Big Idea 1: The Practice of Science

Students will use information related to weather patterns and the climate of Greece to explore weathering and erosion as potential contributing factors to the change in appearance of Pnyx Hill over time. They will then consider how similar factors could impact stone structures at the U.S. Capitol in this integrated lesson plan.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be introduced to Pnyx Hill in Athens, Greece, a historic political meeting site. They will explore how weathering and erosion have likely changed its appearance over time using scientific and creative thinking with models based on archaeological and historical information. After learning that Pnyx was the site of early democratic meetings, students will conduct a visual and structural comparison to our current Congressional halls in this integrated lesson plan.

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

Students will conduct a controlled experiment to determine the effect Florida's limestone has on the pH levels of Florida's water and soil. Students will compare limestone's effect to that of other rocks and minerals found naturally in Florida. At the end of this investigation, students should be able to articulate the effect limestone has on the pH of water in Florida, the importance of this phenomenon, and a basic understanding of the process by which limestone affects pH levels in water.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will create explanations that fit evidence in science relating to how the human body maintains homeostasis. Students will discover body system interactions and how the organ systems work together to maintain homeostasis.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will complete a series of stations in order to explain how jet streams and ocean currents influence local weather. Students will rotate through six stations in order to gain background knowledge about jet streams and ocean currents. The students will also answer questions at each station to elaborate their understanding of jet streams and ocean currents and how they affect local weather. After the stations are completed, the teacher will lead a whole group discussion to connect the student's learning to the big ideas of the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a multi-day activity that reinforces science, math, and technology skills by taking the students through the design process. Students will be tasked with designing and building a structure that could withstand high winds and water as would be found close to the seashore.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will learn how to use very different pieces of information and data to select the best "Bottymals" for a company that wants to manufacture them and place them on the market. The MEA includes information about animal/insect anatomy (locomotion), manufacturing materials used in robotics, and physical science of the 6th grade level. Extensive information is provided to students, thus pre-requisites are minimal.

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. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will become familiar with the use of scientific names, Linnaeus' binomial nomenclature, and Classification of Living Things. At the same time students will be learning about periphyton in the Everglades, how it forms, its importance, and the factors that affect its development. They will engage in solving a problem situation in which they will have to select the best area to reinsert some fish species that depend on periphyton.

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. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will understand how global patterns affect the temperature of an area by studying the features of an application's virtual creatures called the "Pokemontures." These creatures have the ability to match the temperature of their environment. As students study the Pokemontures' features and calculate their approximate temperature, they will apply concepts linked to the patterns that affect temperature. Students will also review heat transfers and sea/land breezes with the use of this MEA.

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. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students will select the robots that are more efficient at doing a certain type of job. They will have to analyze data tables that include force, force units, mass, mass units, and friction.

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

The changing climate is an important topic for both scientific analysis and worldly knowledge. This lesson uses data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center to create and use statistical analysis as a tool to evaluate the mean and variation from the mean of sea ice loss.

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 MEA, students will apply the concepts of heat transfer, especially convection. Students will analyze factors such as temperature that affect the behavior of fluids as they form convection currents.

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

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

Students will replicate an investigation to test a new amusement park ride, The Human Catapult. They will build a prototype catapult and compare their findings with that of the company, Innovative Engineering Design, Inc. Students will learn the importance of replication; the safety of future riders is at stake!

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will compare and contrast two short articles to learn that scientific investigations are not always controlled experiments and that the traditional scientific method is not always appropriate or most effective for understanding the natural world. Later in the lesson, students will choose their own article and reflect on the scientific methods used in that scientific investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson addresses current events regarding flooding in St. Petersburg, Florida. Students will create a water removal device from materials provided then use a 3D scanner to 3D print their devices.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore, observe, and infer about the properties and behaviors of magnets by conducting their own experiments with the magnets and the differences between contact and non-contact forces. Students will plan and design a magnetic levitation device using the engineering design process.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will follow the scientific process to investigate the movement of a pendulum and then apply that knowledge to design and build device that automatically creates a "splatter" painting.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a 6th grade inquiry lab lesson for students to model what factors affect sinkholes, along with weathering and erosion.

Type: Lesson Plan

The cell theory has had a major impact on modern science, from the development of the theory to the present day. This lesson will examine strategies students can use to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the development of the cell theory.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will design an investigation to collect and analyze data, determine results, write a justification and make a presentation using U.S. pennies.

Paired student teams will determine the mass of 50 U.S. pennies. Students will also collect other data from each penny such as minted year and observable appearance. Students will be expected to organize/represent their data into tables, histograms and other informational structures appropriate for reporting all data for each penny. Students will be expected to consider the data, determine trends, and research information in order to make a claim that explains trends in data from minted U.S. pennies.

Hopefully, student data reports will support the knowledge that the metallic composition of the penny has changed over the years. Different compositions can have significantly different masses. A sufficiently random selection of hundreds of pennies across the class should allow the students to discover trends in the data to suggest the years in which the composition changed.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to provide a hands on inquiry on Sphere Interactions by investigating the relationship between Surface Albedo and Atmospheric Temperature. In this activity, students will develop an Argument Driven Inquiry (ADI) with the Guiding question: "What is the relationship between the land surface Albedo and Atmospheric Temperature?"

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate if the pitcher's mound and center field are the same temperature, since they are in the same location but have two different surfaces.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson explains and demonstrates the difference between an investigation and an experiment. This lesson includes teacher presentation and hands-on activities that will keep your students engaged. This lesson is very interactive and can be spread over several day. Each student should be recording their own individual data to simply get used to the process of collecting data. However the teacher can decide if the students will work in groups for the Final presentation. This lesson can lead into lessons for the following benchmarks:
SC.6.N.1.2 Explain why scientific investigations should be replicable SC.6.N.1.4 Discuss, compare, and negotiate methods used, results obtained, and explanations among groups of students conducting the same investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

A short lesson on ways that scientists develop their understanding of things that they cannot see by developing models based on testing and hypothesis.
Students will collaborate, discuss and develop a way to draw the landscape inside a shoebox that has been sealed using minimal tools. Students will NOT be attempting to say what is in the box but what the layout (landscape) is inside the box.
Students will discover the difficulty that scientists have encountered as they begin the process of answering questions about things that they can not see. Students will learn that not all questions are easily solved and that sometimes only a partial answer is learned until another scientist adds more to the answer.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lab students will explore the interactions of the muscular and skeletal systems and how they contribute to homeostasis. Students will collect data based on their own body movements and identify how movement occurs through muscles, tendons, joints and bones. Finally students will conclude that temperature maintenance, cell production and nutritional factors are all variables controlled, in part, by these body systems for the purpose of homeostasis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Inquiry based challenge to develop a plan to investigate a large tadpole population growth in the town of Belle Pole. Students analyze preexisting data and make conclusions about the data. Student groups compare their approaches and conclusions with other student groups. A whole group discussion leads students to conclude that results often varied based on methods used to conduct the same investigation. The lesson ends with students writing a self reflection from their student group and whole group discussions.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the idea of finding volume. Volume in sixth grade math is very "rectangular" (cubes, rectangular prisms) and this lesson brings to light that volume is simply a measure of available space, but can take on many shapes or forms (cylinders for example - graduated cylinders and beakers) in science. Students will be left to design their own data collection and organizing the data that they collect. They will apply the skill of finding volume to using fractional parts of a number (decimals) and finding the product using the volume formula.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA explores the idea of replication when completing scientific investigations. Students are asked to create a plan for Science Incorporated to determine if their investigations are replicable.

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

pH - The Power of Hydrogen Ions implies that the "power of health is in balance" with balanced "Hydrogen Ions." Life exists inside a certain range of pH values. In this activity, students work in collaborative learning groups to classify pH values. Students are faced with a problem of correcting possible affects of contaminating pollution. Scenarios of a problem statement help students apply factors to water resources in real world events. They recognize and explain that a scientific theory is well-supported and widely accepted explanation of nature and not simply a claim posed by an individual. Students may prove their proposal by performing a pH wet lab with common kitchen solutions.

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 Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of protecting human life from hazardous weather from SC.6.E.7.8 as they build levees to prevent flooding. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

This classification MEA provides students with a science problem in which they must create a dichotomous key and classify given organisms. The main focus of this MEA is the diversity of living organisms, as well as how they are classified.

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

In this lesson, students will investigate the energy of water as it relates to erosion. After guided exploration of an erosion tray, students will devise, carry out, and evaluate a plan to slow down or stop the effects of erosion with as little environmental impact as possible.

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

The lesson will begin with the teacher engaging the students with a presentation of "How the Blood Gets Around the Body" following a think quest presentation that covers the parts and functions of the circulatory system, including the brain, veins and arteries, heart and blood. Students will explore blood vessels by watching a short video clip, conducting a hands-on investigation about blood pressure. Next the teacher will lead a discussion and explain about the human heart and will use a "Map of the Human Heart" to show the class exactly how the heart pumps blood throughout your body and learn facts about the human heart. Students will get a chance to elaborate by creating a color picture of blood flow to, through and from the heart in their notebooks. To evaluate the students, they will watch a short video clip about the circulatory system and take the accompanying quiz.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity provides students with an open-ended, realistic problem for which students will research, discuss, and present the characteristics of 8 trees based on characteristics, type of wood, and suitability for growth in wet or dry climate with current weather patterns. Their objective is to promote the soil erosion prevention Students support claims with clear reasons and relevant evidence, as they produce clear and coherent writing to describe the project of their structure ins development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

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 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

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of the transfer of potential and kinetic energy from SC.6.P.11.1. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discover the importance of scientific replication by performing an investigation requiring them to write, and then follow, step-by-step instructions. The scenario will be based on the show Survivor and will involve making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan has power point to support it. The lesson requires students to complete a project comparing bacteria, fungus, and viruses.

Type: Lesson Plan

Uncle Henry's Dilemma is a problem solving lesson to determine the global location for the reading of Uncle Henry's will. The students will interpret data sets which include temperature, rainfall, air pollution, travel cost, flight times and health issues to rank five global locations for Uncle Henry's relatives to travel to for the reading of his will. This is an engaging, fun-filled MEA lesson with twists and turns throughout. Students will learn how this procedure of selecting locations can be applied to everyday decisions by the government, a business, a family, or individuals.

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

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

Students have had many experiences in science and have participated in and designed simple investigations. This lesson directs students in identifying the steps of experimentation. While microorganisms are the topic and the subject of the experimentation, the emphasis and learning should center on scientific steps and processes of scientific experiments.

Designing and conducting an experiment involves an integration or combining of science process skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students manipulate sealed "mystery" boxes and attempt to determine the inner structure of the boxes which contain a moving ball and a fixed barrier or two. The nature and sources of uncertainty inherent in the process of problem-solving are experienced. The uncertainty of the conclusions is reduced by student collaboration. The students are asked to relate this activity to how to learn about "mystery boxes" in nature (interior of the earth, the atom, etc).

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will investigate, through a guided exploration lab, using a tennis ball, the Law of Conservation of Energy to differentiate between Potential and Kinetic Energy, and identify real life situations where potential energy is transformed into kinetic energy and vice versa.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt. Following a script read by the teacher, students "find" (remove from envelope) paper "fossils" of some unknown creature, only a few at a time. Each time, they attempt to reconstruct the creature, and each time their interpretation tends to change as new pieces are "found".

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will collect weather data over several days or weeks, graph temperature data, and compare the temperature data collected with averaged climate data where they live, to better understand the differences between weather and climate.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of contact and non-contact forces as they build structures able to withstand the forces of wind and gravity. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, marbles or other spheres such as steel shot, ball bearings, golf, or wooden balls are used as impactors dropped from a series of heights onto a prepared "lunar surface." Using impactors of different mass dropped from the same height will allow students to study the relationship of mass of the impactor to crater size. Dropping impactors from different heights will allow students to study the relationship of velocity of the impactor to crater size.

Type: Lesson Plan

It is important that experiments are repeated by other scientists. If similar results are not gathered, the conclusion(s) drawn would not have validity.

Type: Lesson Plan

The attached engineering design lesson plan elaborates on the PBS Kids online resource and will probably take from 4-5 class periods. It takes the students through the engineering design process which includes the following components: Identify the Problem, Brainstorm and Design a Solution, Test and Evaluate, Redesign, Reflect and Share the Solution.

Type: Lesson Plan

This fun design/build exercise teaches some simple but profound lessons in collaboration, innovation, hidden assumptions, and creativity that are central to the engineering process.

Type: Lesson Plan

Teacher will do demonstration mixing a clear liquid (vinegar) and a white powder (baking soda) resulting in a bubbling chemical reaction. The students will then be given the packages of materials and be asked to replicate the teacher's experiment, repeating their trial 3 times. Some groups will not be able to do this since their white powder is not baking soda, but cornstarch, which will not react with vinegar. Out of this discrepant event, the guiding questions will evoke the realization that accurate information is necessary to for replication of scientific investigations. Time will be spent differentiating replication from repetition.

Type: Lesson Plan

Join a group of friends in a STEM challenge to build the quickest toy car as they use evidence from a series of controlled experiments to make a scientific claim in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join a group of friends in a STEM challenge to build the quickest toy car as they analyze data from a series of controlled experiments in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join a group of friends in a STEM challenge to build the quickest toy car as they conduct a series of controlled experiments in this interactive science tutorial.

This is part 2 in a 4-part series. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join a group of friends in a STEM challenge to build the quickest toy car as they plan a controlled experiment in this interactive science tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how scientific research is done based society's goals and what current group needs as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Investigate the benefits and limitations of experiments, observational studies, and comparative studies with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Help Ryan revise his soccer science experiment to make it replicable. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn what "replicable" means and why it's so important in science.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join our class hamster experiment to learn about making hypotheses, organizing and analyzing data into graphs, and making inferences in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join our class hamster experiment and learn to identify independent, dependent, and controlled variables in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Join the investigation into our class hamster's respiration! In this interactive tutorial, we will explore different methods of investigation, hypothesize, interpret data, determine appropriate conclusions, and make predictions.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

NOAA Scientist, Doug Devries talks about fish survey techniques and technologies.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

(Description Needed by CL) The video will include and interview with Katie Moore, a meterologist, preparing and launching a weather balloon.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Classroom activities that teach students precision of measurement.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

(Description Needed by CL) The Nature of Science

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

The STEMGym - a great way to engage kids.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Listen as science teacher Lauren Watson explains how marine field experiences are translated for the classroom.

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

This interactive tutorial explores the evolution of time measurement through the ages, beginning with Stonehenge and ancient calendar systems. It progresses through sun and water clocks, mechanical and quartz-movement clocks, and atomic clocks.

Type: Presentation/Slideshow

Some of the most important scientific concepts students learn are the result of their ability to see relationships between objects and events. Relationships always involve interactions, dependencies, and cause and effect. The Variables Module has four investigations that help students discover relationships through controlled experimentation. Students will fling, float, fly, and flip objects as they discover relationships in each investigation.

Type: Resource Collection

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

In this hands-on and web interactive project, students design and build a bird wing powerful enough to spin them in an office chair when it is flapped. By modifying the shape, size, and/or materials used in their design based on observations of natural and man-made transportation methods, students will learn about thrust, forces, durability, and energy use.

Type: Teaching Idea

This is a teaching idea where students develop a classification scheme for butterflies and moths based on observable traits. Through the development and discussion of classification schemes, students begin to make inferences about evolutionary relationships.

This activity was used in the BIOSCOPES Diversity and Ecology Institute.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to demonstrate the insulating qualities of trapped air, given the listed materials. Students will be able to infer how fur or feathers helps insulate animals.

Type: Teaching Idea

These classroom activities will help students understand 4 types of weather processes: wind, running water, plant growth, and freezing water. Students will learn how the processes of weathering and erosion change and move materials that become soil.

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

Use of a discrepant event piques curiosity and provides an excellent metaphor for a problem in science that can be addressed in a scientific way. Water is poured into a "magic" box, and out comes a much larger volume of water (or other liquid).

Type: Teaching Idea

This simple catapult activity for students in grades 4-8 teaches them how energy is transferred when a plastic spoon is pulled back, then released, rocketing its payload: a single marshmallow.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Predict the future and get paid for it? This article explores the variety of disciplines that involve dreaming up new ideas for products and technology. From storing data in bacteria to tapping into the geothermal energy between tectonic plates, the article provides an overview of how futurists get "paid to dream."

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Fossil hunters discovered a new, bird-like dinosaur and they think it looked ridiculous! Paleontologists have found pieces of this dinosaur before, but couldn't put the pieces together until they found these specific bones in North Dakota. They pieced together information from other fossils and finally discovered this silly looking creature.

Type: Text Resource

Students use software to create evolutionary trees by comparing and contrasting physical traits.

This activity demonstrates the complexity of creating evolutionary trees when multiple traits are being analyzed. The use of the software simplifies the analysis without compromising the learning objectives.

Type: Virtual Manipulative

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