Big Idea 1: The Practice of Science

This interactive game uses the traditional hangman premise with all questions and answers involving science vocabulary. There are general sets of science vocabulary to choose from, as well as specific topics. You can even choose vocabulary pertaining to 5th or 8th grade FCAT Science Tests!

Type: Educational Game

Students will be working in teams of four to measure the rebound heights of a tennis ball dropped from four different heights. Students will be investigating with the bouncing balls to measure changes in the type of energy they possess.

Type: Formative Assessment

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 examine the effect of exotic species on an ecosystem by role-playing both a healthy food chain and one that has been impacted by Mayan cichlids.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will use standards-based quadrilaterals and triangles to design a roller coaster tower. Students will use the Engineering Design Process to work through the processes in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, 5th grade students work in small groups on a STEM challenge that involves science and math standards related to the water cycle, as well as learning the engineering design process.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explore how force affects an object's motion. Students will discuss how the greater the mass of an object, the greater the force required to move an object.  Students will use data gathered through experimentation to justify their reasoning and understanding of forces and motion.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this STEM design challenge, students will build a working hand model to examine the function of the skeletal and muscular systems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will build a ramp out of a pool noodle and use it to launch a marble across the room. Students will investigate by adjusting the height and slope of the ramp and record their findings on a data sheet. Students will practice collecting and analyzing data and will investigate the importance of performing repeated experimental trials. Students will practice converting metric units of distance as well as the addition and division of decimals to find the mean of a small data set.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, 5th grade students will build an engineering device to separate oil from water in a simulated oil spill. Students will have an opportunity to learn about the impact that humans can have on the environment, both positively and negatively.

This is an Engineering Design Challenge that is best used after a unit or lesson that is aligned to science standards on solving problems or materials which dissolve in water. This challenge provides students a means to use their knowledge of the way materials will or will not dissolve in water to create and design an oil spill removal tool while learning the Engineering Design Process and being exposed to the field of engineering. This lesson is not intended as an initial introduction to the standard and would be best utilized as a culmination lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create an exciting and thrilling roller coaster model. Students will use their knowledge of forces to build a model of a roller coaster using foam insulation and a marble.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, 5th grade students work in small groups on a STEM challenge that involves science and math standards related to force, motion, and measurement, as well as learning the engineering design process.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will design and fly their own paper airplane and analyze their flight data to determine the best designs for getting planes to travel the farthest distance. Students will organize class flight data into a line plot and calculate the mean, median, mode, and range for the data set.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will mimic a wrecking ball by manipulating the variables of a pendulum in order to move objects with different masses. It is recommended this lesson follow Pendulum Inquiry (see Related CPALMS Resources), which will build students' content knowledge on pendulums. Students can apply their understanding of pendulums gained from the lesson Pendulum Inquiry to assist them in designing wrecking ball pendulums in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

Pendulums are a fun and engaging way for students to learn about physics and the nature of science. In this lesson, students will investigate the effects of gravity, mass, changing variables and energy transfer through building their own pendulums as well as teacher demonstration.

Type: Lesson Plan

This model eliciting activity teaches students a common version of the scientific method by making them the judges of a science fair. In order to judge the science fair projects they have to evaluate the importance of each step of the scientific method and assign a value to it.

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 electrical energy, circuits, insulators and conductors in standards SC.5.P.10.4, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.1, SC.5.P.11.2 by constructing circuits. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students research and investigate the characteristics of planets in our solar system for standard SC.5.E.5.2. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this open-ended problem, students will work in teams to determine a procedure for selecting a company from which to purchase baseball helmets. Students will make decisions based on a table that includes company, cost per helmet, material helmet are made of, framework, and comfort. Students will determine procedure for company selection with provided information, and write a letter to the client providing evidence for their decisions.

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 lesson uses the 5E model as students explore how various substances will dissolve. This is the first in a two part lesson. In the second lesson, students will compare how a substance will dissolve in varying temperatures. Students will learn about dissolving, mixtures, solutions and solubility.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA asks the students to analyze data and provide a procedure that can be used by New Wave Farms in order to choose the best vegetable to plant as their first trial with their new soil. The students are to provide the company with a written document showing the order considered to be the best value for their money to the least value, the step by step procedure used to determine the rank order, and an explanation of which category is considered the most important when making the ranking and why.

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 Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. The Wazzup Charter School MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best type of surface for a playground at a charter school.

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 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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 4th-5th grade level. In this open-ended problem, students must consider how to rank skate board wheels based on factors like types of surfaces, price, and durometer. In teams, students determine their procedures and write letters back to the client.

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 students will work in small groups in order to build a "Rube Goldberg" machine. A "Rube Goldberg" machine is modeled after a famous cartoonist who tried to make more difficult ways to accomplish simple tasks, such as popping a balloon. The students will build one machine, made from many simple machines working together, to perform their task. The machine is only permitted to be touched at the beginning and must work independently from that point on.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this inquiry lesson, students will design an experiment to answer the question "How do different surfaces affect the bounce of a ping pong ball?" Students will collect and analyze data as well as identify controls and variables in a scientific experiment.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces from SC.5.P.13.1 and SC.5.P.13.2 as well as energy and its ability to cause motion from SC.5.P.10.1 and SC.5.P.10.2 by designing a boat and racing it. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will explain how experiments and other kinds of investigations, such as building a model, observing things in the natural world, or researching a science topic are different.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This hands-on lesson plan allows students to investigate three methods for measuring volume. Students will learn to measure volume for liquids, regular-sized solids, and irregular sized objects. During the lesson students are exposed to demonstrations from the teacher and will participate in hands-on investigations utilizing three methods for measuring volume that they conduct and report to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students conduct an experiment to determine whether or not the sense of smell is important for being able to recognize foods by taste. This activity supports learning about engineering and design processes.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson explores the similarities between how a human being moves/walks and how a robot moves. This allows students to see the human body as a system, i.e., from the perspective of an engineer. It shows how movement results from (i) decision making, i.e., deciding to walk and move, and (ii) implementing the decision by conveying the decision to the muscle (human) or motor (robot).

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces from SC.5.P.13.1 and SC.5.P.13.2 by building and launching straw rockets. It may also be used as introductory instruction of the content.

Type: Lesson Plan

"This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of air pressure from SC.5.E.7.3 as they improve upon a common homemade barometer design to create one that is more accurate. It is not intended as an all encompassing lesson for this benchmark."

Type: Lesson Plan

Water is essential for human health, but it can sometimes be contaminated. Water filtration can filter out contaminants and impurities making water much safer to consume. But what is the best way to filter water? Students will participate in a water filtration engineering challenge to try out different combinations of materials to find which works best. This lesson was developed by the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science with support from the Weo Foundation.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students explore and investigate the theory that heat flow and movement within Earth causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions as well as contributes to mountains and ocean basins. Students will examine: surface structures, tectonic plate maps, volcanic and earthquake historical data and video evidence. Students use their acquired knowledge to organize a PowerPoint or video presentation that illustrates their comprehension of of benchmark SC.7.E.6.7.

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

Students use simple materials to design and make model sailboats that must stay upright and sail straight in a testing tank.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be experimenting what independent variable will affect dissolving rates; students will compare results of peers to also determine materials that dissolve and do not dissolve from 5 given materials; and, students will identify and learn what controls in an experiment are and their importance. This is a multi-part lesson that can be broken down by day or presented in one block. Complete all Part As in each phase (Teaching/I Do/Know, Guided/We Do/Understand, Independent/You Do/Do) before Part Bs. This lesson does not address the reference/research component of SC.5.N.1.1.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a five day lesson integrating Science, Reading and Writing. It is developed on a Reading lesson plan format using Shared Reading, Core Reading, Guided Reading and centers but can easily be transferred on to a Science 5E lesson format. The versatility of the lesson and the integration between subjects lends itself to it being widely used among teachers for different reasons; whether the teacher's need be in Science, Reading or Writing the lesson provides opportunities for all areas to be addressed. Most importantly, it offers the busy teacher an opportunity to implement one lesson to cover three subjects.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is part 2 of a lesson addressing solubility. Part 1 addresses how varying substances will dissolve in water. Part 2 addresses how temperature will effect solubility. The 5E lesson plan model will include a lab and is aligned with Florida ELA standards.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this hands-on lesson, students will work in groups to construct an electromagnet.  This lesson focuses energy, forms of energy, and how energy is transformed in a circuit.  This lesson also can be used to address variables in an experiment, conductors and insulators, data tables and graphs, and open and closed circuits. 

Type: Lesson Plan

In this activity, students participate in a series of timed relay races using their skeletal muscles. The students compare the movement of skeletal muscle and relate how engineers help astronauts exercise skeletal muscles in space.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of forces as they build containers to protect their eggs in an egg drop. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

Explore the differences between an experiment and other types of scientific investigations as you complete this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to identify a control group and explain its importance in an experiment with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the importance of repeated trials in a scientific experiment with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how authentic scientific investigations do not always follow the steps of the traditional "scientific method" with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Classroom activities that teach students precision of measurement.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

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

This site provides an overview to approaching science projects.

Type: Professional Development

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

Students are presented with an apple and are asked to draw it. In each subsequent class period they are asked to draw the same apple again. In this way, they watch and record the changes the apple goes through as it decays.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this lab, students will design and conduct an experiment to determine how the length of a string and the weight at the end of the string will affect the number of swings of a pendulum.

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

Students make predictions, then plan and conduct an investigation. They discuss whether their evidence is consistent with a proposed explanation and communicate the steps and results from their investigation.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will create a protected environment that will meet all of a manatee's needs, thereby encouraging breeding.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will compare and contrast the growth rate of plants grown in different soils.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students in grades 1-8 will learn some serious materials science–and hit several national science standards–by using everyday items to create and investigate the properties of Funny Putty.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity, students will investigate how the shape and volume of body forms affect heat loss.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will predict how high they can jump and then compare the height of their jumps to how high a rockhopper penguin can jump out of the water. They will practice mathematical skills for determining averages.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will observe an animal and design a training program that incorporates the observed behaviors. Students will record data over multiple times and days and base their plan on data collected.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes properties of items as hyrdophobic or hyrdophilic and how they work.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This text explores the possibility of creating a prosthesis (artificial limb) that can feel things.

Type: Text Resource

The article describes a new kind of solar energy which concentrates light waves from the sun.

Type: Text Resource

Students will learn about light energy including light waves with which the students will study shadows they make. They will also learn to relate certain forms of energy to real life scenarios by using illustrations. The students will learn how static electricity works and will even create some of their own in an experiment. They will also realize how light and heat energy are often involved in the same situations.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this lesson the students will learn about the adaptations of the opposum. They will also learn about some of the very extreme cases of adaptation. The students will be taught that sometimes whether or not an animal survives depends on the life cycle that the animal has.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

The students will experiment to see how circuits work. They will also study a closed circuit such as a lightbulb. The students will also learn about conductors and insulators.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

The students will conduct an experiment with water so they can see H2O in all three of its states of matter. The students will conduct another experiment to see the effects temperature has on the decomposition process of an organism. They will also learn how heat speeds up the molecules in an object causing it to become hot. Students will experiment to see the effects heat will have on calcium.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this series of six investigations, students will participate in activities that help them better understand the different factors that affect the solubility of solids, liquids, and gases. First, students will add sugar and food coloring to different liquids to discover that substances don't necessarily dissolve in all liquids. Students will then add cocoa mix to hot and cold water, and see that this solute dissolves better in hot water. However, the following teacher demonstration shows that increasing the temperature of water has very little effect on the solubility of salt. Students also experiment with the effect of temperature on carbon dioxide gas dissolved in water. Students should conclude that temperature affects the solubility of substances in different ways. As a culminating challenge, students use their knowledge of dissolving solids, liquids, and gases in water to create a fizzy lemon soda.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this unit, students will investigate M&Ms in water by posing questions, designing and conducting experiments to answer these questions, and developing explanations based on their observations. Students will investigate the effects of variables, such as temperature, on the rate at which the colored coating of M&Ms dissolves.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

The students will learn all about outer space in this lesson. They will make a model of a galaxy and learn the vocabulary that relates to this topic. The students will also learn how to classify a planet and describe its features. They will be taught about the Earth's position in the solar system as well as that of the other planets in our solar system. The students will also learn how to classify between the different objects that are in our solar system.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

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 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

This fun worksheet uses the popular Sponge Bob characters to help students learn characteristics of the process of science inquiry, specifically, the identification of variables. Other concepts and skills that are addressed include: developing a conclusion, the purpose of a control group, the placebo effect, the initial observation, and analyzing data charts.

Type: Worksheet