Children Learn Zoo Animal Names Quickly in Spanish
In this video, students will learn various zoo animal names in Spanish. An animated picture of the zoo animal is shown with the Spanish name and then a real photograph is shown. This is a fun teaching resource for a lesson/unit on zoo animals in the elementary classroom. (3:42)
Physics of Roller Coasters
Students explore the physics utilized by engineers in designing today’s roller coasters, including potential and kinetic energy, friction, and gravity. First, students learn that all true roller coasters are completely driven by the force of gravity and that the conversion between potential and kinetic energy is essential to all roller coasters. Second, they also consider the role of friction in slowing down cars in roller coasters. Finally, they examine the acceleration of roller coaster cars
Carbon Cycles
Students are introduced to the concept of energy cycles by learning about the carbon cycle. They will learn how carbon atoms travel through the geological (ancient) carbon cycle and the biological/physical carbon cycle. Students will consider how human activities have disturbed the carbon cycle by emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. They will discuss how engineers and scientists are working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Lastly, students will consider how they can help the world th
Heat It Up!
Through a teacher demonstration using water, heat and food coloring, students see how convection moves the energy of the Sun from its core outwards. Students learn about the three different modes of heat transfer (convection, conduction, radiation) and how they are related to the Sun and life on our planet.
Fossil Fondue
To understand how fossils are formed, students model the process of fossilization by making fossils using small toy figures and melted chocolate. They extend their knowledge to the many ways that engineers aid in the study of fossils, including the development of tools and technologies for determining the physical and chemical properties of fossilized organisms, and how those properties tell a story of our changing world.
Rocket Power
By making and testing simple balloon rockets, students acquire a basic understanding of Newton’s third law of motion as it applies to rockets. Using balloons, string, straws and tape, they see how rockets are propelled by expelling gases, and test their rockets in horizontal and incline conditions. They also learn about the many types of engineers who design rockets and spacecraft.
The Science of Swinging
Students learn what a pendulum is and how it works in the context of amusement park rides. While exploring the physics of pendulums, they are also introduced to Newton’s first law of motion — about continuous motion and inertia.
Blazing Gas
Students are introduced to our Sun as they explore its composition, what is happening inside it, its relationship to our planet (our energy source), and the ways engineers help us learn about it.
Using a Fancy Spectrograph
Students use the spectrograph from the “Building a Fancy Spectrograph” activity to gather data about different light sources. Using the data, they make comparisons between the light sources and make conjectures about the composition of these sources.
Create a Pinhole Camera
In this activity, students construct their own pinhole camera to observe the behavior of light.
A Spectral Mystery
Students use the spectrograph from the “Building a Fancy Spectrograph” activity to gather data about light sources. Using their data, they make comparisons between different light sources and make conjectures about the composition of a mystery light source.
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.
Pictures Please – Traveling Light
In this lesson, students learn that light travels in a straight line from a light source and that ray diagrams help us understand how an image will be created by a lens. In the accompanying activity, students explore the concepts behind the workings of a pinhole camera.
The Artificial Bicep
Students learn more about how muscles work and how biomedical engineers can help keep the muscular system healthy. Following the engineering design process, they create their own biomedical device to aid in the recovery of a strained bicep. They discover the importance of rest to muscle recovery and that muscles (just like engineers!) work together to achieve a common goal.
Let Your Ears do the Walking
In the previous lesson, students learned about the issue of bycatching by fisheries and how it affects marine habitats. Dolphins are one of the main species affected by bycatching. Dolphins use echolocation to identify the location of objects in the water, but they have difficulty identifying nets, and thus can be caught accidentally. Students will learn how echolocation works, why certain animals use it to determine the size, shape, and distance of objects, and how humans can potentially take a
What Trickles Down?
Permeability is the degree to which water or other liquids are able to flow through a material. Different substances such as soil, gravel, sand, and asphalt have varying levels of permeability. In this activity, students will explore different levels of permeability and compare the permeabilities of several different materials. They will also be introduced to the basic concepts of building design, landscape architecture, and environmental pollutant transport. As an extension activity, they will
Graphing the West Corridor Data
This activity introduces students to using graphical analysis of data to analyze flaws in a transit system's design. Students will evaluate factors such as ride time, wait time, and percentage of capacity used in a train. This activity requires the use of the FasTracks Living Lab.
How Big?
The objective of Lesson 2 is for student teams to determine the size of the caverns. Lesson two has student teams measure their classroom to determine area and volume; determine how many people could comfortably sleep in their classroom; scale this number up to find the required area for all Alabraskans. The lesson provides a good application of area and volume concepts. Students also perform math conversions between feet, meters, miles and kilometers.
Bulbs & Batteries in a Row
Everyday we are surrounded by circuits that use “in parallel” and “in series” circuitry. Complicated circuits designed by engineers are composed of many simpler parallel and series circuits. During this activity, students build a simple series circuit and discover the properties associated with series circuits.
U.S. says Gaddafi weakened but not defeated
U.S. military officials say Gaddafi is not close to a military breaking point even though coalition strikes have seriously degraded his fighting power. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
