Free, Interdisciplinary Lessons
We strive to create mind-expanding learning experiences that a non-specialist can teach in any G5-12 classroom with 15 minutes of prep time!
Made open access by these funding organizations and research institutions:
Galactic Polymath Learning Tools
Jobviz Career Explorer
A starting point for students to explore 1,000 job possibilities
"Swimming in the Dark"
Run digital experiments to understand fish schooling.
"EchoSim" Echo Chamber Simulation
Explore how different human variables (like tolerance) affect social media networks.Galactic Polymath Videos
Galactic Polymath Mini-Unit Releases
Each unit has 2-6 lessons created through 100s of collaborative hours by scientists, teachers, artists, and filmmakers.
And they're all free!
Photon Engineers
Tinkering with Light
Bioinspired Design
Looking to Biology for Better Solutions
Animal Collective
How group behavior can produce surprising problems...and solutions!
Electric Crystals
Exploring how crystal symmetry can power everyday life
I Like That!
How perception, emotion, and cognition shape our preferences
Colorful Solutions
Chemical Engineering Dyes to Brighten Lives
Guardian Frogs of Borneo
Why Exceptions Matter in Biology and Everyday Life
Females singing to be heard
Challenging long-held assumptions about birdsong through data visualization
Genetic Rescue to the Rescue
Preventing extinction through gene flow
Galactic Polymath Individual Lessons
Free lessons to engage students in current research, real world problems, and interdisciplinary thinking.
Seeing through time: A puzzling history of optics
Discover the secrets printed on the US dollar bill using a water drop-lens, and explore lens innovations throughout history with a timeline puzzle sort.
Part of: Photon Engineers
What's a lens? Bending light for sight
Learn how lenses bend light through an interactive video, and brainstorm new materials to design a sight-correcting lens.
Part of: Photon Engineers
What is light? Making waves
Illustrate the anatomy of a wave by linking together as a human wave-medium to transmit waves with different amplitudes and frequencies. Then, investigate the full spectrum of light waves with a ranking game.
Part of: Photon Engineers
Communicating with light: A message to Mars
Expand on the advanced properties of light. Then design a code that uses waves to send a message to Mars!
Part of: Photon Engineers
Define the Problem
Students self-reflect and draw mind maps to identify a product in their lives that could be more interesting, sustainable, or functional.
Part of: Bioinspired Design
Biologize the Problem
Students find a functional bridge to biology. They use field guides, AI chatbots, and other resources to find adaptations that are analogous to the design challenge they have set for themselves.
Part of: Bioinspired Design