This resource was created by Moe Martin, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This resource was created by Kim Francis in collaboration with Lynn Bowder as part of ESU2's Mastering the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education and experiential learning. 

Visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other. Change properties of the objects in order to see how it changes the gravity force.

Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!

Students use gumdrops and toothpicks to make lithium atom models. Using these models, they investigate the makeup of atoms, including their relative size. Students are then asked to form molecules out of atoms, much in the same way they constructed atoms out of the particles that atoms are made of. Students also practice adding and subtracting electrons from an atom and determining the overall charges on atoms.

This resource was created by Terresa Greenleaf, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

In this unit designed for an integrated middle school science classroom, students investigate why athletes ice injuries. This leads students to wonder why actual bags of ice are used instead of the instant ice packs found in first aid kits. Students then investigate the chemical reaction occurring within an instant ice pack and work to develop a better design.

Anchoring Phenomenon: First aid care for musculoskeletal injuries using bags of ice instead of instant ice packs containing an endothermic chemical reaction.

NGSS PEs Addressed: MS-PS1-1; MS-PS1-2; MS-PS1-5; MS-PS1-6; MS-PS3-3; MS-LS1-8; MS-ETS1-1

Cover Image Source: https://www.stack.com/a/cryotherapy

In this unit, students start by observing a perplexing phenomenon. When a sewing needle taped to a cone is dragged over the surface of a plastic disc that is spun underneath it, it produces voices and musical notes. This leads students to start wondering about other sound-related phenomena, which in turn leads to wealth of new questions about 1) What causes different sounds? 2) What is traveling from a sound source to our ears? 3) How do we hear and why do we hear things differently in different places? and 4) How do electronic devices (digital sound sources) produce and detect sounds?

This first-grade unit on light starts with students exploring how many shapes they can see on different pieces of paper at various locations around their classroom when the lights are turned off. They are surprised to find that some of the shapes are not visible in these conditions. This leads students to start wondering about other phenomena related to seeing in the dark, which in turn leads to new questions and design problems related to how they can make their room completely dark.

Use the Sound Grapher to create visualizations of sound and learn about the frequency, wavelength, amplitude and velocity of sound waves.

This resource was created by James Parks, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This resource was created by Alison Pavelka, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

Are all atoms of an element the same? How can you tell one isotope from another? Use the sim to learn about isotopes and how abundance relates to the average atomic mass of an element.

Three-minute video phenomena for the Kentucky Blue people. A great introduction to the passing of traits via sexual reproduction including Punnett squares and dominant and recessive traits.

This resource was created by Terresa Greenleaf, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

A realistic mass and spring laboratory. Hang masses from springs and adjust the spring stiffness and damping. You can even slow time. Transport the lab to different planets. A chart shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.

Rating: Examples of High Quality NGSS Design if Improved

Science Discipline: Life Science

Length: Unit

This middle school unit was designed to support the middle school NGSS related to Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics integrated with elements of related Earth science NGSS (Human Impact). The unit includes five chapters, each focused on a specific phenomenon related to ecosystem disruption, including questions around the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone and the invasion of zebra mussels in the Great Lakes and the Hudson River. © Regents of the University of California

Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design if Improved

Science Discipline: Earth & Space Sciences, Physical Sciences

Length: Unit

In Investigating Life on the Third Rock, middle school students work to generate and explore the overarching question of “How does the solar system and its objects affect life on Earth?” Students use modeling and argumentation to explore the lesson-level questions: “What properties of the solar system and its objects help explain why Earth can sustain life?” “Does the Moon affect life on Earth?” and “Why do the solar system and its objects move like they do?”

Rating: Example of High Quality NGSS Design

Awarded the NGSS Design Badge

Science Discipline: Life Science, Earth and Space Science, Physical Science

Length: Unit

Numerous reports suggest an increase in white shark encounters in the United States in recent years and the public is worried. In this integrated middle school unit, students engage in three-dimensional learning that enables them to explain the phenomenon. White sharks in the coastal waters of Southern California serve as a case study for students to ask questions and build understanding. Students initially question if white shark encounters are in fact increasing and investigate reports of sightings. They wonder if we know whether or not the population is on the rise, leading students to next explore past evidence from fossils and data from historic fishers logs. Students then question how scientists today are monitoring white sharks, setting the stage to explore the use of modern tracking devices (digging deep into waves and signals) and what researchers know about white sharks because of the application of this technology. This opens up the opportunity for students to question and consider what the science community has learned about white shark life history, how humans have impacted the white shark population off Southern California, and to devise a way to address public concerns.

This module is centered on the driving question, “How can we as engineers design a concert experience for others to enjoy?” In order to answer this question, students will consider what a wave is, and how waves are modeled. They will explore sound and light waves, and how these waves interact with various media. The culminating performance task requires students to synthesize this information, and apply it to the design of a concert experience.

The materials below are shared via a google drive folder and can be viewed and downloaded for use.