Big Idea 2: The Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge

Students will read a fun article about a caveman named Fred and his journey to discover gravity. They will trace the evidence and then conflicting evidence as he explores the world around him. Students will then research obsolete scientific theories to discover the conflicting evidence that led to changes in real scientific knowledge.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a lesson designed to help students explain that scientific knowledge is durable because it is open to change as new evidence or interpretations are encountered and site examples from the article that support that the history of science has changed due to new evidence or new interpretations being encountered through reading nonfiction text. This lesson follows the Comprehension Instructional Sequence (CIS) Model through a 5E lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of the human body and organ systems from SC.6.L.14.5. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students should understand that there are numerous scientists throughout history who have made extremely important contributions to our understanding of science and the world around us. Students will also understand that different scientists come from varying background, skills and interests all which lead them to research varying topics in the scientific world.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will research the careers of famous scientists like Dr. Jane Goodall, Stephen Hawking and many others. They will present an oral report and a visual aid to the class. Class activities include a bell ringer, 2 short videos, a PowerPoint presentation, class discussions, computer research and time to construct a visual aid. This lesson will take several days depending on the needs of your students. (1-2 days should be reserved in the computer lab for the research portion of the lesson.)

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will choose a "cool" scientific experiment ("trick") from informational text, follow a precise multi-step procedure to carry out the experiment, research the scientific explanation for the result and using accurate reasoning explain the science to a broadcast audience. Students will be creating a short video clip with the theme "Is it Magic or is it Science?" to air on the school CCTV. They will dress up like magicians and scientists and perform a science experiment for the audience. After the experiment the debate will begin and ultimately the magician will give in and admit that it was science, not magic. Students will research, perform, write, edit, record, create video clips with music and text.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this two to three day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to absorb deep lessons from Richard Feynman's recollections of interactions with his father. By reading and rereading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why Feynman started to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. When combined with writing about the passage, students will discover how much they can learn from a memoir.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how math models can show why social distancing during a epidemic or pandemic is important in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how scientific knowledge is open to change and how the knowledge about the Earth's surface has changed in the past 100 years as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore the processes of science and how it changes over time. This interactive tutorial uses the historical development of The Cell Theory to illustrate these ideas.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the amazing science discoveries by people from all over the world and all walks of life. In this interactive tutorial, you'll see that science is by and for everyone!

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Researchers Frank Johnson, Richard Bertram, Wei Wu, and Rick Hyson explore the necessity of scientific and mathematical collaboration in modern neuroscience, as it relates to their NSF research on birdsong.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Resource provides a succinct overview of the nature of science; what science is and is not. Information includes the aims of scientific pursuits, principles, process and thinking.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

The webmaster for the ENSI web site (), a popular repository for Nature of Science Lessons, describes some educational philosophy about teaching the Nature of Science, including dispelling some teacher-held misconceptions.

Type: Professional Development

Students will use a variety of reference materials to research a subject and will relate the results of their research orally and in writing. They will describe the accomplishments of antarctic explorers and scientists.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists from around the world and from many cultures visit Antarctica to conduct research on questions that matter to all mankind. There are a number of important lessons that can be learned through research in Antarctica, such as past carbon dioxide levels, ozone depletion, impacts of meteorites, air pollution, and sea level change.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This NBC News science article describes the success of a young inventor's polymer and salt filled sandbags, designed for more efficient flood protection and deployment.

Type: Text Resource

Click "View Site" to open a full-screen version. This tutorial is designed to help secondary science teachers learn how to integrate literacy skills within their science curriculum. This tutorial focuses on using specific textual evidence to support students' responses as they analyze science texts. The focus on literacy across content areas is designed to help students independently build knowledge in different disciplines through reading and writing.

Type: Tutorial