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.

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.

PBL to the Rescue: Using PBL in a Human Anatomy and Physiology High School Class

17 Sep 2013 | Seminars | Contributor(s): Brian Duncan

This one hour video presentation given by Brian Duncan, an Attica, Indiana Jr./Sr. High School science teacher. He presents his experience using PBL to teach Human Anatomy and Physiology High School class to the Research Goes to School workshop in Summer 2013. Be sure to look at the supporting...

Biofuel Candle Comparison Lab

20 Jun 2013 | Lesson Plans | Contributor(s): Kathy Daniels

This basic lab was developed to be used in a non-science classroom to help start student thinking about energy densities of different fuels in mathematical terms. The main objective is to get middle and high school math students to quantify observations of candles made from petroleum based fuels...

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.

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.

Circuits PowerPoint

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

PowerPoint slides to accompany the Design of a Door Alarm task.

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 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.

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).

Think-aloud Protocol Analysis as a Measure of Students' Science Learning through Design Assessment

28 Mar 2012 | Publications | Contributor(s): Todd Richard Kelley, Brenda Capobianco

Research has indicated that authentic engineering design tasks hold the attention andinterest of students and can lead to deeper levels of science engagement (Fortus, Dershimer, Krajcik, Marx, & Mamlok-Naaman, 2004; Roth, 1996; 1997; 1998). However, there is a need for student assessments...

Cooking with the Sun - Creating a Solar Oven

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

RGS Summer 2011 Supplemental MaterialFor this activity, students will be given a set of materials: cardboard, a set of insulating materials (i.e. foam, newspaper, etc.), aluminum foil, and plexiglass. Students will then become engineers in building a solar oven from the given materials, keeping...

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...

PBL Learning Meets Case-Based Reasoning in the Middle School Science Classroom: Putting Learning by Design Into Practice

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

RGS Summer 2011 Supplemental Material:This article tells the story of the design of Learning by Design™ (LBD), a project- based inquiry approach to science learning with roots in case-based reasoning and problem-based learning, pointing out the theoretical contributions of both, classroom issues...