This unit consists of five lessons covering buoyancy and engineering boats. Each lesson includes goals, anticipatory set, learner objectives, guided practice, procedure instructions, closing activities, and extensions. Student handouts and worksheets are also included.

Lesson 1: Intro to Buoyancy
Lesson 2: Engineer a Barge
Lesson 3: Intro to Sails & Motion
Lesson 4: Engineer a Sailboat
Lesson 5: Final Vessel

NGSS: 3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2, 3-5-ETS1-3

Lesson 1 materials: empty 2-liter bottles with tops cut off, pennies or other coins, marble, modeling clay, crap wood, rocks, pingpong ball, golf ball, popsicle stick, paper clip, scale, other object for floating or sinking
Lesson 2 materials: for each student - 12" x 12" piece of aluminum foil, 4 popsicle sticks, 2 straws, 12" masking tape; teacher pre-setup - enough pennies for testing (500 pennies per group), pool filled 2/3 with water
Lesson 3 materials: string/yarn, 1/2 straw for each student, 2 different types of paper (tissue & white copy paper), tape, scissors, fan, wooden skewers, 2 popsicle sticks per student, rulers, protractors, stencils.
Lesson 4 materials: 8 popsicle sticks, 1 wooden skewer, 1 straw, masking tape or duct tape, tissue paper or copy paper
Lesson 5 materials: same as Lesson 2

In this lesson, students will learn about bees and their connection to agriculture. Includes activity instructions, variations, and exentsion activities.

NGSS: 2-LS2-2

Common Core: RL.1.1, RI.7, SL2.5

Social Sciences: K.11

Time: 45 minutes

8th grade student will apply Newton’s Laws to design, test and evaluate materials to create the most protective helmet for an activity of their choice. Students will use force sensors and Vernier software to analyze the force reduction for their helmets. The culmination of this project is for students to write and present a sales pitch to promote their helmet to their peers at an annual "conference."

This module is designed for teachers participating in the Content in Context SuperLessons program. C2SL is a Math-Science Partnership grant awarded to the University of Oregon by the Oregon Department of Education for 2014-2017. 

CREATES is a set of 6 steps that help learners read and critically analyze scientific papers. The CREATES method, pioneered by Dr. Sally Hoskins, has a demonstrated positive impact on undergraduate students' self-confidence in scientific reading, as well as in their general perceptions of and beliefs about science and scientific thinking (Hoskins, et. al, 2017).

The new CREATES site, created in collaboration with Jordan Moberg Parker, UCLA's Director of Undergraduate Laboratory Curriculum and Assessment in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, uses interactive media, step-by-step directions, and detailed annotation of authentic examples to guide students through the process.

PDF version of the slide deck of the Oregon Career Connected Learning Framework presentation from the Oregon CTE-STEM Summer Network Meeting on August 4, 2021. For additional help and/or questions please contact Jim Taylor at jim.taylor@state.or.us  

Students will create the word STEM using binary code on a candy cane. They will have the option of doing this on a piece of paper or with Legos.

The carbon cycle game is a short digital game that helps you teach how carbon atoms move through various forms including soils, the ocean, plant and animal life and fossil fuels. Actions such as photosynthesis, plant and animal death and forest fires all convert carbon from one form into another. This is a card style game. It allows for single or multi players. Runs on a browser.

This playbook offers a step-by-step guide for how to hold a successful Career Readiness Workshop targeting middle and high school students, as well as post-secondary students seeking STEM internships and employment. Included are example materials from an event hosted in January 2016 by Washington State MESA as well as templates and presentations for creating your own successful Career Readiness Workshop.

This is a really fun and informative lesson that I do with my high school Programming/technology class to break up the monotony of beginner programming. However; this lesson can be used and applied in essentially any class and for many purposes, and to address many areas. One of the other really nice things about this lesson is that it can be extended to hit many points including physics, math, and advanced engineering.

Throughout the building period, I would present teams with a challenge (puzzle, build, etc…) and the first team to complete it would get a prize. It could be more modification time, extra materials, etc…)

The materials (including hot glue guns) can be purchased at Wal Mart or a similar store for around $20-25, if ordering through your district isn’t an option. With those purchases, it gives you a lot more materials than needed which can be used for additional similar projects.

This is a really fun and informative lesson that I do with my high school Programming/technology class to break up the monotony of beginner programming. However; this lesson can be used and applied in essentially any class and for many purposes, and to address many areas. One of the other really nice things about this lesson is that it can be extended to hit many points including physics, math, and advanced engineering.

Throughout the building period, I would present teams with a challenge (puzzle, build, etc…) and the first team to complete it would get a prize. It could be more modification time, extra materials, etc…)

The materials (including hot glue guns) can be purchased at Wal Mart or a similar store for around $20-25, if ordering through your district isn’t an option. With those purchases, it gives you a lot more materials than needed which can be used for additional similar projects.

Science Content Storyline: Simple MachinesBriefly write the content story for the topic: PS2.A Forces and Motion Disciplinary Core Ideas: Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction of motion. (3-PS2-1). The patterns of an object’s motion in various situations can be observed and measured; when that past motion exhibits a regular pattern, future motion can be predicted from it.(3-PS2-2)Educational StandardsNGSS: 3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start moving; and, balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size,or direction of forces. The assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.]3-PS2-2. Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion. [Clarification Statement: Examples of motion with a predictable pattern could include a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, and two children on a see-saw.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technical terms such as period and frequency.]Summary: Machines make work easier. Levers, inclined planes, and pulleys are simple machines that help us to do work. Work is moving something across a distance using force. Force is a push or a pull. Machines help us to do work by reducing the force needed or changing the direction of the force. There is a trade-off between the amount of effort and distance. (You can’t something for nothing!) 

Science Content Storyline: Simple MachinesBriefly write the content story for the topic: PS2.A Forces and Motion Disciplinary Core Ideas: Each force acts on one particular object and has both strength and a direction. An object at rest typically has multiple forces acting on it, but they add to give zero net force on the object. Forces that do not sum to zero can cause changes in the object’s speed or direction of motion. (3-PS2-1). The patterns of an object’s motion in various situations can be observed and measured; when that past motion exhibits a regular pattern, future motion can be predicted from it.(3-PS2-2)Educational StandardsNGSS: 3-PS2-1. Plan and conduct an investigation to provide evidence of the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on the motion of an object. [Clarification Statement: Examples could include an unbalanced force on one side of a ball can make it start moving; and, balanced forces pushing on a box from both sides will not produce any motion at all.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to one variable at a time: number, size,or direction of forces. The assessment does not include quantitative force size, only qualitative and relative. Assessment is limited to gravity being addressed as a force that pulls objects down.]3-PS2-2. Make observations and/or measurements of an object’s motion to provide evidence that a pattern can be used to predict future motion. [Clarification Statement: Examples of motion with a predictable pattern could include a child swinging in a swing, a ball rolling back and forth in a bowl, and two children on a see-saw.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment does not include technical terms such as period and frequency.]Summary: Machines make work easier. Levers, inclined planes, and pulleys are simple machines that help us to do work. Work is moving something across a distance using force. Force is a push or a pull. Machines help us to do work by reducing the force needed or changing the direction of the force. There is a trade-off between the amount of effort and distance. (You can’t something for nothing!) 

With students and educators under shelter-at-home orders, states and districts are faced with difficult decisions about how to support students’ science learning while they are home. Home environments support different aspects of student learning than school-based environments. Designing home-based learning experiences to intentionally take advantage of the unique assets of being at home can be supportive of students’ social, emotional, and mental health; provide a meaningful and complementary science learning experience; and allow students to explore real-world and personally relevant science in ways that are difficult to accomplish in school. Field-based examples of home and neighborhood investigations of ecological systems will be shared.

This 14-minute video introduces the key features and differences of the new Common Core State standards for math. It looks at the purpose of the standards for mathematical practice and how they should be integrated with content. It looks at how teaching fewer topics in each grade will change educator planning. And it discusses how the new standards can help close the achievement gap.

This design challenge moves your students from passive to active learners through a cross-curricular, hands-on team challenge in direct correlation to real-world issues of water conservation.  In this lesson, students, grades 6-8, will learn about aqueducts through a close reading activity. They are then given different scenarios in an engineering design challenge to create an aqueduct to supply freshwater to their city, despite various obstacles.

You are preparing your family’s emergency kits in case there is a need to leave your home quickly, or stay in your home without electricity or water. You need to be able to create an emergency supply kit that includes a lightweight water filtration device that is low cost. This will provide you with clean water regardless of your water source.

In this project, you will gain knowledge of natural disaster preparedness through the Red Cross Pillowcase project. You will research and experiment with the water cycle to learn how water is naturally filtered. You will then design and build a water filtration device that could filter water in an emergency situation.

What if students could see the relevance of their school curriculum to real-world, interesting, STEM-related careers? Let's help them create a great future!

This is a learner workbook for students to learn Scratch that links the Computer Science standards as identified by the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Used as an introductory activity in an Exploratory Makerspace and STEAM class, this project is designed to be an introduction to using all steps of the Design Process. Students will work through these steps to identify the problem, imagine a solution, create a plan, build (an island), test and evaluate their solutions.After we talk about these six steps, students are encouraged to solve the simple problem of building an island.  As an instructor, I emphasize that this can be any type of island using any materials we have available, encouraging strong personal choice.