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Activities and lessons students and their parents can do almost anywhere, created by educators at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

'Discover Brookhaven' Challenge

Great idea for extra credit, classroom enrichment, or just for fun! Upon completion you’ll receive a digital Discover Brookhaven certificate that you can download or print.

Activities for K through 12 Students

Elementary Activities

Shifting Shadows: This narrated video takes students outside and challenges them to make observations of shadows throughout the day.

Animal Observer [Lesson Plan]: Brookhaven Lab's property is home to hundreds of different animal species. Learn about the tools scientists use to observe animals in the wild and how you too, can be an animal observer.

Shadowy Shapes [Lesson Plan]: Describes how students can experiment with shadows through a fun, interactive game.

Marvelous Magnets [Lesson Plan]: Guides students through an inquiry-based experiment using common household materials.

Magnet Scavenger Hunt: Follow along with this narrated video to design an experiment to discover which items are magnetic.

Magnet Scavenger Hunt [Print version]: Design an experiment to discover which items are magnetic.

Mini-Greenhouse : Grow plants in a greenhouse you design and build yourself. Learn about the plant scientists at Brookhaven Lab.

Middle School Activities

Catch a Wave [Lesson Plan]: Introduces students to spectroscopy and includes directions to build their own spectroscope.

Clouds: This activity is designed to give students an understanding of how clouds are formed and how they can contribute to an ongoing citizen science project.

Dark Matter Mysteries [Lesson Plan]: Scientists and engineers at Brookhaven are unlocking clues to Dark Matter and Dark Energy. Learn more through a series of mini-experiments.

Make Your Own Video Game: This narrated video introduces students to Brookhaven’s “Tennis for Two,” a video game designed in 1958, and guides them through steps to build their own video game using Scratch coding.

Climate Data Collection: Follow this narrated video to make a backyard study plot and begin collecting your own scientific data to become a citizen scientist.

High School Activities

Building a Beamline [Lesson Plan]: Challenges students to create a model of a real-life synchrotron beamline from a polychromatic light source.

Harnessing the Sun's Energy [Lesson Plan]: This lesson is a companion to the Full STEM Ahead video that highlights STEM careers on Long Island.

Structural Biology and Drug Design: This lesson is a companion to the 'Full STEM Ahead' video that highlights STEM careers on Long Island.

STEM Careers

What types of careers are available with a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education? View the Long Island STEM Hub’s emerging video series highlighting the varied job opportunities that exist here on Long Island.

See Long Island STEM Hub

STEM Learning Partnership with the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County

Whether you are a Girl Scout or not, Brookhaven Lab’s partnership with the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County (GSSC) has created great learning opportunities to earn a patch or gain some new knowledge in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. Visit the GSSC website to explore the different available activities.

See partnering opportunities