In this lesson students are introduced to the idea that DNA is the code to create proteins and that proteins can be structural or functional. Students are given a problem to create a model of a
A Shocking Dystopia: STEM Adventures in The City of Ember Part 4 of 4: Where the River Goes
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”
A Shocking Dystopia: STEM Adventures in The City of Ember Part 3 of 4: A Problem in the Greenhouse
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”
A Shocking Dystopia: STEM Adventures in The City of Ember Part 2 of 4: A Way to See in the Dark
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”
A Shocking Dystopia: STEM Adventures in The City of Ember Part 1 of 4: Blackout! Community Circuits
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”
This lesson is a 3-4 day lesson on Public Service Announcements for reusing commonly discarded item versus trashing them. The lessons include the power of a Public Service Announcement, components to
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
In this lesson students will use their climate zone and plant information to create a model of a garden. They will use a variety of charts and graphs to determine what plants will grow best given the
This is the first of 4 lessons where students will propose and configure a school garden using criteria given by the principal. Students will work in groups of 3 to determine configurations. They will
Students will use an understanding of the sun as an energy and heat source to design a device to direct the sun's heat to aid with growing plants. The students will go through the 5 E's and the
In this lesson, students work with an assigned customer to create a 3D-printed nameplate. Working through the steps of the engineering design process, students use a 3D modeling software, Tinkercad
This lesson teaches students how and why it rains. They will have student-to-student interactions and hands-on learning opportunities. They will also be practicing their counting skills during the
In this lesson plan, students will be able to build a simple electric motor and study how simple changes affect the motor's rotation. They will learn how energy comes in many forms, and how electric
Students will be able to collaboratively build, and program a simple robot using Lego Spike Prime kits. Students will demonstrate basic skills in robotics and coding by successfully constructing their
By the end of this lesson, students will understand the unique adaptations of desert tortoises and the importance of conserving their habitat. Students also engineer a habitat for the desert tortoise.
Student teams design insulated beverage cups with the challenge to test them to determine which material works best as an insulator to keep a hot beverage warm for as long as possible. Students test
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
The Parachute design lesson involves students learning about the engineering design process, air resistance, and parachute principles before planning and constructing their own parachutes. Through
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
In this lesson, students cover concepts like states of matter and chemical changes. Students will apply these concepts to an activity where they will make fake snow. Students will be challenged to
Students will use science skills to engineer habitats for polar regions as they learn about the polar regions through hands on experiences.
Today students will continue their studies of simple block programming with the use of the Edison robot. Students will start using the barcode and then transition into block coding using Edscratch
Students in 4th grade learned about natural disasters through this interactive STEM lesson focused on the creation on a 'tsunami-proof' home. Students used the Engineering Design Process to create a
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Design a Course with Friction

