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K-2, 3-5 , 6-8, 9-12, or College
Found 30 resources:
Luminous
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Sam Smartt
Resource type:
- classroom activity
- Science Story
- video
Discipline:
- Space science
Time: 2-8 hours
Overview
The film LUMINOUS (now freely available through many libraries and the Kanopy platform) tells the story of astronomer Larry Molnar as he investigates a distant, double-star system, about which he makes a daring and explosive prediction. Interviews with Dr. Molnar’s diverse set of colleagues, collaborators, and skeptics highlight science as a community and intensely human endeavor, debunking the myth of the lone scientist conducting dispassionate research. The Luminous Science Education Toolkit provides classroom activities to support students' interpretation of the film.
Benjamin Franklin: STEM Activity Toolkit
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- PBS and WETA
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Physical Sciences
Time: 1-6 hours
Overview
Ken Burns’s four-hour documentary, Benjamin Franklin, explores the revolutionary life of one of the 18th century’s most consequential figures. This STEM Activity Toolkit frames the context of the film series, and provides guidance for viewers to engage in discussions and activities around science, technology, engineering, and math.
Comparing rocks
Grade Level(s):
- K-2
Source:
- Janulaw, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Learners will observe and sort samples of rocks and minerals to compare and contrast their physical properties. They will record their observations in Science Notebooks.
Clouds, Models, and Climate Change
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- MIT Climate Portal
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: up to 2 hours
Overview
How do clouds form? How are clouds affected by (and how do they affect) climate change? Students create a cloud in the classroom, and then investigate climate models and real-time cloud observation data.
Clipbirds
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one class period
Overview
In this activity, students simulate bird feeding with "beaks" that differ in size. The proportion of big-, medium-, and small-beaked birds changes in response to available types of food. This is a lesson on evolution, but suggestions on how to incorporate the nature and process of science are included.
Climate Models and Uncertainty
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- MIT Climate Portal
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: up to 2 hours
Overview
Earth's climate system is enormously complex, and scientists develop climate models to understand how climate change will play out in different parts of the world. Students play a climate resilience game, and then explore the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 5th Assessment Report to learn more about how climate scientists handle uncertainty in models.
Dogs and turnips
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
In this lesson students attempt to assemble a meaningful sentence by successively turning over cards with words on them. The point is made that we change our ideas of what a story may be as we gather more information.
Dino-Data
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
- Life Science
Time: 3-4 class periods
Overview
Students examine data about dinosaurs and hypothesize about what the data can tell them. Students modify their hypotheses as more information is revealed and review what they have learned about how science works.
Exploring liquids
Grade Level(s):
- K-2
Source:
- Janulaw, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Learners will use their senses to investigate and observe three liquids. They will see, hear, touch, smell and taste to collect data and to ask and answer questions.
How scientific is it?
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Students are given six knowledge statements and asked to rank them according to how scientific they feel the statements are. A group discussion ensues. This activity is adapted from Scharmann et al. 2005. Journal of Science Teacher Education.
Inventing Tomorrow: Water Module
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- WGBH
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 10-12 class periods
Overview
This module uses a film about student Sahithi Pingali, who investigates water quality in her hometown in Bangalore, as a jumping off point for students to expand their understanding of eutrophication and the process of science.
Inventing tomorrow: Air Module
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- WGBH
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 10-12 class periods
Overview
This module (on the right) uses a film about students José, Jesús, and Fernando, who investigate smog in their town in Mexico, as a jumping off point for students to expand their understanding of air pollution, global warming, and the process of science.
Introducing the Understanding Science Flowchart to middle school students
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 1-2 class periods
Overview
Students read a story about Walter Alvarez and then plot his scientific journey on the Understanding Science Flowchart. Students find that science is seldom a linear story.
Introducing the Understanding Science flowchart
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 90 minutes
Overview
Students participate in a quick activity and discuss whether they were doing science. They then read a story about Walter Alvarez, discuss the process of science, and trace his scientific journey using the Science Flowchart.
Poking around
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- Stefanski, Mark
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: One to two class periods
Overview
Students are introduced to the process of scientific inquiry as they develop an approach to determine the shape and size of an unseen object.
Number patterns
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: 15-20 minutes
Overview
Students try to discover the relationship among six numbers. The objective of this activity is to engage students in a problem-solving situation in which they practice aspects of the process of science.
Newton’s 2nd law: Inquiry approach
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- Tung, Cecilia
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
Time: One to two class periods
Overview
Students act as colleagues of Isaac Newton. Students focus on how to design a procedure to test Newton's hypothesis and then communicate that idea to others. The emphasis is on the process rather than the actual results.
Mystery tubes
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: One class period
Overview
Students are asked to determine what the interior construction of the mystery tube looks like. Working in groups, students pose explanations for what they are observing and test their ideas.
Mystery boxes for grades 3-5
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
Source:
- Janulaw, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: One class period
Overview
Working in groups, students pose explanations (hypotheses) for what they are observing and are asked to test their hypotheses. These procedures have been modified from Mystery Boxes: Uncertainty and Collaboration by Jean Beard.
Xenosmilus
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
- 6-8
- 9-12
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One class period
Overview
In this lesson, students play the roles of paleontologists on a dig. They "unearth" a few fossils at a time and attempt to reconstruct the animal the fossils represent.
What do you think it means to be human?
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: 50 minutes
Overview
This first lesson of the "What does it mean to be human?" sequence sets a scientific frame of mind for students as they begin to explore the question, "What do you think it means to be human?" This lesson sets an important tone by highlighting that other lines of human inquiry outside of science are important for answering this question on a personal level, but the class will focus on a scientific definition of "humanity." Students learn to distinguish questions that could be addressed by the methods of science and those that could not, and they practice applying these criteria.
Watching animals move
Grade Level(s):
- K-2
Source:
- Janulaw, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Earth science
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Learners will identify the way animals move and the body parts used to move by observing animals, their body parts and their movements.
Umbrellaology
Grade Level(s):
- College
Source:
- Johnston, Adam
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: 30 minutes plus
Overview
Based on a classic philosophical exercise (Somerville, 1941), students are asked to read a letter that describes detailed data collected on umbrellas. Their task is to determine whether or not umbrellaology represents science.
A science prototype: Rutherford and the atom
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- UC Museum of Paleontology
Resource type:
- classroom activity
- Science Story
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
Time: 30 minutes
Overview
Have your students read the full article on Rutherford's investigations of the atom and compare it to the Science Checklist in order to explore the key traits that make science science. Get more tips on using Science Stories in class.
Traveling through different liquids
Grade Level(s):
- K-2
Source:
- Janulaw, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
Time: 40 minutes
Overview
Learners will observe and record what happens when they manipulate bottles containing one liquid and an object. They will compare bottles that have an object and different liquids. They will observe and record what happens when they manipulate bottles containing one liquid and more than one object.
The Hobbit: When scientists disagree about the evidence
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- Visionlearning
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: One class period
Overview
This classroom activity, adapted from an exercise on PBS's NOVA website, provides an excellent example of an active debate within the scientific community regarding a relatively recent human fossil find, Homo floresiensis.
The checks lab
Grade Level(s):
- 9-12
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: One class period
Overview
Students construct plausible scenarios to explain a series of canceled bank checks. They revise their original hypotheses with new evidence and learn how human values and biases influence observation and interpretation.
The great fossil find
Grade Level(s):
- 6-8
- 9-12
- College
Source:
- ENSI
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Life Science
Time: one class period
Overview
Students are taken on an imaginary fossil hunt and form hypotheses about the identity of the creature they discover. Students revise their hypotheses as new evidence is found.
Tennis shoe detectives
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
Source:
- Heindel, Sharon
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Time: Two 40-minute periods
Overview
Students make observations, examine data, and form hypotheses about a set of footprints and what they can tell us.
Sensing Energy
Grade Level(s):
- 3-5
Source:
- AAAS Science NetLinks
Resource type:
- classroom activity
Discipline:
- Physical Sciences
- Space science
Time: Two 45-min class periods
Overview
Students perform simple experiments using UV detection beads to explore unseen energy produced by the sun.
