Explore how plates move on the surface of the earth. Change temperature, composition, and thickness of plates. Discover how to create new mountains, volcanoes, or oceans!

The students will play a classic game from a popular show. Through this they will see the probabilty that the ball will land each of the numbers with more accurate results coming from repeated testing.

In this classroom activity, students measure the energy use of various appliances and electronics and calculate how much carbon dioxide (CO2) is released to produce that energy.

" This course presents the mechanical, optical, and transport properties of polymers with respect to the underlying physics and physical chemistry of polymers in melt, solution, and solid state. Topics include conformation and molecular dimensions of polymer chains in solutions, melts, blends, and block copolymers; an examination of the structure of glassy, crystalline, and rubbery elastic states of polymers; thermodynamics of polymer solutions, blends, crystallization; liquid crystallinity, microphase separation, and self-assembled organic-inorganic nanocomposites. Case studies include relationships between structure and function in technologically important polymeric systems."

In this hands-on science lesson, the students will observe (and eat!) cooked popcorn and uncooked popcorn. The students will understand why popcorn pops. The students will weigh cooked and uncooked popcorn to understand why cooked popcorn weighs more.

This video looks at the global population and trends. It also explains the concept of carrying capacity and how a person's behavior influences carrying capacity. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

This video describes the ecological footprint and its limitation. It goes into some depth on the computation on the footprint and what it means for the global population. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet for an iterative calculation to find volume of bubbles and hence porosity, permeability and gas escape as a function of depth.

Students investigate the accuracy of sundials and the discrepancy that lies between "real time" and "clock time." They track the position of the sun during the course of a relatively short period of time as they make a shadow plot, a horizontal sundial, and a diptych sundial. (The activity may be abridged to include only one or two of the different sundials, instead of all three.)

This activity focuses on applying analytic tools such as pie charts and bar graphs to gain a better understanding of practical energy use issues. It also provides experience with how different types of data collected affect the outcome of statistical visualization tools.

In this short activity, students or groups are tasked to make concept sketches that track the source of electrical power as far back as they can conceive. The concept sketches reveal students' prior conceptions of the power grid and energy mix, and lead naturally into a lesson or discussion about energy resources and power production.

This is a hands-on activity students design, build, and test. They compare the energy-generating capacities of vertical- and horizontal- axis wind turbine prototypes they have built as potential sources for power in a home.

This small-group activity uses engineering concepts to design energy systems for three off-the-grid towns in Mali, Ethiopia, and Namibia.

Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target.

Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target.

This activity is a mini lab where students see the effects of gravity on objects falling from a resting state and objects projected out from the same level.

Gravitation introductory activity with interesting animation. The activity allows the student to revile the connection between the initial speed and the shape of satellite orbit.

In this lab students will make qualitative observations of flame color, a property of metals, to identify unknown metals in salt compounds.

This activity is an interactive lecture demonstration format which can be used to teach the first lesson of electrostatics. Students will investigate conservation of charge, charge by contact, polarization of charge and charge by induction.

Students are introduced to the (hypothetical) task of developing an invisible (non-intrusive) security system to protect the school's treasured mummified troll! Solving the challenge depends on an understanding of the properties of light. After being introduced to the challenge question, students generate ideas and consider the knowledge required find solutions. They watch a portion of the "Mythbuster's Crimes and Myth-Demeanors" episode ($20), which helps direct their research and learning toward solving the challenge. They begin to study laser applications in security systems, coming to realize the role of lasers in today's society.