Elementary School
I am Jane Goodall by Brad Meltzer
I am Albert Einstein by Brad Meltzer (author) and Christopher Eliopoulos (illustrator)
Even when he was a kid, Albert Einstein did things his own way. He thought in pictures instead of words, and his special way of thinking helped him understand big ideas like the structure of music and why a compass always points north. Those ideas made him want to keep figuring out the secrets of…
Read MoreTwo Looper Airplanes
The two looper airplane is a great model for having students engineer other designs. Fantastic to iterate through the engineering design process multiple times because it only takes straws, tape, and index cards to let them play to learn!
Read MoreWack-a-Pack Science – PQRST
Our favorite phenomenon – Wack-a-Packs from Dollar Tree! These can generally be found for every holiday and also in the birthday section. Use this phenomenon to drive questions for lots of different avenues of exploration. See attached PQRST for more details.
Read MoreEngineering in Reverse – lesson from TeachEngineering
In this hands-on activity, students take apart a toy to reverse engineer it. Most appropriate for grades 5th-8th grade.
Read MoreHow Does Reverse Engineering Work? article
Learn how this jet was reversed engineered and what we mean by reverse engineering.
Read MoreScience ELA and Math Practices Venn Diagram
Use this document to show the overlap between the practices used in science/engineering, English language arts, and math.
Read MoreThinking Collaborative Strategies
Strategies, like Expert Jigsaw and First Turn, Last Turn, are a fantastic ways to engage learners. This links to all the Thinking Collaborative Strategies which will give you lots of options for mixing up the way you engage learners in your learning spaces.
Read MoreQuestions that Blend CCCs and SEPs
These questions merge ideas from the crosscutting concepts and the science and engineering practices.
Read MoreCrosscut Symbols
The Crosscut Symbols below are from Peter A’Hearn. These can be found at http://crosscutsymbols.weebly.com/ with lots of supporting information including critical questions, questions that connect to science and engineering practices, and more for each concept. Teachers and students can also submit their own images for the crosscutting concepts on Peter’s website. Print Version: Cut…
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