My Library

This lesson exposes children to a wide range of animals and guides them through observation of animal similarities, differences, and environmental adaptations. This lesson can be used as part of a study of plants and animals and the interdependent relationships in ecosystems. Before doing the lesson, students should know the meanings of the terms plant, animal, and living. The lesson also shows th ...

"Architects of Seamount Ecosystems" is a three part lesson plan that introduces students to the fascinating world of the ecologically critical seamount ecosystems. Students participate in the construction of a Sierpinski Triangle to demonstrate the effect of the branching growth form of deep-sea corals. An award-winning video, "Beneath the Blue" introduces students to key con ...

In this unit, students investigate five essential questions about severe weather: "What is severe weather? How does weather impact people's lives? How can technology be used to collect data about weather conditions? What can weather data tell us about the frequency of severe weather events? How can people modify their homes to reduce the impact of severe weather?" The printable &ldqu ...

This 60 minute activity involves students building a physical model of a watershed and then making observations about how rain water travels over the land, eventually forming rivers and lakes. As an extension, the students take a bucket of water and make observations using actual earth materials.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License version of Can We Trust AI?

The Plants unit (approximately 16 hours of instructional time), part of the Carbon TIME curriculum, builds on student learning about organic and inorganic materials in the Systems and Scale unit as well as the processes learned in the Animals Unit, including how all systems exist at multiple scales and the transformation of materials and energy during chemical change. In the Plants Unit students l ...

Paper-based and multimedia activities that explore the inner-most workings of cells . Includes models for 5 mystery cell types that students work to identify.

Poster: Hierarchies of matter and life.

This is an example of how to code qualitative data

Tips for creating digital materials in science that are accessible to all students.

A free 6-week unit on genetics and evolution that incorporates a scaffolded argumentation practice throughout.

Students investigate which building types are structured to withstand earthquake damage. They take on the role of engineers as they design their own earthquake resistant buildings, then test them in a simulated earthquake activity. Students also develop an appreciation for the job of engineers who need to know about earthquakes and their causes in order to design resistant buildings. This lesson i ...

This is a 5E laboratory lesson plan about endothermic and exothermic reactions. Teaching resources include activity sheets for assessment, answer sheets, a variety of video clips and animations to support the students' learning of the concepts, background information for the teacher, and a test bank.

Visual student guide to interpreting data patterns, with examples and non-examples.

A visual guide to measuring specimens, with examples and non-examples.

Exploring Genetics Through Genetic Disorders is a three-week, NGSS-aligned genetics unit. Through paper-based and interactive multimedia lessons, the unit engages students in using models, analyzing skill-level appropriate data from published research, establishing cause and effect relationships, and constructing explanations. It includes DNA and protein-level information for over 25 disease-causing alleles.

The Sesame Street Characters are used to: 1. Create a gene map for a particular Sesame Street character. 2. Move the resulting chromosomes through the steps of meiosis to produce the possible gametes of that individual character. 3. Choose a spouse and diagram the genetic crosses that would produce two different children, by using Punnett Squares. 4. Draw family portraits based on the genotypes of ...

In this lesson, students will build a plant and an animal habitat to learn that plants and animals have common needs. There is also a discussion of ecosystems. The link below leads to a main page where you can find the pdf for the activity, Habitat to Habitat.

This news story describes a phenomenon that illustrates how traits are randomly passed from generation to generation. A photo in the story shows two young women whose physical traits are so different from one another that most people would say they are not related. The photo shows seemingly unrelated ladies that are not just related, but are twins. The video linked below tells the story of these t ...

Grade Level: Upper Elementary Duration: 30-45 minutes Like: This lesson incorporates math into it.

This resource is an article from the January 2016 issue of The Science Teacher. The unit focuses on an essential question: How do Siamese cats develop their coloration? Students develop explanations by making connections among genes, proteins, and traits. The unit is designed to be implemented over six or seven instructional days. However, each activity can be used as a stand-alone instruction ...

This nonfiction book summarizes how some insects work together to increase their chances of survival. Details are provided on four types of insects: honeybees, hive wasps (hornets, yellow jackets, and paper wasps), termites, and ants. A short section on insect migration and building a hive model are also included.

Students design and conduct simple experiments using elodea (aquatic plant sold in pet stores) and Bromthymol blue to determine whether plants consume or release carbon dioxide in the process of photosynthesis. Students will record their data which will be used to conclude whether carbon dioxide was consumed or released by the elodea. Through class discussion of student data, students will learn t ...

A list of the primary sources we had laid out at the beginning of the workshop, with live URLs included.

PDFs of the primary sources we had laid out at the beginning of the workshop.

Students explore mixtures and solutions in this 5E lesson. Students add soil to water, stir it and repeat the procedure with salt, then compare the two. Students then collaborate to explain differences in changes between the mixtures, built on experiences in modeling from previous lessons. The resource includes examples of students work to support a teacher's implementation of this lesson.

Students perform a guided inquiry activity using two toy cars to answer the scientific question: What does it mean to be "faster"?

The multi-step pedagogy presented in this session is guided by the USTRIVE Unit Planning Rubric -- a framework developed for all STEM content areas.

The lesson includes a 7 minute video to engage students in the concern that scientists have about how release of invasive Lionfish have created a shift in the oceanic ecosystems of the Caribbean and the Florida Coast. The lesson includes ideas for the teacher to use in order to engage the students in researching other species and arguing from evidence about the impact that an invasive species can ...

This lesson is a collaboration between the Lego Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Edgerton Center. The LEGO bricks provide kinesthetic experiences for students to model the process of photosynthesis. The phenomenon of this lesson is to figure out how plants gain mass. The lesson first elicits students prior knowledge then helps students understand that the primary source of plan ...

This is a copy of the PPT slides that we used during our presentation.

In 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused severe damage and suffering to the people who lived in New Orleans. The levees that surrounded the city did not hold the immense amount of ocean water that rose from the storm. In this activity, students will use the engineering design process to design and build their own model levees. Acting as engineers for their city, teams create sturdy barriers using limited ...

This computer simulation allows students to investigate the relationship between DNA sequences and protein structures. Additionally, this interactive activity allows students to make sense of the relationship between DNA structure and types of mutations. This lesson is designed to be done individually and the teacher has the ability to edit and assign the activity through the ITSI portal (https: ...

This is a youtube video of the highlights of the Red Bull space jump, it is 1:21 minutes long. To initiate driving questions for a unit on forces, students might ask: Why did Felix have to wear a spacesuit for the jump? How long was Felix falling? Why did Felix use a balloon instead of an airplane? How large was the force of air resistance acting on Felix? Was the force acting on Felix constant th ...

This link will take you to a Google Doc full of all the resources used to develop this hands-on workshop.

Session PPT

Presentation Slides

This is the presentation I'll be doing. Documents will be available at the presentation.

Obtain data while your students move their bodies. Use that data as evidence for CER.

Weather Lab is an online interactive tool, or app, that helps students visualize how North America’s weather is formed in the Spring. The app models the interactions between various air masses and ocean currents and describes probable weather outcomes. Students choose an ocean current and two air masses and the lab describes the characteristics of each. Students then predict the resulting we ...

This is a word document that describes how to code qualitative data.