Design of a Green Roof

03 Jun 2014

This grade 4 lesson addresses standards related to plant adaptation and response to the environment. Students are challenged to construct a model of a green roof for a house.

Designing Safer Roadways

03 Jun 2014

This grade 4 design task focuses on forces, motion, and transportation systems by challenging students to design a roadway that will slow and then stop vehicles from running off the road.

Water Canal Design Task

03 Jun 2014

This grade 4 design tasks focuses on erosion and the construction of a canal to bring water to a water park.

Light Just Right

13 Jun 2013

This 4th grade design activity focuses on electrical current and resistance. Students design a way to make a bulb light with differing brightnesses.

Slow Boat

11 Jun 2013

This 4th grade design task lesson focuses on the concept of drag by asking students to develop ways to slow down a boat.

Design of a Door Alarm

10 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans

This grade 4 design task helps students learn about simple circuits by designing a door alarm.

Exploring Whirligigs

09 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans

This inquiry lesson, for grades 3-4, involves students conducting a fair test investigation to determine the way an object (a whirligig) falls through the air and how this fall depends on its mass, surface area, and other factors. This lesson is an adaptation of a lesson developed by...

The Case of the Pilfered Pin

29 May 2013 | Lesson Plans

This is an inquiry activity for grades 3-4. Students must measure temperature, mass, and length in order to solve a mystery.

Pill Bugs' Habitat Inquiry Activity

11 Nov 2012 | Lesson Plans

This is an inquiry activity, aligned to grade 4-6 standards, in which students design fair test investigations to determine the habitat of pill bugs (roly polies).