Lesson Plans

This lesson sequence will introduce students to the idea of taking care of Earth through recycling, reusing, and reducing, as well as activities such as composting. Students will develop an understanding of garbage, where it comes from and where it goes, how much they create, and how it affects all humans. They will also sort garbage into categories, brainstorm ways to reduce garbage, and work to inform their peers about alternative to landfill waste and littering. Students will also engage in speaking and listening throughout this lesson sequence.
The teacher needs to consider the physical space necessary and ability to introduce living creatures (worms) into the classroom during this sequence.

Author: Caroline Courter

• Earth Science
• Science

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The face of food production has drastically changed over the course of the last fifty years. Foods that would traditionally perish after one week are now being processed and packaged to be shelf stable not for one or two months, but for years!  Some processes include preservatives and refrigeration, while others involve thermal processes such as Aseptic and Hot-Fill. Prior to any mass production of a marketable product, product innovators must develop the product, using a system for recipe development and custom product formulations. It is the job of product innovators and food scientists to help take the customer’s product from concept to a finished good.  Throughout the initial formula development, comprehensive testing is conducted to ensure the quality of the product meets the standards of both the customer and any state and federal regulations.

In this lesson, students will be transported in to a manufacturing setting within the walls of their classroom where they will act as product innovators, food scientists, and quality assurance lab technicians! Students will collaborate to determine specifics about the product and the required quality specifications.  Students will then produce sample applesauce puree prototypes, and conduct quality testing on each.  Within this lesson, much of the learning responsibility is placed on the student, and students will be expected to conduct their research and formulations within small groups. The majority of the classroom sessions will be structured around discussions, brainstorming ideas and processes, and conducting hands-on trial-and-error experiments.  This lesson is designed for students who have already completed or are taking Chemistry.  However, this lesson can be easily modified to accommodate other courses.

Author: Mollie Williams

• Science

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Students will utilize technology and hands-on research of the past, present, and future of our city on the topics of events, celebrations, cultures, military, education, landmarks, landscape, cityscape, people, government, transportation, and religion to commemorate their city and high school. (This project was originally designed for our city’s Sestercentennial and our high school’s Centennial celebrations.)

The students will design and create a mural using their skills of drawing, painting, and collaging to commemorate and pay homage to the history of the city and school. Students will gain a sense of the real life applications of a Visual Artist with the culminating understanding that nothing is created or happens in isolation as they learn that, in essence, a Visual Artist must use a full spectrum of knowledge, content, and collaboration to create this mural, which pays homage to our city and high school.

Author: Kellie Perkins

• Biology
• Language Arts
• Social Studies
• Visual Arts

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The impulse data for model rocket engines is stated and shown graphically for Estes engines. This lesson will allow you to compare the manufacturer’s specifications with experimental data and compare apogee with several classes of engine.

Upon completion of this lesson plan, students will be able to:

• Derive the impulse equation from Newton’s Second Law
• Graph impulse data from experimental launches and compare to engine manufacturer specifications.
• Conclude that the area under the curve of a force/time graph is the impulse
• Compare impulse data for several classes of rocket engines

Author: Kathleen Melious

• Physics
• Science

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The Marshmallow Challenge is an engineering challenge that can be used in any content area or situation.  In this challenge students will work in groups of four to collaborate and build the tallest free standing tower out of 30 strands of uncooked spaghetti, a meter of string, arms length of tape, and a marshmallow that must be mounted on the top of the structure.  Students have 20 minutes to finish this challenge.  In this lesson students will use the Engineering Design Process to ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve their design. This lesson can be used as a get-to-know you activity, collaborative team building, engineering lesson, or lesson with Math connections. Students are assessed on how successfully they complete the challenge.

Author: Michelle Woods

• Science

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Today’s generation of students often do not understand the sources of their food. In this unit student learning will be guided through the implementation of garden cultivation. Students will cultivate raised garden beds as a part of this unit to integrate real life farming/gardening experiences. Within this lesson students will be able to better understand the importance of agriculture as it relates to science. Students will have an opportunity to recognize that agriculture provides an ample food supply to society. Students will use real life experiences to gain greater understanding of North Carolina Common Core Essential Standards as they relate to the structures and functions of living organisms through numerous interactive activities.

Author: Crystal Boyd

• Science

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In this unit, students will study the health of a water system by determining the balance between physical, chemical and biological variables.  Physical variables include temperature, turbidity, and water movement. Chemical variables include dissolved oxygen and other gases, pH, nitrates, and salinity.  The health of water systems is dependent on the balance of its many natural systems. Students will focus on contaminants that harm our water quality and will research means of water filtration.  This unit is designed to encourage students to apply prior knowledge of technology and water to determine if local water is safe for consumption.

Author: Kathleen Boice

• Earth Science
• Science

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In the present day, all the different units we use for measurement are standardized.  Every person knows precisely the length of a foot, or a meter, or an inch, or a centimeter.  Of course, we do not all use the same system, but within any structure of measurement, we all concur on what each unit represents.

In this project, much of the learning responsibility is placed on the student. The driving question is open ended enough that several answers and perspectives are possible. Students will be expected to conduct independent research with tools given to them and use the data to interpret the metric system from big to small.

Author:

Tremain Holloway, 2014-15 Kenan Fellow

• Math

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This lesson teaches students about the properties of waves. Students will identify the basic characteristics of a transverse wave: trough, crest, amplitude, and wavelength. Students will also identify the basic characteristics of a longitudinal (compressional) wave: amplitude, rarefaction, and compression.

Author: Brittany Head

• Earth Science
• Science

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Biotechnology is one of the largest and fasted growing science-based industries in North Carolina. In this lesson students will have an opportunity to research some different Biotech companies in North Carolina. Secondly, students will grow live yeast cultures to model the cell culture development essential to the success of biotech companies. Students will manipulate different limiting factors such as temperature and the amount of media to measure the impact on cell growth/viability. The third part of this lesson will have students graphing, performing data analysis, and comparative analysis to modeled-data from Biogen Idec’s cell culture development.

Author: Julie-Anne Thomasch

• Biology
• Biotechnology
• Science

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This lesson plan is meant for AP Environmental Science classes, but could also be used for Earth/Environmental Science or Biology in parts (or as a whole). It stems from my work with Metrics, Inc. (a pharmaceutical company) and incorporates skills used in the pharmaceutical industry with those of Earth/Environmental sciences.

Students will learn about the chemistry of creating medicines, how the land is altered in gathering resources and storing wastes, how humans are affected by diseases, and how land and water quality are affected when handling the wastes created as medicines are developed, tested, and used. Students will be assessed by their creation and analysis of graphical data, participation in blogs, ability to work together to present information, and the creation of a graphic organizer detailing the interaction of the disease and medicine as well as the effects on the environment. Students will also be given a quiz at the end of the lesson to assess understanding of the concepts presented.

Author: Ryan Gardner

• Science

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The quality control team is a group of individuals, at a specific company, who are responsible for making sure all products are tested and deemed safe before release.  Students will take on the role of the quality control team through this curriculum.  Students will apply their knowledge of physical and chemical characteristics to test a “drug” for safety before it is released to market. After testing, students will apply their knowledge of the drug development process to create a standard operation of protocol (SOP), so others can make the drug.  Through this process, students will learn the importance of communication (verbal and written), team work, collaboration, maintaining controls and documentation.  Students will also develop a deeper understanding of the biotechnology industry, what it is, who works there, and how this can be part of their future.

Author: Erin Lawrence

• Chemistry
• Science

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We have always studied the different forms of energy and all its effect to the environment. We focus on the production and then the consumption and its environmental effects but not much emphasis is given on the distribution parts.

In this project I would like the students to understand how energy is transformed and delivered to the ultimate users to make them more appreciative of energy and hopefully in the process make them a good and conscientious citizen in using energy.

Author:
Cicelia Aguilar

• Physics
• Science

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Through this Project Based Learning unit, students will explore how to track exercise using the Fitbit One. They will also learn about the One Health initiative and STEM careers.

Using a mind map, they will illustrate research they find on benefits of exercise and short/long-term consequences of not exercising. Finally, using the Engineering Design Process, they will create a study to find out if they are meeting the daily exercise guidelines of at least 60 minutes of exercise, for at least 5 days a week. To summarize their findings, students will collect, organize, display and analyze their data.

Author: 
Michelle Bass

• Math

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In this lesson, students are going to look at sensors and how they are used in many applications. The lesson is connected to the STEM initiative, and gives students an opening to the world of science and engineering.  Students are going to investigate different sensors that are around them and what these sensors are gathering.  Students are going to draw and design a hygrometer which measures humidity levels, select from everyday items to build their hygrometer, test their machine using a spray bottle to increase humidity, evaluate the effectiveness of their construction and present their findings to the class.

Author:
Renuka Hackney

• Math
• Science

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