Big Idea 2: The Characteristics of Scientific Knowledge

Students will explore Artificial Intelligence (AI) and use computational thinking and Machine Learning (ML) to pretrain a model to recognize and identify objects, including geometric shapes and aircraft. They will used unplugged activities to mimic sorting and classification of the objects using their prior knowledge and then make connections to human learning and Machine Learning. Students will then problem solve and propose solutions using computational thinking to improve the ML model to better recognize the objects. This lesson is an integrated Computer Science, Science and Math lesson designed for students in grades 3-5 to apply math and science content knowledge while exploring and using computational thinking as they think like Computer Engineers and reflect on potential career paths.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will become Florida panthers, white tailed deer, and motor vehicles in an active, tag-like game to simulate the disappearance of Everglades habitat.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will perform experiments and collect data to gather empirical evidence about how air molecules behave when heated and cooled. This is the 4th lesson in the 5th grade unit and  uses sensors and computer science skills to learn about weather.

Type: Lesson Plan

This experiment will model how sunlight striking the Earth’s surface warms the air around us. Students will investigate how surfaces of differing reflectivity determine how much sunlight is absorbed and converted to heat which in turn serves to warm the adjacent air.

This is lesson 3 in the fifth grade unit on weather. The lesson uses weather sensors and connects computer science concepts within the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this activity, students will read a book about the Brooklyn Bridge. After whole class discussion, children will explore different types of bridges and data, in order to decipher which bridge is the strongest. The students will work collaboratively in groups with assigned student roles. Students will utilized Higher Order thinking to create a solution. The culminating activity is a presentation of solution to whole class.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

Water is essential for human health, but it can sometimes be contaminated. Water filtration can filter out contaminants and impurities making water much safer to consume. But what is the best way to filter water? Students will participate in a water filtration engineering challenge to try out different combinations of materials to find which works best. This lesson was developed by the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science with support from the Weo Foundation.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students explore different methods for calculating volume.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore samples to determine properties of components of mixtures. Over the course of the exploration, the teacher will guide the students to discover what sets a solution apart. Access points included.

Type: Lesson Plan

Discover why it's important for scientists to replicate the procedures used in earlier scientific investigations to validate the findings or results in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to recognize and explain that science is based on testable observations and that explanations for observations must be linked to evidence in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this activity about electricity, learners identify closed and open circuits. First, learners examine and label diagrams of open and closed circuits. Then, learners build each of the circuits shown in the diagrams using electrical supplies. Throughout the activity, learners predict and then test if the light bulbs will turn on based on the circuit type.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will compare and contrast the growth rate of plants grown in different soils.

Type: Teaching Idea

The students will conduct an experiment with water so they can see H2O in all three of its states of matter. The students will conduct another experiment to see the effects temperature has on the decomposition process of an organism. They will also learn how heat speeds up the molecules in an object causing it to become hot. Students will experiment to see the effects heat will have on calcium.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

The students will learn all about outer space in this lesson. They will make a model of a galaxy and learn the vocabulary that relates to this topic. The students will also learn how to classify a planet and describe its features. They will be taught about the Earth's position in the solar system as well as that of the other planets in our solar system. The students will also learn how to classify between the different objects that are in our solar system.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence