Join a Stream Team
Activities offer students the opportunity to learn about multiple facets of waterbodies and pollution, including aquatic life (indicator species), local concerns, and public outreach through research, teamwork, and role-playing exercises.
SIMply Prairie: Prairie Advocates
In this multidisciplinary, inquiry-based project students prepare a plan and give a persuasive oral presentation to create a reconstructed prairie based on research. Teachers can use this unit with their students to justify enlarging or keeping an existing prairie. This project can serve as the organizing structure for prairie study where materials from units such as The Prairie – Our Heartland become research materials. It can be used in conjunction with the unit which is taught best in the f
Energy Analysis
Students use graph of historical data and research historical and societal events to determine and analyze trends in energy.
Human-Animal Relationships
This course is the first part of the Ethics and Values Signature Program, which is one of the factors making Tufts unique in veterinary education. It is designed to enrich the student's understanding of various aspects of our individual and communal relationships with "animals" (or, to use scientific terminology, "other animals"), and to stimulate creative thinking about the expanding horizons of veterinary medicine, particularly those relevant to both traditional and newer forms of human-animal
Producing Films for Social Change
This is an intensive, hands-on editorial and production course in which students pitch their ideas and then research, report, produce, shoot, write, and edit their own short documentary films on social issues affecting the local community, the U.S., or the world. Readings and discussions focus on current news, media ethics, media literacy, the declining credibility of the press, journalists? responsibilities to the public, social justice issues, First Amendment principles, corporate media owners
Tropical Ecology and Conservation
This seminar plus field work in Costa Rica is designed to give students with an in-depth understanding of tropical ecology and conservation biology. More specifically it provides students the opportunity to (1) read the original literature, (2) give oral presentations, (3) design and write a research proposal, and (4) gain hands-on research experience in Costa Rica. Here are what the students say are the highlights of the course: 1. Learning how to write a proposal and executing that project. 2.
Kenneth Clark
In this transcript of an interview for Eyes on the Prize, psychologist Kenneth Clark describes his research that illustrated the impact of racism on African American children.
The Growling Stomach
In this lesson, the students will investigate what types of plants and insects they could eat to survive in the Amazon. They will research various plants and/or insects and identify characteristics that make them edible or useful for the trip. The students will create posters and present their findings to the class.
Space
In this unit, students first are introduced to the historical motivation for space exploration. They learn about the International Space Station and are introduced to new and futuristic ideas that space engineers are currently working on to propel space research. Next, students learn about the physical properties of the Moon. They are asked to think about what types of products engineers would need to design for us to live comfortably on the Moon. Lastly, students learn some basic facts about as
Space Shelter
The invasion has taken place and we need to find a new home. To ensure your survival beyond earth's occupation you must design a shelter that can be built on another planet. Students will research the characteristics of a planet of their choice. They will design a shelter that will allow them to survive on a new planet, and explain it in words.
Cells
In this unit, students look at the components of cells and their functions and discover the controversy behind stem cell research. The first lesson focuses on the difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. In the second lesson, students learn about the basics of cellular respiration. They ...
Rolling Blackouts & Environmental Impact: What are our Electricity Options?
The goal is for the students to understand the environmental design considerations required when generating electricity. The electric power that we use every day at home and work is generated by a variety of power plants. Power plants are engineered to utilize the conversion of one form of energy to another. The main components of a power plant are an input source of energy that is used to turn large turbines, and a method to convert the turbine rotation into electricity. The input sources of en
It's the Law
Students will research the laws relating to tobacco in their own and other jurisdictions, debating the most effective approaches.
Discovering Important Statistical Concepts Using Spreadsheets (DISCUS)
DISCUS is a set of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets designed for teaching first year undergraduate level statistics. Students can use them on their own and do not need prior knowledge of Excel. Topics include descriptive statistics, probability, binomial distributions, and regression etc. This page has links to more info about each topic, an independent review of DISCUS, and a DISCUS download. It also links to information on the creation of a Spanish version of DISCUS called Tutorial para el Aprendi
Evaluating How Our Students Think and Learn: Research Results from the Trenches
This PowerPoint presentation addresses research on the thinking and learning processes of students and how increased knowledge of these processes can be used to structure lectures in a manner that will change the way students learn. It covers methods for course redesign, classroom assessment techniques, ...
Linear Algebra
When I started teaching this subject I found three kinds of texts. There were applications books that avoid proofs and cover the linear algebra only as needed for their applications. There were advanced books that assume that students can understand their elegant proofs and know how to answer the homework questions having seen only one or two examples. And, there were books that spend a good part of the semester multiplying matrices and computing determinants and then suddenly change level to wo
Optical Quantum Control
Explore an active area of research in optical physics: producing designer pulse shapes to achieve specific purposes, such as breaking apart a molecule. Carefully create the perfect shaped pulse to break apart a molecule by individually manipulating the colors of light that make up a pulse.
Eating and Exercise
How many calories are in your favorite foods? How much exercise would you have to do to burn off these calories? What is the relationship between calories and weight? Explore these issues by choosing diet and exercise and keeping an eye on your weight.
Contemporary Controversies in the Earth Sciences
This course will introduce you to a variety of topics from different disciplines within the Earth sciences, with the aim of piquing your interest in areas of current research being conducted here at Penn State.
Plate Tectonics and People: Foundations of Solid Earth Science
This course covers a mix of fundamental topics in solid Earth science such as plate tectonic theory as well as current research being conducted here at Penn State.
