Subject(s): Science Grades(s): Junior High/High School
You may also want to take a look at our Weekly Science Experiments section!
Astronomy:
- Students create an indoor planetarium in this lesson
- Friendly aliens learn about the sun from your class in this well-developed webquest
Students sort spreadsheet data in this lab to uncover the relationships between latitude, angle of the sun, elevation, and solar energy
Atmosphere & Weather:
- This is a fun lesson on wind power that involves students creating a “Puff Mobile”
- Student groups use multiple resources to compare two cities with similar climates and weather patterns, telling why their temperatures are so similar in a media-rich presentation and report
- Find more weather lesson plans, videos, and resource links on our Seasons, Severe Weather, Natural & Man-made Disasters page
Biology – Animals:
- This lesson uses Owl Pellets to aid in studying the Skeletal System
- This lesson looks at animals adapting to their environment and is called “Build An Animal”
- This lesson plan looks at animals and their adaptations to the environment
- This science experiment looks at whether fish can be raised in a bottle
- In this lesson, students create 3-D models of ocean animals, and you create a 3-D ocean bulletin board
- The main materials for this invertebrate lesson are octopus and squid from a local fish market
Biology – Human Body:
- Here’s an idea for researching the human body
- This is a lesson on Ville Diagram neural activity
- This blood bank research investigation idea lets science/health students apply classroom knowledge in a real world context
- In this research lesson, students must defend their organelle to the Cell Body Corporation which is considering layoffs
- This is a simple and very effective blood type compatibility demonstration
- In this LearntobeHealth.org activity, teens find out what stress is, how it effects the body, why it happens and steps to cope with it
- This lesson teaches the importance of and how to monitor your heart rate during exercise
- Here students collaborate via internet to construct a mixed media presentation about a human body organ system
Biology – Plants:
- This idea involves Scanning and/or Digital Cameras for observing Tree Bark
- Here’s a Science Experiment that asks “Can Water Travel Through Plant Stems?”
- This Experiment looks at the effects of a Dense Plant Population
- Do plants lose water through their leaves? Find out in this experiment!
- Here is an experiment that asks if plants need sunlight to be green
- The question in this experiment is whether green is the only color in a leaf
- Can a plant grow from nothing but the top of a carrot? Find out with this experiment
- Students predict the number of sections in citrus fruit in this experiment
- This experiment looks at the affect of temperature and gravity on seed germination
- Your students will find out what happens when seeds sprout with this experiment
- Water, air, food, or soil — these controlled experiments discover which is the most needed for plant growth
- Here students use PowerPoint or Inspiration software to create a web with pictures summarizing the process of photosynthesis
Here students armed with Excel spreadsheets calculate the biotic potential of a tomato plant “taking over the world”
This is a great plant transpiration lab
Biology – Other:
- This idea on Cell Organelles compares Cells to a School or Factory
- This Science Experiment looks at what conditions cause Mold to Grow fastest on Bread
- “How Viruses Travel” is the topic of this lesson plan
- A health lesson on bronchopulmonary dysplasia
- This lab experiment demonstrates osmosis
- This osmosis/diffusion lab idea is easy and dramatic
- This simple idea transforms plants (collected leaves) into animals (art project)
- In this original origin of life experiment, real cell membranes “self-assemble” around oil and water molecules
- This is a genetics unit rubric for a “newly discovered” organism (male & female) and their possible offspring
- In this genetics lesson, students build living Punnet squares for Martian combinations
- Here students discover what makes one compost mixture decompose faster than another
- In this lesson, students extract DNA from cells
- The role organelles play in a cell is compared here to the function of bicycle parts
- In this lesson, students compare aerobic and anaerobic respiration
- This lettuce project demonstrates cell diffusion, passive diffusion and selective barrier
Chemistry:
- Categorizing Elements and Reading the Periodic Table are the topics of this lesson
- What do you get when you mix Borax with Glue? Find out in this Science Experiment
- This Science Experiment looks at what happens when Food Coloring is mixed with Oil and Water
- A Science Experiment on “Expanding Ice”
- How can you make Soap Bubbles last longer? Find out with this Experiment
- This Experiment determines how Detergent Changes how Water Acts
- Another Science Experiment – this one deals with the Density of Water with Salt or Sugar
- In this Experiment students make a Model of an Atom with a Walnut Shell
- An Experiment involving Melting Chocolate at different Temperatures
- This Experiment looks at the affect of Temperature on the Speed of Molecules in Water
- An Environmentally-Practical Science Experiment that looks at Garbage and its speed of Breakdown
- Another Soap Experiment – this one on what makes Soap Slide
- This is a cool and colorful demonstration of liquid density/diffusion/pH/acid-base indicators
- Students calculate the atomic mass of Yumminium in this delicious lesson
- Here’s a lesson you can sink your teeth into – calculating the percent composition of gum
- “How to make Fake Warts” is a “cool” lesson sent in by a student
- This awesome demonstration is simply magic – seriously, go try it now!
- The entire class models molecular behavior in this clever gas-liquid-solid lesson
- This is a density quiz
- Compounds are identified by fire in this experiment
- This pure substances and mixtures vocabulary worksheet really does “matter”
- Kool-Aid and pancakes are used here to demonstrate physical and chemical changes
- In “A-B-C Pipettes,” students must use deductive and “compound” reasoning to solve a chemical mystery
- An “Edible Slime” alginate polymer is mixed up here from brown seaweed
- In this activity, students make a rubber ball from latex
- Here learners create a PowerPoint slide show on a specific element from the periodic table
- In this lesson, students learn and use computer animation to obtain a deeper understanding of chemical elements
- “Sharpie Tie Dye” demonstrates solubility and movement of molecules while creating a cool shirt
- Here are great high school chemistry writing prompts for the start of school and throughout the year
- This scientific notation and significant figures worksheet is appropriate for a chemistry or pre-engineering class
- “Molecular Weight and the Mole” is the main subject of this unit conversion worksheet
Ecology – Rain Forests:
- This is a lesson on creating a rain stick
- This idea involves creating a simulated landfill to prevent erosion
Ecology – Other:
- This Wetlands idea is only feasible if you live in an area with various Wetlands
- This is just a set of handy questions that can be used after listening to a radio program available on the Internet on Nuclear Waste Cleanup
- This lesson focuses on building Hazardous Waste Awareness
- This lesson focuses on the Conservation of Energy
- Here is a reading comprehension quiz over a Nuclear Water Contamination article
- In this 1-2 week Biodiversity Preservation Project, students pick the environmental concern they wish to champion
- This is a 10-day Environment Curricula from Do Something, Inc.
- Day 1: Introduction to global warming, energy conservation and how rising temperatures affect us locally
- Day 2: Students learn about greenhouse gases and the power of language
- Day 3: Students learn about the potential consequences of global warming
- Day 4: Students examine their own energy consumption and conservation
- Day 5: Students learn how schools can participate in energy conservation
- Day 6: Students compare U.S. energy use to that of other countries
- Day 7: Students explore different types of renewable energy sources
- Day 8: Students discuss pros/cons of renewable energy
- Day 9: Students debate the pros/cons of government involvement in energy conservation
- Day 10: Students present their energy conservation projects
- Here students develop a digital ecosystem PowerPoint photo album
- This Globalization and the Environment Unit culminates with students participate in a mock Kyoto Protocol negotiation
- This A-Z endangered animal research project requires a triorama of creative writing projects
- In this hydraulic water cycle lesson, students test different water samples, compile results and create a display board as a class
- Groups present a digital story about a selected biome’s climate, topology, plants, animals, limitations, variations and adaptations here
- Here are two great Earth Day ideas from Planetpals.com:
- This multimedia research unit reports the facts about Environmental Injustices:
- This is a four-part Environmental Uniton climate change and the water pollution problem
- Students love this Earth Day Jeopardy game activity
- ESL students create a recycling brochure in this SIOP lesson
Sustainability posters with recycling, composting, water conservation, organic gardening, repurposing and biofuel facts are created by groups here
Here teams research and construct different solar ovens and then test parameters with digital probeware
Students research the Mexican Grey Wolf re-introduction dilemma here and write a persuasive essay/PowerPoint offering their solution
Geology & Earth Science:
- This is a good lesson on gravity, erosion, and mass wasting
- Here is a science lesson on ocean currents
- In this lesson, students will model radioactive decay
- In this incredible edible lesson, students simulate the rock cycle and end up with igneous rock fudge – yum!
- Here the rock cycle is demonstrated with chewing gum and Pop Rocks
- This Easter egg idea demonstrates how geodes are formed in nature from minerals and evaporation
Google Maps and Google Earth are used here to study plate tectonics and the corresponding locations of earthquakes and volcanoes
Physics:
- A Science lesson plan on the Speed of Sound
- A well-developed lesson on Convex and Concave lenses
- This Science lesson plan is called “Looking For Newton” and integrates the Internet
- In this lesson, students can Build a Car (an Index Card Car)
- Here’s a lesson on Current and Static Electricity
- A great lesson on Force and Motion as well as Measurement in Newtons
- This lesson looks at the Structure of Atoms
- This lesson plan uses a Meter Stick as a Scale and is called Torque Lab
- This is a Science Experiment – How many pennies can be added to a full glass of water?
- Can a paper clip float in air? That’s answered by this Science Experiment
- This Experiment looks at whether Electricity can be made to do Work
- A Science Experiment on making a Roller Coaster
- This Experiment looks at Cars, Ramps, and the Ramp’s affect on the Car’s Energy
- An Experiment involving Cartesian Divers
- Does Sound Travel through Walls? Find out with this Experiment
- This Experiment determines whether Heavy or Light Objects Fall Faster
- Your students can find out Why Hot Air Balloons Float with this Experiment
- An Experiment that looks at the Density of Hot Air versus Cold Air
- This Experiment involves determining Hot or Cold by Touch
- Want to make a Rainbow? This Experiment tells you how.
- This unit provides instruction on how to construct and perform experiments with a basic PVC wind turbine:
- This is an experiment that looks at how the amount of water in a bottle affects sound
- This experiment focuses on the center of gravity of objects
- This physics lesson serves as an introduction to Bernoulli’s Principle
- This is a simple and fun “Launch an Eggonaut” physics team activity
- This physics idea has students predicting and comparing results of bouncing various sports balls
- The speed formula (S = d / t) is the topic of this lesson
- This is a static electricity lab
- In this aerodynamics lesson, an airplane is made with just a straw, an index card, and some tape
- This is a lesson on energy
- The phase changes of matter are studied here while making ice cream in a recloseable plastic bag
Psychology:
- This Psychology / Art lesson is on Rorschach Spots (Inkblots)
- This is a psychology lesson on levels and characteristics of mental retardation
Other / Multiple Topics:
- This plan is for preparation for a science fair
- This lesson looks at eye safety in labs
- Here are great content-rich comedy skits on oxygen, G-force, hydrogen, and inertia and some Algebra songs
- This lesson looks at inventions and discovery and makes use of PowerPoint
- This is a lesson on making a hydrometer
- Is it possible to force an opponent to Win Tic-Tac-Toe? Find out with this experiment
- Your students can find out the most common month for birthdays in this experiment
- This science experiment attempts to discover what time people are most alert
- In this multidisciplinary lesson, students use K’NEX to Design and Build a Bridge
- Find out how healthy fast food really is
- In this scientific method lesson, students analyze prepared trash to find evidence of a crime
- Here students research the biography of a scientist and create his tombstone
- Students complete a QBI (question based inquiry) on their favorite science topic in this lesson
- Here students make their own science videos ala Bill Nye
- This lesson teaches students how to “question the author” and “write to learn” in science or other fields
Art Connections:
- Here is a good lesson on painting, the elements of light, and studying countries
- This outstanding 3-week multi-discipline fresco art unit features lessons on painters, symmetry, pigment, color wheel, primary colors, Italian Renaissance, solutions, chromatography, molecules, and atoms; plus a good museum education bibliography.
- This well-developed sculpture diorama lesson examines positive/negative space and the works of Dale Chihuly
Here students decorate plastic cup flowers with different materials that they then test for opacity, aesthetic value and durability
Computers & Internet Connections:
- This is an activity using digital cameras to capture shapes in nature
- Here students use Photo Story 3 to combine photos with a poem about the current science unit
Language Arts Connections:
- Tinker Toys and digital cameras are used in this direction writing exercise
- After this nature hike, students identify, write about and make a shadow box with their outdoor treasures
- Students create a newspaper about their most admired person in these Writing Workshop activities
- Students explore word play devices, research animals, and more in this multidisciplinary unit
Math Connections:
- Here is a fun idea for an online lesson on Leap Year
- Here are some ideas for connecting math to the study of the environment (on Field Trips)
- Students create a “Let’s Get Cooking” documentary showing how they used math and science to create a treat
Music Connections:
Physical Education / Health Connections:
- Teach students about careers in the health field using this lesson
- By mixing chemicals with random classmates (or abstaining), students see how quickly a disease, like AIDS, can spread
- This is an excellent 6-week Healthy Lifestyle Diet and Exercise Analysis Health Unit would benefit us all
- Here’s a great lesson on the Science of Addiction that uses poetry – part of a full curriculum on Prescription Drug Abuse
Social Studies Connections:
- Here students demonstrate their knowledge of space exploration during the Cold War through Photo Story 3
- Students create a Civil War digital diorama here which could include the suggested science component
More Lesson Plans: HotChalkScience.com




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