STEM Outside

Help your students tackle the misconception that air is not matter! Students are challenged to prove that air is matter by finding the mass and volume of air. In this download, students get background information, and some simple supplies (see below). Students create their own procedure and plan for determining the mass and volume of air to encourage ownership and engagement with their learning, but helpful questions are provided for students if they get stuck. You'll also find a data table and

Moon phases can be a challenging concept to visualize, and this is a perfect way to help students systematize their real-world observations, spark curiosity, and strengthen pattern identification skills! By the end of this inquiry activity, students will have generated a scientific question about how the Moon changes and its relationship to the Sun and Earth, developed a procedure, collected and analyzed data, and answered their own question. Step 1: Choose a scientific question about the Moon'

Starting a science weather unit collecting weather data? Have your students design and build a rain gauge first and use their instrument to take their daily measurements! In this activity, students are challenged to design and build a rain gauge from household materials. To make it as accurate as possible, they have to make their container cylinder-shaped, stable and reduce evaporation. Students can work individually or in small groups to do their design. Students will draw and describe their de

In this mini-project, students will get practice calculating the volume of a rectangular prism, performing unit conversions and creating a bar graph to answer the question "How Much of Your Home Water Usage Could be Supplied by Rainfall?" I love that this question also gets students wondering and curious about water sustainability, water barrels and their own water usage. Over the course of this mini-project, students will read about the Cape Town water crisis of 2018, plan how they will collect

Get students moving outside, collecting a few fall leaves! When they return, students carefully observe the leaves with a magnifying glass and measure them with a ruler. This is a great opportunity for students to examine the properties of matter and consider the similarities and differences between the examples of leaf matter they find! This Google Slides activity includes background information on leaves, space for students to plan what properties they want to observe and how to observe them,