Curriculum Materials

Air, Atmosphere and Living Systems

Grades 3–5: Students explore basic concepts related to air and the atmosphere, air quality, and associated issues, such as allergens in the places we live, study and work. Science activities are supplemented with a storybook, Mr. Slaptail’s Secret, Explorations magazine, and include reading and math worksheets.

All About Food

Grades 3–5: Students investigate food sources, food webs and food chains, healthy eating and food groups, food safety and overall nutrition. Science activities are supplemented with a storybook, The Mysterious Marching Vegetables, Explorations magazine, and include reading and math worksheets.

Allergies and Allergens

Grades 3–5: Students learn about allergies and what can cause an allergic reaction (dust, pollen, insects, foods). They also use survey techniques to gather information. The unit includes two storybooks, Cockroach School and the Bigfoot Monsters, and Where's Noah?

Global Atmospheric Change

Grades 3–5: Students investigate different sources of energy and how they can affect the atmosphere and global ecology. Science activities are supplemented with a storybook, Mr. Slaptail’s Curious Contraption, Explorations magazine, and include reading and math worksheets.

Living Things and Their Needs

Grades K–2: The Living Things and Their Needs Teacher’s Guide allows very young students to explore living and non-living things, and learn about the basic needs of plants, animals and people. Science activities are integrated with a storybook, Tillena Lou’s Day in the Sun, and include reading and math worksheets.

PowerPlay: Fitness and Physical Activity

Grades 3–5: PowerPlay lessons, conducted in conjunction with physical challenges at the Children’s Museum of Houston’s PowerPlay exhibit, promote student understanding, positive attitudes, and healthy behaviors related to physical activity and diet.

Resources and the Environment

Grades K–2: Very young students explore how living things (including humans) use resources found naturally in their environments, or modify resources to meet their needs. Science activities are integrated with a storybook, Tillena Lou’s Big Adventure, and include reading and math worksheets.

The Senses

Grades K–2: Students learn about the basic characteristics and structures of the brain, skull and sensory system; investigate sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch; and discover how the brain and the senses are connected. An introductory picture book, Making Sense! is available in PDF format and as a slide set.

Train Your Brain: The Neuroscience of Learned Behaviors

Grades 3–5: How do we learn new skills? Are there different types of memories? Students investigate behaviors that occur without conscious thought, as well as skills that can be acquired or improved.

Alcohol

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: The Alcohol teaching unit tackles the tough subject of alcohol and alcoholism with candor backed by cutting-edge scientific research. Hands-on activities make students think about alcohol in a totally different way.

Brain Chemistry

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students explore chemical communication in the brain and body, and how our choices can affect brain function and performance. The integrated unit includes a storybook, Legacy of Lost Canyon, Explorations magazine, and language arts worksheets.

Brain Comparisons

Grades 3–5 and 6–8: Students learn the brain has three main parts, the skull provides protection for the brain, brains differ in size and shape among animals, and more. The integrated unit includes a storybook, Skullduggery, Explorations magazine, and reading worksheets. The teacher’s guide may be used alone with middle school students.

Complex Traits

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students use the domestic dog as a model to learn about genetics, DNA, genetic testing, phenotypes, alleles, SNPs, and mutations related to desirable and/or harmful effects in certain dog breeds.

Food and Fitness

Grades 6–8: Students consider their individual energy and nutritional needs, learn about calories and true portion sizes, and use what they’ve learned to create special dietary needs menus. Featured reading: “The Science of Nutrition Research.”

Heart and Circulation

Grades 6–8: Students study the heart’s structure and function, blood pathways, how volumes of blood are moved through the body, and the effects of exercise and of microgravity on the heart. Featured reading: “The Science of Cardiac Research.”

HIV/AIDS

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students research HIV/AIDS and discover how diseases spread; learn the structure, function and replication cycle of HIV virus particles; and act as epidemiologists while using real data to track the spread of HIV/AIDS around the world.

Invisible Threats

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students read about polio’s impact on one family, and the race to find a cure for a deadly virus that in a matter of hours, kills baby Asian elephants. Students also explore how infectious diseases are contracted and treated, the role of vaccines, and the link between infectious diseases and climate change.

Memory and Learning

Grades 3–5 and 6–8: Students probe how their brains store and retrieve information, and subsequently, how to be more effective learners. Science activities are integrated with a storybook, Danger at Rocky River, Explorations magazine, and reading worksheets. The teacher’s guide may be used alone with middle school students.

Motor System

Grades 3–5 and 6–8: Students explore neurons and one of the communication networks of the body, the motor system, which is involved in producing movement of the body or parts of the body by way of cellular communication to and from the brain. Science activities are integrated with a storybook, Trouble at Tsavo, Explorations magazine, and reading worksheets. The teacher’s guide may be used alone with middle school students.

Muscles and Bones

Grades 6–8: Students evaluate bone and muscle structure, physical stress and nutrition, the body's center of gravity, and ways to prevent muscle and bone loss. Featured reading: “The Science of Muscle Research.”

Operation Rescue

Grades 6–8: Students discover through simulation activities, how people work together to solve a human problem, bringing together science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and geography in a practical life or death situation based on a real disaster—a massive typhoon that struck the Philippines in 2013.

Scientific Decision Making

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students discover how evidence-based decision-making can help them make better choices in every day life as they act as health care providers working to solve three patient cases—one of which may be of a person having a heart attack. Using vital signs and symptoms, students decide which tests to run in order to solve the cases.

Scientific Decision-Making: Supplementary Activities

Grades 6–8 and 9–12: Students study the heart and cardiovascular system, build a model of coronary artery disease, learn about signs and symptoms of a heart attack, and create a poster focusing on what they have learned.

Sensory System

Grades 3–5 and 6–8: Students investigate the components of the sensory system, specialized receptor neurons that receive different types of information, and send the information to the brain for processing. Science activities are integrated with a storybook, The Cookie Crumbles, Explorations magazine, and reading worksheets. The teacher’s guide may be used alone with middle school students.

Sleep and Daily Rhythms

Grades 6–8: Students explore the day/night cycle and seasonal cycles on Earth; create and use sundials; and investigate circadian rhythms, sleep patterns and factors affecting the quality of sleep. Featured reading: “Sleeping in Space.”

Think Like an Engineer

Grades 6–8: Students follow an engineer's approach as they identify problems, brainstorm solutions, design a plan, build, test, refine and produce a product or solution. STEM activities include designing and building ring-wing gliders, boomerangs, javelin rockets, catapults, wind-up racers, rocket cars, roller coasters and kinetic art.

Ants in Space

NASA ISS Expedition 38—All Grade Levels: In January 2014, Baylor’s Center for Educational Outreach, in partnership with BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado, Stanford University, and NASA, conducted the live Ants in Space mission aboard the International Space Station. The experiment involved eight habitats, each containing approximately 100 pavement ants, with the focus of the experiment on how pavement ants work together to search a novel space.

Butterflies in Space

NASA Mission STS-129—All Grade Levels: Nov. 16, 2009, Painted Lady butterfly larvae were carried into Earth orbit inside a special habitat container on board Space Shuttle Atlantis. Astronauts transferred the habitat to International Space Station, where the larvae completed their life cycles. This mission was the first time larvae went through normal instar stages in microgravity, and completed metamorphosis into four butterflies that lived a normal life span on the ISS.

Plants in Space

NASA Mission STS-134—All Grade Levels: On May 16, 2011, Space Shuttle Endeavour began its final mission, a trip to the International Space Station. In addition to its primary payload, the Shuttle carried a student investigation which involved plant root growth in space. This investigator’s manual describes the plant root growth investigation and provides the details necessary for students and teachers to collect and analyze data while conducting their own parallel investigations.

Spiders in Space

NASA Missions STS-126 and STS-134—All Grade Levels. Two life science experiments in microgravity on the International Space Station. Based on results from the first Mission, a second Mission using different specifications was planned. On May 16, 2011, Space Shuttle Endeavour, on it's final trip, transported the payload to the ISS. Its payload included a student investigation which involved the behavior of orb-weaving spiders in microgravity. Results from the Mission can be used today with the curricular module.

Force, Motion, Friction and Energy

Grades 6–8: Each hands-on activity in this guide uses the 2016 Hess Toy Truck and Dragster to explore friction, average speed, center of mass, scaling of designs, relationship between truck weight and towing distance, effects of road surface and incline, and more.

On the Road with Vehicle Performance

Grades 6–8: Each STEM-based activity uses the 2018 Hess Toy Truck RV with ATV and Motorbike to investigate distance vs. time restrictions, energy efficiency vs. mass, angles and slopes, vehicle stability, custom design of interior spaces, planning of an internet-based ad campaign, and more.

Simple and Compound Machines

Grades 6–8: Each inquiry-based activity in this guide uses the 2017 Hess Dump Truck and Loader to explore simple and compound machines, lifting forces, traction and center of gravity, degrees of freedom, bridges, and more.

Super STEM Sleuths 1

Grades 3–5: In Super STEM Sleuths 1, students model the spread of germs, are introduced to the topic of infectious diseases and investigate the cholera epidemic of 1854.

Super STEM Sleuths 2

Grades 3–5: Super STEM Sleuths 2 students explore microscopes, and plant cells and fungi, extract DNA from strawberries and work on infectious disease case studies.

Think Like an Astronaut

Grades 6–8: Students are introduced to the challenges of space travel with lessons covering the Earth, solar system, microgravity and living in microgravity.

Think Like a Microbiologist

Grades 6–8: Students compare microbes to learn about their characteristics and roles in life, and investigate magnification tools.