This activity gives a visual representation of how we are able to observe many colors in a sunrise or sunset.
This activity allows the student to access a webpage that provides examples of stoichiometry using terminology and objects they use in their everyday life. This activity can help a student make a connection between the complex chemical concept of stoichiometry and their current knowledge.
Student teams investigate the properties of electromagnets. They create their own small electromagnet and experiment with ways to change its strength to pick up more paper clips. Students learn about ways that engineers use electromagnets in everyday applications.
This simple puzzle game introduces kids to crystals! Players join the kids of the Yard and try their hand at arranging molecules with different shapes and properties into an ordered, stable configuration. Learn about crystals, repeating patterns, and molecular charges.
" This course covers the following topics: X-ray diffraction: symmetry, space groups, geometry of diffraction, structure factors, phase problem, direct methods, Patterson methods, electron density maps, structure refinement, how to grow good crystals, powder methods, limits of X-ray diffraction methods, and structure data bases."
" This course in crystal structure refinement examines the practical aspects of crystal structure determination from data collection strategies to data reduction and basic and advanced refinement problems of organic and inorganic molecules."
Students perform DNA forensics using food coloring to enhance their understanding of DNA fingerprinting, restriction enzymes, genotyping and DNA gel electrophoresis. They place small drops of different food coloring ("water-based paint") on strips of filter paper and then place one paper strip end in water. As water travels along the paper strips, students observe the pigments that compose the paint decompose into their color components. This is an example of the chromatography concept applied to DNA forensics, with the pigments in the paint that define the color being analogous to DNA fragments of different lengths.
The leading source for current events, news and non-fictional content for Common Core ELA, Science and Social Studies. With thousands of news articles and new original content added daily, we are the leading online source of current events for students, teachers and schools. Grades K-8
How do we get potable water from Lake Michigan? In this project we explore water filtration through a guest speaker from the water utility and two subsequent labs on water filtration and water testing to build career connectedness in the classroom.
Students learn how the process of soil solarization is used to pasteurize agricultural fields before planting crops. Soil solarization is a pest control technique in agriculture that uses the sun’s radiation to heat the soil and eliminate unwanted pests that could harm the crops. The approach is compared to other pest control methods such as fumigation and herbicide application, highlighting the respective benefits and drawbacks. In preparation for the associated hands-on activity on soil biosolarization, students learn how changing the variables involved in the solarizing process (such as the tarp material, soil water content and addition of organic matter) impacts the technique’s effectiveness. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post-quiz is provided.
An elementary review activity for chemistry vocabulary, tools, and concepts used with the classroom science curriculum.
This tool provides a summary of daily records broken in several weather parameters (temperature, precipitation, snow fall, snow depth), over various time intervals, in the US and globally.
This short, engaging video created by NASA presents a complex topic via a simple analogy. The idea of positive and negative feedback is demonstrated by Daisyworld - a world with black and white flowers growing on it.
In this interactive activity from the Building Big Web site, investigate dams in distress and decide if they should be repaired, removed, or left alone.
This activity is an entire-class lab experiment that refreshes the concepts of sinking and floating, while introducing the concepts of bouyancy and density using the fizz from sprite (carbon dioxide gas) and raisins.
This visualization tool shows sea ice data from 1978 to the present. Selected data can be animated to show changes in sea ice extent over time. Data is added by the National Snow and Ice Data Center as it becomes available.
Simulate the original experiment that proved that electrons can behave as waves. Watch electrons diffract off a crystal of atoms, interfering with themselves to create peaks and troughs of probability.
The students get to be climate detectives as they make a model of sediment cores using different kinds of glass beads and sand. They learn how to examine the types, numbers, and conditions of diatom skeletons in the model sediment cores and tell something about the hypothetical paleoclimate that existed when they were deposited.
This three-panel figure is an infographic showing how carbon and oxygen isotope ratios, temperature, and carbonate sediments have changed during the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. The figure caption provides sources to scientific articles from which this data was derived. A graphic visualization from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows the rapid decrease in carbon isotope ratios that is indicative of a large increase in the atmospheric greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4, which was coincident with approximately 5C of global warming.
This NASA animation on land cover change zooms into Rondonia, Brazil. It starts with a Landsat satellite image taken in 1975 and dissolves into a second image of the same region taken in 2009 that illustrates a significant amount of land use change.