Explore how the Earth's atmosphere affects the energy balance between incoming and outgoing radiation. Using an interactive model, adjust realistic parameters such as how many clouds are present or how much carbon dioxide is in the air, and watch how these factors affect the global temperature.

Make your own miniature greenhouse and measure the light levels at different "times of day"--modeled by changing the angle of a lamp on the greenhouse--using a light sensor. Next, investigate the temperature in your greenhouse with and without a cover. Learn how a greenhouse works and how you can regulate the temperature in your model greenhouse.

Metals are grouped according to their characteristics. This video segment uses the periodic table for an in-depth discussion.

This expository article, written for students in grades 4-5, explains why ice floats and how this is essential to life on earth. Modified versions are available for younger students.

At this site from The Nobel Foundation you can read about the life and scientific work of Guglielmo Marconi. This man was recognized for his work in "the development of wireless telegraphy". He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909. Download and read his Nobel Lecture, "Wireless telegraphic communication," which is available in pdf format.

Compiled by Kyle Gray, University of Akron, 'krg10@uakron.edu' and David N. Steer, University of Akron, 'steer@uakron.edu'

In this ZOOM video segment, join Hana as she learns traditional Japanese drumming with her Taiko group.

This towing lab students use a active learning activity to develop planning, problem solving and conceptual skills to clarify understanding of applied and net force. The assessment is the correct composition of a vector diagram.

This article features science lesson plans to teach elementary students about the sun's energy, the relationship between light and heat, albedo, and the absorption of different surfaces. National standards and literacy integrations are provided for each lesson.

This article highlights hands-on or multimedia lesson plans about oceans. Science lessons are paired with suggested literacy lesson plans. All lessons are aligned to national standards.

This article provides links to lessons and units about birds, bird characteristics, and penguins. Ideas for literacy integration are included, and all lessons are aligned to national standards.

This activity is a guided lab where the students gather data from different swinging pendulums, compares the results to equation results, and finally draws general conclusions on these results.

This activity is a classroom demonstration activity in which students make predictions and explore the concepts and applications of heat transfer and heat absorption.

Students explore heat transfer and energy efficiency using the context of energy efficient houses. They gain a solid understanding of the three types of heat transfer: radiation, convection and conduction, which are explained in detail and related to the real world. They learn about the many ways solar energy is used as a renewable energy source to reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses and operating costs. Students also explore ways in which a device can capitalize on the methods of heat transfer to produce a beneficial result. They are given the tools to calculate the heat transferred between a system and its surroundings.

Discover how electricity can be converted into other forms of energy such as light and heat. Connect resistors and holiday light bulbs to simple circuits and monitor the temperature over time. Investigate the differences in temperature between the circuit with the resistor and the circuit using the bulb.

In this video adapted from the National Science Center, observe a demonstration to discover how helium gas is inert and hydrogen gas is reactive.

Students gain a basic understanding of the engineering components behind telecommunications, in particular, the way telephone communication works to link one phone to another for conventional landline and cellular telephones. During this entire-class activity, students simulate how phone calls are connected by acting out a variety of searches for both local and long-distance calls. Students end up with a good understanding of how phone calls are transmitted from callers to recipients.

Students learn the basic relationship of Snell's Law, practice applying it to a situation, then are given another situation where it "doesn't work."??? This situation turns out to be one in which total internal reflection occurs. Students are then shown what happens with classroom apparatus.

A main concern of shoe engineers is creating shoes that provide the right amount of arch support to prevent (or fix) common gait misalignments that lead to injury. During this activity, students look at their own footprints and determine whether they have either of the two most prominent gait misalignments: overpronation (collapsing arches) or supination (high arches). Knowing the shape of a person's foot, and their natural arch movement is necessary to design shoes to fix these gain alignments.

This activity is a lab investigation where students observe, record, and gather data on the speed, acceleration, constant speed, and average speed of toy cars. This activity allows for futher investigation of speed, time, and distance of objects to calculate speed and acceleration.