Students make a skydiver and parachute contraption to demonstrate how drag caused by air resistance slows the descent of skydivers as they travel back to Earth. Gravity pulls the skydiver toward the Earth, while the air trapped by the parachute provides an upward resisting force (drag) on the skydiver.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will have the opportunity to work in groups and investigate the effects of an “oil spill” in a water body. In a simulated “ocean” (a pan of water), students will drop a small amount of oil into the water and see the effects and interaction. In an introduction to the workshop, students discuss sources of pollution and oil contamination in water bodies – from point sources (tanker spills) and non-point sources (vehicle run-off). A brief discussion on preventing and cleaning up oil contamination will lead into the activity, in which the students will use a variety of materials to see what method works best for recovering the most oil from the water.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Literature Based STEM - Book List & Corresponding Activities: Looking for grab-and-go elementary STEM lessons? Looking for a read-aloud to hook an existing STEM lesson? Trying to build a STEM library? Search the spreadsheet by titles, authors, big ideas, themes, and lessons. Whether you are a STEM specialist or a classroom teacher, these lessons will work for you.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Reading
In this unit, students will learn about the 4Cs (communication, collaboration, creation, and critical thinking) through literature-based engineering challenges. Each lesson focuses on one "C" and one read-aloud. This unit is geared for grades 2-3 but could be adapted to any elementary grade level. COMMUNICATION - Click Clack Moo COLLABORATION - Iggy Peck Architect CRITICAL THINKING - Rosie Revere Engineer CREATION - Galimoto
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Ligers exist! But, why does a liger look like a mystical creature? Students will design a simulated genetically engineered animal for a biotechnology engineering firm, which creates newanimals.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
--In this activity student will create an amusement park ride out of KNEX that displays a certain type of motion. They will describe their ride. They will then place it in the correct spot on the map by writing the name of it on the worksheet. After all groups have their rides labeled on the map- students should fill in the lines section of the worksheet- identifying parallel, perpendicular and intersecting lines.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This project is meant to be cross-curricular, requiring students to utilize many instructional skills to complete each step. Such skills will include number sense to one million, addition and subtraction to one million, area/perimeter/scaling, 3-D design, and writing/advertising. The project could be completed in sequential order, completed as isolated projects or hand selected for which components are used in your classroom.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Lesson, Module
Design a container that will allow your tea to float on the high seas!
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This 5th grade unit will take about 8 weeks, 25.5 hours to complete. Students plan and carry out an original investigation in which they observe the effect of different types of matter on the growth of plants. They create their own observable question with prompting such as: “What type of matter do you think will affect plants’ growth?” or “Do you think the amount of a particular type of matter will affect how the plant grows?” They observe their experiment over a period of seven days (or longer if time allows). At the conclusion of the investigation, students use their data to explain how plants convert matter (gas and liquid) into plant matter.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will use an inquiry based approach to discover and reinforce how things move. They will discover that a push and a pull are a pair of forces that put things into motion. They will also investigate how friction is a force that slows an object in motion.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource is a collection of monthly at-home STEAM challenges that students in Grades K-6 can compete using objects found around the house.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Homework/Assignment
Students will use the Design Process to build and test multiple wind turbine designs in order to generate electricity.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
What kiddo doesn't want to launch something across the room?! In this challenge, students work to launch an alien the greatest distance using everyday materials. This is a challenge that can easily be adapted to different age groups and a variety of circumstances such as needing substitute plans or just beginning the wonderful world of STEM.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This STEM challenge can be used during an air unit. Students are able to find ways to best minimize air resistance. The students are trying to develop a paper airplane that will go the farthest in the class competition.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This is a STEM unit that can be used in conjunction with ITEEA EbD TEEMS Grade 2 Our Environment, Our Health Unit. Teachers might want to use this STEM Unit with environmental units and Earth Day. Students learn about their positive and negative impact on their environment. Students learn that they can have a positive impact on their environment when they use the 4 R’s: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Redesign process.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This STEM challenge can be used during an air unit. Students work together in groups to create a parachute for a lego person. Students are able to find ways to best maximize air resistance. The students need to find the best way to increase the time that the lego person stays in the air when dropped from the second floor to the first floor.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
This activity is designed to support a variety of STEM concepts: scientific method, making predictions, gathering and analyzing data, and developing conclusions based on experimentation. This activity draws on active student engagement, and is useful in many STEM content areas.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, students will use their knowledge of area and perimeter to create a racetrack. Once they have the correct specifications they will guide their car through the track using the properties of magnets.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This lesson plan uses Ozobots and their color code commands coding to review Geometry concepts.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will create a route for their ozobot to travel using parallel, perpendicular and intersecting lines. They will also create a "trap" to catch a turkey, or other animal, on the route.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
