STEM Lesson Plans

This lesson introduces students to TinkerCAD and has them create simple shapes that measure at a given ratio. The students then print and measure their design to see how close they were able to get to

In this engaging lesson, students explore the forces of flight and use the Engineering Design Process to improve the flight times and distance traveled with a paper airplane. Resources are included

Students get to investigate how energy transfers using different phenomena. They practice using a Colorado PhET simulation on the differences between potential and kinetic energy. Students will

Students will understand the concept of levers as simple machines and will identify and classify everyday objects as levers. Students will apply basic mathematical concepts to measure and compare the

In this lesson designed for 7th grade, students will explore increasing and decreasing magnetic field of electromagnets by changing the iron core, wire gauge, or wire coils to determine which variable

The investigation focuses on exploring the impact of hose length on water flow rate in a solar-powered pump system. Students will set up a simple experiment using a solar pump connected to hoses of

Students discover kite-making in this hands-on lesson! They create a kite with a variety of materials and test out the final product. This lesson can be adapted to fit different grade levels.

In this lesson students will discover harmful effects and chemical makeups of artificial ingredients, specifically food coloring and red dyes. Students will experiment with and demonstrate capillary

Students will create dot plots (both physically and using technology) to represent class data, determine important statistics, and interpret those statistics in context.

This is a continuation lesson in which we compare student data to the previous day's data using GeoGebra to help us generate dot plots and calculate statistics.

James and the Giant Peach is a wonderful fantasy novel but what if the peach, the insects and James were right in front of our eyes? What would they look like when they've been turned into giant

This lesson explores the concept of density. Students will observe a phenomenon involving floating and sinking. They will design their own investigations and they will learn how to use the density

This hands-on lesson helps students understand the properties of 3D solids from their 2D base shapes and teaches them how to use CAD software to build their own 3D models of real-world objects by

This hands-on lesson helps students understand exponential functions by using an LED circuit. LED luminosity decreases at an exponential rate as more are added in series. As students add more lights

This lesson is an introduction to a unit on the light and transverse waves. It can be utilized during a unit or at the beginning as an exploration. Students m easure the speed of light in a medium

This is a fun unit that will discuss drones and gives students the opportunity to build an obstacle course to fly the drones through.

In this project, 8th-grade students will engage in hands-on exploration of elastic potential energy and its conversion to kinetic energy using small catapults. Through experimentation and data

In this hands-on engineering and science project, students will become earthquake engineers tasked with designing and constructing earthquake-proof structures using toothpicks and mini marshmallows

In this engaging lesson, students research ramp usage as a class, identify the problem of Dash Dot vs stairs, design a ramp for a Dash Dot, and test the ramp while making connections to literature and

This STEAM lesson is ideal for Tucson/Pima County Middle School Students who can participate in the annual KIDStruction building contest but you can also duplicate many of the learning opportunities

Students are introduced to the current teams and given a brief history of their mascots. Then students research potential areas for an expansion team to start a new team (I do not limit them to just

Students will create a "football" to practice kicking accuracy. They will collect data and create a graph showing their results. After students will learn about a kicker's role in the NFL, what a

In this engaging lesson, students discover what a volcano is and what causes it to erupt. There is a literacy integration, video resources, and other helpful information included.