Lesson Plans

Your school is working towards becoming Green School certified which includes energy efficient windows. Atrium Windows and Doors has offered to help when replacement windows are needed. Energy Star window criteria and certification varies by region across the United States and needs to be considered. In order to get the process started, one currently installed
windows needs to be analyzed for energy efficiency (can be any size and located anywhere in the building).

Once you have this baseline information, you need to create a proposal for your material design of the most thermal efficient and cost-effective replacement window.

Author

Laurie McKinney

• Earth Science
• Environmental Science
• Project-Based Learning

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Students will be introduced to the story of how Biltmore Farms, a community development firm located in Western North Carolina, incorporates the Vanderbilt family legacy of natural resource stewardship into strategic land development practices guided by 5 Community-Building Tenets. After researching the assets and needs of their own community, students will propose the best use for a parcel of land with sustainability in mind.

Author

Jill Francis

• Environmental Science

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Students will engage in a STEM activity where they will build a magnetic mixer device that will attract lead-based items.

Author

Vanessa Hairston

• Science
• STEM

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The Hooked on Ponics Curriculum is a 4-week program that can be adapted to any school in a variety of ways. It was originally designed to be a 4-week middle school summer curriculum with a 2-week option, but it can also be used as an after-school program. This curriculum contains 4 “focus” topics that incorporate 5 three-part lessons that build upon one another. It is important to start at Focus 1 to build students’ knowledge of aquaponics systems, and then move through the remaining focus topics.

Author

Jennifer Keeler

• Science
• Social Studies

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After considering the work of Biltmore Farms, a sustainable development company rooted in the heritage of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, students will develop their own sustainable community.

Author

Andrea Walter

• Science
• Social Studies

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As outlined below, students will participate in a variety of activities during a five-day Ag-STEM summer camp, in which they grow their knowledge of and appreciation for agriculture. Additionally, students will have daily practice with STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts and will strengthen their English Language skills. Both native speakers and English Language Learners need daily opportunities to practice the four domains of language as addressed in state standards (SWRL: speaking, writing, reading, and listening).

Authors

Autumn Stobart and Harley Summey

• Agriculture
• Science
• STEM

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What is chemistry? Review matter and matter’s subgroups of mixtures (homogeneous and heterogeneous), substances (elements and compounds), the scientific method (data and analysis), properties and changes of the physical and chemical kind, numbers and units, dimensional analysis, the metric system, and significant figures. This is first of three units. See Unit 2: Atoms and the Periodic Table and Unit 3: The Mole for more.

Author

Leslie Rhinehart

• Chemistry

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Students learn about how electricity works and apply it to their artwork. Students will also learn about TriCounty EMC, who provides electricity to many of the students at the school. Students will be able to learn about the many jobs and support the Co-op provides to the surrounding communities.

Author

Erica Levai

• Art
• Business
• Science

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An engineer is someone who solves problems. To solve problems, engineers use a technique known as the engineering design process to perform experiments with objects that represent other things. This way they can visualize what will happen in the real scenario. To visualize how Biogen engineers were able to develop a container to transport drug-filled vials, students will use the steps in the engineering design process and a modification of the Egg Drop experiment to develop a solution to Biogens’ drug transport problem.

Author

Jacqueline Brown

• CTE
• Design
• Engineering
• STEM
• Technology

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This Project-Based Learning (PBL) lesson is originally designed for the STEM Capstone course at Athens Drive Magnet High School in Raleigh, NC. This course was created as the final project course for senior students in the high school’s STEM Energy and Sustainability Academy.

The curriculum for the course focuses on developing engineering mindsets and approaches to problem solving. This PBL is meant to apply those procedures to chemical looping research and development being completed at NC State University by Dr. Fanxing Li and his research team. The PBL begins by defining the problem of CO2 overproduction as a result of fossil fuel usage and ends with students designing their own chemical looping combustion power plant in an attempt to address the problem.

Author

Shane Barry

• Earth Science
• Environmental Science
• Science
• STEM

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Students will identify their dream jobs based on their current interests and meeting with professionals from the community. In a group, they will research the specific requirements for that job, demonstrate a project that would help prepare for that job, and interview someone currently doing that work. They will present their dream job in a student-run career fair for other students.

Author
Amanda Clapp

• CTE
• Literacy
• Social Studies

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This project teaches students about the viscosity of liquids and how that can change over time depending on different factors. Students are given different product data points that a company wants them to evaluate. Each company requires their product to have different things. Some want a product with high viscosity, and some want a lower viscosity. Each company will have three viscosity reading graphs with the points of data and average viscosity included. Students will get these graphs to help them evaluate and create their own data over time graphs.

Author
Miranda Pierce

• Science

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In this blended learning unit, students will explore the culture and safety principles of an engineering work environment and apply them to their own work environment in the school and classroom. They will complete a range of tasks that require 21st-century skills that are found in industry including critical thinking, reflection, and collaboration. Students will have a choice in the work that is completed and the pace of learning. The teacher should serve as a guide rather than a lecturer. The content can be modified for different grade levels, other LMS formats, and ELLs using the resources provided.

Author
Tiffany Fitzgerald

• CTE
• Engineering
• Language Arts
• Literacy

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Students will use the Farnsworth-Munsell Hue pallet (or other color samples) to understand the importance of using details and descriptive writing when writing and note-taking in all subject areas.

Author
Donna Pyatt

• Language Arts
• Literacy
• Science
• Visual Arts

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Students will explore angular momentum and precession with an engineering challenge. This is followed by a deeper exploration of how precession is used in NMR spectroscopy.

Author
Megan Alvord

• Physics
• Science

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