In these Hero Elementary activities, children explore solid and liquid materials. They observe, compare, and describe solid and liquid materials. They sort materials as solid or liquid. They find out how hot and cold can change the state of materials.
In this activity, the students will read an article that explores the relationship between synthetic and natural materials. Next, the students will watch a short video clip related to synthetic materials in order to understand the impact these resources can have on society. As they watch the video, the students will assess its validity and purpose by using a graphic organizer.
This activity was created as a result of the DLCS COS Resource Development Summit.
This inquiry-based lesson provides an introduction to waves by using water waves to explore patterns of amplitude, wavelength, and frequency. Students will investigate water waves in slow motion.
This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to provide information regarding geologic events that happen over a short period of time, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity includes a StepRead: StepReads are less complex versions of the original article. StepRead1 (SR1) is less complex than the original article, and StepRead2 (SR2) is less complex than SR1. This will allow the teacher to use this learning activity with students of varying ability levels.
In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Megneto helps Dr. Shini explain what induction is, how it works, and why magnetism is so seemingly complicated.
Students learn about four factors that describe different types of weather—temperature, wind, precipitation, and sunlight and clouds—as they explore various weather conditions and find evidence that describes each type of weather in this interactive lesson by WGBH. Interactive activities engage students as they observe and identify evidence of changing weather conditions and record factors evident in various types of weather.
Students investigate why summer days have more daylight hours than winter days, using data, observational videos, models, and informational text. They relate quantitative and qualitative data to models of the Earth-Sun system to discern a reason for the difference in the amount of daylight on a summer day and on a winter day. An extension activity enables students to apply learning to explain daylight differences in a southern hemisphere location. Investigating Daylight Throughout a Year can be used to provide foundational knowledge for this lesson. In that lesson, students use observations and quantitative data to characterize the differences in the amount of daylight in summer and in winter.
In this lesson, students will use the concept of finding the probability of an offspring having more than one genetic trait simultaneously. They will use a shortcut method to find the probability and they will use a Punnett square calculator to check their answers. This lesson can be used to teach genetics in a science classroom or a practical "real world" application of probability calculations in a math classroom.
This activity was created as a result of the GAP Resource Summit.
Students research and create a brochure project on an endangered species of their choice integrating aspects of math, science, social studies, art, reading and writing. This project allows the students to make connections across the curriculum. Students present their ideas to a group of peers persuading the group to help save or become interested in helping the endangered species. Students are also encouraged to make connections between the activities of the human population and their effect on the natural world.
This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to provide data about solid water (ice and snow) found on Earth. This activity includes a question set on cause and effect, which will help students describe the connection between scientific ideas and processes.
Dihydrogen monoxide (better known as water) is the key to nearly everything. It falls from the sky, makes up 60% of our bodies, and just about every chemical process related to life takes place with it or in it. Without it, none of the chemical reactions that keep us alive would happen, none of the reactions that sustain any life form on earth would happen, and the majority of inorganic chemical reactions that shape the surface of the earth would not happen either. Every one of us uses water for all kinds of chemistry every day--our body chemistry, our food chemistry, and our laundry chemistry all take place in water. In this Crash Course Chemistry, we learn about some of the properties of water that make it so special. We explore its polarity and dielectric property; how electrolytes can be used to classify solutions; and we discover how to calculate a solution's molarity as well as how to dilute a solution using the dilution equation.
The sun is an average size star and the center of our solar system. One of the things surrounding it is an asteroid belt, and the four planets inside that belt are called the inner planets.
The classroom resource provides a slide show that will describe the components of the inner section of our solar system: the sun, the asteroid belt, and the four inner planets. This resource can provide background information for students before they create their own models. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
In this lesson, students will develop an understanding that objects and materials can be tested to learn about their properties. Students will help plan and conduct different tests on the materials. Students will be able to explain that when testing materials to learn about their properties, all the materials need to be tested in the same way.
Students test a piece of aluminum foil, plastic from a zip-closing plastic bag, and copier paper to learn about some of their properties. Students conduct tests on the materials and then help design a strength test. The point is stressed that for a good, fair test each material needs to be tested in the same way. A simulation is shown that emphasizes the point that the different properties of materials are good for different uses.
This activity can be used at the beginning of a lesson on thermal energy or energy transfer. The teacher will conduct a demonstration involving two balloons (one only filled with air, the other filled with air and water) and place them over a flame. The students will then make predictions, observations, and provide explanations based on the demonstration.
This activity was developed during the ALEX Resource Development Summit
Matter is made of particles too small to be seen. But if we can’t see these particles, how do we know they exist? In this lesson, students will plan and carry out investigations with air and simple solutions to provide evidence that all types of matter are made of tiny particles that are invisible to the human eye.
This lesson results from a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and ASTA.
This resource presents a short slide show about the human digestive system. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding.
In this episode of Crash Course Chemistry, Hank discusses why we need models in the world and how we can learn from them--even when they're almost completely wrong. Plus, learn the glory of the Lewis Dot Structure.
Discover the science behind stormy weather like tornados, hurricanes, and floods with this lesson made for future meteorologists. Try to stay dry with a puddle-loving duck as you learn about changing weather patterns.
In this lesson, students will develop a model to describe that matter is made up of tiny particles, too small to be seen. Students will use the model to describe the differences in attraction among the particles of a solid, liquid, and gas. Finally, students will use their models of solids, liquids, and gases to explain their observations in the lesson.
The lesson will begin with students accessing their prior knowledge of weather and climates by completing a warm-up writing prompt. Students will then move to reading texts on the subjects of tornadoes, hurricanes, blizzards, and droughts to determine if and how climate affects these weather phenomena. In groups, students will create a half-poster that describes their findings in text and pictures. At the end of the lesson, students will view a graph to extend their learning about tornadoes and hint at a future lesson while also completing an "exit ticket" as a means of summative assessment.
This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.
In this activity, students will watch a quick video clip from YouTube that will demonstrate how dry ice can quickly freeze fruit, discuss properties of dry ice, and show how it sublimates. After watching the clip, students will then conduct seven different mini-laboratories with dry ice to expand their knowledge of the properties of matter and explore the process of sublimation - a solid transitioning directly to a gas skipping the liquid phase.
This activity was created as a result of the ALEX Resource Development Summit.
Students will begin by brainstorming a list of needs that must be met for an animal to survive in its habitat. Next, the students will observe an ant farm, created by the teacher prior to the lesson, and determine how the ants' needs are being met through their environment. Then, students will create a list of needs that must be met for a plant to survive in its habitat and compare this list to animals' survival needs. Lastly, the teacher will assist students in developing a plan to build a natural habitat conducive to meeting the needs of a plant. At the conclusion of the lesson, the students will construct a plant terrarium.
This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. This article will explain how the moon creates tides on Earth by exerting the force of gravity on Earth's oceans, even though the two celestial objects are not in contact. Students could use this informational material to construct their own argument explaining how fields exist between objects exerting forces on each other.
Today Hank talks about the deliciousness of alkenes & alkynes, their structures, and how to remember which is which by simply knowing the alphabet. Also, he breaks down hydrogenation, halogenation, polymerization, and triglycerides all while helping us figure out the meaning of different names for fats.
Renewable fuels are energy resources that can be replaced in a reasonable amount of time. They are sometimes called alternative fuels because they offer an alternative to fossil fuels, which cannot be replaced.
The classroom resource provides a video that will explain how gravity and inertia work together to keep the planets in our solar system revolving around the sun. This resource can provide background information for students before they create their own models. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.
In this lesson, students discuss the meaning of “chemistry” and “matter.” Students investigate a drop of water hanging from a dropper and drops of water beading up on wax paper. They also look at a molecular animation that models the motion of water molecules. Students are introduced to the idea that matter is made up of extremely tiny particles that are attracted to one another.
This lesson allows students to use the properties and characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases to determine how different variables affect states of matter. Students predict what will happen and spend short amounts of time daily to observe and record data. Students will graph their data into charts to see patterns and solve math problems.
This lesson was created as a part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
Steve Trash teaches kids about science with fun and magic. The show is filmed in Alabama.
What are pollinators? What do they do? And how are they like messy babies? Then, see how every time you do something online you’re creating a digital footprint that can be tracked back to you. Steve Trash explains both with fun and magic.
Understanding the energy conversion capability of photosynthesis and the artificial nanostructured photocatalysts contrast biotic and abiotic systems, while demonstrating the efficiency of photosynthesis compared to titanium dioxide nanoparticles in generating gas production volumetrically. The experiment results transition to a discussion of photosynthesis and the organelles within the cell where it takes place. This lesson explores light energy capture and transformation into chemical energy during photosynthesis. The lesson can lead to discussion of renewable energy conversion methods and nanotechnology, to help advance nanoscience research to solve the challenging energy issues in the future.
Students investigate conditions in the deepest parts of the ocean, make inferences about ocean creatures based on their physical characteristics, and design creatures that could survive in the Mariana Trench.
Learn why it is important to be careful when using non-renewable resources in this video from CYBERCHASE. Students discover that most electricity currently comes from burning gas, oil, and coal, which are all resources that cannot be replaced once they are consumed. Refer to the accompanying discussion questions, renewable energy coloring book from Solar1, and teaching tips for ideas on using this video with students and to help them consider ways to use electricity wisely. Discussion questions and vocabulary terms are available in Spanish in the Support Materials.
For more environmental education resources, visit the Human Impact on the Environment collection.
Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph coastal mangrove plants and animals in Belize, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about coastal ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to coastal life.
In this lesson, students will put a static charge on a strip of plastic by pulling it between their fingers. They will see that the plastic is attracted to their fingers. Students will be introduced to the idea that rubbing the strip with their fingers caused electrons to move from their skin to the plastic giving the plastic a negative charge and their skin a positive charge. Through these activities, students will be introduced to some of the characteristics of electrons, protons, and neutrons, which make up atoms.
Students will be able to explain, in terms of electrons and protons, why a charged object is attracted or repelled by another charged object. They will also be able to explain why a charged object can even be attracted to an uncharged object. Students will also be able to explain that the attraction between positive protons and negative electrons holds an atom together.
In this lesson, the students will use the technology resource Mission:Biomes to research and gather data for precipitation and temperatures for assigned biomes. The students will use the data to create a bar graph to display climate data for each biome.
This lesson was created as part of the 2016 NASA STEM Standards of Practice Project, a collaboration between the Alabama State Department of Education and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
In this activity, students will work in groups of four to complete a thermometer investigation using the Scientific Method. Throughout this detailed inquiry, students will learn the components that make up a thermometer, along with the units of measurement (Fahrenheit and Celsius). In the first part of the activity, students will use the thermometer to measure three different temperatures of water (room temperature, warm, and cold). The goal of this portion of the activity is for students to see the thermal energy of the water expand or contract the mercury within the thermometer. The second part of the activity will lead students to determine whether food coloring travels faster through warm or cold water. The teacher will put one drop of food coloring in both the warm and cold cups, and students will observe which cup the food coloring disperses/dissolves the fastest. This section is included to explain how molecules move faster in warm water and slower in cold water.
This learning activity was created as a result of the Girls Engaged in Math and Science (GEMS) Resource Development Project, in partnership with Dothan City Schools.
