Students are introduced to the concept of nanotechnology with a small group research activity about the different industries using nanotechnology.
This lesson is the beginning stages of planning for a greenhouse. Students work to gather data and information about possible locations for the greenhouse by using their perimeter skills.
After learning about the importance of clean water and different types of filters, students engineer their own water filter.
Volcanoes: Studying Viscosity of Lava & Magma and how it relates to The San Francisco Volcanic Field
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
The students construct and interpret an HR Diagram to better understand the significance and usefulness of the diagram.
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.
This lesson teaches students how and why it rains. They will have student-to-student interactions and hands-on learning opportunities. They will also be practicing their counting skills during the
This is a hands-on activity where students can visualize, using Skittles as atoms, the concept of balancing chemical reactions. Many students get thrown off by the fact that products often look, smell
Students learn about photochemical reactions which are chemical reactions that require light as activation energy. Students create ball and stick models to recreate sample photochemical reactions
In a chemiluminescence chemical reaction, light is generated as a product. What causes light to be generated from chemicals that interact? This chemistry lesson explores the reasons why light is
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
In this lesson plan, students will be able to build a simple electric motor and study how simple changes affect the motor's rotation. They will learn how energy comes in many forms, and how electric
In this lesson plan, students will be able to investigate battery cells as they construct their own simple batteries: They will know that batteries are a common store of energy for many devices that
Student teams design insulated beverage cups with the challenge to test them to determine which material works best as an insulator to keep a hot beverage warm for as long as possible. Students test
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,
As a follow up to the lesson The Stories Shadows Tell, students engage with an informational text to understand the relationship between the position of the sun (East vs West) the time of the day, and
This is a second grade STEM lesson in which students will observe the shadow of an object at different points in the day, comparing the size and direction of the shadow at different points. Observing
In this lesson, students will learn about Wilson Bentley, the "farmer scientist" who pioneered photomicrography to photograph snowflakes and share them with the world. Students will then design and
In this lesson, students cover concepts like states of matter and chemical changes. Students will apply these concepts to an activity where they will make fake snow. Students will be challenged to
Students in 4th grade learned about natural disasters through this interactive STEM lesson focused on the creation on a 'tsunami-proof' home. Students used the Engineering Design Process to create a
Students will learn about water availability in Arizona and design and build a prototype/model of a rain-catchment/recycling system to provide water for a school garden.
In this unit, students will use their knowledge of weather and climate patterns to construct, place, and collect data from a rain gauge for one month. The beginning of the school year would be 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.