This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about comparing meters, centimeters, and millimeters.

After watching a short online video that recaps the enormous scale of accumulating plastic waste in our oceans, student teams are challenged to devise a method to remove the most plastic microbeads from a provided commercial personal care product—such as a facial cleanser or body wash. They brainstorm filtering methods ideas and design their own specific procedures that use teacher-provided supplies (coffee filters, funnels, plastic syringes, vinyl tubing, water, plastic bags) to extract the microplastics as efficiently as possible. The research and development student teams compare the final masses of their extracted microbeads to see which filter solutions worked best. Students suggest possible future improvements to their filter designs. A student worksheet is provided.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about mixed adding and subtracting of capacities (english units).

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to give fifth graders an overview of metric capacity operations.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about different unit length comparisons.

Students will breed fruit flies through several generations and record their data using mathematical models in order to demonstrate the inheritance of trait variations.

Students learn the physical properties of sound, how it travels and how noise impacts human health—including the quality of student learning. They learn different techniques that engineers use in industry to monitor noise level exposure and then put their knowledge to work by using a smart phone noise meter app to measure the noise level at an area of interest, such as busy roadways near the school. They devise an experimental procedure to measure sound levels in their classroom, at the source of loud noise (such as a busy road or construction site), and in between. Teams collect data using smart phones/tablets, microphones and noise apps. They calculate wave properties, including frequency, wavelength and amplitude. A PowerPoint® presentation, three worksheets and a quiz are provided.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about multi-step compound unit subtraction - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about multi-step metric capacity - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach fifth graders about multi-directional conversions.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about multiplication and division - word problems.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders about multiplying lengths (english units).

Students work in teams to design a tabletop supply organizer inspired by the natural home of an insect species. Their prototype stores the group’s classroom supplies (scissors, crayon boxes, pencils, and glue sticks). In addition to following measurement constraints that apply to their prototype, students must design their supply organizer with the idea that supplies must be easily retrievable and the organizer must be sturdy enough to withstand everyday classroom wear and tear. Students test their prototype in the classroom for a period of 5 days and evaluate its effectiveness.

Student teams are challenged to design and build architecturally inspired cardboard furniture, guided by the steps of the engineering design process. They cultivate their industrial engineering and design skills to design furnishings that meet functional, aesthetic and financial requirements. Given constraints that include limited building materials and tools, groups research architectural styles and period furnishings. The teams brainstorm ideas, make small-scale quick prototypes, then make detailed plans and create full-scale prototypes of their best solutions. The full-size prototypes are evaluated by peer critique for aesthetic alignment to the targeted architectural style and tested for functionality. After final refinements, teams present their concepts and display their final prototype furnishings in an exhibition.

This challenging problem and brainteaser gives students an opportunity to compose and decompose polygons to make rectangles.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to give fifth graders an overview of conversion among units of measure for capacity (english units).

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about perimeter in grid.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach third graders about perimeter of squares and rectangles.

This short video and interactive assessment activity is designed to teach second graders an overview of perimeter.

Students learn about the basic principles of electromicrobiology—the study of microorganisms’ electrical properties—and the potential that these microorganisms may have as a next-generation source of sustainable energy. They are introduced to one such promising source: microbial fuel cells (MFCs). Using the metabolisms of microbes to generate electrical current, MFCs can harvest bioelectricity, or energy, from the processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration. Students learn about the basics of MFCs and how they function as well as the chemical processes of photosynthesis and cellular respiration