In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast tries to design and build a bridge made out of drinking straws that will support the weight of 200 pennies.
This interactive activity, from the Building Big Web site, explores tunneling and the tools and methods used to do the job.
You will find this list of questions interesting and amusing. "Things like, "Is salt water used for anything in the U.S.?," and How can we have a 100-year flood two years in a row?", are found on this this. Click Home to access the site in Spanish.
In this activity, students will learn the concept of half-life of a radioactive material. Students will create and be able to recognize a graph representing the half-life of an imaginary radioactive element.
This video segment presents a variety of sounds -- from animals to machines to musical instruments -- while introducing the basic concepts of vibration, volume, and pitch.
Four unit plans provide opportunities for in-depth explorations of important foundational climate concepts -- weather, water as a solid, liquid and gas, and the water cycle -- that are appropriate for K-2 and 3-5 learners. These unit plans incorporate many of the lessons highlighted in other articles in this issue of the online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle. The magazine is structured around the essential principles of the climate sciences.
In this article, teachers find two unit plans (grades K-2 and 3-5) that use resources featured in the science and literacy articles in the magazine. The unit plans are modeled after the five key steps in the learning cycle: engage, explore, explain, expand, and assess, or evaluate. The plans are aligned with the science content standards of the National Science Education Standards and the English language arts standards of the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association. The plans appear in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle.
A page from the University of Maryland Physics Lecture Demonstration Facility. Provides directions for a teacher demonstration of the ideal gas law. Shows apparatus and set-up; provides suggestions. Easily adaptable as a student project or lab investigation.
In this activity students will create their own toothpaste exploring and experiementing with natural ingredients.
Undergraduate Learning Assistants can be used to supplement the instructor and/or Teaching Assistant during recitations. They may help facilitate productive group work on tutorial activities designed to help students develop conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills. In this example, we describe the use of Learning Assistants to support tutorials within recitation in two introductory science courses physics and chemistry.
Learning Assistants are used to facilitate student discussion in peer instruction during clicker questions (i.e., classroom response systems), by asking Socratic questions, emphasizing reasoning, and probing student thinking.
This is a guided inquiry investigation where students record and gather visual information of what the moon phases look like.
An inquiry activity for students to test physical properties of several compounds to analyze data and determine if the compound is ionic or covalent. This is ideal for an introduction to ionic and molecular compound nomenclature.
How can you pick up an ice cube with a string? Watch this video segment adapted from ZOOM to see how salt can help.
A variety of fuels are evaluated for the amount of heat they liberate upon burning. This includes a discussion of how different criteria can influence the evaluation of what makes a "good" fuel.
Students will fill in a blank periodic table for elements 1-20 using electron-dot models. As a visual tool students should see several periodic trends.
Undergraduate Learning Assistants have been used to facilitate group work in a variety of ways, such as in-lecture tutorials and worksheets, group work in required recitations, and group work in optional co-seminars. This page describes some of these various ways that Learning Assistants can be used to help make a course more interactive.
Video clips from federal and regional agencies show scientists at work with tools used to collect data about the climate and weather. This article, from the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, will help students visualize the tools and how they are used in the atmosphere, at sea, and other hard-to-access locations.
Take control of a virtual car and learn how vectors are used to represent velocity and acceleration in this interactive activity developed for Teachers' Domain. Grades 6-12.
In this ZOOM video segment, cast member Francesco follows the paper trail to find out what happens to his recyclables. He visits a material recovery center and learns how paper is recycled and the number of trees that are saved as a result.