Shaped: The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Education Blog

Earth Day Lesson Plans: Teaching About the Environment

Use these Earth Day lesson plans for kindergarteners and elementary school students to teach them about sustainable practices in their daily lives.

Shaped Staff

March 19, 2020

Celebrating Famous Female Scientists Who Have Impacted the World

Download these posters to teach students about women in science who have contributed to fields ranging from engineering to astronomy to chemistry.

Shaped Staff

March 05, 2020

Teacher Op-Ed: Creating a Safe Space for Teaching Science in a Divided World

A high school science teacher in the Midwest offers her experience and best practices for discussing sensitive topics in the classroom—with tips for respecting all viewpoints while still reaching comprehension of scientific facts.

Shaped Contributor

March 02, 2020

Honoring Famous African American Scientists for Black History Month

For Black History Month, honor those black scientists who left enormous legacies and changed the course of history through innovation.

Shaped Staff

February 06, 2020

How to Hold an Invention Convention in Your School

Because research shows engineering can help students understand what they can do with the knowledge they learn in science, encouraging them to invent and create is a natural outcome.

Shaped Staff

January 23, 2020

New Year's Resolutions Every Science Teacher Can Relate To

We are about to start a new year, and for science teachers, it’s another chance to make (and break) some resolutions.

Ann Pearson

Shaped Contributor

December 31, 2019

Assess Students' Understanding of NGSS With These Engineering Activities

You can use these free online activities from the National Assessment of Educational Progress to gauge how well your students understand NGSS science concepts.

Dr. Cary Sneider

NGSS Writing Team Leader, Associate Research Professor at Portland State University

December 16, 2019

Celebrate STEM Using Hands-On Experiments and Science Stories

On November 8 (and every day), try these quick, simple and easy STEM Day activities for elementary students—created by the Kitchen Pantry Scientist and author of STEAM project books, Liz Heinecke.

Liz Lee Heinecke

STEAM Author; The Kitchen Pantry Scientist

November 05, 2019

Hands-On Science Activities for the Classroom: Let's Make Waves!

Help your students by challenging their misconceptions about waves with these activities that use easy-to-find materials and provide guiding questions and instructions for you.

Shaped Staff

November 01, 2019

Teaching NGSS: Phenomena in the Science Classroom

Using science phenomena can jumpstart instruction by helping students realize the real-world context of the topic to be studied. Start with this NGSS phenomena example.

Michael DiSpezio

Author, ScienceFusion and HMH Science Dimensions Programs

October 22, 2019