Can you see how far you can catapult a Pom Pom? I want to see! We are going to be building a catapult from scratch. Your goal is to see if you can catapult your Pom Pom at least 3 feet. 

Students will create an interactive display that classifies animal adaptations via tools such as Google Slides or Jamboard. They will use technological tools to research information about the given animals/adaptations and to create their display.

You have been offered a job with NASA as an astronomy assistant. Your first task is to create a digital model and fact sheet about the Earth, moon and sun for future fourth graders at Sealston Elementary. Your audience is current third grade students, and you will be hired to share at a Universe Fair based upon your successful completion of the task.

You are planning a special trip to a place you have always wanted to visit. You will need to know the weather trends for a specific time of year so that you will know what to pack. Students will create a presentation to organize their packing that should include a line graph included with data collected about local weather and communicate what they should pack and why based on their findings. Students will need to get feedback from peers if their conclusions for they need to pack align with the weather observed.  Students will use either a digital format or print format to predict what to pack for a trip of their choosing for two weeks. Students will choose a location, make a prediction, collect weather data, and analyze their results with a graph. Lastly, they will present to classmates to convince them to travel to their location and what to pack. 

Your task as an astronomer is to model the solar system using technology.  You and your crew are just one group that have been asked by NASA to chart the solar system in order to create a simulation model for future astronauts. After you have accomplished this, you will present your model to the Director of NASA. They have given you several requirements for the simulation. Your simulation should include a map of the solar system that shows the appropriate distance, location, size and relation to the sun amongst the eight planets. You and your team can use a variety of options to complete your simulation. These include Google Suite tools (such as Google Slides, Google Docs, Jamboard, or any equivalent tool such as Microsoft Office), Coding resources (Scratch.edu, tynker.edu) or 3D printing software (Tinkercad) to present. Your map should also include a short descriptive paragraph for each planet explaining its distance, location, size, and at least 3 facts about the planet. If creating a video, you will still want to include descriptions for the planets as well as the three facts.  Presentation to “NASA Directors” must answer the question: how does this simulation/model help future scientists?

Cross curricular lesson plan integrating Computer Science, Science, and English Standards  CS 4.5 Science 4.3 English 4.4a, 4.8a

Join Chesapeake Bay Foundation educators Maya, Rick, and Norah as they lead you on a journey through the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Investigate how we are all part of a watershed as you twist and turn from the Appalachian Mountains, through the rivers and streams of Piedmont, all the way down to the Chesapeake Bay. Along your journey, you’ll meet the unique critters that call the watershed home. You’ll also explore what you can do in your own neighborhood to protect the environment and become a Backyard Bay Saver! 

This activity would be a great start to a unit on weather.  Ideally, students should create their weather instruments and use them to gather data over a period of at least several days, looking for trends in the weather such as temperature and cloud cover.  Show the weather PowerPoint to introduce weather tools and terms.  Divide students into teams of 3 or 4 to create one of the tools.  The following day, students should use the weather tool they create to take and record measurements using the “Weather Data Sheet."  Repeat this process several times over several days (or even weeks). 

Science Instructional Plans (SIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Science Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the content and the scientific and engineering practices found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

Students will explore Virginia and its border states (Maryland, Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina) then pick one of them to look at data of the monthly average high and low temperatures. Students will collect the data and use it to create a graph in Google Sheets. The graph will have correct titles and labeling. Students will also learn to predict as well as compare and contrast. This lesson integrates well into Social Studies, Math, Language Arts, Science and Computer Science.

 This lesson plan contains research links and a "How to Video" to help guide students through researching plants and animals native to Virginia. 

Time to show what you know and apply your knowledge of living systems in this digital ecosystem project. Students will collaborate to research a specific ecosystem using their knowledge from the unit. Students will also create a digital model and representation of their researched North American ecosystem!

Binary is a way of representing information using only two options.Binary uses a series of 0 and 1 to represent information. In this activity, students will use a chart that converts binary numbers to alphabetic characters. This activity incorporates decoding of binary code into letters to answer questions related to energy and motion.

Science Instructional Plans (SIPs) help teachers align instruction with the Science Standards of Learning (SOL) by providing examples of how the content and the scientific and engineering practices found in the SOL and curriculum framework can be presented to students in the classroom.

Students learn about energy and nutrient flow in various biosphere climates and environments. They learn about herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, food chains and food webs, seeing the interdependence between producers, consumers and decomposers. Students are introduced to the roles of the hydrologic (water), carbon, and nitrogen cycles in sustaining the worlds' ecosystems so living organisms survive. This lesson is part of a series of six lessons in which students use their growing understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.

This resource is a remix from Illustrative Mathematics https://tasks.illustrativemathematics.org/content-standards/tasks/1086.Considering the original resource, there are a few suggestions added to the remix. Modification 1 - Instead of providing students one type of bean ( as originally stated), it would allow curiosity if students were provided with an assorted selection of beans/seeds like sunflower seed, carrot seed, peas and bean, along with which the unifix cubes can be color-coded for each bean/seed. This would benefit all types of learners as they will be able to visualize and build a concrete conceptual understanding of the content.  Modification 2 - This modification allows students to choose the unit of measure and provide them with different types of ruler ( mm, cm and inches), promoting mathematical discourse on customary and metric conversions as they engage in selecting the appropriate unit of measure. This allows students to identify the unit of measure in an active learning environment. As teachers incorporate these two modifications, it allows students to develop a growth mindset by understanding how mathematics and science go hand in hand, encouraging literacy within the curriculum.   

Time to demonstrate how the watershed works with this message in a bottle lesson. Students will have the opportunity to send a message in a bottle and observe how it travels down the watershed to the ocean!

Test how well plants grow with different liquids! Time to test the pH and see how it affects the growth of microgreens! Students will learn about input and output by adding liquids with different pH’s to the soil and measuring the effect of the output of plants.

This activity is an observation where students study clouds and predict the weather.