Southern California Swell Model
The Coastal Data Information Program (CDIP) created the Southern and Central Swell Model experiments for those with a general interest in oceanography. After learning how the model works, users can view several up-to-date graphics illustrating regional and detailed swell heights on maps and plots. Although acknowledging possible errors, the website provides three day forecasts for coastal waves, tides, and swell heights. The Frequently Asked Questions link provides sufficient information on how
BEAM Education
BEAM is "a specialist mathematics education publisher, dedicated to promoting the teaching and learning of mathematics as interesting, challenging and enjoyable." They publish materials aimed at children ages 3 to 14 and provide training and workshops for teachers in the United Kingdom as well as consultancy for companies, institutions and government, and teacher education programs. Although many of their products and services are available for purchase only, they do offer a number of online res
University of Wisconsin-Madison: What is the Ultimate Fate of the Universe?
This website, created by Molly Read for the Observational Cosmology Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses the ancient questions about the development of the universe, its limits, and its fate. After reading a brief history of the field of cosmology, students and educators can learn about Olbers' Paradox, Hubble Expansion, the big bang theory, electromagnetic spectrum, and cosmic microwave background. The text contains many helpful diagrams, images, short videos, and links to a
Journeys & Transformations: British Columbia Landscapes
This website from the Royal British Columbia Museum introduces students to five important environments found in British Columbia: Mountains, Forests, Grasslands, Waters, and Cities. Each environment section includes topical features under the following headings: Nature, First Peoples, and History. Examples of feature topics include Mammals in Winter, Clothing From the Land, Life in the Ocean, and Introduced Species, to name a few. The aesthetically pleasing website keeps text to a minimum as it
Myc Cancer Gene
This Web site, offered through Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Health System, aims to "provide a hub for the integration of information on Myc target genes, the role of Myc in human cancers, and proteins that interact with the Myc transcription factors." Users will find a well-organized collection of resources relating to Myc, such as an extensive set of links to PubMed articles, related databases, and some original data. The Web site's introduction provides a very
Graphing the Rainbow
Students are introduced to different ways of displaying visual spectra, including colored “barcode” spectra, like those produced by a diffraction grating, and line plots displaying intensity versus color, or wavelength. Students learn that a diffraction grating acts like a prism, bending light into its component colors.
Teachers' Days, Delights, and Dilemmas: Wayside Teaching
Wayside teaching is all about building and sustaining positive relationships with students. Before we explore this concept further, take a moment to examine your wayside teaching attitudes, approaches, and actions by completing the self-analysis in Figure 1.,Volume 42, Number 3
Date a Rock
This lesson shows students that age-dating rocks involves counting atoms and comparing the counts. Students use simulated rock samples, which show a highly magnified selection of 128 atoms, each sample with a different proportion of the atoms of two different elements: a parent radioisotope, and its daughter product. By counting the parent radioactive atoms and knowing the half-life of those atoms, students can figure the number of half-lives since the sample solidified, and therefore the age of
Library 2.0: A Journey of Metamorphosis
Libraries as we know them have changed over the years to become Learning Commons—less like rooms with books and more like learning spaces with a wide variety of resources.
Temperature Change
Middle School, difficulty level 2. Use the given information to find the temperature.
Graphic Design: Using Symmetry to Create Corporate Logos
This activity teaches students to describe three types of symmetry, to categorize symmetric figures based on type of symmetry, and to create figures using different type of symmetry. The activities use familiar logos and signs to show how symmetry is used in the world of design, and to help differentiate between the different kinds of symmetry used in these examples.
Climate Change: Connections and Solutions, Grades 6-8
This two-week interdisciplinary curriculum unit encourages students to think critically about climate change and to collaborate to devise solutions. Students learn about climate change within a systems framework, examining interconnections among environmental, social, and economic issues. Lessons are aligned with national science and social studies standards but may be used in other classes as well. The first week of this 2-week unit lays the foundation for understanding some of the forces behin
Shopping Mall Math
Students participate in activities in which they develop number sense in and around the shopping mall. Two sets of activities, one developed for younger middle-grade students and one for older, deal with size and space, estimation, measurement, and applications involving percent.
Concurrent Lines, Medians, and Altitudes
Explore the relationships between perpendicular bisectors, the circumscribed circle, angle bisectors, the inscribed circle, altitudes, and medians using a triangle that can be resized and reshaped.
Student Perceptions of Action, Relevance, and Pace
How do teachers know their students are engaged? The results of a study in which middle school students' perceptions of academic achievement were analyzed.,Volume 36, Number 4
Silk: Caterpillars
If you listen closely, you can hear the sounds of a critical element in the production of silk--silkworm caterpillars dining on mulberry leaves. This episode of the two-minute radio show Pulse of the Planet focuses on how silkworms are raised. In the episode, available here in MP3 audio and text formats, a guest biochemist describes the silk farming process, noting the silkworms' dependence on large quantities of human-supplied mulberry leaves. The host points out how much silkworms grow in leng
Algebra tiles (grades 6-8)
This online manipulative enables the student to explore the meaning of multiplication with variables. The student arranges tiles representing variables and the values one and five on a work space. This array representation can be used to model multiplication problems such as x(y + 2) and division problems. The size of the variables can be changed with a slide bar. Instructions for using the manipulative, eight activities with a lesson plan, and a link to the National Council of Teachers of Mathe
Green Science: Investigating green—Creating surveys to answer questions
Being green means different things to different people. Some suggest that being green means saving energy, not wasting paper towels, going solar, harnessing wind, using less fertilizer, or buying products that are organically grown. Given that being green can mean a lot of things, what does “being green” or “going green” mean to both you and your students? To find out, we need to make informed decisions by collecting data. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to become familiar with
Indicators of Middle School Implementation: How Do Kentucky's Schools to Watch Measure Up?
Using responses of school personnel to a statewide survey, this study examined the perceived level of implementation of key tenets of the middle school concept as outlined by This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2003) in schools designated a Kentucky School to Watch as compared to nondesignated schools.,Volume 32, Number 6
Geologic Time: Eons, Eras, and Epochs
This resource guide from the Middle School Portal 2 project, written specifically for teachers, provides links to exemplary resources including background information, lessons, career information, and related national science education standards. This publication contains resources designed to do three things. The first is to complement teacher content knowledge and its relationship to the nature of geologic science. Geology is not a laboratory based science lending itself to traditional notions
