This is a guided inquiry discussion to introduce machines and to identify types of simple machines

In this hands-on inquiry activity, students will design and construct an apparatus that will permit an egg to survive a nine foot fall. Students are given limited materials, so they must critically think about the design and improvise strategies during the building of the apparatus

This activity is a indoor lab where students investigate the current differences in different circuits where students build a small house and construct different types of circuits.

This is an exploratory activity involving matter and density. There are many assessment pieces including a laboratory.

This guided inquiry activity helps students differentiate between heat and temperature and goes on to relate specific heat to thermal conductivity.

Students use media resources and an in-class investigation to explore the types of energy within different types of systems. They also use the formulas for kinetic and potential energy to examine the path of a projectile.

This activity is an activity where students build a motor, learn motor operation and theory, interpret their understanding through troubleshooting, and develop a new, experimental question related to the motor. One follow-up activity would be coupling their motor to a fan blade or other axle to convert electrical energy to magnetic energy into mechanical motion for real world application.

This physics lab activity is an introduction to Simple Harmonic Motion, utilizing the variables of mass, length, and angular displacement to determine their effect on period. Acceleration of gravity is calculated and the results of manual data collection and Vernier LabPro data collection are compared.

In this interactive activity from ChemThink, learn how ionic bonds are formed and how an ionic bond structure is represented by its formula.

This activity lends itself well to the review and repetition of previous topics and skills. The multi-faceted learning (and display of learning) is an excellent manner of getting the students to think about what they are doing and how they are answering.

This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based activities and two environmental STEM challenge activities have been field-tested by kindergarten students and families of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science during Safer At Home orders. These activities encourage students to use natural areas around their homes and in their neigbhorhoods as they improve their science observation and reasoning skils as they explore the science of pushes and pulls in nature. The materials used are ones generally available at home and the activites require little preparation on the part of caregivers. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school (as well as those of the students' homes).  Each section of this resource is an individual activity. While each activity builds on the previous ones, it is possible to use them individually.The title image was used with permission and is courtesy of Joe Riederer.

Light painting is a creative activity that involves creating striking images and illusions using a camera, a light source, and a little practice. Light paintings may be literal representations or impressionistic, color-filled images. When the camera shutter is open (and the room is dark) the film or digital sensor acts like a blank canvas onto which learners "paint" with a flashlight.

In this math meets engineering activity, learners make paper airplanes and explore attributes related to increasing flight distances. Each learner collects data from three flights of the airplane and finds the median distance. Learners then collect, organize, display, and interpret the median distances for the group in a stem-and-leaf plot. This lesson guide includes questions for learners, assessment options, extensions, and reflection questions.

This video from KET traces the energy transformations that occur when coal is burned to produce electricity. Some of the mechanical processes are also described.

This video adapted from NASA explains how a magnetometer determines magnetic fields around planets.

A realistic mass and spring laboratory. Hang masses from springs and adjust the spring stiffness and damping. You can even slow time. Transport the lab to different planets. A chart shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.

This is an indoor lab that uses a boat simulation to demonstrate the concepts of mass, volume and density, and their relationship to displacement. It is a problem solving activity that encourages student creativity resulting in a variety of valid solutions.

Learn about an important physics experiment that uses an invention that manipulates light in this interactive activity adapted from NASA.

In this math lesson, learners use two colors of beads to form two different percent mixes, and then form a final mix using scoops from the two mixes. From this, learners will develop and use a formula to determine the final percent mix from two source mixtures. This lesson guide includes questions for learners, assessment options, extensions, and reflection questions.

Molecular Workbench is a FREE and OPEN SOURCE, downloadable software utilizing Visual, Interactive Simulations for Teaching & Learning Science.
A typical MW module is a comprehensive learning package consisting of a series of scaffolded pages that contain text, simulations, tools, controls, graphs, navigation links, and embedded assessments. The user interfaces of simulations in MW can be customized for students of different levels (grades 6-16). This unique feature enables it to support a wide range of instructional strategies such as inquiry-based, discovery-based, and problem-based learning. (For Windows, OSX. Must have Java)