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In this lesson, the teacher models and describes the kinds of information students will be looking for in their research project on a synthetic product. This is done by using an example of a synthetic product that students make in the classroom: a gel worm (not for eating.) Students make it by combining a sodium alginate solution with a calcium chloride solution. The teacher uses this product to model answers to the three questions students need to answer in their research:

1. What natural resources are used to make the synthetic product?
2. What chemical processes are used to make the synthetic product?
3. What are the negative and positive impacts to society of making and using the synthetic product, compared to making and using a more natural product with a similar function?

Students choose or are assigned a synthetic product to research. They investigate the product to answer the three questions. Students apply their learning to make an advertisement, poster, short video, or article about their synthetic product.

Students will be able to find and analyze information to describe that chemical processes are used to convert natural resources into synthetic materials and products. They will also be able to give examples of how the production of synthetic products has impacts, both positive and negative, on society.

In this activity, students make a meerkat model while identifying unique body characteristics. Students learn how adaptations are crucial to a meerkat's survival.

Humans and animals share some common features. We use our eyes to see, our nose to smell, and our ears to hear. Animals use those same features to help them survive by finding food and sense danger. A Tail Like This will help children learn more about the features of a few common animals they may see every day.

In this Martha Speaks interactive story students discover how plants and animals depend on each other in an ecosystem. Fallen leaves decay; earthworms eat the leaves and fertilize the dirt. Then trees use the fertilized soil to grow. When used as a part of Martha’s True Stories Buddies Program, buddy pairs engage with the interactive story and then talk and write as they draw a habitat they have seen that includes an ecosystem. To familiarize yourself with the program, begin by reading the Martha's True Stories Buddies Program: Overview.

Students may observe and describe the phases of the moon using this online tool. Furthermore, they may select their ZIP code and month to see the phases of the moon in their own location. By returning to the site’s homepage, students may learn more about these predicted moon phases.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will 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 introduce students to the concept of constructive and destructive forces on Earth's surface, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. 

In this video, Dr. Shini discusses centripetal force, centrifugal force, and a few other bits of physics to help us understand uniform circular motion.

Ecosystems are constantly going through gradual changes. Sometimes those changes are natural, and sometimes they are caused by humans.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe how ecosystems can change over time due to natural and human activity. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

In this lesson, students learn about the life cycle of plants by watching a time-lapse video. This activity provides students with further evidence that all living things grow and change as they progress through their life cycle. Two optional video segments show students how to set up a germination experiment and how to grow seeds they collect on their socks.

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 as an introduction to transparent, translucent, opaque, and reflective materials, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned these concepts, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This informational text could provide background knowledge before students investigate materials that are transparent, translucent, opaque, or reflective. 

One of the greatest inventions is the steam engine. But why? What makes it so useful? And how does it work? In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Dr. Shini talks to us about how engines work, what makes them efficient, and why they're pretty cool.

Metamorphic rocks can be formed from igneous, sedimentary, and even other metamorphic rocks.

The classroom resource provides a slide show that will describe how metamorphic rocks are formed during the rock cycle. There is a karaoke song that students can learn to help them remember the steps in the rock cycle process. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding. Students can use the information presented in this slide show to plan their own investigations.

In these Hero Elementary activities, children learn that animals have offspring that are very much—but not exactly—like their parents. This includes humans too! Children observe and describe how animal parents and babies are alike and not alike, and they look for patterns.

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 short and long periods of time, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson.

Light is everywhere, but it’s not as predictable as you might think. It’s a wave that travels in straight lines, yet it also reflects off of surfaces, refracts through various materials, and generally changes direction all the time. We know we can bend light to our will, with lenses and mirrors, but in this video, we will explore what we can learn from light.

Meet a clingy red-eyed tree frog with a magnetic personality as you learn about magnets, magnetic forces, and how magnets make things move. Use main ideas and key phrases to help you read. Then, invent your own amazing magnet technology for the future.

Students experiment with density by changing the density of water, in this activity from Zoom. Students will discover that the more salt there is in the water, the denser the water is. Density is one thing that makes things float. 

Tides are the rise and fall of the Earth’s seas and oceans, and they are caused by the pull of gravity from the sun and moon. Tides cause changes in the depths of the water, meaning that seas and oceans are continually experiencing cycles of high and low tides.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe how tides are created by the gravitational pull of the moon on Earth's oceans. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

The laws of nature are constantly influencing and interacting with our lives. Forces and motion are part of everything we do. How do we know what forces are acting on us or an object for that matter? Can we predict how the laws of motion will affect an object? Is it possible to create an art piece that can prove that these laws of nature exist? In this lesson, students will be able to study forces and motion vocabulary, visualize and describe the three laws of motion, discuss and design an art piece that justifies their knowledge and understanding of forces and motion, and present and interpret their art piece using vocabulary.

This classroom resource provides a video that will describe the parts of the eye and how they work to allow sight. After utilizing this resource, the students can complete the short test to assess their understanding. This resource will provide background information to students before they create their own models. 

In this episode, you'll learn what the state function is, and how it varies from a path-dependent function; why enthalpy change is different from heat; that bonds are energy and to form and break them they release and absorb heat to and from their environment. You'll get the quickest introduction to calorimetry ever (more on that in upcoming episodes) and learn the power of Hess's Law and how to use Germain Hess's concept of the standard enthalpy of formation to calculate exactly how much heat is produced by any chemical reaction.

You can think of energy as the ability to move or cause change in matter. It comes in many forms. Kinetic energy is energy that is in use, and potential energy is energy that is stored for later.

The classroom resource provides a video that will explain the different forms of energy. This resource can provide background information for students before they conduct their own investigations and/or create their own models. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

Students will be able to explain that puddles dry up because tiny particles of water (water molecules) break away from the puddle and go into the air. Students will be able to explain that the water from the puddle that went into the air can become part of a cloud and come back down as rain and make a new puddle. This process is known as the water cycle. Students watch a video of a puddle drying up and have a class discussion about where they think the water goes when it seems to disappear. Students investigate a one-drop “puddle” in the palm of their hand. Students see an animation of water evaporating from a puddle and forming water droplets in a cloud. Students then compare a water drop evaporating from the palm of their hand to one evaporating from the surface of a desk or table.