Lesson Plans & Activities
Looking for ideas to spice up your science teaching? Our activity database features full-period lessons to integrate into your normal curriculum.
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Here you'll find a curated collection of science lesson plans for 9th-12th grade. Many of our activities list connections to the Next Generation Science Standards.
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Model natural selection and explore the genetics behind color vision. What selective pressures affect vision?
Trace patterns of agricultural expansion through space and time. Do you see evidence for how agriculture spread?
Observations inspire scientific questions and drive discoveries. Explore seasonal primary productivity on Earth!
Can we use a model to predict the impacts of nutrient pollutants on an aquatic ecosystem?
In this activity, students will be transformed into strategically low-impact world travelers.
Practice ratios and create scale models to compare sizes between the largest animals.
Why do birds migrate? Visualize and explore the connectedness of organisms within and across ecosystems.
How does the finite amount of carbon on this planet move around in the environment, from one place to another?
Can you create a model of how carbon flows between the biosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere?
Create a change in air pressure using a garbage bag and vacuum cleaner, and then create a model to explain!
Featuring over 40 activities, this guide will get your students outside throughout the year!
These mockingbirds have an interesting history: can you construct their evolutionary relationship using logic?
By conducting a survey of an outdoor environment, students will design solutions for preventing marine debris.
Discover the part of the leaf that allows for gas exchange!
Learn what it takes to develop, grow and consume some of the foods and water we need.
Using a model, students will construct explanations for one of the reasons why fish populations are declining.
By sorting our waste into different bins, we can make a huge impact.
In this activity, students gain insight into the challenges associated with meeting various design requirements.
In this two-day lesson, students explore several issues surrounding our current global food system.
Practice rapid ideation—an important step in design thinking—by brainstorming solutions to food systems issues.
In this activity, students will work together to weigh potential solutions to global food system issues.
Design Thinking Challenge: Are your students ready to tackle a food system issue at home or in their school?
Students contextualize a design problem by examining the water consumption of smartphones, boots, and chocolate.
In this two-day lesson, students explore several issues surrounding global water use and conservation.
Practice rapid ideation—an important step in design thinking—by brainstorming solutions to global water issues.
In this activity, students will work together to weigh potential solutions to water use and conservation issues.
Design Thinking Challenge: Are your students ready to tackle a water issue at home or in their school?