Recognize and explain the difference between personal opinion/interpretation and verified observation.
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Styrofoam Eliminators | This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. The Styrofoam Eliminators MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best alternative to using Styrofoam trays in school cafeterias.
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. |
Jay Wilder's Snorkeling Adventures MEA | This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. Jay's Wilder Snorkeling Adventures MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best snorkeling equipment company for their customers. 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. |
Frankenchicken | It's ALIVE! Or is it? Engage students with a hands-on look at muscles, tissues, bones, bone marrow, cartilage, ligaments, tendons and connective tissue. It is an exciting way to hook students into learning the structures promoting a better understanding of how they work. It will be a lab students will refer back to and remember! The lab takes about 1 hour; however the research and presentations can take up to a week. |
Grow Toys | As students investigate grow toys, students use and practice scientific process, communication, and thinking skills as they distinguish observations from opinions, conduct investigations, gather data, analyze data, and draw conclusions based on data. |
Introduction To The Nature Journal | In the lessons here, students exercise the observation skills that are essential to writing, visual art, and science. First, they try to use evocative language in describing pictures of birds from the Smithsonian's National Zoo. They go on to record observations and to make hypotheses as they follow the behavior of animals on the National Zoo's live webcams. They can watch the giant pandas, the tigers, the cheetahs, the gorillas, or any of a dozen other species. |
Wild Wind | Students will learn the difference between global, prevailing and local winds. In this activity, students will make a wind vane out of paper, a straw and a soda bottle and use it to measure wind direction over time. Finally, they will analyze their data to draw conclusions about the prevailing winds in their area. |