Lesson Plans (246 results)
Free science lesson plans designed to engage students through hands-on experiments and activities. Chemistry, life sciences, physics, engineering and more, for elementary, middle and high school teachers.
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Featured
Try the annual Engineering Challenge from Science Buddies! Open to all students worldwide, a new challenge and prizes are announced every January. Explore the current challenge as well as ones from past years!
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Lesson Plan
Grade: 6th-8th
In this fun engineering lesson plan, your students will build rubber band-powered cars using readily available craft supplies. The challenge is to build a car that goes as far as possible while making careful use of materials.
Elementary school and
high school versions of this lesson plan are also available. You can enter your students' designs in the 2024 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- MS-ETS1-2.
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Featured
Try our new Science Project Pathways in Google Classroom. One tool to plan, assign, and manage a science project in your class.
Simply enter the project start date to get a customizable science project schedule that breaks the science project into a series of smaller more manageable assignments to keep students on track. The assignments use Science Buddies guide to the scientific method to take students step-by-step through a science project. From the schedule, teachers can make assignments in Google Classroom and view student progress on each assignment.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 3rd-5th
In this fun engineering lesson plan, your students will build rubber band-powered cars using readily available craft supplies. The challenge is to build a car that goes as far as possible while making careful use of materials.
Middle school and
high school
versions of this lesson plan are also available. You can enter your students' designs in the 2024 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school.
Note for K-2 teachers: you can do this…
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- 3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
Lesson Plan
Grade: Kindergarten
In this lesson, students play a game. Each classroom corner represents a habitat. After selecting an animal card, students have to move to the matching habitat while acting out the animal displayed on their card. By explaining why they selected a certain habitat, students realize that a habitat is a place that helps an animal survive.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- K-ESS3-1.
Use a model to represent the relationship between the needs of different plants and animals (including humans) and the places they live.
- 2-LS4-1.
Make observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 6th-8th
What goes up, must come down in this thrill-seeking lesson plan! How much energy does a roller coaster car need to make it through a loop? In this lesson your students will learn about kinetic and potential energy as they build their own roller coasters from simple classroom materials.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- MS-PS3-2.
Develop a model to describe that when the arrangement of objects interacting at a distance changes, different amounts of potential energy are stored in the system.
- MS-PS3-5.
Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from the object.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 6th-8th
Your students will design, build, and race balloon-powered cars in this fun lesson plan that teaches about engineering design and kinetic and potential energy.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- MS-PS3-5. Construct, use, and present arguments to support the claim that when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy is transferred to or from that object.
- MS-ETS1-4. Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 9th-12th
In this fun engineering lesson plan, your students will build rubber band-powered cars using readily available craft supplies. The challenge is to build a car that goes as far as possible while making careful use of materials.
Elementary school and
middle school versions of this lesson plan are also available. You can enter your students' designs in the 2024 Science Buddies Engineering Challenge for a chance to win a cash prize for your school.
Read more
NGSS Performance Expectations:
- High School - Science & Engineering Practices
Lesson Plan
Grade: 3rd
Help the budding meteorologists in your classroom learn how to measure wind speed by building their own anemometers (wind speed meters) with paper cups and straws. Then do a simple experiment in which students change the "wind" speed using a fan and measure how fast their anemometer spins.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- 3-ESS2-1. Represent data in tables and graphical displays to describe typical weather conditions expected during a particular season.
Lesson Plan
Grade: Kindergarten
Your kindergarten students are used to moving objects. They throw balls, play with toy cars, and sweep the floor, but how much do they think about these actions? In this fun, hands-on lesson, you will use a game (rolling balls) to explore how pushing and pulling affects an object's motion.
This lesson can be expanded with a second lesson exploring how objects can push each other, and how weight influences motion.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- K-PS2-1.
Plan and conduct an investigation to compare the effects of different strengths or different directions of pushes and pulls on the motion of an object.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 6th-8th
The egg drop project is a time-honored tradition in many science classrooms. Students build a device to protect an egg and prevent it from breaking when dropped. This project typically relates to lessons about Newton's laws of motion or potential and kinetic energy. However, it is also a great way for students to practice the engineering design process, and learn about the importance of design iteration and learning from failure.
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- MS-ETS1-2.
Evaluate competing design solutions using a systematic process to determine how well they meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
- MS-ETS1-4.
Develop a model to generate data for iterative testing and modification of a proposed object, tool, or process such that an optimal design can be achieved.
Lesson Plan
Grade: 1st
In this lesson, students explore firsthand what transparent, translucent, and opaque mean, and how they are related to light. They will place a variety of materials in front of an illuminated object and predict if and how well they will be able to see the object through the material sheet. In doing that, students will realize that different materials allow different amounts of light to pass through.
Remote learning:
This lesson plan can be conducted remotely. The Engage section of the…
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NGSS Performance Expectations:
- 1-PS4-3.
Plan and conduct investigations to determine the effect of placing objects made with different materials in the path of a beam of light.
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