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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 use their knowledge of minerals and the rock cycle to analyze the rocks on three available sites for a new skate park. After analyzing each rock site, they will write a one page recommendation that will explain the classification of the rock and why it is the best for option for building. In addition, they will create a product plan that contains information on the rocks, their history and their uses. Student groups will present to fellow group members then each student will evaluate the products.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson the students learn about wind energy and how it transforms through kinetic energy by designing a wind-powered model car.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will address the following real-world problem of sand dune erosion while integrating Engineering Design concepts:

Florida’s coastline has been ravaged by winds from hurricanes, resulting in damage to sand dunes and oceanfront properties. Your mission is to design the most effective barrier that would limit the amount of sand displaced from our tall sand dunes and prevent further damage to oceanfront buildings. Your designs can help us save the sand dunes before they are blown away!

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn how different variables (mass, friction, and force) affect the motion of an object.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Engineering Design Challenge, students must design a vessel that will carry passengers safely and quickly across a body of water by harnessing the power of the wind. Students will be given the opportunity to test and improve their vessels as they apply various math and science skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concepts of heat insulators as they build a model house and test different materials to use as insulators, stopping the warm air from escaping and keeping the cool air out. Students will also have an opportunity to use technology in their exploration of heat energy.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses the engineering design process to guide students through the exploration of sound energy and pitch. The design challenge is to produce a low-pitch tone by using different containers and liquids. Students must also create a budget to purchase supplies.

Type: Lesson Plan

Come sail away with this STEM activity! Students will use hands-on inquiry to find out more about wind and its effect on sails. Through trial and error and based on data collected, students will design, build, and race their own vessel or "sailboat" across the boundless waters of a kiddie pool. Students should gain a better understanding of how moving water and air are sources of energy and can propel objects forward at varying rates of speed.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are asked to evaluate several space suit designs and select the best design based on given data. Students work in collaborative groups to develop a procedure for selecting the best design and share their ideas with the rest of the class. A twist is introduced and the groups are challenged to test the validity of their procedure.

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

This is an Engineering Design Project that builds upon the understanding of wind as a natural resource. It is applying content knowledge and is not intended as an initial introduction to the benchmarks.

Type: Lesson Plan

After dissecting a flower(s), the students will be able to identify the parts necessary for pollination, or reproduction of flowering plants. They will also make comparisons and find patterns in nature, leading them to the understanding of the processes of sexual reproduction in flowering plants, including pollination and fertilization (seed production).

Type: Lesson Plan

Through demonstrations and lab/investigate rotations, students will explore physical and chemical changes.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity will allow students to explore the motion and speed of an object. While constructing a rollercoaster and using the Scientific Method, students will create their own question and then investigate it, finding out whether the speed of an object is affected by the track it follows.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help students apply the concept of how moving air is a source of energy and can be used to move things. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to introduce students to Native Floridians, their basic needs, and the challenges they faced in Florida's environment. Students will be designing and constructing a tool out of Florida native materials (items found in Florida's environment) that could meet one of the basic needs of humans. They will be discussing whether Native Floridians were engineers based on their ability to construct tools and shelters out of native materials in order to solve problems.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students engage in an engineering design contest to design and create a windmill that will lift a load.

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

This Engineering Design Challenge is intended to help fourth grade students apply the concepts of the flow of heat from a hot object to a cold object and that heat flow may cause objects to change temperature. It is not intended as an initial introduction to this benchmark.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through teacher demonstrations and lab type investigations done in rotations, students will explore magnets, magnetic materials, magnetic fields, and electromagnets.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will explore with scientific tools often used by scientists to provide them experience with the tools they will be using throughout the year on labs and investigations. They will compare the methods, observations, and results made by different groups using multiple tools and seek reasons to explain the differences across groups. The students will keep records that describe observations made, carefully distinguishing actual observations from ideas and inferences about the observations.

Type: Lesson Plan

Compare the methods and results various groups have when they search for amphibians in an ephemeral wetland in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Students conduct experiments that simulate fishing techniques and explore processes that result in bycatch.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will explore the advantages and disadvantages of different fishing techniques.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this classroom activity, the students will investigate the magnetic pull of a bar magnet at varying distances with the use of paper clips. Students will hypothesize, conduct the experiment, collect the data, and draw conclusions that support their data. Each student will record the experiment and their findings in their science journals. As a class, students will compare each groups' data and their interpretation of the results.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this unit, students learn about various plants, their parts, their life cycles, and the importance of bees in plant reproduction.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this investigation, students compare the way four known liquids behave, and then apply these observations to identify an unknown liquid. Students then compare how each liquid combines with water and use this property to identify unknown liquids. The activities throughout the investigation emphasize the characteristic properties of liquids, identifying and controlling variables, making observations, and analyzing results to answer a question.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

In this lesson students will learn about pollution and its effects. They will learn in depth about pesticides and see its harmful effects that they might not have realized at first. The students will simulate a landfill and see what objects will decompose and which objects won't. They will create their own solutions to an oil spill and test to see which solution is the most effective. The students will observe the effects oil has on water birds. Through this they will determine the long term damage done by an oil spill.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence