Science
Portals
Interactives Fostering Authentic Scientific ExplorationNOVA Labs is a free digital platform from PBS, where teen “citizen scientists” can actively participate in the scientific process and take part in real-world investigations. From predicting solar storms and constructing renewable energy systems to tracking cloud movement and designing RNA molecules, NOVA Labs participants visualize, analyze, and share the same data that scientists use. Each Lab is unique, focusing on a different area of active research. Yet all of the Labs illustrate key concepts with engaging and informative videos and guide participants as they answer scientific questions or design solutions to current problems.
Cereal City Science offers a phenomenon-based kindergarten through grade 8 science curriculum designed for the Next Generation Science Standards by integrating science, mathematics, and literacy through an interdisciplinary approach. The STEAM curriculum, materials, and professional learning are all designed to support district and classroom implementation of 3-Dimensional Learning and build science leadership capacity within an organization.
Task Cards
STEM Curricula Combining Physical Activity and Cognitive ThinkingSTEM Sports provides turnkey K–8 supplemental curricula that use sports as the real-life application to drive STEM-based, hands-on learning in classrooms, afterschool programs, and camps across the United States. The program helps students develop critical thinking, collaboration, creative problem solving, and leadership skills that can be applied throughout their education and future careers. Aligned with Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and National Standards for K–12 Physical Education,
Global Problem Solvers gr. 5 - 9 is an animated series with guided lessons that focuses on using digital literacy to encourage collaboration and problem-solving. The episodes are free and hosted on the site via Vimeo (linked in the PDFs). They're also on YouTube, chunked into 25-minute episodes and available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Hindi. A diverse team of international superheroes work together in each episode to brainstorm solutions to a global issue. Season one focuses on how to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi, and season two focuses on how to help students whose school shut down as a result of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Each episode highlights a different step in the process, from the problem itself to testing and iterating on the solution
BioInteractive website brings the power of real science stories into tens of thousands of high school and undergraduate life science classrooms.The stories anchor a variety of classroom resources based on peer-reviewed science. From data-rich activities and case studies to high-quality videos and interactive media, the resources connect students to big ideas in biology, promote engagement with science practices, and instill awe and wonder about the living world. In addition, the BioInteractive website provides educators with planning tools to build resource playlists and storylines, and professional learning materials and opportunities to deepen their scientific and pedagogical expertise.
Smithsonian Institute’s Game CenterDid you know that the Smithsonian Institution has a game center that is free? All of the games have clear learning objections and were vetted by their curriculum experts. Covering a variety of science topics, they are perfect for grades K-8 and would be a great addition to a maker space.
Howtosmile spotlights hands-on and interactive STEM activities, both physical and virtual, that involve doing and learning. Activities take many forms, from downloadable lesson plans to how-to videos to online interactive games. howtosmile activities teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and are developed by a wide range of organizations
Teacher Approved Citizen Science Projects: Real-Life Experience for Students
The Pod An interactive website with engaging multi-media resources and characters to inspire young people and their families to choose a more sustainable lifestyle. We have a particular focus on energy, waste and biodiversity but also cover a range of other environmental topics.
Challenge Cards present the 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, which children can complete using common household items, such as eggs, string, and balloons. A related playlist of videos is posted on YouTube.
Challenged-Based Science Tool Kit
- Design Process: A guide to developing your own Challenge Based Science Learning
- Templates: Tools to develop units
- Unit Library: Teacher-created units ready for modification to your context
- Deeper Learning Rubrics: Tools to evaluate your instruction and student learning alignment to the Deeper Learning competencies
- Research Report: A summary of the research on Deeper Learning in challenge based science classrooms
ENGINEERS IN THE CLASSROOM: This site has a range of STEM projects for classroom use. A joint venture between Lockheed-Martin and National Geographic, these projects are teacher-friendly and easy to implement in the classroom. You can search by grade and subject area
OpenSciEd is to ensure that science teachers anywhere can access and download freely available, high-quality, locally adaptable full-course materials that support equitable science learning. OpenSciEd provides teachers the materials and support to get all students excited and curious about the world around them and confident in their ability to shape it through questioning, investigating, and solving problems.
NextGen Science Storylines are instructional units developed by the NextGen Science Storylines Project at Northwestern University. These units reflect the storyline approach from Reiser, Novak, and McGill (2017), in which the questions and problems students identify drive the sensemaking of the unit. The NextGen Science Storyline units are open-educational resources and may be freely downloaded and adapted for local contexts."
A Couple of Good Places to Find Science Activities for School or Home
Five Fun Science Games for Kids
LabXChange Harvard
More than 300 free lab simulations that can be easily shared or embedded. Searchable by subject, level, source, and 13 different languages. A rich resource for virtual labs, including some very topical entries, such as Covid-19 infection spread, climate change predictor, and model of hydraulic fracking.
Hacking STEM is a Microsoft website that offers about two dozen hands-on science and engineering lessons. The activities are a mix of things that students can probably do on their own and some that probably can't be done without the supervision of a teacher or parent with working knowledge of the concept(s) being taught. "For example, the mini solar house project that I'm having my ninth grade students do can be done safely without my direct supervision (I'm removing the glue gun component and having them use tape). But the "party lights" activity on the same page is not something they'll be able to do on their own." www.freetech4teachers.com
National Science Teachers Association is providing free sense-making tasks called Daily Dos designed to engage students in authentic, relevant science learning.Students actively try to figure out how the world works (science) or how to design solutions to problems (engineering) using the science and engineering practices that scientists engage in as they investigate and build models and theories about the natural world, and the key set of engineering practices that engineers use as they design and build models and systems. For example, a Daily Do at the elementary level asks children, “How does air make things move?” Another, at the middle school level, asks students, “Why do we see twin mountain ranges?” A high school Daily Do invites students to ponder, “How can an ecosystem survive without sunlight?” Engaging in these practices requires that students be part of the learning community by sharing and evaluating ideas, giving and receiving critique, and reaching consensus.
3D Learning and 3D Assessment in STEMThe Smithsonian Science for the Classroom program is setting the standard for 3D learning and 3D assessment. Developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, this new integrated STEM curriculum is designed to engage students in phenomenon-based learning through coherent storylines and connect them firsthand to the world around them. The program was developed in consultation with teachers and technical experts and field-tested in a range of schools with diverse populations. Drawing on the latest findings and best practices from educational research, the curriculum was specifically developed to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The program helps teachers integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through engaging hands-on lessons. In addition, Smithsonian Science for the Classroom’s 3D assessment assists teachers in gauging how well students are progressing through a variety of assessed performance tasks and written assessments.
The Science of Cake! - And 83 Other Food Science Lessons www.freetech4teachers.com
Museum of Science + Industry Chicago Online Science: Apps and activities and videos, oh my! Play games, watch baby chicks hatching, create virtual chemical reactions or use forensic science to analyze different types of candy.
Real-World STEM Challenges Within the Natural Environment The Greening STEM Hub offers a plethora of tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical STEM lessons that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment
DiscoverE Engineering and science activities categorized by grades Videos accompany the lessons. Most of the lessons are challenge activities.
Can You Save Fred Challenge This lab is a review of the scientific method and also a great way to encourage your kids to communicate and cooperate! Free Lab Kit
Young Scientist Lab provides resources to help make science teaching more interactive, engaging and fun in class. There are lesson plans tailored specifically to meet students learning needs. They coveår various science topics relevant to students lives and span the following grades: K-2, 3-5, and 6-8. Teachers will also have access to interactives that ‘help students discover the real-world science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school.’The Students section provides learners with numerous learning materials to help them explore the world of science in fun and engaging ways. There are activities designed to capture students curiosity and develop their scientific thinking skill
NOVA Education tailors digital resources for STEM educators and offers a freeeducator library featuring videos, audio segments, lesson plans, and interactives, all aligned to teaching standards.
Click To Science –The basic foundation of Click2Science is their 20 Skills to Make STEM Click. These are skills they claim are necessary to implement science effectively in an out-of-school time settings. Click2Science really is an indispensable resource for staff working directly with youth and for coaches and trainers working with staff. It also a resource that classroom teachers may just want to get some STEM ideas from.
Science Profile Cards (K - 6 | 7 - 8) free To help spark classroom discussions about careers of the future, we've developed a set of Scientist Profile Cards that describe exciting science and engineering careers featured throughout Amplify Science and include classroom discussion prompts.
Balloon Powered Car Challenge Challenge students to build a balloon-powered car that can travel 5 feet! This STEM challenge will take your students through the engineering design process as they brainstorm, design, build, and test with this fun and engaging project!
44 free engineering and science activities for children to try out while at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The activities range from making a balloon-powered car to building a bridge from spaghetti. Downloadable Challenge Cards present the 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, which children can complete using common household items, such as eggs, string, and balloons. A related playlist of videos is posted on YouTube.
OK GO Sandbox – Helping students learn through the joy, wonder, and fun of OK Go’s music videos. You will find some real engaging possibilities!
MIT and Khan Science – Khan has so much more than Math, in fact… visit this Science site that includes resources with Khan Partner MIT K-12. Here you will find great lessons involving Physics, Natural Science, Resources, and Measurement. This is an area that may just help you flip your STEM classroom
Microsoft's Hacking STEM Library is divided into activities that take multiple days to complete and activities that can be completed in one day. All of the activities in the Hacking STEM Library include detailed directions, materials lists including places to acquire materials, and lesson objectives.
Sweet Science Turn leftover Halloween treats (or any holiday treats like Valentine's Day candy) into sweet STEM explorations, by using candy to illustrate scientific and mathematical concepts and processes.
Nova Labs - Discover this site that provides real labs, real data, and you. You will feel the engagement.
Link Engineering – This is a site that connects PK12 engineering to experts and resources for teachers and students.
Go Explore – A wonder website on transportation engineering from the people at Iowa State.
Learn Genetics - Visit this site from the University of Utah. You will find that there is more then genetics here.
Gizmos (gr. 3 - 12) has hundreds of math and science interactive simulations that allow students to graph, measure, compare and make predictions.
Science of Everyday Life (K-12) On the site you will find videos and interactives that help kids learn about the science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school. Lessons are inquiry based and encourage exploration in life science, physical science, earth science and technology/innovation. Virtual labs are interactive flash-based labs where students can discover more about science like wind energy. At the Innovation HQ portion of the site, students can travel through time and look at innovations that they use in their every day life and “meet” 3M scientists. It is packed with videos, lesson ideas, virtual interactives and student activities. Content is separated out by grade level.
‘The Learning Network’. As a teacher, you can use The Learning Network to access a wide variety of teaching resources and lesson plans covering the following content areas: English Language Arts, Social Studies, Science and Math, ELL and Arts. There are also custom lesson plans on current events. In each of these content areas you will find lesson plans organized into different categories each of which features resources that are chronologically ordered with the latest being at the
How to Flip a Rainbow
- Dissolving Peeps
- Excavating Geodes
- Lego Shadow Towers
- Solar Oven Smores
- Simple Science Experiments That Fizz
- No Cook Playdough Science Lab
- Halloween Science for Kids
- Why Do Pinecones Open?
The Extreme Science website presents world records in natural science, including earth science and the plant and animal kingdoms, as well as extreme weather records and much more “wild, weird and out-there stuff.” Extreme Science has an extensive collection of science and technology information and resources, including resources for students working on science fair projects and teachers needing content for science lessons. The Select Language drop-down menu lets users choose from more than 60 world languages. The main content tabs are Animal Kingdom, Earth, Ocean, Resources, Space, Time and Weather.Web: http://www.extremescience.com/index.html
MathScienceMusic.org is a free web-basedd toolkit for teachers, bringing together the best resources in math, science and music. Designed for students, kindergarten through college.
Science of Everyday Life (K-12) On the site you will find videos and interactives that help kids learn about the science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school.
Mosa Mack provides students with a variety of short animated mysteries that they have to solve using knowledge gleaned from videos they watch. Mosa Mack adopts an inquiry-based approach to science learning. Mosa Mack arranges its science content into units each of which is comprised of three lessons that ‘progress upwards on Blooms Taxonomy and the the Depth of Knowledge (DOK) chart.’ The units include:
Lesson 1 The Solve: An animated science mystery and vocabulary manipulative
Lesson 2 The Make: A hands-on lab
Lesson 3 The Engineer: An engineering challenge that allows students to apply what they’ve learned to solve real world scenarios.’
Mystery Science for elementary teachers. Mystery Science provides a wide variety of lessons to enhance your students learning of science and engage them in hands-on activities focused around a given Mystery. Every activity is designed around simple supplies which ’you should already have in the classroom or around your home.
Activities Intersecting Art and Science
Exploring Leonardo focuses on the intersection between art and science, exploring how Leonardo da Vinci applied the scientific method creatively in every aspect of life, including art and music. Students can explore the interactive learning activities on the site to discover more about this fascinating scientist, inventor, and artist.
Da Vinci – The Genius, a website created by the Museum of Science, Boston, helps students gain insight into the mind of this genius and the fundamental scientific and artistic principles he discovered. Leonardo da Vinci applied the scientific method to every aspect of life, including art and music. Although he is best known for his dramatic and expressive artwork, Da Vinci also conducted dozens of carefully thought-out experiments and created futuristic inventions that were groundbreaking for the time. Students are invited to navigate this website and explore ten interactive learning activities to learn more about Da Vinci’s brilliant and imaginative mind, as well as his art, inventions, and discoveries.
The Lawrence Hall of Science website from University of California, Berkeley. It provides a wide variety of resources to engage kids and students in learning science. As a teacher, you can use The Lawrence Hall of Science to look for activities and experiments to enrich your lesson plans. The Lawrence Hall of Science 24/7 features a plethora of activities and interactive games to help kids learn science in fun and engaging ways. These include Arcade Games, Quizzes and several other hands-on activities that you can use with your students right in your classroom.
Stem Works a resource for teachers, mentors, parents, STEM professionals, volunteers, and everyone passionate about getting children eager to learn about science, technology, engineering, and math.
Flinn Scientific, a trusted partner in science education and lab safety, has launched Flinn At-Home - School Science with extensive complimentary resources to help teachers and students continue their science and STEM education journey, even when the learning is taking place outside the school building. Teachers can integrate the content into daily learning experiences with on-demand and broadcast lab videos and webinars, as well as at-home activities
SciStarter is a searchable database of more than 1,600 vetted citizen-science projects that teachers can use in the classroom to engage students in authentic learning experiences. Entering a location and a topic of interest brings up a list of available real-world projects, each of which includes a description, recommended age group, and links to any classroom or training materials available
CSI: Web Adventures: Based on the T.V. series, this immersive adventure allows you to solve your own forensics case. Levels range from beginner to advanced.
HOW SCIENCE WORKS: A site from the UC Berkeley that helps to explain the scientific process with links for teacher resources for primary, middle school, high school and even undergraduate students.
Potato Science Collection
Explore Diabetes with Student STEM
Spooktacular Halloween Science
Bug and Insect STEM Roundup
Fourth of July Science
Solar Power Roundup
Creative Science and Engineering for Kids
Backyard Bird Science
Funology: At Funology, science is bound to get interactive. Make a tornado with water. Build a Jurassic Park terrarium. Or, simply torment your siblings with endless jokes about bugs and insects.
NASA Education for Students: Career information, image galleries, NASA Television, features and articles … whatever you’d like to know about aerospace, you’re sure to find it here.
Zoom: Hot science and cool ideas. You’ll find all kinds of activities and experiments on Zoom’s website, including things like lemon juice rockets, crazy straw bridges and bubble cities
Science Buddies: This website has over 1,000 ideas for science fair projects, project guides, project kits and detailed profiles of STEM careers.
Science Toy Maker – This is a site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. As the author states, “You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you tinker around, though, you’ll find good stuff.” Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids and their teachers to really Make something out of it!
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K - 5 Physical Science - Environment - Earth Science - Life Science - Social Studies
Physical Science
Book: Junk Drawer Physics: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don't Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science) gr. K - 6
How Things Fly is a feature from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. How Things Fly contains an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications.
Building A Voice Muffler: A Fun Sound-Based STEM Project In this STEM challenge, students will follow the engineering design process to create their own voice muffler. If you are studying sound, this is a challenge your students will love trying out! You won’t need a lot of expensive materials, and this activity is seriously fun for students to test out
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having to start over again. (www.freetech4teachers.com )
Free Winter Holiday Paper Circuit Templates for Winter HolidaysPaper circuits are a fun way to teach circuits and conductivity. Students use the easy-to-follow diagrams to create their own card that will light up! The download includes a card template with information for each holiday that covers: Materials needed: paper, copper tape, LED lights, coin batteries, and clear tape. Students can also use markers or crayons to decorate the card. Included are instructions for using paper circuits as a classroom project or part of a STEM Family Night.
Fun Pop Rock Experiments Exploring Viscosity - If you want to get your kids interested in science, soda and Pop Rocks make for a surprisingly good starting point.
Fold 'n Fly Give each of your students a blank piece of paper. Have them go to the Fold ‘N Fly website and choose an airplane design. Once everyone makes a paper airplane, have them write their name and two questions to ask someone else.When you give the cue, everyone throws their airplane around the room. They continue picking up airplanes and throwing them until you ask them to stop. You could also play music as your cue. Ideally, everyone would stop after one or two minutes.Next, everyone will pick up one paper airplane that is closest to them. They must find the owner
of the airplane they picked up and answer the questions on the airplane. Each person then introduces the owner of the airplane they have to the group. This activit could be repeated several times. In addition, each person could talk about the airplane design they chose and why they chose it.
Easy Experiments in Fluids - Fluids are a significant part of our lives, and understanding that is a key component of STEM learning. Students can do several STEM experiments in fluids to better understand how water and other fluids form the foundation of our lives.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift off the ground.In this project, you will build a paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars helicopter before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best. Find activity here!
Science Toy Maker – This really is a site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. As the author states, “You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you tinker around, though, you’ll find good stuff.” Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids and their teachers to really Make something out of it!
Access Mars "Picture this: August 5, 2012—a momentous day when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, captivating the entire world. Since then, it has been tirelessly beaming back more than 200,000 awe-inspiring photographs from the surface of the red planet. Thanks to an incredible collaboration between JPL engineers and Google Creative Lab, you can now embark on an extraordinary adventure in this breathtaking web experience where the rover’s photographs come to life in a mesmerizing 3D model."
STEM strategy card game from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology to get students thinking like the NASA scientists and engineers working on exciting missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as they prepare to join the Artemis Generation.
Bungee JumpingStudents experimented with dropping from many heights and kept extensive data. This included graphing the results of the drops which included averaging the distances. The graph was used to predict the length of the bungee cord that would be needed to drop Barbie from a much higher distance. This was such a great challenge for teamwork- one kid dropped Barbie, one kept the data, and others did the averaging and graphing. (Science and math are covered in this one: force and motion, Newton’s laws, averaging numbers, graphing, and using data.) More about Bungee Jumping {HERE}.
Physical Science curriculum and lessons
Newton's Laws of Motion gr. 4 - 6. blog post that explains challenge activities and includes videos (or links) that will help you tackle force and motion.
Balloon Powered Car Challenge Challenge students to build a balloon-powered car that can travel 5 feet! This STEM challenge will take your students through the engineering design process as they brainstorm, design, build, and test with this fun and engaging project!
44 free engineering and science activities for children to try out while at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The activities range from making a balloon-powered car to building a bridge from spaghetti. Downloadable Challenge Cards present the 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, which children can complete using common household items, such as eggs, string, and balloons. A related playlist of videos is posted on YouTube.
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world.
STEM Video Series Uncovering the World of BiomimicryNature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.
Real-World STEM Challenges Within the Natural Environment The Greening STEM Hub offers a plethora of tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical STEM lessons that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment
Science Toy Maker – This really is a site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. As the author states, “You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you tinker around, though, you’ll find good stuff.” Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids and their teachers to really Make something out of it!
Halloween Theme Challenges
PLASTIC EGG RACES EXPLORING ANGLES AND RAMPS
Rube Goldberg Projects
NASA Space Place: Build your own spacecraft, play space volcanoes or browse through a gallery of sun images. When you’re at the Space Place, the universe is the limit.
Environment - Earth Science
Solar Oven Students can design their own or use this example. The project lets students explore the greenhouse effect.
Collecting Ocean Debris Challenge gr. 4- 8
DIY River Rangers Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Pollution in Our Watershed (Grades 2-8)
Ocean STEM Activities5, 4, 3, 2, 1! There are 5 oceans 4 (for) our students to explore in these 3 fun ocean activities consisting of 2 science experiments and 1 art project.
Bringing Climate Change Into the Elementary Classroom Make this big issue personal for young students by showing them how they can work toward solutions using community science.
Sand Investigations Elementary students draw on their knowledge of Earth science and follow the engineering design process to investigate solutions for protecting structures – in this case, sandcastles – from wind and water damage. They make hypotheses, measure changes, and support their results using evidence.
ABC Nature Walk that you can use in two ways! With the print version students can write down or draw things they find outside. With the new digital version that Cassi created, students can take pictures of their finds and then paste them into a Google slide show.
At Home: Water Pollution Clean UpHealthy water is important for humans as well as for the environment. Can you design a water filter to remove pollutants? Water Pollution Clean Up at Home Activity.pdf
Trash Talkin' (Grades 3-5)
Climate-solutions-oriented curriculum, assessment tools, and other learning resources. Climate solutions storylines, digital games, carbon footprint calculators and virtual reality simulators are increasing in number, often come with teacher guides, and can be a powerful in-road for student engagement in climate science learning and solutions.
Global Problem Solvers gr. 5 - 9 is an animated series with guided lessons that focuses on using digital literacy to encourage collaboration and problem-solving. The episodes are free and hosted on the site via Vimeo (linked in the PDFs). They're also on YouTube, chunked into 25-minute episodes and available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Hindi. A diverse team of international superheroes work together in each episode to brainstorm solutions to a global issue. Season one focuses on how to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi, and season two focuses on how to help students whose school shut down as a result of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Each episode highlights a different step in the process, from the problem itself to testing and iterating on the solution
Build a Solar Still (Grades 3-8)
Green Roof Activities and Resources (Grades 3-12)
Oil Spill Solutions (Grades 3-12)
Pollution and Lung Health (Grades 4-12)
Map the Green Space (Grades 5-9)
Pond Study Discovery Simple sheets for pupils to record on. Linked to pond dipping activities. Sheets include PCS symbols to help support those pupils who may need visual prompts.
Take a Bite Out of Food Waste K - 12 Students devise a strategy to decrease food waste in their cafeteria.
Windmill Challenges gr 3 - 8
Air, Atmosphere and Living Systems Grades: 3-5
The Air unit lets students creatively explore air and the atmosphere, air quality and related issues such as allergens in the places we live, study and work.
Investigating Clean Water by Marissa Werner, a fourth-grade math teacher at H. D. Cooke Elementary School (DC), supports students in understanding how people access clean water both locally and globally. After investigating access, students take action by creating a public service announcement or by designing an innovative solution.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) provides an extensive Green STEM Guidebook, full of inspiration, information, and lesson plans to inspire teachers to join NWF’s Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyards Habitats Pathways programs. This freely downloadable guidebook shows how the programs provide a clear pathway to excite, motivate, and educate the next generation of experts, innovators, and math and technology whizzes. The guidebook also highlights, with detailed case studies, how students can put their STEM skills to work solving real-world environmental issues right in their own communities. learning using online data resources
Design and build a bird feeder that can be refilled easily and can dispense bird seeds on its own. gr. 3 - 5 You can use plastic bottles, plastic plates, cardboard, wooden clothespins, and string to engineer this bird feeder. You can modify the task too and include any other materials you would like students to use.
Control an Invasive Species ( gr. 3 - 5)
Cane toads are native to Central and South America. Farmers brought them to Australia to control pesky beetles—but instead they’re harming rare and vulnerable wildlife. The Engineering Adventures unit Hop to It: Safe Removal of Invasive Species calls on your powers of creativity as you design a humane trap for toads. Teacher's Guide | Student Journal | Audio Messages | Video
Explore Earth Systems with High-Flying Technologies ( gr 3 - 5 )
Did you know America’s space agency has an environmental mission? Yup, NASA researchers study planet Earth along with the other planets, building and deploying airborne and space-based observatories and sensors to learn about Earth systems like oceans, ice sheets, and forests. Do your own aeronautical engineering with the Engineering Adventures unit The Sky’s the Limit: Engineering Flying Technologies.
A Dozen Neat NASA Resources for Students and Teachers
Explore Science: Earth and Space 2017 toolkit STEM Education Network (NISE Net), in collaboration with NASA, has just released a new Earth and space science digital toolkit for educators. NISE Net developers have prepared nine up-to-date, comprehensive hands-on STEM activities to showcase the exciting science topics, missions, and research
Project-based STEM Activities Building Computational Thinking gr. 6-9 Microsoft Learning Center’s Hacking STEM webpage allows teachers to build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula. The page also provides middle school standards-based lesson plans written by teachers. Examples include analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change, building machines that emulate humans, designing astrosocks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity, harnessing electricity to communicate, and using computational thinking to understand earthquakes.
NASA STEM Engagement program offers a wide range of resources for students, teachers and parents. Their mission is to Inspire, Engage, Educate and Employ the next generation of space explorers. Their site is full of activities, contests, videos and games to engage students in all things space.
10 lesson Mission to Moon Launchpad curriculum for FREE! Made possible through a partnership with NASA Transform your middle school students into a team of astronauts on a Mission to the Moon! Vivify’s Launchpad STEM curriculum is provided for FREE through a cooperative agreement with NASA. The 10 missions are perfect for an after school program or STEM class targeting students new to STEM learning. The lessons may be adapted to lower grades as well. Student Handouts | Teacher Instructions
River Rangers! A Book-Based Science Adventure for Kids Free Kit
Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water — through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Map the Green Space gr. 5-9 learn about urban planning as they assess the environmental health of their community, taking a walk around their neighborhood. They construct a map that identifies both positive and negative features and then recommend improvements.
Earth Science curriculum and lessons
Turn Cast-Offs into Cars ( gr. 3 - 5)
Recycling is big in Senegal! Kids often make their own toys by repurposing items that would ordinarily be discarded. The Engineering Adventures unit Go Green: Engineering Recycled Racers draws inspiration from this national engagement in recycling. Try your hand at engineering toy cars from recyclables, then compete in a Recycled Racer Rally
Simple Machine Challenges
Simple Machine Challenges Building toys that use simple machine concepts. It has a Christmas theme but the challenges can be used at any time of the year.
Wheeling It In Students in grades 3 to 5 use everyday materials such as water bottles and straws to design and build small-scale transportation devices that incorporate two simple machines - a wheel and axle, and a lever. They race their vehicles, measuring distance, time, and weight, and then calculate speed
Weather Lab is a simple online activity designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about weather patterns. In the Weather Lab students select an ocean current and an air mass then try to predict the weather pattern that will result from their choices. In the feedback given to students they will find links to videos for further learning about each weather pattern featured in the Weather Lab.
Project-based STEM Activities Building Computational Thinking gr. 6-9 Microsoft Learning Center’s Hacking STEM webpage allows teachers to build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula. The page also provides middle school standards-based lesson plans written by teachers. Examples include analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change, building machines that emulate humans, designing astrosocks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity, harnessing electricity to communicate, and using computational thinking to understand earthquakes.
Environmental Science curriculum and lessons
Dirty Water Project (Grades 3-5)
Water: Resource for Life Grades: 3-5
ResourcesThe Water unit provides students with a fresh look at water and lets them discover why it is necessary to the well-being of all living creatures.
The Greens: Wondering what you can do to protect the planet? The Greens have some great ideas, including games, activity guides and their very own carbon calculator.
Kids Do Ecology: Every kid should be an ecological hero. Learn about biomes, blue whales and data collecting. You can even create your own classroom experiment. Available en Español.
Teach About Biodiversity with Free STEM Lessons & Activities
Global Atmospheric Change Grades: 3-5
ResourcesThe Global Atmospheric Change unit gives students an opportunity to investigate a variety of physical and life science concepts related to Earth's energy resources and atmosphere, and global ecology
Kids.gov: From imaginary jungles to ion experiments, Kids.gov has plenty of resources for a rainy day. Watch an animation on thunder and lightning or take a virtual field trip to the National Zoo.
Life Science
School garden provides STEM lessons A West Virginia middle school has incorporated a garden into its science, technology, engineering and math program. Students take care of the plants and hold fundraisers with their crops,
Morphy!Grades 3-5 | Life Science Morphy and his fellow alien crew have crash-landed on a foreign planet! His crewmembers evacuated at different times and are now missing. Help Morphy locate the crew members so that they can repair their spaceship. Beware! Morphy can’t survive this planet on his own. Along the way, Morphy will meet creatures with external traits that will help him survive this strange new world. Guide Morphy throughout this journey to save the missing crew! Morphy is a life science game that teaches students that animals have external structures that function to support survival and behavior. GO TO GAME
Ecosystems & Food Webs Students will participate in an introduction to ecosystems and food webs by applying their existing knowledge of systems and communities to new understandings of interdependence and interconnectedness.
Virus Protection Challenge gr. 4 - 8
Butterfly Challenge gr. 3- 5 focuses on the glide and drag of a butterfly’s colorful wings.
The mission: design a nest to safely catch a falling egg.
ABC Nature Walk that you can use in two ways! With the print version students can write down or draw things they find outside. With the new digital version that Cassi created, students can take pictures of their finds and then paste them into a Google slide show.
Bird Nest Challenge Use a coffee can to mimic a tree holding the nest. Students then used cotton balls, index cards, straws, and other materials to design a nest that will keep a raw egg from cracking. Then follow-up the activity with a challenge teaching the concept of biomimicry. Students are tasked with relating what was learned in building a bird nest and applying it to designing a landing pad for a space capsule! Find the lesson details here.
Seed Dispersal ChallengeFirst take a look at several methods of seed dispersal and watch videos about explosion dispersal. Then each group is assigned a method. They must design a model showing the type of seed dispersal they receive.The explosion method is the most popular. This photo is showing animal dispersal and the team made a bird that would poop out seeds! Another favorite is the attachment method. Students create an animal (usually a dog) and attach seeds to its fur! Great assessment for their understanding of the methods!
All About Food Grades: 3-5
The Food unit allows students to have fun learning about food sources, healthy eating, food safety, food groups and overall nutrition.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Plants and Animals STEM Challenges, $ Provides just the activities you need to help your students discover that nature is filled with amazing engineers:
Take Farming to New Heights
The world’s population keeps growing. How can we make sure that people in cities have easy access to fresh, nutritious food? One solution is growing food right in the city, in high-tech “vertical farms.” Check out the Engineering Everywhere unit Growing Up: Engineering Vertical Farms and explore this new and growing approach to farming.
K-12 DNA STEM Explorations Life Science compelling lessons and projects promote problem-based learning, collaboration, higher order thinking skills, and critical analysis
Lifeboat to Mars: Explore the world of biology with this free online game. In one simulation (Microland) you control hungry microbes. In another (Ecoland), you have to balance out the space station’s ecosystem.
Take Farming to New Heights (gr 3 - 5 )
The world’s population keeps growing. How can we make sure that people in cities have easy access to fresh, nutritious food? One solution is growing food right in the city, in high-tech “vertical farms.” Check out the Engineering Everywhere unit Growing Up: Engineering Vertical Farms and explore this new and growing approach to farming
DIY River Rangers Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Animal Adaptation Challenges K - 5
K–3 STEM Foundations — Life Science Grades: K-2 3-5
ResourcesThe K–3 STEM Foundations project is developing NGSS-aligned curriculum units for students in grades K–3 that connect science concepts and guided inquiry activities to reading/language arts, as well as health and wellness.
Social Studies
Ancient Egypt
Are your learners fascinated by mummies and pyramids? Are ancient civilizations part of your? Explore ancient Egypt at Howtosmile.org with activities like Mummy Magic, The Trial: Grand Vizier Ay Stands Accused of Murder! and Modern Detectives: Think Like an Archaeologist.
National Geographic Kids: Which do you think is cuter: the puffer fish or the clown fish? On this website, you can vote in polls, take part in eggs-periments, watch videos, play puzzles and learn amazing facts.
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!: Pre-K STEM games, activities and videos galore. The adventurous Cat in the Hat is even ready to lead you on an exotic math safari adventure
The Greens: Wondering what you can do to protect the planet? The Greens have some great ideas, including games, activity guides and their very own carbon calculator.
Physical Science
Book: Junk Drawer Physics: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don't Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science) gr. K - 6
How Things Fly is a feature from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. How Things Fly contains an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications.
Building A Voice Muffler: A Fun Sound-Based STEM Project In this STEM challenge, students will follow the engineering design process to create their own voice muffler. If you are studying sound, this is a challenge your students will love trying out! You won’t need a lot of expensive materials, and this activity is seriously fun for students to test out
How Things Fly features an interactive module in which students design their own airplanes. The activity starts with a simple and slow airplane that students have to modify until it reaches a target speed and altitude. As students modify the wings, fuselage, and engines of their airplanes they are given instant feedback on the effects of those modifications. In some cases the feedback includes the airplane crashing and the students having to start over again. (www.freetech4teachers.com )
Free Winter Holiday Paper Circuit Templates for Winter HolidaysPaper circuits are a fun way to teach circuits and conductivity. Students use the easy-to-follow diagrams to create their own card that will light up! The download includes a card template with information for each holiday that covers: Materials needed: paper, copper tape, LED lights, coin batteries, and clear tape. Students can also use markers or crayons to decorate the card. Included are instructions for using paper circuits as a classroom project or part of a STEM Family Night.
Fun Pop Rock Experiments Exploring Viscosity - If you want to get your kids interested in science, soda and Pop Rocks make for a surprisingly good starting point.
Fold 'n Fly Give each of your students a blank piece of paper. Have them go to the Fold ‘N Fly website and choose an airplane design. Once everyone makes a paper airplane, have them write their name and two questions to ask someone else.When you give the cue, everyone throws their airplane around the room. They continue picking up airplanes and throwing them until you ask them to stop. You could also play music as your cue. Ideally, everyone would stop after one or two minutes.Next, everyone will pick up one paper airplane that is closest to them. They must find the owner
of the airplane they picked up and answer the questions on the airplane. Each person then introduces the owner of the airplane they have to the group. This activit could be repeated several times. In addition, each person could talk about the airplane design they chose and why they chose it.
Easy Experiments in Fluids - Fluids are a significant part of our lives, and understanding that is a key component of STEM learning. Students can do several STEM experiments in fluids to better understand how water and other fluids form the foundation of our lives.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift off the ground.In this project, you will build a paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars helicopter before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best. Find activity here!
Science Toy Maker – This really is a site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. As the author states, “You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you tinker around, though, you’ll find good stuff.” Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids and their teachers to really Make something out of it!
Access Mars "Picture this: August 5, 2012—a momentous day when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, captivating the entire world. Since then, it has been tirelessly beaming back more than 200,000 awe-inspiring photographs from the surface of the red planet. Thanks to an incredible collaboration between JPL engineers and Google Creative Lab, you can now embark on an extraordinary adventure in this breathtaking web experience where the rover’s photographs come to life in a mesmerizing 3D model."
STEM strategy card game from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology to get students thinking like the NASA scientists and engineers working on exciting missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as they prepare to join the Artemis Generation.
Bungee JumpingStudents experimented with dropping from many heights and kept extensive data. This included graphing the results of the drops which included averaging the distances. The graph was used to predict the length of the bungee cord that would be needed to drop Barbie from a much higher distance. This was such a great challenge for teamwork- one kid dropped Barbie, one kept the data, and others did the averaging and graphing. (Science and math are covered in this one: force and motion, Newton’s laws, averaging numbers, graphing, and using data.) More about Bungee Jumping {HERE}.
Physical Science curriculum and lessons
Newton's Laws of Motion gr. 4 - 6. blog post that explains challenge activities and includes videos (or links) that will help you tackle force and motion.
Balloon Powered Car Challenge Challenge students to build a balloon-powered car that can travel 5 feet! This STEM challenge will take your students through the engineering design process as they brainstorm, design, build, and test with this fun and engaging project!
44 free engineering and science activities for children to try out while at home during the coronavirus pandemic. The activities range from making a balloon-powered car to building a bridge from spaghetti. Downloadable Challenge Cards present the 22 science tasks and 22 engineering activities, which children can complete using common household items, such as eggs, string, and balloons. A related playlist of videos is posted on YouTube.
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world.
STEM Video Series Uncovering the World of BiomimicryNature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.
Real-World STEM Challenges Within the Natural Environment The Greening STEM Hub offers a plethora of tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical STEM lessons that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment
Science Toy Maker – This really is a site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. As the author states, “You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you tinker around, though, you’ll find good stuff.” Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids and their teachers to really Make something out of it!
Halloween Theme Challenges
PLASTIC EGG RACES EXPLORING ANGLES AND RAMPS
Rube Goldberg Projects
- Original Rube Goldberg comics and contemporary videos
- The Global Cardboard Challenge is an annual initiative of the Imagination Foundation inspired by the short film Caine’s Arcade. Through this project, we hope to celebrate and foster the power of creative play and imagination. In addition, this project incorporates STREAM and design concepts,
- Simple Machine Challenge
- Engineering Kids includes video
- Goldburger To Go comes from PBS.
- How to Build a Homemade Rube Goldberg Machine
- Web-based Rube Goldberg Applications
- Ruby Goldberg’s Bright Idea by Anna Humphrey, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton. Ruby sets out to win the school science fair by building the most amazing machine ever. When she finally figures out her invention, she realizes that the only person who can help her is her arch-nemesis, the winner of last year’s fair.
- You can sort of build a Rube Goldberg-like machine at Tinker Ball.
NASA Space Place: Build your own spacecraft, play space volcanoes or browse through a gallery of sun images. When you’re at the Space Place, the universe is the limit.
Environment - Earth Science
Solar Oven Students can design their own or use this example. The project lets students explore the greenhouse effect.
Collecting Ocean Debris Challenge gr. 4- 8
DIY River Rangers Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Pollution in Our Watershed (Grades 2-8)
Ocean STEM Activities5, 4, 3, 2, 1! There are 5 oceans 4 (for) our students to explore in these 3 fun ocean activities consisting of 2 science experiments and 1 art project.
Bringing Climate Change Into the Elementary Classroom Make this big issue personal for young students by showing them how they can work toward solutions using community science.
Sand Investigations Elementary students draw on their knowledge of Earth science and follow the engineering design process to investigate solutions for protecting structures – in this case, sandcastles – from wind and water damage. They make hypotheses, measure changes, and support their results using evidence.
ABC Nature Walk that you can use in two ways! With the print version students can write down or draw things they find outside. With the new digital version that Cassi created, students can take pictures of their finds and then paste them into a Google slide show.
At Home: Water Pollution Clean UpHealthy water is important for humans as well as for the environment. Can you design a water filter to remove pollutants? Water Pollution Clean Up at Home Activity.pdf
Trash Talkin' (Grades 3-5)
Climate-solutions-oriented curriculum, assessment tools, and other learning resources. Climate solutions storylines, digital games, carbon footprint calculators and virtual reality simulators are increasing in number, often come with teacher guides, and can be a powerful in-road for student engagement in climate science learning and solutions.
Global Problem Solvers gr. 5 - 9 is an animated series with guided lessons that focuses on using digital literacy to encourage collaboration and problem-solving. The episodes are free and hosted on the site via Vimeo (linked in the PDFs). They're also on YouTube, chunked into 25-minute episodes and available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Hindi. A diverse team of international superheroes work together in each episode to brainstorm solutions to a global issue. Season one focuses on how to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi, and season two focuses on how to help students whose school shut down as a result of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Each episode highlights a different step in the process, from the problem itself to testing and iterating on the solution
Build a Solar Still (Grades 3-8)
Green Roof Activities and Resources (Grades 3-12)
Oil Spill Solutions (Grades 3-12)
Pollution and Lung Health (Grades 4-12)
Map the Green Space (Grades 5-9)
Pond Study Discovery Simple sheets for pupils to record on. Linked to pond dipping activities. Sheets include PCS symbols to help support those pupils who may need visual prompts.
Take a Bite Out of Food Waste K - 12 Students devise a strategy to decrease food waste in their cafeteria.
Windmill Challenges gr 3 - 8
Air, Atmosphere and Living Systems Grades: 3-5
The Air unit lets students creatively explore air and the atmosphere, air quality and related issues such as allergens in the places we live, study and work.
Investigating Clean Water by Marissa Werner, a fourth-grade math teacher at H. D. Cooke Elementary School (DC), supports students in understanding how people access clean water both locally and globally. After investigating access, students take action by creating a public service announcement or by designing an innovative solution.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) provides an extensive Green STEM Guidebook, full of inspiration, information, and lesson plans to inspire teachers to join NWF’s Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyards Habitats Pathways programs. This freely downloadable guidebook shows how the programs provide a clear pathway to excite, motivate, and educate the next generation of experts, innovators, and math and technology whizzes. The guidebook also highlights, with detailed case studies, how students can put their STEM skills to work solving real-world environmental issues right in their own communities. learning using online data resources
Design and build a bird feeder that can be refilled easily and can dispense bird seeds on its own. gr. 3 - 5 You can use plastic bottles, plastic plates, cardboard, wooden clothespins, and string to engineer this bird feeder. You can modify the task too and include any other materials you would like students to use.
Control an Invasive Species ( gr. 3 - 5)
Cane toads are native to Central and South America. Farmers brought them to Australia to control pesky beetles—but instead they’re harming rare and vulnerable wildlife. The Engineering Adventures unit Hop to It: Safe Removal of Invasive Species calls on your powers of creativity as you design a humane trap for toads. Teacher's Guide | Student Journal | Audio Messages | Video
Explore Earth Systems with High-Flying Technologies ( gr 3 - 5 )
Did you know America’s space agency has an environmental mission? Yup, NASA researchers study planet Earth along with the other planets, building and deploying airborne and space-based observatories and sensors to learn about Earth systems like oceans, ice sheets, and forests. Do your own aeronautical engineering with the Engineering Adventures unit The Sky’s the Limit: Engineering Flying Technologies.
A Dozen Neat NASA Resources for Students and Teachers
Explore Science: Earth and Space 2017 toolkit STEM Education Network (NISE Net), in collaboration with NASA, has just released a new Earth and space science digital toolkit for educators. NISE Net developers have prepared nine up-to-date, comprehensive hands-on STEM activities to showcase the exciting science topics, missions, and research
Project-based STEM Activities Building Computational Thinking gr. 6-9 Microsoft Learning Center’s Hacking STEM webpage allows teachers to build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula. The page also provides middle school standards-based lesson plans written by teachers. Examples include analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change, building machines that emulate humans, designing astrosocks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity, harnessing electricity to communicate, and using computational thinking to understand earthquakes.
NASA STEM Engagement program offers a wide range of resources for students, teachers and parents. Their mission is to Inspire, Engage, Educate and Employ the next generation of space explorers. Their site is full of activities, contests, videos and games to engage students in all things space.
10 lesson Mission to Moon Launchpad curriculum for FREE! Made possible through a partnership with NASA Transform your middle school students into a team of astronauts on a Mission to the Moon! Vivify’s Launchpad STEM curriculum is provided for FREE through a cooperative agreement with NASA. The 10 missions are perfect for an after school program or STEM class targeting students new to STEM learning. The lessons may be adapted to lower grades as well. Student Handouts | Teacher Instructions
River Rangers! A Book-Based Science Adventure for Kids Free Kit
Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water — through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Map the Green Space gr. 5-9 learn about urban planning as they assess the environmental health of their community, taking a walk around their neighborhood. They construct a map that identifies both positive and negative features and then recommend improvements.
Earth Science curriculum and lessons
Turn Cast-Offs into Cars ( gr. 3 - 5)
Recycling is big in Senegal! Kids often make their own toys by repurposing items that would ordinarily be discarded. The Engineering Adventures unit Go Green: Engineering Recycled Racers draws inspiration from this national engagement in recycling. Try your hand at engineering toy cars from recyclables, then compete in a Recycled Racer Rally
Simple Machine Challenges
Simple Machine Challenges Building toys that use simple machine concepts. It has a Christmas theme but the challenges can be used at any time of the year.
Wheeling It In Students in grades 3 to 5 use everyday materials such as water bottles and straws to design and build small-scale transportation devices that incorporate two simple machines - a wheel and axle, and a lever. They race their vehicles, measuring distance, time, and weight, and then calculate speed
Weather Lab is a simple online activity designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about weather patterns. In the Weather Lab students select an ocean current and an air mass then try to predict the weather pattern that will result from their choices. In the feedback given to students they will find links to videos for further learning about each weather pattern featured in the Weather Lab.
Project-based STEM Activities Building Computational Thinking gr. 6-9 Microsoft Learning Center’s Hacking STEM webpage allows teachers to build affordable inquiry and project-based activities to visualize data across science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curricula. The page also provides middle school standards-based lesson plans written by teachers. Examples include analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change, building machines that emulate humans, designing astrosocks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity, harnessing electricity to communicate, and using computational thinking to understand earthquakes.
Environmental Science curriculum and lessons
Dirty Water Project (Grades 3-5)
Water: Resource for Life Grades: 3-5
ResourcesThe Water unit provides students with a fresh look at water and lets them discover why it is necessary to the well-being of all living creatures.
The Greens: Wondering what you can do to protect the planet? The Greens have some great ideas, including games, activity guides and their very own carbon calculator.
Kids Do Ecology: Every kid should be an ecological hero. Learn about biomes, blue whales and data collecting. You can even create your own classroom experiment. Available en Español.
Teach About Biodiversity with Free STEM Lessons & Activities
Global Atmospheric Change Grades: 3-5
ResourcesThe Global Atmospheric Change unit gives students an opportunity to investigate a variety of physical and life science concepts related to Earth's energy resources and atmosphere, and global ecology
Kids.gov: From imaginary jungles to ion experiments, Kids.gov has plenty of resources for a rainy day. Watch an animation on thunder and lightning or take a virtual field trip to the National Zoo.
Life Science
School garden provides STEM lessons A West Virginia middle school has incorporated a garden into its science, technology, engineering and math program. Students take care of the plants and hold fundraisers with their crops,
Morphy!Grades 3-5 | Life Science Morphy and his fellow alien crew have crash-landed on a foreign planet! His crewmembers evacuated at different times and are now missing. Help Morphy locate the crew members so that they can repair their spaceship. Beware! Morphy can’t survive this planet on his own. Along the way, Morphy will meet creatures with external traits that will help him survive this strange new world. Guide Morphy throughout this journey to save the missing crew! Morphy is a life science game that teaches students that animals have external structures that function to support survival and behavior. GO TO GAME
Ecosystems & Food Webs Students will participate in an introduction to ecosystems and food webs by applying their existing knowledge of systems and communities to new understandings of interdependence and interconnectedness.
Virus Protection Challenge gr. 4 - 8
Butterfly Challenge gr. 3- 5 focuses on the glide and drag of a butterfly’s colorful wings.
The mission: design a nest to safely catch a falling egg.
ABC Nature Walk that you can use in two ways! With the print version students can write down or draw things they find outside. With the new digital version that Cassi created, students can take pictures of their finds and then paste them into a Google slide show.
Bird Nest Challenge Use a coffee can to mimic a tree holding the nest. Students then used cotton balls, index cards, straws, and other materials to design a nest that will keep a raw egg from cracking. Then follow-up the activity with a challenge teaching the concept of biomimicry. Students are tasked with relating what was learned in building a bird nest and applying it to designing a landing pad for a space capsule! Find the lesson details here.
Seed Dispersal ChallengeFirst take a look at several methods of seed dispersal and watch videos about explosion dispersal. Then each group is assigned a method. They must design a model showing the type of seed dispersal they receive.The explosion method is the most popular. This photo is showing animal dispersal and the team made a bird that would poop out seeds! Another favorite is the attachment method. Students create an animal (usually a dog) and attach seeds to its fur! Great assessment for their understanding of the methods!
All About Food Grades: 3-5
The Food unit allows students to have fun learning about food sources, healthy eating, food safety, food groups and overall nutrition.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Plants and Animals STEM Challenges, $ Provides just the activities you need to help your students discover that nature is filled with amazing engineers:
- Build a bird nest using sticks, leaves and other natural items
- Make a spider web that can support a weight
- Design and create various bird beaks to capture different types of food.
- Engineer a new animal to adapt to a particular habitat
- Create a unique fantasy plant.
Take Farming to New Heights
The world’s population keeps growing. How can we make sure that people in cities have easy access to fresh, nutritious food? One solution is growing food right in the city, in high-tech “vertical farms.” Check out the Engineering Everywhere unit Growing Up: Engineering Vertical Farms and explore this new and growing approach to farming.
K-12 DNA STEM Explorations Life Science compelling lessons and projects promote problem-based learning, collaboration, higher order thinking skills, and critical analysis
Lifeboat to Mars: Explore the world of biology with this free online game. In one simulation (Microland) you control hungry microbes. In another (Ecoland), you have to balance out the space station’s ecosystem.
Take Farming to New Heights (gr 3 - 5 )
The world’s population keeps growing. How can we make sure that people in cities have easy access to fresh, nutritious food? One solution is growing food right in the city, in high-tech “vertical farms.” Check out the Engineering Everywhere unit Growing Up: Engineering Vertical Farms and explore this new and growing approach to farming
DIY River Rangers Explore, read, play, invent, build and learn — all about water and the rivers and streams in your community. River Rangers is kid-centered, with an emphasis on inquiry and creativity. Kids will explore 5 big topics: How rivers are formed; river habitats (who lives here?); people on the river; the water in my cup; and protecting our water through shared books, hands-on activities, writing, educational apps, and local outings.
Animal Adaptation Challenges K - 5
- http://www.cpalms.org/Public/PreviewResourceLesson/Preview/31239
- https://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/2014/lessons/create-a-creature
- https://teachingforward.net/steam-project-create-an-animal/
- http://momgineer.blogspot.com/2018/04/bird-beak-stem-animal-adaptations-stem.html
K–3 STEM Foundations — Life Science Grades: K-2 3-5
ResourcesThe K–3 STEM Foundations project is developing NGSS-aligned curriculum units for students in grades K–3 that connect science concepts and guided inquiry activities to reading/language arts, as well as health and wellness.
Social Studies
Ancient Egypt
Are your learners fascinated by mummies and pyramids? Are ancient civilizations part of your? Explore ancient Egypt at Howtosmile.org with activities like Mummy Magic, The Trial: Grand Vizier Ay Stands Accused of Murder! and Modern Detectives: Think Like an Archaeologist.
National Geographic Kids: Which do you think is cuter: the puffer fish or the clown fish? On this website, you can vote in polls, take part in eggs-periments, watch videos, play puzzles and learn amazing facts.
The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!: Pre-K STEM games, activities and videos galore. The adventurous Cat in the Hat is even ready to lead you on an exotic math safari adventure
The Greens: Wondering what you can do to protect the planet? The Greens have some great ideas, including games, activity guides and their very own carbon calculator.
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Middle School Physical Science - Environment - Earth Science - Life Science - Space
Physical Sciences
Book: Junk Drawer Physics: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don't Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science) gr. K - 6
Collecting Ocean Debris Challenge gr. 4- 8
Lab4Physics - A Lab in Your Pocket
‘Lab4Physics is an educational solution designed to support teachers around the world improve science education, by making it easy and inexpensive to bring lab experiences into the classroom. In this lab, students can find tools (like an accelerometer, a sonometer or a speedometer) that can help them measure gravity or acceleration in real time.
Fold 'n Fly Give each of your students a blank piece of paper. Have them go to the Fold ‘N Fly website and choose an airplane design. Once everyone makes a paper airplane, have them write their name and two questions to ask someone else.When you give the cue, everyone throws their airplane around the room. They continue picking up airplanes and throwing them until you ask them to stop. You could also play music as your cue. Ideally, everyone would stop after one or two minutes.Next, everyone will pick up one paper airplane that is closest to them. They must find the owner
of the airplane they picked up and answer the questions on the airplane. Each person then introduces the owner of the airplane they have to the group. This activit could be repeated several times. In addition, each person could talk about the airplane design they chose and why they chose it.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift off the ground.In this project, you will build a paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars helicopter before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best. Find activity here!
Access Mars "Picture this: August 5, 2012—a momentous day when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, captivating the entire world. Since then, it has been tirelessly beaming back more than 200,000 awe-inspiring photographs from the surface of the red planet. Thanks to an incredible collaboration between JPL engineers and Google Creative Lab, you can now embark on an extraordinary adventure in this breathtaking web experience where the rover’s photographs come to life in a mesmerizing 3D model."
Building a Wind Turbine How Do Wind Turbines Work? The video covers the basics of how the turbines harness the power of wind to generate electricity. The basic math of wind turbine design is also explained to viewers of the video. Overall, it's a fine lesson but not the most detailed of lessons. If you want students to learn more about how wind turbines work, consider having them build their own small wind turbines. Microsoft's Hacking STEM website offers a detailed project guide for building model windmills and wind turbines. Not only will students build the windmills, they'll also capture data generated by their windmills. The data is captured in real-time through the use of Arduino and the Data Streamer add-in for Excel. Students then analyze the data to evaluate the effectiveness of their windmill and wind turbine designs. Microsoft's Hacking STEM windmill activity is great if you have the time and resources required to do it. If you don't and you'd like a little less in-depth windmill project, take a look at Instructables. There you will find dozens of windmill and wind turbine projects ranging from relatively simple cardboard creationsto full-fledged turbines capable of powering appliances. Finally, if you haven't seen the TED video of William Kamkwamba sharing his story of building a windmill, you need to watch it. It's the basis of the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. www.freetech4teachers.com
Environment - Earth Science
Saving a Life: Heart Valve Replacement Students use their knowledge how healthy heart valves function to design and construct repacement mitral values for hypothetical patients' hearts. In the process, they discover the pros and cons of different types of artificial heart valves based on materials, surgery requirements, and lifespan.
RELATED ACTIVITIES
The Beat Goes On (Grades 3-5)
No Valve in Vain (Grades 6-8)
Artificial Heart Design Challenge (Grades 9-12)
Let the Blood Flow: Artery Unclogging (Grades 9-12)
Visualize Your Heartbeat: Maker Challenge (9-12)
Climate-solutions-oriented curriculum, assessment tools, and other learning resources. Climate solutions storylines, digital games, carbon footprint calculators and virtual reality simulators are increasing in number, often come with teacher guides, and can be a powerful in-road for student engagement in climate science learning and solutions.
Global Problem Solvers gr. 5 - 9 is an animated series with guided lessons that focuses on using digital literacy to encourage collaboration and problem-solving. The episodes are free and hosted on the site via Vimeo (linked in the PDFs). They're also on YouTube, chunked into 25-minute episodes and available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Hindi. A diverse team of international superheroes work together in each episode to brainstorm solutions to a global issue. Season one focuses on how to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi, and season two focuses on how to help students whose school shut down as a result of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Each episode highlights a different step in the process, from the problem itself to testing and iterating on the solution
Cool School Challenge, the Climate Game Changer, Learning in Places, and this team-oriented carbon footprint reduction EcoChallenge tool (from NW Earth Institute).
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world.
Bridge Designer – One of my favorites which had been known as the West Point Bridge Design Program. It teachers physics as students create and test their simulated bridge.
Challenger Center, ( gr. 6 - 8 )which reaches thousands of students every year through experiential STEM education programs. Working with NASA and its STEM on Station, the Challenge Center has completed several of the lessons McAuliffe had planned to present. The updated demonstrations were filmed aboard the International Space Station, and corresponding lessons were developed for classrooms. The topics of these lessons address effervescence, chromatography, liquids in microgravity, and Newton’s laws. Six scripted experiments include explanatory videos, standards alignment, a materials list, setup information, and step-by-step instructions. Using these activities from the “lost lessons,” teachers can replicate what McAuliffe was unable to share from orbit.
STEM strategy card game from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology to get students thinking like the NASA scientists and engineers working on exciting missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as they prepare to join the Artemis Generation.
3D Learning and 3D Assessment in STEMThe Smithsonian Science for the Classroom program is setting the standard for 3D learning and 3D assessment. Developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, this new integrated STEM curriculum is designed to engage students in phenomenon-based learning through coherent storylines and connect them firsthand to the world around them. The program was developed in consultation with teachers and technical experts and field-tested in a range of schools with diverse populations. Drawing on the latest findings and best practices from educational research, the curriculum was specifically developed to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The program helps teachers integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through engaging hands-on lessons. In addition, Smithsonian Science for the Classroom’s 3D assessment assists teachers in gauging how well students are progressing through a variety of assessed performance tasks and written assessments.
Physics Games – Check out these great Physics games that are all about constructing something.
Roller Coaster Physics www.freetech4teachers
CK12 Roller Coaster – This is a wonderful example of the many simulations that teachers can work with student on at CK12.
Designing Astro Socks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity Video
Using materials science engineering to determine heat resistance . Video
Understanding adiabatic compression and the Ideal gas law Video
What is the electromagnetic spectrum? Video
Detecting Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation Video
Minecraft build challenge: Design your Space Station Video
Analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change Video
Experiencing Microgravity by understanding Newton’s 2nd and 3rd laws of motion Video
Ecology - Environment - Life Science
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) provides an extensive Green STEM Guidebook, full of inspiration, information, and lesson plans to inspire teachers to join NWF’s Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyards Habitats Pathways programs. This freely downloadable guidebook shows how the programs provide a clear pathway to excite, motivate, and educate the next generation of experts, innovators, and math and technology whizzes. The guidebook also highlights, with detailed case studies, how students can put their STEM skills to work solving real-world environmental issues right in their own communities.
Ecosystems & Food Webs Students will participate in an introduction to ecosystems and food webs by applying their existing knowledge of systems and communities to new understandings of interdependence and interconnectedness.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Virus Protection Challenge gr. 4 - 8
Conservation Classroom: Suited for Survival " Conservation Classroom is a collection of monthly lessons for learners in grades K-5 that connects students to animals and encourages wildlife conservation. Each lesson has four elements: wonder, engage, act, and connect. In the Suited for Survival lesson, get curious as you explore different animal adaptations, engage in for a live program to see adaptations in action in real-time, build your own animal, and meet Mimi, an animal keeper who looks at small mammal adaptations to provide the best care for the zoo's animals."
At Home: Water Pollution Clean UpHealthy water is important for humans as well as for the environment. Can you design a water filter to remove pollutants? Water Pollution Clean Up at Home Activity.pdf
Environmental Education Library provides a wealth of lesson plans, toolkits, and stewardship ideas for in-school and at-home learning. The resources can be adapted to a variety of ages and settings.
STEM Video Series Uncovering the World of BiomimicryNature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.
Reduce Trash with Bioplastics
Plastic bags, plastic spoons, plastic containers . . . we’re used to throwing away “disposables.” But plastics pile up in landfills, taking up space and making a mess. The Engineering Everywhere unit Plants to Plastics: Engineering Bioplasticslets you try chemical engineering as you design and test new forms of plastic made from plant-based materials.
The Pack, is set in a future world where healthy ecosystems have faltered and resources are scarce. To restore the environment, players embark on an open-ended quest to find food and water by using their “Pack”—creatures that have unique functions such as digging, moving, holding, grabbing, and repeating. When their Pack has more than one type of creature, players combine them into algorithms to perform tasks and overcome challenges. As they advance, players create more complex algorithms that allow them to do new things. The Pack is free to download forIOS, Mac OSX and Windows.
Environment - Earth Science
Water by Design is a new classroom resource from EarthEcho International, an environmental education nonprofit founded by explorer Philippe Cousteau. A series of dynamic lesson plans, design challenges, and videos to support students' exploration of water resource management.
I Breathe What? Students gain an appreciation of how much dust, pollen, and other particulate matter is present in the air around them by placing “pollution detectors” in various locations and then examining the captured air particles to determine which places have more or fewer airborne particles.
Real-World STEM Challenges Within the Natural Environment The Greening STEM Hub offers a plethora of tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical STEM lessons that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment
Earth Day Resources
Pollution in Our Watershed (Grades 2-8)
Green Roof Activities and Resources (Grades 3-12)
Oil Spill Solutions (Grades 3-12)
Pollution and Lung Health (Grades 4-12)
Map the Green Space (Grades 5-9)
Trash Sliders (Grades 6-10)
No Valve in Vain ( gr 6 - 8) In this activity, teams of middle school “biomedical engineers” will learn about the engineering design process and how a one-way valve works by creating heart valves from tape, plastic tubing and a variety of other materials.
Ahoy, Ocean Plastic! Students in grades 7 to 9 learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, research plastics pollution in oceans, and present that information as a short, eye-catching newsletter suitable to hand out to fast-food customers. Companion activity includes field work to measure and map plastics in the students' community, Lessons include videos
The following lessons have a free teachers guide and an option to buy the materials
Conserve Energy—Engineer an EcoHouse
Keeping your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer takes a lot of energy—and that energy usually comes from fossil fuels. The simplest way to reduce your carbon footprint is to use less energy, but can you do it and still stay comfortable? You’ll design and test an energy-efficient model home with the Engineering Everywhere unit Here Comes the Sun: Engineering Insulated Homes.
Environmental Health Student Portal: Interested in learning more about chemicals, air quality and water pollution? This website has videos, games and experiments to help you along.
Take a Bite Out of Food Waste K - 12 Students devise a strategy to decrease food waste in their cafeteria.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) offers innovative online materials that enlighten students and educators about the breadth of scientific research, technology, and activities. These resources include student activities, case studies, tutorials, and lesson plans for education audiences of all ages. Formal lesson plans and classroom ideas emphasize hands-on activitiesand problem-based learning using online data resources
SciJinks: It’s all about the weather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and NASA put together this educational website to teach kids about meteorology and earth science. Check out their games section.
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
Earth Science Mineral Mayhem Middle school students learn about mineral properties and calculate costs, benefits, and densities in this engineering-driven Earth science unit based on the real-world design challenge of salvaging cargo following a train derailment. Students also will strengthen presentation skills by explaining and justifying their process to a "client."
Weather Lab is a simple online activity designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about weather patterns. In the Weather Lab students select an ocean current and an air mass then try to predict the weather pattern that will result from their choices. In the feedback given to students they will find links to videos for further learning about each weather pattern featured in the Weather Lab.
DIY Lake Science was developed by UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of ScienceThe app for iPad and iPhone takes learners outdoors to find what’s below the surface of bodies of freshwater. With the app's field adventures, learners can make a viewscope and look for underwater plants and animals, build a “quadrat” square and measure biodiversity, and construct a Secchi disc to show how clear or murky a body of water is. Using such tools helps show how scientists test water quality, monitor pollution, track the populations of species, and even discover unknown life forms.
Solar Oven Students can design their own or use this example. The project lets students explore the greenhouse effect.
SciJinks: It’s all about the weather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and NASA put together this educational website to teach kids about meteorology and earth science. Check out their games section.
Life Science
K-12 DNA STEM Explorations
Interactive Library Applets for Math, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry & Earth Science 6-12
The Interactive Library is about "real interactivity"! The database contains hundreds of activities that make use of sophisticated java, vrml and shockwave programs. Teachers can create their own activity sheet to go with the programs.
Fight Flooding—Control Stormwater Runoff
You don’t notice unless it’s raining, but stormwater runoff is a huge environmental problem. Cities are paved with hard surfaces that keep water from soaking in; it runs off, causing flooding and washing pollution into rivers, lakes, and oceans. With the Engineering Everywhere unit Don’t Runoff: Engineering an Urban Landscape, you redesign a cityscape to reduce runoff.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Medical STEM Experiments and Design Challenges
Diagnostic Detectives is a freely accessible offering of medical STEM activities designed for students in grades 6–8 by The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. All of the activities are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards
Experience Biology
‘invites students to investigate basic scientific phenomena and concepts in biology through simulations and interactive labs. Using an inquiry-based learning approach, the apps challenge middle-school students with investigations and quizzes based on the students' explorations of each interactive unit.’
Gene U: Genetics and Inheritance Grades: 6-8 9-12
BioEd Online offers genetics lessons and resources for classroom use, background information, professional development opportunities for teachers, including individual lessons, online workshops and a complete undergraduate genetics course.
Diagnostic Detectives is a freely accessible offering of medical STEM activities designed for students in grades 6–8 by The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. The experiments and design challenges are presented in five chapters: (1) “Seeing Double: How Perception Works,” (2) “Creating a Cure-All: Make Your Own Medicine,” (3) “The Good and the Bad: Grow Your Own Bacteria,” (4) “Lending a Hand: Make Your Own Prosthesis,” and (5) “The Artificial Heart,” an engineering design challenge.
Neuroscience: The Learning Brain and BrainLink Grades: K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
The Learning Brain and BrainLink® projects provide teaching materials, resources and background information focused on the brain and neuroscience for use with elementary and secondary school students. Materials cover brain structure and chemistry, neurons and the nervous system, senses, movement, learning and memory, and more.
PowerPlay! Grades: 3-5 6-8
Students push their limits and discover how their bodies react to a variety of physical challenges in PowerPlay! This monumental, three-story installation lets students leap up and down different levels of a forty-foot tower that provides access to other ares of the exhibit.
Scientific Decision-making Grades: 6-8 9-12
Using examples related to cardiovascular health, the Scientific Decision-making unit helps high school and middle school students learn how to make evidence-based decisions.
Space
Space Life Science Grades: 6-8
Bring the excitement of space life science to your classroom through curricular units focused on topics such as the effects of microgravity on the body, maintaining fitness and health in space, and the impact of space travel on sleep patterns.
10 lesson Mission to Moon Launchpad curriculum for FREE! Made possible through a partnership with NASA Transform your middle school students into a team of astronauts on a Mission to the Moon! Vivify’s Launchpad STEM curriculum is provided for FREE through a cooperative agreement with NASA. The 10 missions are perfect for an after school program or STEM class targeting students new to STEM learning. The lessons may be adapted to lower grades as well. Student Handouts | Teacher Instructions
Hacking STEM What it is: Microsoft and NASA collaborated and created 8 unique hands-on STEM activities based on the International Space Station! The activities involve Microsoft's data streamer, which you can use by downloading a free add-on to your Excel program. One of the activities is to design a boot to protect an astronaut’s feet when living in microgravity on the ISS!
Why you need it: This resource is awesome for middle and high school science teachers wanting to do hands-on engineering design challenges and science experiments, while integrating real-time data collection and analysis. Microsoft provides everything from step-by-step instructions, the Excel workbook template for the data collection, and microcontroller code. I would recommend these activities for advanced middle school and high school student looking for a challenging STEM lesson with real-world connections.
Find it here for FREE.
Physical Sciences
Book: Junk Drawer Physics: 50 Awesome Experiments That Don't Cost a Thing (Junk Drawer Science) gr. K - 6
Collecting Ocean Debris Challenge gr. 4- 8
Lab4Physics - A Lab in Your Pocket
‘Lab4Physics is an educational solution designed to support teachers around the world improve science education, by making it easy and inexpensive to bring lab experiences into the classroom. In this lab, students can find tools (like an accelerometer, a sonometer or a speedometer) that can help them measure gravity or acceleration in real time.
Fold 'n Fly Give each of your students a blank piece of paper. Have them go to the Fold ‘N Fly website and choose an airplane design. Once everyone makes a paper airplane, have them write their name and two questions to ask someone else.When you give the cue, everyone throws their airplane around the room. They continue picking up airplanes and throwing them until you ask them to stop. You could also play music as your cue. Ideally, everyone would stop after one or two minutes.Next, everyone will pick up one paper airplane that is closest to them. They must find the owner
of the airplane they picked up and answer the questions on the airplane. Each person then introduces the owner of the airplane they have to the group. This activit could be repeated several times. In addition, each person could talk about the airplane design they chose and why they chose it.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift off the ground.In this project, you will build a paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars helicopter before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best. Find activity here!
Access Mars "Picture this: August 5, 2012—a momentous day when the Curiosity rover landed on Mars, captivating the entire world. Since then, it has been tirelessly beaming back more than 200,000 awe-inspiring photographs from the surface of the red planet. Thanks to an incredible collaboration between JPL engineers and Google Creative Lab, you can now embark on an extraordinary adventure in this breathtaking web experience where the rover’s photographs come to life in a mesmerizing 3D model."
Building a Wind Turbine How Do Wind Turbines Work? The video covers the basics of how the turbines harness the power of wind to generate electricity. The basic math of wind turbine design is also explained to viewers of the video. Overall, it's a fine lesson but not the most detailed of lessons. If you want students to learn more about how wind turbines work, consider having them build their own small wind turbines. Microsoft's Hacking STEM website offers a detailed project guide for building model windmills and wind turbines. Not only will students build the windmills, they'll also capture data generated by their windmills. The data is captured in real-time through the use of Arduino and the Data Streamer add-in for Excel. Students then analyze the data to evaluate the effectiveness of their windmill and wind turbine designs. Microsoft's Hacking STEM windmill activity is great if you have the time and resources required to do it. If you don't and you'd like a little less in-depth windmill project, take a look at Instructables. There you will find dozens of windmill and wind turbine projects ranging from relatively simple cardboard creationsto full-fledged turbines capable of powering appliances. Finally, if you haven't seen the TED video of William Kamkwamba sharing his story of building a windmill, you need to watch it. It's the basis of the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. www.freetech4teachers.com
Environment - Earth Science
Saving a Life: Heart Valve Replacement Students use their knowledge how healthy heart valves function to design and construct repacement mitral values for hypothetical patients' hearts. In the process, they discover the pros and cons of different types of artificial heart valves based on materials, surgery requirements, and lifespan.
RELATED ACTIVITIES
The Beat Goes On (Grades 3-5)
No Valve in Vain (Grades 6-8)
Artificial Heart Design Challenge (Grades 9-12)
Let the Blood Flow: Artery Unclogging (Grades 9-12)
Visualize Your Heartbeat: Maker Challenge (9-12)
Climate-solutions-oriented curriculum, assessment tools, and other learning resources. Climate solutions storylines, digital games, carbon footprint calculators and virtual reality simulators are increasing in number, often come with teacher guides, and can be a powerful in-road for student engagement in climate science learning and solutions.
Global Problem Solvers gr. 5 - 9 is an animated series with guided lessons that focuses on using digital literacy to encourage collaboration and problem-solving. The episodes are free and hosted on the site via Vimeo (linked in the PDFs). They're also on YouTube, chunked into 25-minute episodes and available in four languages: English, Spanish, French, and Hindi. A diverse team of international superheroes work together in each episode to brainstorm solutions to a global issue. Season one focuses on how to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi, and season two focuses on how to help students whose school shut down as a result of a hurricane on the Gulf Coast of the United States.Each episode highlights a different step in the process, from the problem itself to testing and iterating on the solution
Cool School Challenge, the Climate Game Changer, Learning in Places, and this team-oriented carbon footprint reduction EcoChallenge tool (from NW Earth Institute).
How To Smile – This is an amazing collecting of some of the best educational materials, learning activities, tools, and services. They are all designed especially for those who teach school-aged kids in activity based settings. This site is sponsored by a group of science museums dedicated to bringing science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) out of the academic cloister and into the wider world.
Bridge Designer – One of my favorites which had been known as the West Point Bridge Design Program. It teachers physics as students create and test their simulated bridge.
Challenger Center, ( gr. 6 - 8 )which reaches thousands of students every year through experiential STEM education programs. Working with NASA and its STEM on Station, the Challenge Center has completed several of the lessons McAuliffe had planned to present. The updated demonstrations were filmed aboard the International Space Station, and corresponding lessons were developed for classrooms. The topics of these lessons address effervescence, chromatography, liquids in microgravity, and Newton’s laws. Six scripted experiments include explanatory videos, standards alignment, a materials list, setup information, and step-by-step instructions. Using these activities from the “lost lessons,” teachers can replicate what McAuliffe was unable to share from orbit.
STEM strategy card game from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory at California Institute of Technology to get students thinking like the NASA scientists and engineers working on exciting missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond, as they prepare to join the Artemis Generation.
3D Learning and 3D Assessment in STEMThe Smithsonian Science for the Classroom program is setting the standard for 3D learning and 3D assessment. Developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center, this new integrated STEM curriculum is designed to engage students in phenomenon-based learning through coherent storylines and connect them firsthand to the world around them. The program was developed in consultation with teachers and technical experts and field-tested in a range of schools with diverse populations. Drawing on the latest findings and best practices from educational research, the curriculum was specifically developed to meet the Next Generation Science Standards. The program helps teachers integrate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through engaging hands-on lessons. In addition, Smithsonian Science for the Classroom’s 3D assessment assists teachers in gauging how well students are progressing through a variety of assessed performance tasks and written assessments.
Physics Games – Check out these great Physics games that are all about constructing something.
Roller Coaster Physics www.freetech4teachers
- CK-12 has a lot of interactive simulations for physics and math concepts. One of those is this roller coaster simulator. The voiceover for the simulation is very robotic. The redeeming quality of CK-12's roller coaster simulation is that students can customize the size of the roller coaster to see how the changes they make impact the speed, the potential energy, the kinetic energy, and the heat generated by the roller coaster.
- PBS Learning Media offers a handful of resources for teaching and learning about the physics of roller coasters. Energy Transfer in a Roller Coaster is an interactive lesson designed for elementary and middle school students. Energy in a Roller Coaster is a simple interactive graphic that students can use to see how changes in a roller coaster design impact the speed of the roller coaster. Centripetal Force in Roller Coaster Loops is a short video that demonstrates why its not just the harness keeping your seat in a roller coaster.
- Teach Engineering offers a hands-on lesson plan for teaching about the physics of roller coasters. In the lesson students build and test model roller coasters to learn about the forces that affect the speed of roller coasters.
- How Roller Coasters Affect Your Body is a TED-Ed lesson that begins with the story of the first roller coaster in America and the injuries it caused to riders. The lesson then moves on to explain how the forces of a roller coaster can affect your body, how roller coaster designers
CK12 Roller Coaster – This is a wonderful example of the many simulations that teachers can work with student on at CK12.
Designing Astro Socks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity Video
Using materials science engineering to determine heat resistance . Video
Understanding adiabatic compression and the Ideal gas law Video
What is the electromagnetic spectrum? Video
Detecting Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation Video
Minecraft build challenge: Design your Space Station Video
Analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change Video
Experiencing Microgravity by understanding Newton’s 2nd and 3rd laws of motion Video
Ecology - Environment - Life Science
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) provides an extensive Green STEM Guidebook, full of inspiration, information, and lesson plans to inspire teachers to join NWF’s Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyards Habitats Pathways programs. This freely downloadable guidebook shows how the programs provide a clear pathway to excite, motivate, and educate the next generation of experts, innovators, and math and technology whizzes. The guidebook also highlights, with detailed case studies, how students can put their STEM skills to work solving real-world environmental issues right in their own communities.
Ecosystems & Food Webs Students will participate in an introduction to ecosystems and food webs by applying their existing knowledge of systems and communities to new understandings of interdependence and interconnectedness.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Virus Protection Challenge gr. 4 - 8
Conservation Classroom: Suited for Survival " Conservation Classroom is a collection of monthly lessons for learners in grades K-5 that connects students to animals and encourages wildlife conservation. Each lesson has four elements: wonder, engage, act, and connect. In the Suited for Survival lesson, get curious as you explore different animal adaptations, engage in for a live program to see adaptations in action in real-time, build your own animal, and meet Mimi, an animal keeper who looks at small mammal adaptations to provide the best care for the zoo's animals."
At Home: Water Pollution Clean UpHealthy water is important for humans as well as for the environment. Can you design a water filter to remove pollutants? Water Pollution Clean Up at Home Activity.pdf
Environmental Education Library provides a wealth of lesson plans, toolkits, and stewardship ideas for in-school and at-home learning. The resources can be adapted to a variety of ages and settings.
STEM Video Series Uncovering the World of BiomimicryNature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.
Reduce Trash with Bioplastics
Plastic bags, plastic spoons, plastic containers . . . we’re used to throwing away “disposables.” But plastics pile up in landfills, taking up space and making a mess. The Engineering Everywhere unit Plants to Plastics: Engineering Bioplasticslets you try chemical engineering as you design and test new forms of plastic made from plant-based materials.
The Pack, is set in a future world where healthy ecosystems have faltered and resources are scarce. To restore the environment, players embark on an open-ended quest to find food and water by using their “Pack”—creatures that have unique functions such as digging, moving, holding, grabbing, and repeating. When their Pack has more than one type of creature, players combine them into algorithms to perform tasks and overcome challenges. As they advance, players create more complex algorithms that allow them to do new things. The Pack is free to download forIOS, Mac OSX and Windows.
Environment - Earth Science
Water by Design is a new classroom resource from EarthEcho International, an environmental education nonprofit founded by explorer Philippe Cousteau. A series of dynamic lesson plans, design challenges, and videos to support students' exploration of water resource management.
I Breathe What? Students gain an appreciation of how much dust, pollen, and other particulate matter is present in the air around them by placing “pollution detectors” in various locations and then examining the captured air particles to determine which places have more or fewer airborne particles.
Real-World STEM Challenges Within the Natural Environment The Greening STEM Hub offers a plethora of tools and resources to help engage learners of all ages with practical STEM lessons that focus on real-world challenges within the natural environment
Earth Day Resources
Pollution in Our Watershed (Grades 2-8)
Green Roof Activities and Resources (Grades 3-12)
Oil Spill Solutions (Grades 3-12)
Pollution and Lung Health (Grades 4-12)
Map the Green Space (Grades 5-9)
Trash Sliders (Grades 6-10)
No Valve in Vain ( gr 6 - 8) In this activity, teams of middle school “biomedical engineers” will learn about the engineering design process and how a one-way valve works by creating heart valves from tape, plastic tubing and a variety of other materials.
Ahoy, Ocean Plastic! Students in grades 7 to 9 learn about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, research plastics pollution in oceans, and present that information as a short, eye-catching newsletter suitable to hand out to fast-food customers. Companion activity includes field work to measure and map plastics in the students' community, Lessons include videos
The following lessons have a free teachers guide and an option to buy the materials
- Engineer a Vertical Farm (Grades 6-8) Indoor 'vertical farming' could be an answer to urban food needs and shrinking agricultural space - if cost and energy obstacles can be overcome. Already, pioneers are sprouting up in places like Japan, Singapore, and in U.S. university labs, as ASEE's Prism magazine reports
- Plants to Plastics: Engineering Bioplastics (Grades 6-8)
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Meet Boyan Slat & the Ocean Cleanup Crew
Plastic Hits the Road
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- Soil Biosolarization: Sustainable Weed Killer (Grades 5-7)
- Trash Sliders (Grades 6-9)
- Design a Green Rooftop Garden (Grades 6-9)
- Zero-energy Home Design (Grades 9-12)
Conserve Energy—Engineer an EcoHouse
Keeping your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer takes a lot of energy—and that energy usually comes from fossil fuels. The simplest way to reduce your carbon footprint is to use less energy, but can you do it and still stay comfortable? You’ll design and test an energy-efficient model home with the Engineering Everywhere unit Here Comes the Sun: Engineering Insulated Homes.
Environmental Health Student Portal: Interested in learning more about chemicals, air quality and water pollution? This website has videos, games and experiments to help you along.
Take a Bite Out of Food Waste K - 12 Students devise a strategy to decrease food waste in their cafeteria.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) offers innovative online materials that enlighten students and educators about the breadth of scientific research, technology, and activities. These resources include student activities, case studies, tutorials, and lesson plans for education audiences of all ages. Formal lesson plans and classroom ideas emphasize hands-on activitiesand problem-based learning using online data resources
SciJinks: It’s all about the weather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and NASA put together this educational website to teach kids about meteorology and earth science. Check out their games section.
Design-based Learning for Environmental Stewardship
NEXT.cc is an eco web that develops ethical imagination and environmental stewardship through activities and links to cultural heritage institutions. The site introduces what design is, what design does, and why design is important. It offers activities across nine scales—nano, pattern, object, space, architecture, neighborhood, urban, region, and world. NEXT.cc’s journeys introduce activities online, in the classroom, in the community, and globally. The journeys and activities are supported with links to museums, institutions, and contemporary practices. Place-based design activities that address the five goals of environmental education: Awareness, Knowledge, Attitudes and Environmental Ethics, Citizen Action Skills, and Citizen Action Experiences.
Earth Science Mineral Mayhem Middle school students learn about mineral properties and calculate costs, benefits, and densities in this engineering-driven Earth science unit based on the real-world design challenge of salvaging cargo following a train derailment. Students also will strengthen presentation skills by explaining and justifying their process to a "client."
Weather Lab is a simple online activity designed to help elementary and middle school students learn about weather patterns. In the Weather Lab students select an ocean current and an air mass then try to predict the weather pattern that will result from their choices. In the feedback given to students they will find links to videos for further learning about each weather pattern featured in the Weather Lab.
DIY Lake Science was developed by UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of ScienceThe app for iPad and iPhone takes learners outdoors to find what’s below the surface of bodies of freshwater. With the app's field adventures, learners can make a viewscope and look for underwater plants and animals, build a “quadrat” square and measure biodiversity, and construct a Secchi disc to show how clear or murky a body of water is. Using such tools helps show how scientists test water quality, monitor pollution, track the populations of species, and even discover unknown life forms.
Solar Oven Students can design their own or use this example. The project lets students explore the greenhouse effect.
SciJinks: It’s all about the weather. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) and NASA put together this educational website to teach kids about meteorology and earth science. Check out their games section.
Life Science
K-12 DNA STEM Explorations
Interactive Library Applets for Math, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry & Earth Science 6-12
The Interactive Library is about "real interactivity"! The database contains hundreds of activities that make use of sophisticated java, vrml and shockwave programs. Teachers can create their own activity sheet to go with the programs.
Fight Flooding—Control Stormwater Runoff
You don’t notice unless it’s raining, but stormwater runoff is a huge environmental problem. Cities are paved with hard surfaces that keep water from soaking in; it runs off, causing flooding and washing pollution into rivers, lakes, and oceans. With the Engineering Everywhere unit Don’t Runoff: Engineering an Urban Landscape, you redesign a cityscape to reduce runoff.
Animal adaptations - challenge your students to create a brand new animal that could survive in a particular habitat. Not only do they need to justify its survival by demonstrating how it would get food, shelter and water, but require that the animal created has some sort of movemen
Medical STEM Experiments and Design Challenges
Diagnostic Detectives is a freely accessible offering of medical STEM activities designed for students in grades 6–8 by The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. All of the activities are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards
Experience Biology
‘invites students to investigate basic scientific phenomena and concepts in biology through simulations and interactive labs. Using an inquiry-based learning approach, the apps challenge middle-school students with investigations and quizzes based on the students' explorations of each interactive unit.’
Gene U: Genetics and Inheritance Grades: 6-8 9-12
BioEd Online offers genetics lessons and resources for classroom use, background information, professional development opportunities for teachers, including individual lessons, online workshops and a complete undergraduate genetics course.
Diagnostic Detectives is a freely accessible offering of medical STEM activities designed for students in grades 6–8 by The International Museum of Surgical Science in Chicago. The experiments and design challenges are presented in five chapters: (1) “Seeing Double: How Perception Works,” (2) “Creating a Cure-All: Make Your Own Medicine,” (3) “The Good and the Bad: Grow Your Own Bacteria,” (4) “Lending a Hand: Make Your Own Prosthesis,” and (5) “The Artificial Heart,” an engineering design challenge.
Neuroscience: The Learning Brain and BrainLink Grades: K-2 3-5 6-8 9-12
The Learning Brain and BrainLink® projects provide teaching materials, resources and background information focused on the brain and neuroscience for use with elementary and secondary school students. Materials cover brain structure and chemistry, neurons and the nervous system, senses, movement, learning and memory, and more.
PowerPlay! Grades: 3-5 6-8
Students push their limits and discover how their bodies react to a variety of physical challenges in PowerPlay! This monumental, three-story installation lets students leap up and down different levels of a forty-foot tower that provides access to other ares of the exhibit.
Scientific Decision-making Grades: 6-8 9-12
Using examples related to cardiovascular health, the Scientific Decision-making unit helps high school and middle school students learn how to make evidence-based decisions.
Space
Space Life Science Grades: 6-8
Bring the excitement of space life science to your classroom through curricular units focused on topics such as the effects of microgravity on the body, maintaining fitness and health in space, and the impact of space travel on sleep patterns.
10 lesson Mission to Moon Launchpad curriculum for FREE! Made possible through a partnership with NASA Transform your middle school students into a team of astronauts on a Mission to the Moon! Vivify’s Launchpad STEM curriculum is provided for FREE through a cooperative agreement with NASA. The 10 missions are perfect for an after school program or STEM class targeting students new to STEM learning. The lessons may be adapted to lower grades as well. Student Handouts | Teacher Instructions
Hacking STEM What it is: Microsoft and NASA collaborated and created 8 unique hands-on STEM activities based on the International Space Station! The activities involve Microsoft's data streamer, which you can use by downloading a free add-on to your Excel program. One of the activities is to design a boot to protect an astronaut’s feet when living in microgravity on the ISS!
Why you need it: This resource is awesome for middle and high school science teachers wanting to do hands-on engineering design challenges and science experiments, while integrating real-time data collection and analysis. Microsoft provides everything from step-by-step instructions, the Excel workbook template for the data collection, and microcontroller code. I would recommend these activities for advanced middle school and high school student looking for a challenging STEM lesson with real-world connections.
Find it here for FREE.
High School Physics - Life Sciences - Environmental - Earth
Physics
Physics Front portal for physics activities and lessons
OpenEd offers a massive library of free educational games, videos, practice assessments, and tutorials. These resources come from notable content producers including SciShow, CrashCourse, and Minute Physics
Engineering Tomorrow was founded to create free programs that awaken student curiosity and passion for engineering—all at no cost to teachers, students, or their schools. The nonprofit delivers virtual labs to high school classrooms that simulate real-world projects designed by expert engineers so students gain unique insight and understanding into the world of engineering. The virtual labs integrate seamlessly with the current curriculum while aligning with Next Generation Science Standards. All of the virtual labs are designed for independent and self-paced learning.
NASA's Perseverance Mars rover carried the first helicopter to the surface of Mars! This helicopter has to be super lightweight to fly on Mars. It also needs large blades that can rotate really fast so it can generate enough lift to overcome the gravity of the Red Planet and lift off the ground.In this project, you will build a paper helicopter. Then, just as NASA engineers had to try out different versions of the Mars helicopter before coming up with a final design, you will experiment with the design of your helicopter to see what works best. Find activity here!
BumperDucksMiddle School | Physical Science These ducks need your help! Help them reach tasty treats across the pond, but watch out for obstacles! Turtles, frogs, and logs will try and knock you off course. It isn’t easy, but pond friends are there to help! Think you’re up for the challenge? BumperDucks is an educational physical science game that will help teach players about what happens when two objects collide and how mass impacts the acceleration of an object. GO TO GAME
Building a Wind Turbine How Do Wind Turbines Work? The video covers the basics of how the turbines harness the power of wind to generate electricity. The basic math of wind turbine design is also explained to viewers of the video. Overall, it's a fine lesson but not the most detailed of lessons. If you want students to learn more about how wind turbines work, consider having them build their own small wind turbines. Microsoft's Hacking STEM website offers a detailed project guide for building model windmills and wind turbines. Not only will students build the windmills, they'll also capture data generated by their windmills. The data is captured in real-time through the use of Arduino and the Data Streamer add-in for Excel. Students then analyze the data to evaluate the effectiveness of their windmill and wind turbine designs. Microsoft's Hacking STEM windmill activity is great if you have the time and resources required to do it. If you don't and you'd like a little less in-depth windmill project, take a look at Instructables. There you will find dozens of windmill and wind turbine projects ranging from relatively simple cardboard creationsto full-fledged turbines capable of powering appliances. Finally, if you haven't seen the TED video of William Kamkwamba sharing his story of building a windmill, you need to watch it. It's the basis of the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. www.freetech4teachers.com
We Share Solar empowers students to be global changemakers. By combining solar energy and engineering education with real-world applicability, trained teachers cultivate students’ interests in STEM subjects and inspire them to meet an immediate need in the developing world. Middle school, high school, and college teachers learn to teach the organization’s extensive curriculum during two-day workshops.
Blossoms collection of video modules for high school mathematics and science created by teachers from around the world.
My Physics Lab simulations
How to See Sound
Designing Astro Socks to protect astronauts’ feet in microgravity Video
Using materials science engineering to determine heat resistance . Video
Understanding adiabatic compression and the Ideal gas law Video
What is the electromagnetic spectrum? Video
Detecting Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation Video
Minecraft build challenge: Design your Space Station Video
Analyzing astronauts’ photos of Earth to predict climate change Video
Experiencing Microgravity by understanding Newton’s 2nd and 3rd laws of motion Video
Life Sciences
K-12 DNA STEM Explorations
Interactive Library Applets for Math, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry & Earth Science 6-12
The Interactive Library is about "real interactivity"! The database contains hundreds of activities that make use of sophisticated java, vrml and shockwave programs. Teachers can create their own activity sheet to go with the programs.
Showbiz SafariGrades 1-3 | Life Science Lights! Camera! Action! Our movie director needs your help! Help Walrus pick actors based on the traits that best fit the movie role. Which furry mammal will get the most wanted role in the blockbuster film “Paws”? Which water loving actor will get the leading role in “Swimmin’ in the Rain”? We need your help to find out! Showbiz Safari is an educational life science game that will help teach your student about the diversity of plants and animals in different habitats. GO TO GAME
HabitatsGrades 3-5 | Life Science Do you know where the red-eyed tree frog calls home? Play this game based on animal habitats to learn! Explore the desert, coral reef, jungle, and marsh to discover where many animals live by matching each animal to their correct habitat! GO TO GAME
BioInteractive website brings the power of real science stories into tens of thousands of high school and undergraduate life science classrooms.The stories anchor a variety of classroom resources based on peer-reviewed science. From data-rich activities and case studies to high-quality videos and interactive media, the resources connect students to big ideas in biology, promote engagement with science practices, and instill awe and wonder about the living world. In addition, the BioInteractive website provides educators with planning tools to build resource playlists and storylines, and professional learning materials and opportunities to deepen their scientific and pedagogical expertise. BioInteractive website brings the power of real science stories into tens of thousands of high school and undergraduate life science classrooms.The stories anchor a variety of classroom resources based on peer-reviewed science. From data-rich activities and case studies to high-quality videos and interactive media, the resources connect students to big ideas in biology, promote engagement with science practices, and instill awe and wonder about the living world. In addition, the BioInteractive website provides educators with planning tools to build resource playlists and storylines, and professional learning materials and opportunities to deepen their scientific and pedagogical expertise.
Scientific Decision-making Grades: 6-8 9-12ResourcesUsing examples related to cardiovascular health, the Scientific Decision-making unit helps high school and middle school students learn how to make evidence-based decisions.
STEM Video Series Uncovering the World of BiomimicryNature Knows Best, a video series from Xploration Station, looks at the clever ways scientists and innovators are copying nature to create some of the world’s most amazing advancements. For example, in season 1, episode 1, “Planes Inspired by Nature,” host Danni Washington takes a look at how exactly birds were the inspiration for the first airplanes. She flies planes in tight formation to try to mimic the energy-efficient flight patterns of migrating birds. She looks at how engineers are inventing wings that change their shape while in flight. And she even jumps out of a plane to test an innovation based on the flying squirrel! In episode 10, “Copying Nature’s Communication,” Washington takes a look at how today’s scientists are studying “swarm” behavior of animals to make better robots that will help in factories, collect things on other planets, or make better autonomous cars.
Let the Blood Flow: Biomedical Artery Unclogging Experiment high school students work as biomedical engineers to find liquid
Artificial Heart Design Challenge (Grades 9-12)
Let the Blood Flow: Artery Unclogging (Grades 9-12)
Visualize Your Heartbeat: Maker Challenge (9-12)
Environmental - Earth
Water by Design is a new classroom resource from EarthEcho International, an environmental education nonprofit founded by explorer Philippe Cousteau. A series of dynamic lesson plans, design challenges, and videos to support students' exploration of water resource management.
Ocean School (OS) is a free, state-of-the-art learning experience that provides the next generation of ocean citizens, innovators, and decision makers with the knowledge and tools to investigate and design innovative solutions for the accelerating challenges that face the world’s oceans. Designed for inquiry and collaboration, Ocean School lets students take the lead, ask questions, and build knowledge. OS guides the learner through immersive media using virtual reality, augmented reality, 360-degree cinema, and more to explore and foster a deep engagement with ocean science.
Engineering Tomorrow was founded to create free programs that awaken student curiosity and passion for engineering—all at no cost to teachers, students, or their schools. The nonprofit delivers virtual labs to high school classrooms that simulate real-world projects designed by expert engineers so students gain unique insight and understanding into the world of engineering. The virtual labs integrate seamlessly with the current curriculum while aligning with Next Generation Science Standards. All of the virtual labs are designed for independent and self-paced learning.
Aquation: The Freshwater Access GameGrade 5 | Earth Science Choice, strategy, balance, and . . . water equity? Parts of the planet are struggling to get enough water. Use each region's wealth to build pipes, desalinate water, and conduct research to bring water where it's needed most. Monsoons, dry spells, disease, and even cursed lawn sprinklers can help or hinder your progress. Manage your wealth and water carefully to solve the world's water crisis! GO TO GAME
Ocean STEM Activities5, 4, 3, 2, 1! There are 5 oceans 4 (for) our students to explore in these 3 fun ocean activities consisting of 2 science experiments and 1 art project.
Disaster DetectorMiddle School | Earth Science The citizens of Smithsonville are in dire need of a Disaster Detector! Help Smithsonville and other cities predict and prepare for natural disasters. Use tools to make predictions and save the city from damage by helping citizens prepare properly. Are you up for the challenge? Disaster Detector teaches players how to analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and how to implement tools to mitigate the effects of those disasters. GO TO GAME
STEM Teaching Tools: Guidance for Justice-Centered Climate Change Teaching and Learning
At Home: Water Pollution Clean UpHealthy water is important for humans as well as for the environment. Can you design a water filter to remove pollutants? Water Pollution Clean Up at Home Activity.pdf
Green Roof Activities and Resources (Grades 3-12)
Environmental Education Library provides a wealth of lesson plans, toolkits, and stewardship ideas for in-school and at-home learning. The resources can be adapted to a variety of ages and settings.
Oil Spill Solutions (Grades 3-12)
Pollution and Lung Health (Grades 4-12)
Map the Green Space (Grades 5-9)
Trash Sliders (Grades 6-10)
Zero Energy Home Design (Grades 9-11)
Berry Organic Solar Energy (Grades 9-12)
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) provides an extensive Green STEM Guidebook, full of inspiration, information, and lesson plans to inspire teachers to join NWF’s Eco-Schools USA and Schoolyards Habitats Pathways programs. This freely downloadable guidebook shows how the programs provide a clear pathway to excite, motivate, and educate the next generation of experts, innovators, and math and technology whizzes. The guidebook also highlights, with detailed case studies, how students can put their STEM skills to work solving real-world environmental issues right in their own communities.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) offers innovative online materials that enlighten students and educators about the breadth of scientific research, technology, and activities. These resources include student activities, case studies, tutorials, and lesson plans for education audiences of all ages. Formal lesson plans and classroom ideas emphasize hands-on activitiesand problem-based learning using online data resources
Take a Bite Out of Food Waste K - 12 Students devise a strategy to decrease food waste in their cafeteria.
CLEAN – Climate Energy & Awareness Network – A collection of 600+ free, ready-to-use resources rigorously reviewed by educators and scientists.
Interactive Library Applets for Math, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry & Earth Science 6-12
The Interactive Library is about "real interactivity"! The database contains hundreds of activities that make use of sophisticated java, vrml and shockwave programs. Teachers can create their own activity sheet to go with the programs.
Apps
K - 5
Middle School
K - 5
- Amazing Alex App: (IOS and android ) Amazing Alex has a lot of crazy physics challenges in need of your inventive solutions. You can even build and create your own. Brought to you by the creators of Angry Birds.
- Science Journal app for Android lets students use their smartphones or external sensors to conduct experiments and record findings. On the Making & Science website, created in partnership with the Exploratorium in San Francisco, teachers will find activity ideasfor students aged 10 and up—such as building musical instruments that respond to light, or exploring graphing and angle measurement by tilting their smartphone and then seeing how they can use a graph to tell a story.
- Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab shows children aged 5–9 how much fun science can be. Using this app, students set out on an adventure to an unknown world—a world where Thomas Edison had a secret lab in which he invented a virtual version of himself and a nearly completed robot to guide and inspire future generations of young scientists. Students can explore the lab, play games, learn about Thomas Edison and other inventors, meet the Secret Lab Kids, learn about inventions and discoveries, create holograms, and enjoy videos. The app is available for iOS, Android,
- Max and the Magic Marker App: In this fun physics-based game, you’re in complete control of Max and his incredible magic marker. There are 15 puzzle levels, with challenges, secrets and rewards in each.
- Love Science (Android app) Kids Love Science series of stories are written for children of ages 3-10, with the aim entertaining these youngsters while introducing them to significant achievements in the history of science, exploration and adventure.’
- Kids Science Experiments (Android app) Kids Science Experiments application has more than 50 kids experiments with requirement of experiments, method for performing experiments and logic or happening of experiments.
- DIY Lake Science was developed by UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of ScienceThe app for iPad and iPhone takes learners outdoors to find what’s below the surface of bodies of freshwater. With the app's field adventures, learners can make a viewscope and look for underwater plants and animals, build a “quadrat” square and measure biodiversity, and construct a Secchi disc to show how clear or murky a body of water is. Using such tools helps show how scientists test water quality, monitor pollution, track the populations of species, and even discover unknown life forms.
- Algodoo (Grades 4-12) mixes the concepts of a sandbox and laboratory so that students can create their own physics questions and discover the laws that govern gravity, magnetism, and light. Teachers can use the built-in lessons, which feature reflection and assessment options, or create simple labs and tutorials that can be duplicated by students at a later time
- DIY Human Body app. The app uses everyday items to let you explore your body's complex machinery in 13 fun, hands-on STEM activities.
- DIY Sun Science app Use the power of the Sun to energize STEM learning with the free, new DIY Sun Science app for the iPad and iPhone. On sunny days, or not so sunny days, DIY Sun Science makes investigating Earth's own star easy, fun, affordable and safe. Thirteen hands-on explorations, plus NASA images and videos, reveal how dynamic the Sun is and how it affects life on Earth.
- Science Lab for Kids (Android app) full of fascinating home science experiments that are a great way for kids to enjoy the world of Science labs.’
- Scientific Experiments (Android app) an ideal opportunity for your children to learn the laws of science, in an easy and simple way, all free and a great complement to their education and school work or school application.
- Algodoo (Grades 4-12) mixes the concepts of a sandbox and laboratory so that students can create their own physics questions and discover the laws that govern gravity, magnetism, and light. Teachers can use the built-in lessons, which feature reflection and assessment options, or create simple labs and tutorials that can be duplicated by students at a later time.
Middle School
- DIY Human Body app. The app uses everyday items to let you explore your body's complex machinery in 13 fun, hands-on STEM activities.
- Algodoo (Grades 4-12) mixes the concepts of a sandbox and laboratory so that students can create their own physics questions and discover the laws that govern gravity, magnetism, and light. Teachers can use the built-in lessons, which feature reflection and assessment options, or create simple labs and tutorials that can be duplicated by students at a later time.
- Science Journal app for Android lets students use their smartphones or external sensors to conduct experiments and record findings. On the Making & Science website, created in partnership with the Exploratorium in San Francisco, teachers will find activity ideasfor students aged 10 and up—such as building musical instruments that respond to light, or exploring graphing and angle measurement by tilting their smartphone and then seeing how they can use a graph to tell a story.
- Science Lab for Kids (Android app) full of fascinating home science experiments that are a great way for kids to enjoy the world of Science labs.’
- Scientific Experiments (Android app) an ideal opportunity for your children to learn the laws of science, in an easy and simple way, all free and a great complement to their education and school work or school application.
- iSeeChange Tracker by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, students can use their iOS mobile devices to help NASA scientists investigate how climate change affects their communities. Using the app, students simply choose an investigation that scientists are actively researching and then add sightings from their backyard, neighborhood, or city. Each sighting will be paired with NASA satellite and weather data to help scientists identify ground-level changes that correlate with the bigger picture they are seeing from space.
- No Valve in Vain ( gr 6 - 8) In this activity, teams of middle school “biomedical engineers” will learn about the engineering design process and how a one-way valve works by creating heart valves from tape, plastic tubing and a variety of other materials.
- LabInApp Physics Demo
‘LabInApp is a 3D, interactive virtual laboratory tool that focuses on heuristic approach of understanding science. This heuristic ideology facilitates students and teachers to perform science experiments on computers or mobile devices, and eliminates the physical barriers of actual laboratory. LabInApp’s real-time 3D computer graphics technology promotes “learn by doing” pedagogy. This enhances the ability of teacher to deliver a live demonstration of experiments/concepts/phenomenon/complex ideas in a controlled environment. - Lab4Physics - A Lab in Your Pocket IOS
‘Lab4Physics is an educational solution designed to support teachers around the world improve science education, by making it easy and inexpensive to bring lab experiences into the classroom. In this lab, students can find tools (like an accelerometer, a sonometer or a speedometer) that can help them measure gravity or acceleration in real time. - iSeeChange Tracker by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, students can use their iOS mobile devices to help NASA scientists investigate how climate change affects their communities. Using the app, students simply choose an investigation that scientists are actively researching and then add sightings from their backyard, neighborhood, or city. Each sighting will be paired with NASA satellite and weather data to help scientists identify ground-level changes that correlate with the bigger picture they are seeing from space.
- DIY Lake Science was developed by UC Berkeley's Lawrence Hall of Science The app for iPad and iPhone takes learners outdoors to find what’s below the surface of bodies of freshwater. With the app's field adventures, learners can make a viewscope and look for underwater plants and animals, build a “quadrat” square and measure biodiversity, and construct a Secchi disc to show how clear or murky a body of water is. Using such tools helps show how scientists test water quality, monitor pollution, track the populations of species, and even discover unknown life forms.