This article provides an overview of learning cycles and how they can enhance student learning in science.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explore how to use fossils and artifacts (scientific clues) to learn about the polar regions' past. Targeted literacy skills include making inferences, and using context clues to define new vocabulary.

This article assembles free resources from the Learning from the Polar Past issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

This article highlights children's literature about fossils, dinosaurs, archaeology, and paleontology for use in the elementary classroom.

Short Description:
Learning Lab Contextualised Content (LLCC) is a multidisciplinary suite of digital open educational resources. It supports learners and educators by providing foundation resources in an interactive, flexible, and shareable format. Developed by educators and digital learning designers, the aim of this content is to provide realistic examples of the implementation of skills and knowledge required by students at a tertiary level. Included in the LLCC are materials on a range of subjects from maths, physics, and writing, to critical thinking, collaboration, and time management. The resources encourage learners to think about how they will apply these skills in their future careers and focus on four industry areas: engineering, economics and marketing, healthcare, and social services. All objects sit within a larger story, that of the Salty Creek Community Festival, and can be explored holistically by the learner. However, each learning object is also modular, meaning it can be used as an independent lesson or activity.

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(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This activity sends students undercover to Dayton and Kitty Hawk to report secretly on the activities of two brothers who are making a big glider in their bicycle shop. Students prepare by researching aviation history and then, posing as news reporters, interview the brothers (and neighbors). Instructions are included for building the Wright brothers' gliders and first plane.

This teaching unit was created to provide any classroom teacher with all the tools necessary to help her students learn and apply engineering and design skills and computer science concepts in the context of a Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) style investigation.

Students learn in the context of a story line that winds throughout each of the five workshops in the unit. Each workshop introduces a new phase of their ongoing “Mission to Mars.” Every workshop begins with a video that provides students an overview of the problem or situation encountered by the Mars Explorers (represented in the online modules by two Lego™ mini-figures and called Max and Mia to match the WeDo software). The curriculum then walks the students through a series of online learning modules that help them learn about a piece of technology or a new concept they’ll need to build a model from Lego WeDo™ kits and how they can solve real life problems using engineering practices.

This article highlights lessons and activities for elementary students about the people and cultures of the Arctic region.

This article includes integrated lessons, activities, and ideas for teaching about exploration and polar explorers in the elementary classroom.

This article highlights lessons and activities for elementary students about heat, insulation, and how animals and people stay warm in cold environments.

This article includes lessons that elementary teachers can use to build the foundations of climate literacy while meeting elementary science standards. Lessons are paired with literacy activities as well.

Students explore methods employing simple machines likely used in ancient pyramid building, as well as common modern-day material transportation. They learn about the wheel and axle as a means to transport materials from rock quarry to construction site. They also learn about different types and uses of a lever for purposes of transport. In an open-ended design activity, students choose from everyday materials to engineer a small-scale cart and lever system to convey pyramid-building materials.

Working as a team, students discover that the value of pi (3.1415926...) is a constant and applies to all different sized circles. The team builds a basic robot and programs it to travel in a circular motion. A marker attached to the robot chassis draws a circle on the ground as the robot travels the programmed circular path. Students measure the circle's circumference and diameter and calculate pi by dividing the circumference by the diameter. They discover the pi and circumference relationship; the circumference of a circle divided by the diameter is the value of pi.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a team of archaeologists and engineers explores different uses of the lever by recreating the engineering feats of the ancient Easter Island peoples.

In this activity on page 1 of the PDF, learners compare the relative sizes of biological objects (like DNA and bacteria) that can't be seen by the naked eye. Learners will be surprised to discover the range of sizes in the microscopic world. This activity can be followed up with a second activity, "What's in a microbe?", located on page 3 in the same resource.

This article describes daily life and work at the IceCube telescope at the South Pole, Antarctica, and links to informational text about them. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

In this lesson, students learn about the physical properties of the Moon. They compare these to the properties of the Earth to determine how life would be different for astronauts living on the Moon. Using their understanding of these differences, they are asked to think about what types of products engineers would need to design for us to live comfortably on the Moon.

How can you lift a heavy metal table using air? In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members succeed in lifting a table using their own breath and a few plastic bags.

This activity is an experiment where students learn about angles of reflection and use that knowledge to reflect a light beam around obstacles to a target across the classroom.

Astronauts cannot just flip on a faucet when they want to wash their hands. Learn about water conservation on the International Space Station.