STEM Curriculum and Learning Resources

Minnesota STEM Curriculum

National STEM Curriculum

Adopt-a-Drain K-12 Support Materials, Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education
The Adopt-a-Drain K-12 supports the Adopt-a-Drain program which asks residents to adopt a storm drain in their neighborhood and keep it clear of leaves, trash, and debris to reduce water pollution.

Bridge UP! Curriculum
MnDOT’s Bridge UP! curriculum provides free classroom resources for teachers using bridge design and construction principles as the foundation for learning.

Cedar Creek Education Digital Library
Library of mostly K-2 ecology activities from Cedar Creek Ecosystem Reserve in northern Minnesota.

Chemistry Outreach
Chemistry Outreach is a University of Minnesota program that does chemistry demonstrations and discusses chemistry careers in local schools and at larger events.

Friends of the Mississippi River online curriculum
Lessons cover watersheds, invasive species, erosion, and wetlands, and are complete with videos, activities, worksheets and more.

Hamline University's Center for Global Environmental Education
Discover K-12 online resources including engaging videos and interactive modules about storm drain education, the Mississippi Rivers, Lake Superior and more!

Living River Online
This online program demonstrates how organisms live within an ecosystem. Three interactive stations feature exciting videos and fun learning modules about floodplains, mussels, pike and the Mississippi River! The course explores different ways to look at the river to determine its vitality.

Making Minnesota
Full of information and activities for kids of all ages, this free activity book is a celebration of all things Minnesota, highlighting the people we live with, the parks and waterways we play in, the animals we observe, the places we love to visit—and the history that made it all possible. The book offers activities to help readers aged seven and up engage with Minnesota’s history, people, and places—by making their own illustrations and drawings, maps, lists of favorite places, and other ways to make Minnesota great!

Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom Virtual Field Trips
Virtual field trips to numerous Minnesota farms representing a diverse array of agriculture. Includes distance learning, in person, and connected curriculum.

Minnesota Freshwater Quest
In this Quest, Heroes are challenged to identify the threats to species and human health in their own community's waterways. Then, teams of students identify and implement meaningful solutions to make a measurable improvement.

Energy Trailer, Minnesota State Energy Center of Excellence
The Mobile Energy Classroom Trailer is a resource for teachers who would like to use the tools and equipment to engage their classes deeply in energy generation, efficiency, and exploration labs. These are meant to be hands on opportunities to help meet classroom needs. Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Agriculture, Career and Technical Education teachers are welcome to request the trailer.

Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota
Links to teaching resources from cancer centers as well as information about field trips to the center and school visits.

Minnesota Valley Refuge Friends
Video lessons including wetland connection, pond science, forests are more than trees, nature through the seasons, and more.

Minnesota Zoo’s Educator Resources
A wide array of activities, resources, and curriculum to support schools and youth groups. Explore Moose Mission, a new educational platform to learn about the science of moose in Minnesota.

MnDOT’s STEM Education and Outreach
MnDOT has created new ways to help students explore STEM topics in the real world! Activities are free and easy to download or schedule.

No Boundaries to the Boundary Waters
An educational program of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness designed to bring the ecology and wonder of the Boundary Waters into classrooms across Minnesota. Free units are provided, including teacher resources.

Park Connection Classroom Visits
Sign your class up for an online classroom visit from a National Park Service ranger, River Educator, or Friends of the Mississippi River.

Saint John’s Abbey Arboretum
Watch a virtual tour of the arboretum, and prairie, wetland and forest habitats. Worksheets accompany each video.

Southeast Service Cooperative STEM Resources
A plethora of STEM resources, online exhibits, curriculum and much more.

STARBASE Minnesota STEM Unit and Kits for Schools
Free Destination Mars kits and curriculum.

Young Naturalists
Minnesota Conservation Volunteer magazine's Young Naturalists series is designed to engage students with a wide variety of nonfiction topics on natural science and outdoor life.

4-H Camp: STEM
Hands on STEM activities to inspire kids to think about how science and technology impacts our everyday lives. Learn how to code a computer game about clovers, practice digging for artifacts, and design your own constellation on a starry night.

Adopt-a-float
The Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array partners with teachers and classrooms across the country AT NO COST to inspire and educate students about global ocean biogeochemistry and climate change through their “Adopt-A-Float” initiative.

After School Math Plus
Afterschool Math Plus is an evidence-based program that provides fun, real-world mathematics activities for students in grades three through eight. Materials include a culturally relevant curriculum designed around four thematic units that engage children.

Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix
The National Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix is an online, searchable, and standards-based curriculum map for K-12 teachers available through Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom.

Click2Engineering Community of Practice
Click2Engineering is an asynchronous, module-based online professional development program for after-school educators. Participants in this community of practice get to be a part of developing future learning experiences and will have special access to existing Click2Engineering resources, including new curriculum and one-on-one coaching opportunities!

Earth School
Embark on 30 adventures through TED that will help you understand and celebrate our natural world, while learning about how dependent we are on our planet.

Fractivities
Fractivities are free, hands-on projects that teach fractal concepts in a fun, artistic way. Students utilize their math skills in real-world applications and also work together as a team to create large fractal designs.

I am a Scientist
“I Am A Scientist” is a collection of educational resources designed to challenge public misconceptions and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders. They use storytelling and creative lesson plans to introduce the multifaceted people, purposes, and pathways in STEM. Download digital and classroom resources including story kits, poster kits and spark kits.

Learn How to Become
Learn How to Become outlines education and career-planning steps students need to take to pursue careers in science, technology, medicine, the arts, and other fields.

Maker Camp
Maker Camp’s project library includes tons of projects to create, discover and make.

Movebank
Tools and data in Movebank, an animal movement tracking website, can be used for high school science projects and classroom lessons. Find a detailed lesson for studying great egret movement or use animal tracking data for science fair projects.

NASA STEM @ Home Resources
Hands on activity ideas and videos split into K-4, 5-8, and 9-12, as well as e-books, virtual tours and apps, be a scientist talks, videos, coloring pages, puzzles, and more.

Nature Conservancy Virtual Field Trips
Designed for ages 9-15 but customizable for all ages, virtual field trips allow students to travel the world and explore natural environments without leaving the classroom. Each virtual field trip contains a video, teacher guide, and student activities.

Open Education Database
The Open Education Database provides resources for students to learn about careers in the sciences, take free, open online courses, and explore college rankings.

Plum Landing from PBS Kids
Explore this PBS Kids show’s activity guides that include videos with linked activities aimed to preschool and elementary aged students. Dozens of topics include: ‘Animal Power’, ‘Mission: Seed Spot’, ‘Chirp, Honk, Woof!’and ‘Evapo-rama’.

Project Learning Tree Activities
Try these fun and easy-to-do activity ideas from Project Learning Tree to connect the children in your life to the outdoors and nature. Suitable for children ages 3-15, some activities work better for younger children, others are more suited for older children.

Project Wet
Project WET’s mission is to advance water education to understand global challenges and inspire local solutions. They offer water student lessons and tutorials, student booklets, and more.

Research Media & Cybernetics
Research Media & Cybernetics supplies information and products for scientific education and research.

Science and Our Food Supply
Free Science and Our Food Supply Teacher Guides are challenging hands-on, minds-on activities that link food safety, nutrition, and biotechnology to students' everyday lives. They are crafted in a teacher-friendly modular format that easily fit into science, health, and other classes.

Science Fair Example Projects
Our SSEF Example Project Videos page has a sampling of top-scoring videos from the 2020 state science fair sorted by grade, and includes a review worksheet and teachers’ guide for use in classrooms or distance learning.

Scratch
Students can use Scratch to code their own interactive stories, animations, and games. In the process, they learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively  — essential skills for everyone in today’s society. Educators are integrating Scratch across many different subject areas and age groups.

Spark! Online Education
The NASCAR Hall of Fame offers free, engaging lesson plans with project-based learning experiences to do at home.

Teach Chemistry Classroom Resources
Many virtual and in-person resources for teaching chemistry, easily able to be sorted by age group.

Techbridge Girls Curriculum & Training
Techbridge centers our girls’ brilliance and potential, emphasizing increasing STEM access, belonging, and persistence for BIPOC youth from systematically marginalized communities. They offer different curriculum training programs by age group for afterschool staff.

Teen Astronomy Cafe - To Go!
The Teen Astronomy Café - To Go! program provides digital education Instant Packs aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards that are suitable for both informal use and use by classroom educators.

Water on the Web
Water on the Web offers curricula on basic science and water science for high school and undergraduate student courses.

Women in Science Hub
Blog from Kolisa Yola Sinyanya, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Oceanography at the University of Cape Town, featuring interviews of diverse groups of women in science.