How can a sound make something move? In this unit, students develop ideas related to how sounds are produced, how they travel through media, and how they affect objects at a distance. Their investigations are motivated by trying to account for a perplexing anchoring phenomenon — a truck is playing loud music in a parking lot and the windows of a building across the parking lot visibly shake in response to the music.

OpenSciEd content is highly rated in EdReports and is aligned to NGSS standards.

Great site to discover all about the Alaskan Highway and why it was built during World War II. View a video, read a timeline, see a map, and much more.

Students explore the interface between architecture and engineering. In the associated hands-on activity, students act as both architects and engineers by designing and building a small parking garage.

What do students love more than building? Building with marshmallows! In this lesson, students get to build shapes with marshmallows and toothpicks. Included are an extensive lesson plan, a video showing examples, a worksheet, and ideas for centers.

Students will be able to use strategies to solve real-world problems involving area and perimeter.

The Grand Canyon is an excellent model for learning about Earth's rock formations. Students will look at fossils and the differences in layers to understand how the Earth changed over time. Resources included are detailed instructions and pictures of the student's models.

Students construct bird nests and birdhouses. They research birds of their choosing and then design houses that meet the birds' specific needs. It works well to conduct this activity in conjunction with a grades 9-12 woodshop class by partnering the older students with the younger students (but it is not required to do this in order to conduct the activity).

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast shows how the 34 steps in their Rube Goldberg invention use everything from gravity to carbon dioxide gas in order to accomplish one simple task: pouring a glass of milk.

In this video segment from ZOOM, Jillian explains how her simple machine uses marbles, levers, flowing sand, and a spinning wheel to water a plant.

In this video segment from PEEP and the Big Wide World, children make a dam with dirt, sticks, and stones to try to stop the flow of water.

Recall the definitions of four different sets of numbers. This interactive illustration focuses on displaying counting numbers, integers, rational numbers, and real numbers on a number line, providing the opportunity to visualize number sets in multiple ways.

How do you build a tunnel 32 miles long--under water? This video segment, adapted from the PBS series "Building Big," follows the construction of the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed "Chunnel"), the engineering wonder that connects England to France. [5:01]

How do you build a tunnel 32 miles long -- under water? This video segment adapted from Building Big, follows the construction of the Channel Tunnel (nicknamed "Chunnel"), the engineering wonder that connects England to France.

Interesting article from Canadaone.com that outlines the author's seven C's of effective writing. Each of the concepts (all beginning with the letter "C") includes an explanation that demonstrates why the concept is important to the student.

We design and create objects to make our lives easier and more comfortable. The houses in which we live are excellent examples of this. Depending on your local climate, the features of your house have been designed to satisfy your particular environmental needs: protection from hot, cold, windy and/or rainy weather. In this activity, students design and build model houses, then test them against various climate elements, and then re-design and improve them. Using books, websites and photos, students learn about the different types of roofs found on various houses in different environments throughout the world.

Students learn to use pattern blocks to build a two dimensional design, and use the calculator to determine the value of the design.

Students learn about factors that engineers take into consideration when designing buildings for earthquake-prone regions. Using online resources and simulations available through the Earthquakes Living Lab, students explore the consequences of subsurface ground type and building height on seismic destruction. Working in pairs, students think like engineers to apply what they have learned to sketches of their own building designs intended to withstand strong-magnitude earthquakes. A worksheet serves as a student guide for the activity.

An animated website about the excavations and artifacts found in the archeological digs of the Mound building Indians in the ancient Ohio Valley. Included are lesson plans for grades 4-12.

Students learn about water erosion through an experimental process in which small-scale buildings are placed along a simulated riverbank to experience a range of flooding conditions. They learn how soil conditions are important to the stability or failure of civil engineering projects and how a river's turns and bends (curvature, sinuosity) make a difference in the likelihood of erosion. They make model buildings either with a 3D printer or with LEGO® pieces and then see how their designs and riverbank placements are impacted by slow (laminar) and fast (turbulent) water flow over the soil. Students make predictions, observations and conclusions about the stability of their model houses, and develop ideas for how to mitigate damage in civil engineering projects.

Begin building a better vocabulary through this comprehensive lesson plan with vocabulary games. L.11-12. 6 Vocabulary