Explain that models can be three dimensional, two dimensional, an explanation in your mind, or a computer model.
| Name |
Description |
| Eroding the Future - Lesson 1 | In this lesson, students will complete an inquiry activity on erosion in order to be able to describe the process of erosion and differentiate it from weathering. Through the inquiry activity, students will recognize how models can be used to demonstrate processes and test solutions. Additionally, students will evaluate how citizens can work with their state government to solve the problems created by erosion, as a public issue.
This is lesson 1 of 3 in a mini-unit integrating civics and science. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature & Turbidity | 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. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Turbidity | 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. |
| Just Right Goldilocks’ Café: Temperature | 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.
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| The Playground Project | Students will enjoy designing their "dream" playground while applying math and science skills in this engineering design challenge lesson. Students will find the area and perimeter of their playground designs. They will also use a budget sheet to make decisions about what to include in their playground, considering the physical properties of the materials they "purchase." |
| Explore a Rock Foundation: The Hunt for an Asteroid! | Students are asked to help their client select the "best" asteroid to explore given several different factors. Students collaborate in small groups to develop a procedure to rate the asteroids. They are then asked to write a letter back to the client, defending and explaining the procedure they developed. This MEA has been written based on NASA's current mission to explore an asteroid to prepare for the mission to Mars. 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. |
| Cemented Together | In this activity the students will create their own sedimentary rock using glue and various pieces of sediments found throughout the school yard. The students will create a model of a sedimentary rock and describe how they would identify a sedimentary rock in the real world. |
| Honey Bee Human--an Engineering Design Challenge | This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of pollination from SC.4.L.16.1 as they design an apparatus that will pollinate a field. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.
In this Engineering Design Challenge, students will make a 2-dimensional model (a graphic illustration) rather than build a prototype. |
| Predator and Prey | In this lesson the students will learn about a predator/prey relationship. They will learn about the role that plants and animals play in their ecosystem and what each role is called. The students will also learn about the limiting factors each ecosystem possesses that prevent any species population from becoming too large. |
| Modeling Patterns and Cycles in our Lives | Elementary students use everyday patterns and cycles to learn the cyclical nature of science concepts. This lesson can be used as an Engage activity to spark interest in the seasons or Moon phases. |
| A View of Home from the Front Door and from Space | The world is full of objects large and small, near and far. Models are built as powerful tools to help study large things such as buildings, towns, countries, and even the Earth and the Moon. With models, things beyond our physical reach can be easily explored. To begin to distinguish "home" from "home planet," students can build a model of their home and neighborhood as it appears from the front door of the house, from a tall building, from an airplane, and from outer space. |
| 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. |
| Made To Sail | Students use simple materials to design and make model sailboats that must stay upright and sail straight in a testing tank. |
