Students work in engineering teams to optimize cleaner energy solutions for cooking and heating in rural China. They choose between various options for heating, cooking, hot water, and lights and other electricity, balancing between the cost and health effects of different energy choices.

Against the backdrop of the devastating 1930's Dust Bowl, this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA profiles an organic farmer and the techniques he uses to conserve topsoil.

In this interactive activity from ChemThink, examine the basic properties of matter at an atomic level and consider how various atoms affect the way a substance behaves.

The objective of this activity is to reinforce the importance of being specific while dealing with events of a sequential nature, such as the phases of the moon.

This interactive periodic table developed for Teachers' Domain provides detailed information about the chemical properties of elements and illustrates the electron configurations that determine those characteristics.

An interactive simulation that teaches about friction, thermodynamics, and heat by making observations while rubbing two objects together. This simulation can either be downloaded or played online and includes handouts, lesson plans, and additional materials.

An interactive simulation that teaches about springs, Hooke's Law, and conservation of energy observing changes in kinetic, potential, and thermal energy by adjusting the stiffness and damping of springs holding various masses. This simulation can either be downloaded or played online and includes handouts, lesson plans, and additional materials.

An interactive simulation that teaches about kinematics, air resistance, and parabolic curve by shooting a car out of a cannon while trying to hit a target. Observe how changes in angle, initial speed, mass, air resistance, and drag affect projectile motion. This simulation can either be downloaded or played online and includes handouts, lesson plans, and additional materials.

How do greenhouse gases affect the climate? Explore the atmosphere during the ice age and today.

In this lesson, students design and create a foldable that consolidates what they have learned about photosynthesis and cellular respiration.

Students are introduced to the physics concepts of air resistance and launch angle as they apply to catapults. This includes the basic concepts of position, velocity and acceleration and their relationships to one another. They use algebra to solve for one variable given two variables.

Student groups use a "real" 3D coordinate system to plot points in space. Made from balsa wood or wooden dowels, the system has three axes at right angles and a plane (the XY plane) that can slide up and down the Z axis. Students are given several coordinates and asked to find these points in space. Then they find the coordinates of the eight corners of a box/cube with given dimensions.

This resource gives information about our solar system which is made up of the sun, planets and all the amazing objects that travel around it. Information about the plant sizes, distances in the solar system and the size and shape of orbits is also explained. The universe is filled with billions of star systems. And the star system we are most familiar with is our own.

How might you use an object’s gravitational potential energy to move an object? This challenge will explore how differently shaped objects store potential energy and are affected by gravity. We can see the energy of motion around us every day. From how we run to school or work to driving in our cars, the energy of motion can be seen (and experienced) everywhere. Exploring the energy of motion is one of the easiest ways to understand how energy transfers since we can see it so concretely! Analyzing energy use can help us recognize how we might design and develop sustainable energy systems in the future.

This is a 120-minute lesson that includes a self-paced interactive module and classroom activities. The teacher guide includes a challenge sequence (timeline), relevance to standards, materials list, assessment, evaluation rubric, and learning extensions.

Lesson objectives: (1) Students recognize that mechanical energy includes: Kinetic energy (KE)- the energy of motion, and Potential energy (PE)- the energy of position. (2) Students recognize that stored energy is potential while moving energy is kinetic.

This lesson contains background about the blood vascular system and the heart. Also, the different sizes of capillaries, veins, and arteries, and how they affect blood flow through the system. We will then proceed to talk about the heart's function in the blood vascular system. This will lead into a discussion of heart valves, how they work and what might cause them to fail. Then we will discuss prosthetic heart valves.

Students create and decode DNA for man’s best friend to observe how variations in DNA lead to the inheritance of different traits. Strips of paper that represent DNA are randomly selected and used to assemble the dog's DNA. Students read the DNA and create a drawing of their pet, and compare it with others in the class to check for similarities and differences.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the two basic forms of reproduction for the living things that practice them.

Students build on their understanding and feel for flow rates, as gained from the associated Faucet Flow Rate activity, to estimate the flow rate of a local river. The objective is to be able to relate laboratory experiment results to the environment. They use the U.S. Geological Survey website (http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt) to determine the actual flow rate data for their river, and compare their estimates to the actual flow rate. For this activity to be successful, choose a nearby river and take a field trip or show a video so students gain a visual feel for the flow of the nearby river.

Students participate in a variety of activities modeling different disabilities. They gain a better understanding of physical limitations while performing tasks at workstations without the use of their thumbs (taped down), impaired vision (various glasses) and impaired mobility (using crutches and wheelchairs). After discussing their experiences, they work in teams to create or improve on an adaptive device. Like biomedical engineers, students are challenged to design with the purpose of helping make a particular task easier for another person.

Students learn about the types of seismic waves produced by earthquakes and how they move the Earth. The dangers of earthquakes are presented as well as the necessity for engineers to design structures for earthquake-prone areas that are able to withstand the forces of seismic waves. Students learn how engineers build shake tables that simulate the ground motions of the Earth caused by seismic waves in order to test the seismic performance of buildings.