STEM Lesson Plans

This lesson introduces the unit exploring light pollution and possible solutions students can create. Students will explore what light pollution is. Students will determine next steps in the process.

In this challenge students will use various materials to build a flood barrier that will protect their home during a flash flood.

Students are provided with recycled materials and given the challenge to built a boat that will carry weight and sail across a container without sinking. Students will learn about buoyancy and what

What is a geometric shape? Observe and discuss a variety of geometric shapes. Similar/different? Mathematical geometry vocabulary/activities with shapes Engineering a geometric playground Share or

This lesson will implement chain reactions and simple machines into a Rube Goldberg invention. Students will learn about the Rube Goldberg and his crazy inventions. They will then create their own

This Lesson Plan demonstrates how sound waves work. It also helps kids work with their peers and expand their understanding of how sound waves can cause vibrations which can cause matter to move

This Lesson demonstrates and helps students understand the concept of non-contact forces with a hands-on-activity. In the experiment, the students will be making a magnetic car in groups of 2-4. After

This lesson will introduce students to the phases of the moon and how they are created by the position of the Earth, moon, & sun during the month. There is an embedded hands on activity that is

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

Students will learn about the atmosphere and what causes it to form layers. Then students will identify how the atmosphere interacts with the geosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Students design an

7th Grade students will apply what they have learned about electricity and magnetism to understand electromagnets. Students will explore electromagnets and investigate the factors that affect the

7th grade Science and Math lesson about how energy flows through a circuit. Students investigate variables that affect the strength of the electrical fields. This is lesson 2 of the Electromagnetism

An introductory lesson regarding the size and scale of the Universe and objects within. Designed for high school Astronomy but easily useable with ages down through 7th grade.

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

In this lesson, students explore glow-in-the-dark materials using regular flashlights and UV flashlights. They then add phosphorescence and the emission of EM energy to previous models of light and

This lesson provides students with examples of the different types of plate boundaries, the movement at each type, and the driving mechanism for the phenomenon. It includes a hands-on activity in

This multi-day activity is designed for introductory 5th grade STEM after school club. On Day 1, each student will build and test a simple roller coaster following the teacher’s instructions. Students

In this lesson, students will be learning about solar energy and how it may be used to solve problems. After reading and comparing two texts about solar energy, students will use simple materials to

In groups of 2-4, students will work through the Engineering Design process on building a tower as tall as possible with 100 index cards, that supports the weight of an object, chosen by the teacher.

Using Newton's Laws, students will create a contraption out of given materials to protect an egg from a 10 foot drop.

Students will understand how we see objects. They will learn that your eyes see objects when light hits an object and reflects off the object into your eye. They will also be able to identify the

In this lesson students will create a model to investigate how a location's temperature may change during an El Niño year. Students will construct landforms in a tray and then fill the tray with water