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Lesson Plans
Below are links to activities that have been developed and tested by Cornell scientists. They use common materials that students can find in their homes.
| Subject | Activity | Objective | Next Generation Science Standards | Grade Level | Author |
| Physics | Air Pressure: Bernoulli’s Principle | Students will learn about the principles of fluid dynamics to understand everyday phenomena such as how airplanes fly. | MS-PS2-2 | 3-8 | Renee Sifri
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Chemistry | Concentration | Students will learn about what affects the concentration of a solution by detecting the amount of vanilla dissolved in water. | 5-PS1-1 | 3-9 | Terry Bates
Department of Food Science |
| Chemistry | Crystal Growing: Homemade Rock Candy | Students will learn about how a solution changes through the crystallization of sugar and understand how temperature affects the ability of water to dissolve sugar (solubility). | 5-PS1-4 | 3-8 | Tracky Huang
Prof. Justin Wilson Nick Bigham Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Physics | Density Column | Students will explore density by creating a density column using different household liquids. They will add some simple materials to their column to estimate their densities. | 5-PS1-3
MS-PS1-1 |
4-6 | CCMR Outreach Staff |
| Physics | Density of Coins | Students will use a ruler and a simple, home-built balance scale, to measure the mass and volume of coins and use this information to calculate the density. | MS-PS1-1 | 7-12 | Nick Bigham
Prof. Justin Wilson Tracky Huang Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Chemistry | Diffusion | Students will learn about diffusion and what factors can affect it with a few simple demonstrations. | 5-PS1-1
MS-PS1-4 |
3-8 | Qingyuan Zhu
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Physics | Exploring Light | Students will use the light sensor in their phones, using a free app (Science Journal), to explore the properties of light with different materials. They will also learn how to use light to measure concentration and estimate the concentration of juice in a mixture. | MS-PS4-2
HS-PS4-4 |
3-12 |
Prof. Phillip Milner, Ruth Mandel, & Kaitlyn MacMillan Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Physics | Exploring Magnetism | Students will use the magnometer sensor in their phones, using a free app (Science Journal), to explore magnetism and to look at the relationship between magnetic force and distance. | 2-PS1-1
3-PS2-4 MS-PS2-3 HS-PS2-5 |
3-8 | Prof. Greg Fuchs, Brendan McCullian, & Jialun Luo
Department of Physics |
| Physics | Exploring Newton’s Laws of Motion | Students will use the accelerometer sensor in their phones, using a free app (Science Journal), to explore Newton’s Laws of Motion by measuring the acceleration of objects and calculating the amount of force used to cause the motion. | MS-PS2-2
HS-PS2-1 |
6-12 | Kevin Nangoi & Nathan Sitaraman
Department of Physics |
| Physics | Exploring Sound
|
Students will learn about the principles of sound, by constructing a speaker to amplify the sound and then to find a solution to reduce the perceived sound volume. |
MS-PS4-2
MS-ETS1-4 |
5-8 | Rakshit Jain
Department of Physics Federico Presutti Department of Applied and Engineering Physics
|
| Biology | Extracting DNA | Students will learn about the importance of DNA and will be able to see it by extracting some from strawberries. | LS1.A
LS3.A |
5-12 | Cheyenne Peltier
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Chemistry | Glued into Science: Sustainable Polymers | Students will create different polymers through the process of cross-linking. They will then observe and test for the properties of these and other household plastics. | MS-PS1-2
MS-PS1-3 |
5-12 | Scott Spring
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Physics | Nanomaterials: how to stretch a 2-D material | Students will learn about thin 2-D materials, like graphene, and make a stretchable in-plane spring out of a sheet of paper. They will then test how the number of cuts affects the stretchiness of the paper. | MS-ETS1-3 MS-ETS1-4 | 4-12 | Beth Rhoades
Cornell NanoScale Facility |
| Chemistry/Physics | Non-Newtonian Fluids | Students will about the difference between Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. They will then observe the properties of a non-Newtonian fluid using cornstarch and water. | 2-PS1-1
5-PS1-3 |
K-5 | Darrah Johnson-McDaniel
CCMR Research Support Staff |
| Physics | Paper Bridges | Students will learn about the forces that act on a bridge and experiment to build the strongest bridge using a single sheet of paper. | K-PS2-2 K-2-ETS1-1 3-5-ETS1-1 MS-ETS1-1 |
K-8 | Hanyu Zhang
Department of Applied and Engineering Physics |
| Physics | Physics of Bubbles | Students will use some common materials found in the kitchen to make bubbles and observe some of their properties. | 1-PS4-3
MS-PS4-2 |
K-8 | Michelle Kelley
Department of Physics |
| Physics | Physics of Flight | Students can apply Bernoulli’s Principle by making paper helicopters and/or paper airplanes. They will learn about the forces that act on flight and experiment to test how a variable affects flight. | 3-5-ETS1-1 & 2
3-PS2-1 & 2 MS-ETS1-2 |
CCMR Staff | |
| Chemistry | Red Cabbage Chemistry
|
Students will learn about acids and bases by making an indicator solution with red cabbage and testing different household liquids to find out their pH. | 2-PS1-1
5-PS1-3 MS-PS1-2 |
2-8 | Grace Hester
Sarah Parke Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology |
| Physics | Speed of Light | Students will melt chocolate in a microwave to calculate the speed of light. | HS-PS4-4 | 8-12 | Berit Goodge
Department of Applied and Engineering Physics |
| Chemistry/Physics | Surface Tension | Students will investigate the a property of water called surface tension. They will build a simple boat that uses surface tension to propel itself. | 5-PS1-3 MS-PS1-1 |
K-8 | CCMR Outreach Staff |
| Physics | Static Sticky Tape | Students will use scotch tape to observe some of the properties of static electricity. Older students can also explore how a variable might affect the electrostatic force of the tape. | 3-PS2-3 MS-PS2-5 HS-PS2-4 |
3-12 | Prof. Natasha Holmes
Department of Physics |
