity, silica content of igneous rock samples, and perform

Students will explore how gravity plays a role in orbits and the attraction between objects in space, using online simulations. In addition to the online simulations this lesson contains ideas for

Students identify the problem with drinking water contamination due to pesticide, prescription medicine, and hormones. They design solutions for a real-world problem that negatively affects the

How old is Earth? How big is 1 million years compared to 1 billion years? Students will use three models to organize geologic time and practice cross multiplication to solve for a variable.

This is a hands-on, collaborative lesson that allows the students to include art and presentation skills in the project. The students research various aspects of a selected planet and then presents

This is a smaller part of a larger Digital Citizenship Unit. Students will spend time understanding the concept of a Digital Footprint and the long term consequences of a negative Digital Footprint

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

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

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

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 will learn about the four types of seismic waves during an earthquake. Students will then use that information to design a house that can absorb a majority of the seismic waves, limiting the

Students research the impact natural hazards in a city in the southwest and create an artifact to prompt public action.