Curated STEM Resources for Teaching Science Units

By Amy Cowen on August 22, 2023 3:00 PM

Teaching Science Units with Science Buddies

Discover STEM Lessons for Your K-12 Classroom

What are you teaching this week? Next week? Next month?

Mixtures and solutions? Types of energy? States of matter? Forces of motion? Biodiversity? Newton's laws of motion? Health and human body systems? Magnetism or electromagnetism? Density?

We know educators spend a lot of time searching for quality lessons to fit their curriculum needs each year. Not only do you want quality materials that align with your class objectives, but you want materials that are easy to use, thoughtfully designed and prepared, and help bring concepts to life with hands-on experiments and activities that really work.

Science Buddies offers all of this for free!

Planning for a Year of STEM

No matter what curriculum boxes need to be checked off in the school year, science educators often cycle through a series of important science concepts, principles, and laws.

To make it even easier to find free STEM lessons and activities that fit your teaching needs, we've created a series of Teaching Science Units posts that focus on commonly taught science topics. Each resource in this series offers a curated set of lessons, activities, and experiments that are hand-picked for educators who will be teaching specific subjects.

For other calendar-based STEM connections, see our STEM Calendar for Educators: Month by Month STEM.

Our current Teaching Science Units STEM resource collections are listed below:

Image of homemade bird feeder, shoebox habitat, and student making species map to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about biodiversity

Three experiment images to respresent a collection of chemical reaction activities, slime, invisible ink, and glasses of foaming solution

Light-up glove wearable circuit, environmental monitoring circuit, and copper tape paper circuit to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about magnetism

An electric play dough creation with many lit LEDs, a homemade electroscope in a jar, and a small breadboard with multiplet lit LEDs to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about electricity

Simple motor, strength of an electromagnet and paper speaker to represent Teach About Electromagnetism collection of STEM resources

Mini popsicle stick catapult, basketball held up, and toy car with straw bumper system to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about energy

Paper roller coaster, balloon car, and parachute activity to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about forces of motion

Images of candy DNA, bowl of candies and dice, and alien babies activity to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about genetics and heredity

Tongue dyed blue to count papillae, blood flow model, and student doing an eye activity that results in an optical illusion to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about the Human Body and Its Systems

Paperclips on a magnet, a homemade maglev train, and a simple compass to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about magnetism

Slushy mixture, brazil nut effect, and oobleck to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about the chemistry of mixtures

Hydroponics planters, paper plate with parts of a flower, and a multi-color carnation

Paper airplane launcher, paper roller coaster, balloon car, and mini trebuchet to represent collection of activities and lessons about potential and kinetic energy

Images of Artbot, Advanced Bristlebot, Bluebot, and Vibrobot robots to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about robotics

Pocket solar system, play dough models of planets, and pool ball and marbles on a large piece of fabric to explore gravity to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about the solar system

Cardboard tube kazoo, bowl covered in plastic wrap with sprinkles on top, and rubber band guitar from recycled box to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about sound

Homeade thermometer, melting ice, and Boyle's law experiment to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about states of matter

Solar updraft tower, cooler, and solar oven to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about thermal and heat science

$Shadows on a wall from mixing colored light, a mirror maze, and a refraction activity with a jar to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about light$

Water cycle models in plastic bag and plastic container and model river bed in aluminum pan to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about the water cycle

Water cycle model in a plastic bag, homemade thermometer, and anemometer made from small cups to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about weather

Images of an invented insect, bird feet, and a camouflage experiment with colorful candies to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about animal science and zoology

Image of density column, bottle centrigure, and underwater fireworks experiment to represent collection of STEM lessons and activities to teach about density

Balloon car, egg drop device, and parachute for experiments and lessons to teach about Newton's Laws of Motion

A homemade balloon car from a plastic bottle with recycled bottle cap wheels / Car Science Projects

A simple lever made from a ruler and a pencil, shown balancing coins / Simple Machines Science Projects and Lessons

Teaching Science Units Collections — Life Sciences and Physical Science

Life Sciences

Physical Science

STEM Education Materials You Can Trust

With a combination of more than 200 NGSS-aligned Lesson Plans and more than 450 STEM Activities that are perfect for classroom use, we have engaging, high-interest, scientist-authored learning materials in a wide range of topic areas and for all grade levels.

Our extensive library of resources for STEM education makes us a trusted, go-to resource for many educators.

Bookmark This Page!

Bookmark this page for easy access to the Teaching Science Units collections. You can also browse these collections.

Thank You to Our Sponsors

Development and maintenance of these educator resource collections tied to K-12 science curriculum is made possible by generous support from our sponsors.

If there are other topics you would like to see us create lists for, please let us know!