STEM Lesson Plans

This lesson serves as visual example of the concept of exponents and how scientific notation is utilized in science. Additionally, students will utilize scientific notation to measure distance of

Water Troughs on the Rez is a lesson plan to help students understand the mathematical perspective of everyday items around our homes on the reservation. Students are to share different types of water

This lesson combines math, science and art in a sparkling and engaging activity. Student will learn about rock classifications and draw an example using geometry. Students will gain an understanding

Students will explore bird habitats and research how natural and human-caused changes to habitats or climate can impact populations. They will participate in an engineering design challenge to model a

Students design and engineer a paper backpack to hold all the supplies swallowed by the well-loved old lady in "There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed Some Books". They follow the engineering design

In this lesson, students use the Kepler’s Laws PhET Simulation to collect data on the period and average radius of the planetary orbits. They graph and analyze that data to derive Kepler’s 3rd Law.

This lesson uses a PhET Simulation to allow students to collect data on the orbits of planets around our Sun, then summarize and share their results. It is designed for students in Grades 9-12.

This is a multi-day engineering design project. I use this for 2 weeks, a total of ten 50-minute periods. Students will research and design a dog house, creating a 3D model in a web-based computer

Students will explore how gravity plays a role in orbits and the attraction between objects in space, using online simulations. In addition to the online simulations this lesson contains ideas for

The students construct and interpret an HR Diagram to better understand the significance and usefulness of the diagram.

This is a high-school level hands-on project that allows students to build their own working sundial, make predictions and assess their accuracy. This lesson ties in with the study of Kepler's Laws.

Students design and create a sculpture out of recycled materials and then calculate the surface area and volume of the sculpture that they created. They will then utilize the surface area to try and

In this lesson, students will learn about Wilson Bentley, the "farmer scientist" who pioneered photomicrography to photograph snowflakes and share them with the world. Students will then design and

Students will gain an appreciation of M.C. Escher's tessellation artwork and process and be inspired to create their own tessellation.This lesson combines math, art and technology by using an

In this lesson series, students will explore the process of photosynthesis by collecting data through measurements. Student previously engaged with an experimental lab setup for gas collection, and

In this unit, students will use their knowledge of weather and climate patterns to construct, place, and collect data from a rain gauge for one month. The beginning of the school year would be the

Students learn about the Colorado River watershed and the impact of water rights and usage. They will read about the past and present water flow data, build a model of the watershed, calculate data

Explore how cells can only be so big by studying how things move in and out of them, and discover why the size of a cell is connected to its surface area and volume.

This is a hands-on, collaborative lesson that allows the students to include art and presentation skills in the project. The students research various aspects of a selected planet and then presents

Engineers create and use new materials, as well as new combinations of existing materials to design innovative new products and technologies—all based upon the chemical and physical properties of

Students will use geometric reasoning and the engineering design process to construct solar ovens while learning about renewable energy.

Students are learning to construct a tetrahedron kite using basic materials, understand geometric concepts related to the tetrahedron shape, and learn about basic principles of aerodynamics.

Students create a city and a plan for a route for a Thanksgiving parade with floats coded by robots. The students build the buildings along the parade route using area or addition/subtraction houses

This lesson is an activity to see what an angle is and how is can be used to approximate the time of day or even navigating vessels by measuring other celestial bodies. Students will use sextants to