Students design a vehicle made entirely out of pasta and hot glue to explore motion and force concepts.
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Science Scope’s editor shares thoughts regarding the current issue.
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This column provides an inside look at the marvels of engineering in everyday life. In this 5E learning cycle lesson, students investigate the design of simple, everyday binder clips and how they function.
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Students build their own generator to study the transfer of energy. The generator activity allows students to observe electrical effects without using a battery or power supply.
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Middle school students can develop and enhance their observation skills by participating in teacher-guided scientific inquiry activities where they observe animals that tend to act in known, predictable ways. Using madagascar hissing cockroaches can develop and enhance the scientific inquiry skill of observation.
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This activity introduces students to the pros and cons of a renewable energy source, allowing them to experience how energy can change form from mechanical to electrical. Pairs of students are challenged to build a set of wind turbine blades that will capture wind energy and cause a small motor to spin. The amount of electricity created is measured with a multimeter, and the group whose design generates the most electricity wins.
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The author presents the science and engineering practices from the recently released A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas.
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This column shares safety information for your classroom. This month’s issue discusses the safety of various metals commonly used in middle school science lab activities.
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This column focuses on astronomy throughout the year. This month’s issue discusses missions to Mars.
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Use popular media to enhance instruction of simple machines and energy transfer. Popular culture can foster active thinking at key points in a lesson sequence, such as introductory pretest, formative review, homework practice, application, extension, or even summative assessment.
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Studying the Olympic sport of curling is a fun, engaging way to learn about the concepts of friction, forces, momentum, and Newton's laws. Students enjoy and benefit from hands-on, experiential learning activities, and sports show students how they can apply scientific knowledge to a real-world situation.
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This short and cost-effective lesson helps middle grade students learn about the transfer of thermal energy. The lesson comprises three activities: a predict-share-observe-explain sequence of instruction that elicits students' conceptions and piques their interest in learning about heat transfer; an investigation into convection; and a follow-up, whole-class discussion of kinetic and thermal energy to solidify understanding.
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This column provides classic demonstrations and experiments with a new twist. This month’s issue describes an activity that was designed for our eighth-grade physics class to teach the concepts of how electricity is made and transported to the home, how electricity is used in the home, and the monetary and environmental costs associated with that usage.
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