The Discovery Education website is an excellent source for science teachers who are looking for lessons and other teaching resources. One of the features of the Discovery Education website is a physical science lesson plan library divided into sections according to grade level: K-5, 6-8, and 9-12. The lesson plans are detailed and include vocabulary definitions, standards and benchmarks, and rubrics for assessment, as well as links to external websites for further information. While the lesson plans generally recommend showing a related Discovery Education video to supplement the lesson topic, viewing the video is not required to teach the majority of the lessons if teachers do not have access to these videos.
Grades K-5 lesson topics include electricity, forces and motion, and sound. The lesson plans are hands-on and engaging, with exciting activities such as building electrical circuits, constructing catapults, investigating the nature of sound using drums and tuning forks, and exploring Newton's laws of motion by playing marbles.
Grades 6-8 lesson topics include elements and compounds, temperature and pressure, gravity, friction and radioactive decay. Hands-on activities include building bridges, constructing egg parachutes, designing and building roller coasters and Rube Goldberg machines, and investigating half-life using coins or M&Ms.
Grades 9-12 lessons include the periodic table, atomic structure, elements, acids and bases, and chemical reactions. Hands-on activities include modeling redshift using water waves, designing sails, designing and building Lego cars, and making polymers. Some of the high school lessons require students to do research and write papers on topics such as space exploration and the effect of friction and gravity on different types of sports.
