Peer Review Tutorial
In this five-page tutorial, students read about peer review, a fundamental practice of scientists. The tutorial explains what peer review is, the benefits it can provide to professional scientists and students, and the ways that students can effectively engage in peer review. Students read about the different points in a research project at which the scientific community uses peer review, from the review of proposals seeking funding to the formal publishing of experimental results. Ideas for bri
1900 Air Pollution
Examine this graph from FRONTLINE/NOVA: Whats Up with the Weather? Web site to see dramatic increases in three greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years.
Quick take on exploring careers in mathematics
Even though the potential connection between today s math classroom and the jobs of the future is frequently cited in speeches, reports, and news headlines, busy middle school students may not be paying attention. Here are five online resources that can help you make the connection more relevant, and a lot more engaging, to preteens. In some cases, the connection appears in the words of young people who recognize that math and science were the keys to jobs they love.
Function machine (grades 6-8)
Applying a machine metaphor for functions, this virtual manipulative allows the learner to examine the relationship between input (domain) and output (range). The learner inputs numbers from one to four and the virtual machine generates output information in a table. The learner is challenged to find the output for values five through seven and enter them in the table. Errors are noted automatically. Using a new function button, different types of functions are randomly offered for investigation
Your sense of smell
This single-page resource about the sense of smell presents a handful of facts about smell together with scientific illustrations. For example, the resource points out how many odors humans can detect and what scientists still do not know about smell. It also compares our sense of smell to that of rodents. The scientific illustrations are a set of connected, labeled diagrams of the key structures and pathways involved in sensing smell, including the olfactory membrane and olfactory receptors. Th
Observe waves as they break on the shore
This animation presents a movie of actual waves breaking on the shore. The accompanying text explains how waves break when energy passes through water in a shallow area. The role of wave energy in erosion is also discussed. Movie controls allow students to repeat, pause, or step through the animation, which can give students more time to read the text and connect it with the images. Copyright 2005 Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
A Mathematics Fantasy: The Million $ Mission
This math site has students study exponential growth. Students are provided with two payment options, one cent on the first day, two cents on the second day, and double their salary every day after that for the thirty days, or they can choose exactly one million dollars. Included are two versions, a one page version that has the calculations worked out and a multi-page version that is appropriate for printing so students can use their own calculations. An exponential growth graph, a formula to f
Understanding Experimental Probability
Experiment with experimental probability using a fixed size section spinner, a variable section spinner, 2 regular 6-sided number cubes or design your own number cubes. Appropriate for elementary grades.
Idea Bank : A Big Bang Lab
The authors of "How Far are the Stars," featured in the February issue of The Science Teacher, showed how the measurement of parallax permits scientists to infer astronomic distances. Give your students the chance to make similar inferences through a free module available online that allows students to scale sizes and distances, and then create models from which they calculate inferences that, in simplified form, give results that astronomers obtained similarly in recent times.
Maximize area
Maximize the area of a rectangle with a given perimeter. Vary the perimeter, base, and height of the rectangle and examine changes to the graph of the area.
The Michelson-Morley experiment
This lecture is also available in French and Spanish, and in PDF. A flashlet simulation of the experiment is included. It describes in comprehensible detail this historical experiment which showed that light has wave properties, but no aether exists, thought to be the medium of the waves.
Natural Resources, the Environment, and Ecosystems
This collection of teacher guides includes: Ecosystems and Climate, Wildlife - Just One Piece of the Picture, Integrated Pest Management, Soil and Ecosystems, Sustainable Agriculture, and The Web of Life - Understanding Ecosystems. Each guide includes a subject overview, objectives, and student activities. By the end, students should be able to understand the effect of climate on ecosystems; the interrelationships of animals with components of their natural ecosystem; how ecosystems benefit from
The secret life of the brain
This web site was developed to accompany the PBS television series The Secret Life of the Brain, which explores how the human brain develops and changes from infancy through late adulthood. Among the site's features are a timeline of human knowledge of the brain, an interactive three-dimensional brain model, and illustrated descriptions of various brain scanning techniques. There are also sections devoted to each episode of the TV series that provide an overview of the episode, brief video clips
Ecological Footprint: The Role of Technology
In this two-minute sound segment, the director of the Sustainability Program for the public policy group Redefining Progress discusses the concept of ecological overshoot. He reminds us that today we use more than what nature can regenerate, and that as long as we use more, we are depleting the natural capital and liquidating our most essential assets. This site is from an archive of a daily radio program called Pulse of the Planet, which provides its listeners with a portrait of Planet Earth, t
Similarity
In this workshop session, elementary and middle school teachers explore scale drawing, similar triangles, and trigonometry in terms of ratios and proportion. Besides explanations and real-world problems, the unit includes video segments that show teachers investigating problems of similarity. To understand the ratios that underlie trigonometry, participants use an interactive activity provided online. This is session 8 of Learning Math: Geometry, a free online course.
Platonic solids, duals (grades 6-8)
Using this virtual manipulative, the student can examine the dual relationship among the five platonic solids, each a polyhedron with identical regular polygonal faces. Every platonic solid has a unique platonic solid that fits inside it, with its vertices at the midpoints of the original solid. The student can manipulate, color, and change the size of each solid. A transparent mode is available for viewing the outline of each polyhedron and its dual. Instructions for using the applet and inform
Coloring multiples in Pascal's triangle
Teachers can assign this applet and discussion materials to small groups to help students visualize number patterns and develop understanding of Pascal's triangle.
Storks: Voices
This two-minute radio program features sound clips of infant and adult storks together with a commentary on these two distinct animal sounds. An environmental official from Hungary, where the majority of white storks live during the spring and summer, describes the function of the noises made by chicks and adult storks. He also discusses the instincts exhibited by adult pairs when they are raising baby storks. The archived program, part of the Pulse of the Planet radio show, is available here in
Native American geometry
This website focuses on Native American use of the physical, proportional geometry that originates from the simple circle. Aimed at 4th to 9th grade teachers, the site is divided into four sections: foundations, anthropology, designs, and education. It was selected by Britannica.com, February 2000, as a best Internet site. Other keywords: geometric shapes, geometric constructions, proportional geometry, proportional constants, polygons, hexagons, equilateral triangles, dodecagons, squares, octag
Examine the sun at different wavelengths
This Earth science resource enables students to observe and compare the sun's appearance under different types of electromagnetic radiation. Students are instructed to move the cursor across the spectrum to see images of the sun under radio and microwaves; infrared, visible, and ultraviolet light; and gamma rays. Each image includes a label that indicates the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, the wavelength in angstroms and meters, and the layer of the sun in view. Copyright 2005 Eisenhow
