STEM Lesson Plans

This lesson is designed for students to conduct research in teams to create the best catapult that can launch a mini dog bone the farthest. Students use the engineering design process to create their

This lesson is intended to be the second lesson within a series. After the first lesson, exploring the transfer of power within a system, Students utilize this lesson, lesson 2, to explain how and

Using the engineering design process, students will identify a structural or spatial problem on their school campus and then plan, design, evaluate and redesign a structural and spatial solution while

In this engaging lesson, students will use cams to practice data collection and graphing skills. A variety of resources are built into this lesson including a slow reveal graph with directions, videos

With this lesson, students learn how to do simple macroinvertebrates sampling and identification using common resources to determine the environmental health status of perennial streams in Arizona

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

Students will learn about the difference between potential and kinetic energy by building a ramp. Three objects will be tested down the ramp to see which one can go the farthest. Data will be

After completing a unit on weather, students will be challenged to research, design, construct and attach a snow plow to their Edison robot. Then they will create a scratch code that will navigate

This lesson introduces the students to what are antibiotics, how they work, and why they are important. At the same time, it also talks about how an organism becomes antibiotic resistant. The students

Predicting the pH of an experiment - this is a more of an advanced lab for students that have lab experience or can be used as a demonstration by the teacher. Calculating Molarity. Great pre-lesson to

This is the second part of this unit on the duff layer in a forest. After learning after duff and its potential impact on forest fires in the last lesson, students will be following the engineering

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.

In this lesson students will use everything they've done in parts 1-3 to analyze how mutations affect proteins. Students will build the mutated proteins that they sequenced in part 3. They will test

In this lesson, students will be introduced to mutations in DNA. They will create beaded or illustrated "codes" to represent 5 different mutations to their original protein codes. These codes will be

In this lesson students will continue to learn about protein synthesis. At the beginning of this lesson students should know that genes have the code to make proteins. Today they will be introduced to

This lesson gives students a hands-on science and math experience with the duff layer in a ponderosa pine forest. Students will explore a sample to identify what is found in it, measure the width of

This lesson is PART 4 of a four-lesson unit, which focuses on futures thinking, the phenomenon of electricity, closed-system agriculture, and water as a renewable energy resource. “The City of Ember”

This lesson is PART 3 of a four-lesson unit, which focuses on futures thinking, the phenomenon of electricity, closed-system agriculture, and water as a renewable energy resource. “The City of Ember”

This lesson is PART 2 of a four-lesson unit, which focuses on futures thinking, the phenomenon of electricity, closed-system agriculture, and water as a renewable energy resource. “The City of Ember”

This lesson is PART 1 of a four-lesson unit, which focuses on futures thinking, the phenomenon of electricity, closed-system agriculture, and water as a renewable energy resource. “The City of Ember”

Students have the opportunity explore different materials that use nanotechnology and then discuss the key differences between macroscale and nanoscale impacts on those materials.

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