New feature: your own personal video queue You are at work, browsing Channel 9 and you see this great episode of Defrag has just been published on Channel 9… but you work in a cubicle and if you lean back and watch a 30 minute video, you’d probably get fired. What to do? You could email the link to yourself as a reminder to watch it later, but that’s so low tech… and what if you want to build up a list of videos to watch over an upcoming holiday? Or maybe you are about to have some elective surgery and would like to get throug
A Place to Run To
In the Canadian town of Iqaluit, women are eight times more likely to be victims of domestic violence. See how Arctic women are supporting each other at Qimaavaik, a safe haven for abused women and children. (11:00)
Kinetic and Potential Energy of Motion
In this lesson, students are introduced to both potential energy and kinetic energy as forms of mechanical energy. A hands-on activity demonstrates how potential energy can change into kinetic energy by swinging a pendulum, illustrating the concept of conservation of energy. Students calculate the potential energy of the pendulum and predict how fast it will travel knowing that the potential energy will convert into kinetic energy. They verify their predictions by measuring the speed of the pend
Creating found poetry from picture books
Students select and read a picture book and afterwards create "found poetry" based on the picture book.
Solar Eclipses
What is a solar eclipse and why are they only visible in some parts of the world? In this video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Susan Stolovy uses animations to provide an answer to these questions.
Air Takes Up Space 1
Instructions and notes for an activity that demonstrates that air takes up space.
Parallel Axes Theorem
Fact-sheet with a worked example on the use of the parallel axes theorem.
The Restless Atmosphere Quiz
Establish how well they know the Coriolis effect.
"We Are Literally Slaves": An Early Twentieth-Century Black Nanny Sets the Record Straight
In folklore the black nursemaid was seen as a dutiful, self-sacrificing black woman who loved her white family and its children every bit as much as her own. Yet the popular images of the loyal, contented black nursemaid, or "mammy," were unfortunately far from the reality for the African-American women who worked in these homes. In 1912 the Independent printed this quasi-autobiographical account of servant life, as related by an African-American domestic worker, which dispelled the comforting "
Developing Analytical and Communication Skills in a Mock-Trial Course Based on the Famous Woburn, Ma
This Journal of Geoscience Education article discusses a mock trial in which undergraduates serve as expert witnesses and law students serve as their attorneys. The article identifies the trial as an effective vehicle for developing quantitative skills and enhancing written and oral communication skills. The course discussed is unabashedly about applying scientific principles to solve real-world problems. The entire course revolves around the analysis, interpretation, and presentation of scienti
Radar Resources
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) provides radar data and derived products are on their Radar Resources webpage. The system from which these data are collected is the Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler network (WSR-88 Radar) which began operation at a few sites in 1991. Users can get and view online radar data, access products and publications, review data inventories, access the online library and find information regarding NCDC radar research. Data sets include a storm events datab
The Living Edens: Virtual Yellowstone Tour
This Starting Point page describes a virtual tour of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming featured on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) website. In this tour, students act as park rangers to research geological features of Yellowstone, locate these features on maps, and describe and define associated geologic terms. The features discussed include geysers, hot springs, canyons, waterfalls and mudpots. On this page, users can find learning goals, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, as
Education Resources for Paleontology
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) Paleontology Divisions offers educational resources on their website. Resources include booklets on geologic time, fossils, dinosaurs, and plate tectonics. Users can follow links to USGS resources including teaching sources and general interest information and non-USGS resources.
Home, Home on the River
In this case study activity, students will examine the complex issues that result from human use of ecologically sensitive areas. The students will investigate these issues from the point of view of their major/career path. This example page is part of the Starting Point collection and was adapted from the Lifelines Online case study. Users can access information about the exercise's learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, assessment ideas, references and to
Holy Starbucks, Batman!
In this case study activity, students will investigate caffeine as a potential new pollutant in a northwest river system. Effects of caffeine on invertebrates and salmon fry will be explored through field work and lab work. This example page is part of the Starting Point collection and was adapted from the Lifelines Online case study. Users will find information including learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teaching materials, assessment ideas, references and topics covered
VEX Robotics in Engineering Online Course
Welcome to the online Robotics Alliance Project VEX Course. This course has rolling admission and enables students to complete it during the course of a school session. By completing this course, you will be eligible to receive 3 units of high school credit. This is provided through the Santa Clara County Office, Regional Occupational Program* (ROP). Students outside of this district will need to contact their individual school administration regarding the application of this credit to their aca
Earth from Space
This site presents selected photos of features and processes of the earth, including cities, as seen by astronauts from space. Photos are from the NASA Space Shuttle Earth Observations Photography database, which contains more than 375,000 images.
Space Science Is for Everyone: Creating and Using Accessible Resources in Educational Settings
This brochure is offered as a tool for science, technology, engineering and mathematics educators who are working with students with disabilities. Some activity descriptions are supplemented with case study examples addressing a particular disability.
Amazing Space
Amazing Space consists of web-based educational presentations for young children about space, which were developed at the Space Telescope Science and Technology Institute. Teachers teamed up with scientists and engineers from the institute and staff members from the Office of Public Outreach to develop interactive lessons. All lessons include spectacular photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and many high quality graphics, videos, and animation designed to enhance student understanding
Exploring the Moon
This is a teacher's guide for learning about lunar geology and regolith (loose material on the moon's surface), distance to the moon, Apollo landing sites, and life support systems. Lessons focus on calculating the distance between scale models of earth and the moon, designing a spacecraft for travel to and from the moon, the locations and geology of the six Apollo landing sites, and calculating the diameter of the moon using proportions.
