Most Shared Curriculum

Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnets and experiment with ways to change their strength to pick up more paperclips. Students learn about ways that engineers use electromagnets in everyday applications.

Simple machines are devices with few or no moving parts that make work easier. Students are introduced to the six types of simple machines — the wedge, wheel and axle, lever, inclined plane, screw, and pulley — in the context of the construction of a pyramid, gaining high-level insights into tools that have been used since ancient times and are still in use today. In two hands-on activities, students begin their own pyramid design by performing materials calculations, and evaluating and selecting a construction site. The six simple machines are examined in more depth in subsequent lessons in this unit.

Students continue to explore the story of building a pyramid, learning about the simple machine called a pulley. They learn how a pulley can be used to change the direction of applied forces and move/lift extremely heavy objects, and the powerful mechanical advantages of using a multiple-pulley system. Students perform a simple demonstration to see the mechanical advantage of using a pulley, and they identify modern day engineering applications of pulleys. In a hands-on activity, they see how a pulley can change the direction of a force, the difference between fixed and movable pulleys, and the mechanical advantage gained with multiple / combined pulleys. They also learn the many ways engineers use pulleys for everyday purposes.

Students test whether the color of a material affects how much heat it absorbs. They leave ice cubes placed in boxes made of colored paper (one box per color; white, yellow, red and black) in the sun, and predict in which colored box ice cubes melt first. They record the order and time required for the ice cubes to melt.

With an introduction to the ideas of energy, students discuss specific energy types and practical energy sources. Associated hands-on activities help them identify energy types in their surroundings and enhance their understanding of the concept of energy.

Students use gummy bears and their own gummy prototype to simulate a cell membrane as they learn how osmosis works in a cell and how water moves down the concentration gradient. As they learn more about cell membrane function, they better understand the concepts of cell membranes, osmosis, and concentration gradient.

Kindergartners measure each others' heights using large building blocks as the unit of measure. For their measurement technique, they tally how many blocks high each student is. Then they display the collected data in bar graphs made from from paper cut-outs of miniature building blocks glued on paper, which helps them see how bar graphs look like the various student heights they observe. Doing this establishes an important foundation for both creating and interpreting graphs in future years, as well as prepares students for the associated activity when they visit a second- and a fourth-grade class to measure those older students' heights. They also measure adults in the school community. Creating bar graphs from this additional data enables students to compare the different age groups to foresee how they may grow taller. Through this introduction to graphing lesson and its associated activity, students develop the concepts and vocabulary to describe, in a non-ambiguous way, how height changes as children age.

Students learn about the causes, composition and types of volcanoes. They begin with an overview of the Earth's interior and how volcanoes form. Once students know how volcanoes function, they learn how engineers predict eruptions. In a class demonstration, students watch and measure a mock volcanic eruption and observe the eruption phases, seeing how a volcano gets its shape and provides us with clues to predict a blast.

After watching a milkweed seed pod dispersing its seeds and observing how messy and difficult it is to ‘catch’ the seeds, students use recycled materials to create a way to separate the seeds from the parachute. Students then package the seeds for delivery and share them with other classes, along with information on why we need to plant milkweed seeds.

Students learn about energy flow in food webs, including the roles of the sun, producers, consumers and decomposers in the energy cycle. They model a food web and create diagrams of food webs using their own drawings and/or images from nature or wildlife magazines. Students investigate the links between the sun, plants and animals, building their understanding of the web of nutrient dependency and energy transfer.

Students learn the history of the waterwheel and common uses for water turbines today. They explore kinetic energy by creating their own experimental waterwheel from a two-liter plastic bottle. They investigate the transformations of energy involved in turning the blades of a hydro-turbine into work, and experiment with how weight affects the rotational rate of the waterwheel. Students also discuss and explore the characteristics of hydroelectric plants.

Students begin to make sense of the phenomenon of electricity through learning about circuits. Students use the disciplinary core idea of using evidence to construct an explanation as they learn that charge movement through a circuit depends on the resistance and arrangement of the circuit components. Students also explore the disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts of energy and energy transfer in the context of energy from a battery. In one associated hands-on activity, students build and investigate the characteristics of series circuits. In another activity, students design and build flashlights.

Students make sense of the design challenges engineers face that arise from earthquake phenomena. Students work as engineering teams to explore concepts of how engineers design and construct buildings to withstand earthquake damage by applying elements of the engineering design process by building their own model structures using toothpicks and marshmallows. The groups design, build, and test their model buildings and then determine how earthquake-proof their designs are by testing them on an earthquake simulator pan of Jell-O®.

This unit investigates the water cycle through the lens of water pollution transport. Students explore sources, movement, and consequences of water pollution, as they engage in hands-on activities involving aeration, filters, and water reuse. The role of engineers in water conservation and water treatment is highlighted.

In this hands-on activity, students investigate different methods—aeration and filtering—for removing pollutants from water. Working in teams, they design, build and test their own water filters—essentially conducting their own "dirty water projects." A guiding data collection worksheet is provided.