Describe and Interpret Images: Folded Strata
This Starting Point exercise asks students to describe and interpret an image of folded strata at Dent De Morcles. There are several questions students must address with respect to the image. This Starting Point website includes suggestions for using this technique, as well as teaching notes, learning goals, and extensive additional resource links and references.
Borders
'Borders' begins with a short dramatic piece that introduces the issues of complicity, resistance, and boundaries. This work continues to investigate these themes in the style of a documentary. In the prologue, actor Steve Buscemi plays Ted, a young scientist who goes to work at a large scientific research facility. Here he develops ideas that, much to the dismay and rebuff of his jealous fellow researchers who gather around a vending machine, are embraced by his supervisors. The young scientist
McNamara's Whiz Kid
Alain Enthoven, an MIT economist, was the country's first assistant secretary of defense for systems analysis from 1965 to 1969. In this video segment, Enthoven recounts how public interpretation of 'flexible response' strategy ran counter to both the administration's overriding goal-to prevent nuclear war-and its bottom line: that nuclear war is unwinnable. In his interview conducted for War and Peace in the Nuclear Age: 'The Education of Robert McNamara,' Enthoven sets the stage for the missil
From Mutual Assured Destruction to Star Wars
Caspar Weinberger served as U.S. president Ronald Reagan's secretary of defense from 1981 to 1987. In this video segment, Weinberger explains how deployment of the MX missile stopped the Soviet Union from believing it could successfully launch a first strike, which he feels is 'the essence of deterrence.' A better alternative to 'mutual assured destruction,' he argues, is the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Reagan administration's hotly contested proposal to design space-based weapons that cou
Sun, Moon, and Feather
'This hybrid musical comedy/documentary traces the life and times of three Native American sisters growing up in Brooklyn. The program combines song and dance reenactments of family and tribal stories with home movies taken over a thirty-year period.' Amid both miniature and full-scale sets depicting the family's crowded apartment, details of the lives of the three Miguel daughters and their parents emerge. Often, the narration of the three adult performers overlaps, contradicting and affirming
KiteModeler
KiteModeler was developed in an effort to foster hands-on, inquiry-based learning in science and math. KiteModeler is a simulator that models the design, trimming, and flight of a kite. The program works in three modes: Design Mode, Trim Mode, or Flight Mode. In the Design Mode (shown below), you pick from five basic types of kite designs. You can then change design variables including the length and width of various sections of the kite. You can also select different materials for each componen
Investigating the Climate System: Weather
This activity helps students learn how to find, interpret, and describe weather data. Students learn also about drought, flooding, wind and dust storms, hurricanes, and lightning, as well as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite -- the information it provides and why that information is important.
FoilSim: Basic Aerodynamics Software
This is an interactive simulation software that determines the airflow around various shapes of airfoils.
Image Composite Explorer
The Image Composite Explorer is designed to be an easy first step into the realm of Earth system science, image processing, data analysis, and satellite remote sensing via your Web browser. Click to read About ICE and the rationale for its design; for an in-depth tutorial, read the ICE Users Guide; or jump right in to the Channel Islands example if you prefer to learn using a hands-on approach. A Teacher’s Guide is available for educators who wish to use ICE in their classrooms.
Engineering Design Challenges
This site presents challenges faced by NASA engineers who are developing the next generation of aerospace vehicles. The challenges: thermal protection systems, spacecraft structures, electrodynamic propulsion systems, propellers, and personal satellite assistants. Students design, build, test, re-design, and re-build models that meet specified design criteria, using the same analytical skills as engineers.
Hodges Health Career - Care Domains - Model
Hodges’ Health Career (Care Domains) Model provides a conceptual framework upon which users can map problems, issues and solutions across four knowledge domains: Interpersonal; Sociological; Scientific; & Political (Autonomy). The public may also be taught to use the model, enabling engagement, understanding and concordance in planning and outcome evaluation.
Brian Hodges' original notes, a resources page and links (800+) are included. Additional material on health informatics and the potenti
Ten Activities to Consider Before Developing Your First Online Course
Many educators have asked me what they can do to prepare before they formally begin to develop an online course. Becoming familiar with the online learning environment and knowing how to create web pages can give you a head start in developing your course.Consider preparing with one or more of the 10 activities presented.
Rainbow Spelling (Kinesthetic Approach to encoding)
The following lesson requires the students to spell words containing learned phonemes using a visual and kinesthetic learning approach.
Genome Variation at the Basepair Level - Prof. Aleks Milosavljevic
Insights into cancer biology from the study of base pair-level changes in coding sequences. Genotyping vs. resequencing. Identifying cancer-related genes using association studies. Use of next-generation sequencing technologies to map chromosomal aberrations in cancer genomes. PCR-based resequencing vs. array-based enrichment. Using recurrence, pathway enrichment, and other signatures of positive selection to identify "driver" somatic mutations involved in cancer progression. Part of the Compute
Earth's Outlook from Above
Fifty years after Sputnik, satellites peering down on Earth have become valuable scientific tools to study the global environment and offer much needed insight into the future of our planet.
The Terrestrial Environment
This site provides an illustrated lecture from a geochemistry course offered by Dr. Scott Wood at the University of Idaho. Topics include crystal chemistry, ionic substitutions in crystals, weathering (dissolution, redox reactions, acid hydrolysis, and kinetics), the solid products of weathering, and the chemistry of continental waters. The lecture presentation may be downloaded as a PDF document or a PowerPoint presentation. Reading and homework assignments, with answers, are also provided.
Origin Of The Universe And The Abundance Of Elements
This resource features an illustrated lecture from a geochemistry course offered by Dr. Scott Wood at the University of Idaho. Topics include the Big Bang theory, the evolution of stars, the relative abundances of elements in the Universe, and some fundamental nucleosynthetic processes that explain elemental abundance patterns. The lecture presentation may be downloaded as a PDF document or a PowerPoint presentation. Reading assignments and a homework problem set with answers is also provided.
Plate Tectonic Movement Visualizations
This collection provides a wide array of visual resources and supporting material about plate tectonic movements. Visualizations include simple animations, GIS-based animated maps, paleogeographic maps and globes, and numerous illustrations and photos. This collection is not exhaustive but does represent some of the best sources for teaching. Resources can be incorporated into lectures, labs, or other activities.
Phase Diagrams
This site is a set of lecture notes from a petrology class by Dr. Susan DeBari at Western Washington University. The lectures explain the process of mineral crystallization and phase relationships as a function of temperature and pressure. Topics covered include the phase rule, one-component systems (unary), two-component systems (binary), and three-component systems (ternary), as well as equilibrium crystallization, equilibrium melting, fractional crystallization, and fractional melting. Diagra
Algebra.help - Simplifying expressions/equations with exponents
Follow this lesson to review basic exponent manipulation. Worksheets, further lessons, and lists of resources are also available. This resource is part of the Teaching Quantitative Skills in the Geosciences collection. http://serc.carleton.edu/quantskills/
