Science Lesson Plans

• Beach Erosion - The student will be able to use material available on the internet to plot changes to America's coastline over the past century.
• Caboodle Bags for Science - TLW construct rules for sorting based on similarities of objects.
• Candy Lights - This is a quick and easy experiment that can be used to introduce a unit on chemical bonds or light. Students will be fascinated with the reaction that happens when they chew wintergreen Lifesavers in the dark.
• Classroom Amusement Park - The student will be able to create a ride you find at the amusement park and explain the laws of physics that it follows.
• Food as Batteries - Anytime food is involved in an experiment, students pay attention. In this lesson students will use various fruits to try to create enough energy to light a light bulb.
• Getting Rid of Germs - This is a good activity to do in the winter when students spend a lot of time indoors. It shows how easily viruses like the common cold can be passed. Be prepared though because getting rid of all the glitter afterward will take awhile!

1. Growing Bacteria - Bacteria grow all around us. Learning about it can be fun and fascinating. In this lesson students will observe the growth of bacteria over a week's period.
2. How Fast Does It Fall - The student will be able to determine how fast objects of different weights fall when they are dropped from the same height.
3. How Full Can You Go? - The student will be able to fill a graduated cylinder to the top without it overflowing using three different measuring cups and/or spoons.
4. Hubble Telescope - The Hubble telescope has provided us with many amazing images of our universe. There is always debate among scientists, politicians, and others over the money spent on continuing to search the universe with such an expensive telescope. This activity draws your students into that debate and asks them to choose a side and defend it. Debates done well can be a lot of fun, so encourage your students to relax and enjoy each other's points of view.
5. Hydrogen Peroxide and Potatoes - Watching hydrogen peroxide foam when it comes in contact with certain materials is fascinating. But, does it always react that way and why? This lesson allows students to experiment and find out.
6. Insect Hunt - The student will be able to describe what an insect they find looks like and what it is doing.
7. Introduction to Classifying - The student will be able to sort assorted items by at least three characteristics.
8. Keeping It Cold - Students learn a lot by trial and error. In this lesson students will try to be the ones to keep a popsicle frozen the longest. This is a good activity to do outside on a hot day. Just make sure you pack extra ice pops for the students to eat!
9. Liquid or Solid or Neither - This experiment is a childhood favorite. Mixing cornstarch and water together creates a substance that seems to be both a solid and a liquid. Students enjoy rolling it into a ball and then watching it run through their fingers when they stop.
10. Making a Food Pyramid - It is important that students begin to understand about healthy eating at a young age. This lesson will provide students with a tactile and visual way to remember the food pyramid.
11. Making Crystals - Making crystals is fun and easy. Students will enjoy watching their crystals form as they note the changes they see in a daily journal.
12. Moon Craters - Most craters on the moon are made when a meteorite hits the surface. In this lesson students will make craters using small round objects dropped into powder. They will be able to study the way the craters look and how big they are in relation to the size of the object.
13. Shadows - The student will be able to track the change of a shadow by tracing the outline of it at three different times during the day.
14. Using a Ramp - The student will be able to compare two ramps to find out which one allows a vehicle to roll the farthest.
15. Using Our Senses - In this fun lesson, students use their senses of touch and smell to try to figure out what objects are hidden inside boxes. They can work together as a team to brainstorm descriptive words and record them on a worksheet. This will help build their vocabulary and might spark some debate over just what is in those boxes!

Science Lesson Plans From Other Web Sites

1. BrainPop-A powerful site for both students and teachers! Provides short multimedia movies on health, science, and technology. A must see for all science teachers!
2. Frank Potter's Science Gems- Science Resources are sorted by Category.
3. Hands-on-Plastics- An engaging unit for teaching about plastics.
4. High School Science Resource Center- This web site is for science teachers to share ideas.
5. Science Gateway- Over 100 lessons sorted by topic and grade level.
6. Science and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement-There are currently almost 800 lesson plans available for physics, Biology, and Chemistry.
7. The Great Plant Escape- An online lesson for learning about the plant kingdom.
8. The Science Spot- Offers lesson plans, activities, and project ideas for middle school science educators aligned to the Illinois Learning Standards.