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Students will examine the impact humans can have on the water quality at a popular public fishing pier and ways that citizens can interact with the government to address cleaning the pier in this integrated MEA.  Students will analyze the revenue from the fishing pier, peak visiting times, and amounts of marine debris accumulated to determine the pros/cons of closing the fishing pier more frequently to clean the marine debris. Students will research which government agency must be contacted with a proposal. 

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will collect, analyze, and interpret data to develop an understanding of how the speeds of sound and electromagnetic waves change through different mediums. Students will simulate and construct and explanation relating to how sound and electromagnetic waves move at different speeds through different mediums.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be tasked with an engineering challenge to design an effective and efficient portable water filtration system. The designs will take dirty water and make it clear so it can be boiled for safe drinking. This lesson aligns to both math and science content standards.

Type: Lesson Plan

Dr. Alex Wilson of the University of Miami is an evolutionary biologist whose research centers on symbiotic relationships. "" from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo is the last of four films created with funding from the National Science Foundation. This lesson, which includes a pre-test, slide presentation, and activity, was developed to support the learning concepts provided by Dr. Wilson's films.

Type: Lesson Plan

Dr. Alex Wilson of the University of Miami is an evolutionary biologist whose research centers on symbiotic relationships. In this short animated film, she introduces the concept of symbiosis to the viewers. from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo is the first of four films created with funding from the National Science Foundation. This lesson, which includes a pre-test, slide presentation, activity, and formative assessment was developed to support the learning concepts provided by Dr. Wilson's films.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will collect and analyze data, collaborate and discuss their findings, compare their findings to one another, and apply their findings to unknowns. Students will build a timeline based on the masses of substances to develop a basic understanding of absolute age by radioactive dating and how it compares to relative age based on the Law of Superposition. Students will measure the mass of several objects which will represent "fossils." Each object's mass will represent a specific age of the object. Students will gain an understanding of how scientists use absolute dating to accurately determine the age of objects and how relative dating is used to generally determine the age of objects.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

This lesson uses the Hip Sciences Sensor Wand and Temperature Probe. Please refer to the corresponding Hip Science Sensor Guide(s) for information on using the sensor.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this week-long, open-ended activity, students will observe their local environment, devise and pose a testable research question, conduct observations using sensors, and use mathematics skills for quantitative analysis and plotting. To communicate results, students will summarize their findings on a custom poster that explains their work.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

This lesson uses the Hip Sciences Sensor Wand and Temperature Probe. Please refer to the corresponding Hip Science Sensor Guide(s) for information on using the sensor.

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the concept of an invasive species, the Burmese python, and its impact on other animal populations in the Florida Everglades. Students will interpret and evaluate graphs to investigate correlation and causation as well as evaluate claims using evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will participate in a simulation model of the rock cycle. Collecting data by throwing die, students will develop an understanding of the movement of atoms and rock particles through the rock cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity asks students to become scientists who are studying the components of a bald eagle's diet. They will collect data by pulling prey chips from an envelope and recording this data. They then graph their research data, draw conclusions about what a bald eagle eats, and share their conclusions with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

7th grade math/science lesson plan that focuses on the concept of circumference and rotation relationship. Culminates in a problem-solving exercise where students apply their knowledge to the "rotations" field in programming a LEGO/NXT robot to traverse a set distance.

Type: Lesson Plan

The scientific method has not only helped scientists but also helped engineers create a design process to solve problems. Within this lesson students will be introduced to the idea that there is not a single design process that is better or more useful that another. Although the process goes by many names, the essential elements are the same, and using a design process to solve problems helps us achieve an optimal solution. A design process should encourage the students to consider as many of the possible solutions. Students will evaluate design processes and will use them to guide their actions.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will review the basic ideas of heat, the direction it flows, and the results of this flow on the kinetic energy and expansion of the particles. Students will investigate this concept in a 5E lesson format using claim, evidence, reasoning in their conclusion. They will determine how different temperature water baths effects the ease/difficulty of opening jars with tight fitting lids and link these results to the knowledge that heat flows from warmer to cooler materials. Applying the knowledge that increasing the amount of heat of the matter will increase the kinetic energy of it's particles, will result in expansion of that matter. Because each type of matter has a different coefficient of expansion, the amount of expansion will vary in different materials. Students will realize that a jar with a tight fitting lid may loosen if hot water is applied.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson combines many objectives for seventh grade students. Its goal is for students to create and carry out an investigation about student backpack mass. Students will develop a conclusion based on statistical and graphical analysis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using a guided-inquiry model, students in a math or science class will use an experiment testing the effect of temperature on cricket chirping frequency to teach the concepts of representative vs random sampling, identifying directly proportional relationships, and highlight the differences between scientific theory and scientific law.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will measure the length of different sized leaves and corresponding veins to determine proportionality.  Students will graph their results on a coordinate grid and write about their results. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work in groups to collect water from different areas in a watershed and measure the following characteristics: pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. Students then construct a water filtration apparatus and observe changes in the listed characteristics based on filtration. This activity guides the students to understanding the differences in water quality in various locations within the watershed through investigation and collaboration.

Prior to teaching the lesson, teachers should have a basic understanding of the watershed where the water will be collected. Detailed information can be obtained from the water management district. See for links to Florida's water management districts.

Ideally, the water should be collected by the students from a site on or near school property. Be sure to follow school and district guidelines for field work.

Type: Lesson Plan

The NASA BEST Activities Guides is designed to teach students the Engineering Design
Process. These lessons are created to accommodate grades 6-8.

All follow the same set of activities and teach students about humans' endeavor to return to the
Moon. Specifically, how we investigate the Moon remotely, the modes of transportation to and on
the Moon, and how humans will live and work on the Moon.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a fun lab activity to be used as part 3 of a 4 part series on Interdependence.  It can also be used as a stand alone activity. Animal crackers are used - they can be eaten at the end of the activity- so double check with your students about any food allergies (ie gluten).

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, each student will explain and document in a science journal how they will over come a natural disaster/plague for 15 days. They will continue with part two of this lesson "Outdoor Gardening."

Type: Lesson Plan

Raising Your Garden MEA provides students with a real world engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best material for building raised garden beds. The main focus of this MEA is to recognize the importance of choosing the correct material for building a raised garden bed, what information is needed before starting a gardening project, and to consider the environmental and economic impact the garden will have on the school. Students will conduct individual and team investigations in order to arrive at a scientifically sound solution to the problem.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will conduct a simple laboratory experience that practices the proper use of controls and variables. Students will conduct a controlled experiment in their laboratory groups.

Type: Lesson Plan

Continue your scientific experiment about ghost ant food preferences by collecting the data, analyzing the results, and forming a conclusion with this interactive tutorial.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Click to open Part 1, Setting Up an Experiment. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to design a scientific experiment involving ants and what food they prefer. In this interactive tutorial, you will learn about variables and scientific processes required to conduct an experiment.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Click to open Part 2, Conducting an Experiment and Analyzing Results

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Hands-on modeling can help build process and observational skills. Encourage your students to think like scientists with this open-inquiry lab modeling earthquake damage to buildings.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

This activity is a statistical analysis of recorded measurements of a single value - in this case, a partially filled graduated cylinder.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will measure the mass of one nickel 10 times on a digital scale precise to milligrams. The results will be statistically analyzed to find the error and uncertainty of the scale.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to gather information, organize, analyze, and present data when given a current environmental situation. They will participate in a decision-making process.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will investigate how the shape and volume of body forms affect heat loss.

Type: Teaching Idea

Although a sheet of paper is much thinner than the divisions of a ruler, we can make indirect measurements of the paper's thickness.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The science fair project of two junior scientists in Nigeria may hold the key to ending "morning breath." Through experimentation, the two teenage girls determined that African walnuts were able to kill bacteria that cause bad breath. Their project was presented at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Type: Text Resource

This resource provides students with a framework to form an academic argument. Students must provide a justification for their position statement and support it with evidence.

Type: Worksheet

This resource provides students with a framework to examine multiple sides of an argument before taking a position. It is useful in helping students examine opposing views and strengthen their argument by anticipating the opposition's main points.

Type: Worksheet

This resource provides students with a framework to take and support their position on an open-ended or yes/no question. Its simplicity is especially useful for students with little to no experience forming an academic or scientific argument.

Type: Worksheet