Water Properties
This simple description of the chemical and physical properties of water was produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. It includes a brief quiz to assess prior knowledge, diagrams of water molecules, and important numerical data about water.
Visualizing Scientific Data : An essential component of research
This module describes the purpose of using graphs and other data visualization techniques and describes a simple three-step process that can be used to understand and extract information from graphs. Images of a variety of types of data are included.
Trees, soil and water : Journey to Forever
Trees, soil and water: Journey to Forever - healthcare for mountains, trees for deserts, trees for people, forest, forestry, deforestation, erosion, soil conservation, water conservation, desertification This article discusses the interdependence between trees, soil, and water from a biological and conservationist standpoint.
Wisconsin Fast Plants Program
This is the homepage of the Fast Plants organization. Fast Plants are inexpensive seeds which take approximately 2 weeks from planting to flowering. The website includes seed ordering, growing directions, and activities.
Understanding the universe : star gazers
This middle school appropriate page from The American Museum of Natural History features 10 astronomers, including Einstein and Hubble. Click on their image to learn more about them.
Illuminations, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Vision for School Mathematics
The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Illuminations Web site is designed to illuminate the new vision for school mathematics as presented in NCTM s Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The site provides online esources that will help improve the teaching and learning of mathematics for all students, from pre-school through high school.
Methods and Strategies : Using Models Effectively
Models are crucial to science teaching and learning, yet they can create unforeseen and overlooked challenges for students and teachers. This article guides students through age-appropriate, critical analyses of instructional models.
Science Fair
PBS provides students in grades 4-7 with oodles of science fair ideas and a science fair tip sheet in this section of the DragonflyTV web site. Overviews of investigations from the television show are offered to help students hone in on an interesting topic and create their own science fair project. Each overview relays a question that a child asked on television, the main steps in his or her experiment, and the results. The overviews also include ideas for further investigations that build on t
Box and Whisker Plots
Construct a box-and-whisker plot to match a line plots, and construct a line plot to match a box-and-whisker plots. Manipulate the line plot and examine how the box-and-whisker plot changes. Then manipulate the box-and-whisker plot and examine how the line plot changes.
Written division
Factsheets emphasize the meaning of place value in division, the concept of division as repeated subtraction, division by 10 and 100, and well explained examples of both short and long division. A game as well as worksheets and quizzes are provided for practice.
Quick take on the wide, wide world of geometry
As the social studies, art, and music classes in the middle school widen students horizons, some of your students may become fascinated with the art, costumes, and customs of other peoples in this and other times. The NCTM Principles and Standards calls for middle school students to be able to recognize and apply geometric ideas and relationships in areas outside the mathematics classroom, such as art, science, and everyday life.
All About Sea Ice
Launched by the National Snow and Ice Data Center, the All About Sea Ice website is designed as an introduction to sea ice: what it is, how it forms, how it is studied, how it affected historical expeditions in the polar regions, and what role it plays in the global climate. The site contains over 80 pages of information on sea ice, including a glossary of sea ice terms and links to more information. The primary focus of the site is as a resource for the general public, educators and students in
Quick take on safety in the science classroom
With the increasing emphasis on hands-on instruction, it becomes more important than ever before for science teachers to be knowledgeable about laboratory safety issues. The National Science Education Standards say that students should have frequent opportunities to use a wide range of equipment, materials, supplies, and other resources for experimentation and direct investigation of phenomena. The National Science Teachers Association recommends that a minimum of 80 percent of science instructi
Science News For Kids
This resource is meant to enhance the usefulness of Science News in the middle-school classroom and offer recreational reading and activities for students interested in science. It is comprised of six zones: a weekly brainteaser for those who enjoy solving and inventing puzzles, entertaining science-fiction composition exercises for those interested in writing, and weekly science fair profiles and tips. The GameZone contains a small selection of logic and memory games, implemented as Java applet
General Coordinates Game
This activity allows the user to plot points on the coordinate plane and to read the coordinates of a point plotted by the computer.
Racing Game with One Die
This activity allows the user to play a game in which two players move towards the finish line based on the roll of a six-sided die.
Tides and gravity labs
How does gravity cause tides in the oceans? This section, part of an interactive laboratory series for grades 8-12, introduces students to four activities on tides and gravity that cover critical orbital speed between Earth and the moon, gravitational forces between two bodies, tidal effects from the sun and moon, and the change in tidal levels over time. The activities include hands-on animations of concepts whose variables can be manipulated by students. Questions posed to students include ans
Scope on the Skies : Convening with Comets
In February 2004, not only were the four brightest planets visible across the evening skies, but there was a comet rendezvous mission nearly completed while another was just getting started. Comet missions not only provide information about comets and their origins, but they also give us an important insight into the origins of our solar system. This month's Scope on the Skies column describes the Stardust spacecraft mission.
The Big Picture!
Middle School, difficulty level 2. A picture is enlarged to four times its area.
Stomachion -- from MathWorld
The stomachion is a 14-piece dissection puzzle similar to tangrams. It is described in fragmentary manuscripts attributed to Archimedes as noted by Magnus Ausonius (310-395 A.D.). The puzzle is also referred to as the loculus of Archimedes (Archimedes' box) or syntemachion in Latin texts. The word stomachion has as its root the Greek word \sigma\tauo\mu\acute\alpha\chi\iotao\nu, meaning stomach. Note that Ausonius refers to the figure as the...
