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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.

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe the different ways heat can be transferred from the sun through the atmosphere, as well as other applications of heat transfer. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

In this episode, we talk about Silicon Valley's namesake and how network solids are at the heart of it all. Hank also discusses solid-state semiconductors, N-type and P-type semiconductors, diodes, transistors, computer chips, and binary code--all from the same thing that makes up sand.

Acceleration is a change in velocity. That means acceleration can mean a change in speed or direction. Acceleration can be thought of as an object’s change in velocity over time.

The classroom resource provides a video that will explain Newton's Second Law of Motion. This resource can provide background information for students before they conduct their own demonstrations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

In this lesson, students will be able to explain that the density of a liquid has to do with how heavy it is for the sample size. Students will also be able to explain that if a liquid is denser than water, it will sink when added to water, and if it is less dense than water, it will float. As a demonstration, the teacher will compare the weight of an equal amount or volume of water and corn syrup so students can observe that corn syrup is denser than water and sinks. Students will compare the weight of an equal amount or volume of water and vegetable oil and see that vegetable oil is less dense than water and floats. Students add corn syrup to layered oil and water and see the corn syrup sinks below both the oil and water.

Students learn how human activity has impacted animal migration. They begin by watching a video of elk migration through Yellowstone National Park to understand what animal migration is, why elk migrate, how far they travel, and why humans should care. They then imagine themselves back in time and think about how they would adapt the land to better meet the evolving needs of their developing community. Finally, students learn more about specific ways people have altered the environment, explore one geographic area in the United States, and map the human activity in that region. This lesson is part of the Interrupted Migrations unit.

Get energized! Start an energy club! Using this interactive, students will compare and contrast renewable and nonrenewable energy, make their own windmill, and discover the answer to the burning question, “What on earth is a nutria?”

Players are challenged to complete a series of missions to photograph desert plants and animals in the Australian outback, in this interactive game from PLUM LANDING™. Through the clues that Plum provides, players learn about desert ecosystems, the plants and animals living there, and how they are adapted to desert life.

In this lesson, students use the water displacement method to find the volume of different rods that all have the same mass. They calculate the density of each rod and use the characteristic density of each material to identify all five rods. Then students consider the relationship between the mass, size, and arrangement of atoms to explain why different rods have different densities. Students will be briefly introduced to the periodic table.

Students will be able to explain that materials have characteristic densities because of the different mass, size, and arrangement of their atoms. Students will be able to use the volume displacement method to find the volume of an object.

Students collaboratively investigate our planet’s five mass extinctions and the possibility of a sixth mass extinction. Then, students explore the Anthropocene Epoch’s cultural and environmental complexities and impacts before selecting a biome and endangered species that exist within it to be the focus of their research throughout the rest of the unit. They predict how human activity has impacted these biomes and species. This lesson is part of the Engaging in the Fight Against Extinction unit.

In this media-rich lesson, students conduct simple experiments to investigate how light travels. They examine the paths that light takes with different materials and observe shadows, reflection, and refraction.

In this interactive lesson, students learn that animals take care of their young in many of the same ways the adults in their lives take care of them. Students watch videos from NATURE and engage in a variety of activities to check for understanding and reinforce learning. First or second-grade students should be able to do the lesson independently or in pairs; younger students and struggling readers may need additional support. 

In this lesson, students will place isopropyl alcohol, mineral oil, and corn syrup in water to see if any of these liquids dissolve in water. Students will extend their understanding and definition of “dissolving” and see that certain, but not all, liquids can dissolve in water.

Students will identify and control variables to help design a solubility test for different liquids in water. Students will be able to explain, on the molecular level, why certain liquids, but not all, will dissolve in water. They will also be able to explain that the solubility of a liquid is a characteristic property of that liquid.

​In this lesson, students prepare for BioBlitz by defining biodiversity and examining the characteristics of various plants and animals as examples of taxonomic groupings. A bioblitz is a short, intensive study of the biodiversity of an area. Students learn about the number of species identified globally in key taxa and use this information to make predictions about the biodiversity they may observe during their local bioblitz. 

In this lesson, students will examine the various parts of flowers through the use of dissection. At the end of the lesson, students will play a quick game of pollinator tag to help students understand how pollination works.

Use this game from The Ruff Ruffman Show to help children learn motion and stability: forces and interactions through physical science. Use the engineering design process to build, test, and redesign structures to help the hungry hamsters reach their food.

This resource is part of The Ruff Ruffman Show Science Collection.