Science Buddies Blog (35 results)

What can students learn about viruses, virus mutation, vaccines, and the human immune system from this year's flu season? A free Lesson Plan for a middle school classroom activity helps teachers lead STEM exploration with real-world connections. Two heatmaps show a difference between reported flu cases in the United States between 2017 and 2018. The bottom map shows 8 states colored red to represent high influenza activity levels during the 2016-2017 flu season,… Read more

New Lesson Plan uses a simple taste test to help students understand genetic mutation firsthand. Not everyone will detect the taste of phenylthiocarbamide (PTC). What does this mean and what can students learn about genetics from investigating the results of a taste test? Have students sort themselves into taster and non-taster groups to begin the process of finding out! How Gene Mutations Change Your Ability to Taste: Free educator lesson plan for classroom… Read more

How far can a science project take you? Maybe to another dimension! That's the story in Alternate Universe: A Rescue Mission, a movie from Fresh Films about a pair of orphaned sisters who use a school science project to open a wormhole to another world. Pair the movie with a hands-on classroom activity from Science Buddies (and maybe some popcorn) for an out-of-this-world day in science class. "By Einstein's hair!" That's what you might hear your… Read more

Science Buddies is excited to announce the immediate availability of twenty NGSS-aligned lesson plans for K-12 STEM educators. A collage of screenshots show a materials page for a balloon car project on the website ScienceBuddies.org. Other screenshots show links to class materials such as videos and worksheets as well as a lesson flow plan with links and a list of NGSS alignments. As the 2017-2018 school year gets underway, Science Buddies has… Read more

Science Buddies Lesson Plans make it easier than ever for teachers to confidently lead standards-based science and engineering experiments and activities with their students. A collage of screenshots show a summary page for a catapult project on the website ScienceBuddies.org. At the top of the project summary page there is a navigation bar with tabs for lesson and teacher tools highlighted. Links on the right of the project summary page show a standards link that… Read more