Dog gone it!

08 Jun 2015 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Brenda Capobianco, Todd Richard Kelley, Chell Nyquist, James Daniel Lehman

This design challenge, for students in grade 3, focuses on simple and compound machines. The objective of the challenge is to design a compound machine to help a large breed of dog to get into and out of the back of a car.

STEMEdhub: Supporting STEM Education Initiatives via the H U Bzero Platform

07 Apr 2015 | Publications | Contributor(s): James Daniel Lehman, Peg A Ertmer, Ann Bessenbacher

Built as one of 60+ hubs on the HUBzero platform, STEMEdhub was developed in 2011 as a resource for research, education, and collaboration in STEM education. The hub currently supports 82 different groups. In this article, the authors describe two specific groups (SLED and AAU) that are taking...

Bio-Inspired Paper Flowers

03 Jun 2014 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Bryan Hubbard, Kari Clase, Alyssa Panitch, Evan Rebar, Tahira Reid, Nancy Tyrie, James Daniel Lehman

This grade 3 lesson introduces students to the basic structures of plants and their functions. Students are challenged to create paper flowers that turn colors through processes that mimics how real plants function.

Design of a Green Roof

03 Jun 2014 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Bryan Hubbard, Kari Clase, Alyssa Panitch, Evan Rebar, Tahira Reid, Nancy Tyrie, James Daniel Lehman

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 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Kendra A Erk, James Daniel Lehman

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.

Save the Wolf (Simple Machines)

03 Jun 2014 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Kendra A Erk, James Daniel Lehman

This grade 3 design lesson introduces simple machines and challenges students to use simple machines to create a device to capture a wolf.

Earthen Dam Design Task

03 Jun 2014 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Venkatesh Merwade, James Daniel Lehman

This grade 3 design task focuses on earth materials and the construction of an earthen dam.

Water Canal Design Task

03 Jun 2014 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Venkatesh Merwade, James Daniel Lehman

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 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): James Daniel Lehman

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

Drink Pouch

11 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Bryan Hubbard, Alyssa Panitch, Kari Clase, Tahira Reid, Nancy Irene Tyrie, James Daniel Lehman

This 3rd grade design activity is focused on creating a drink pouch that can keep a drink cool in the hot sun.

Slow Boat

11 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Bryan Hubbard, Alyssa Panitch, Tahira Reid, Kari Clase, Nancy Irene Tyrie, Evan Rebar, James Daniel Lehman

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 | Contributor(s): David C Eichinger, Erin K Doherty, James Daniel Lehman, Venkatesh Merwade

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

Design of Musical Instruments for a Rock Band

10 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): David C Eichinger, Erin K Doherty, James Daniel Lehman, Venkatesh Merwade

This grade 3 design task helps students to learn about sound by designing a stringed musical instrument.

Sound Absorption

09 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): James Daniel Lehman

This grade 3 lesson plan focuses on a design task to create a wall to absorb sound.

Exploring Whirligigs

09 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Brenda Capobianco, James Daniel Lehman

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...

Exploring Whirligigs

09 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Brenda Capobianco, James Daniel Lehman

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 | Contributor(s): James Daniel Lehman

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 | Contributor(s): James Daniel Lehman

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).

Problem Based Approach to Instruction

17 Feb 2012 | Downloads | Contributor(s): Kari Clase, Peg A Ertmer

RGS Summer 2011 Supplemental Material:This chapter examines the problem-based learning approach to instructionfrom the perspective of instructional design theory and synthesizes the current knowledge and theory into some universal methods, situational methods, and principles for a theory of...