Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
If you can tear your eyes away from the mesmerizing graphics on the main page, you'll find a very detailed and comprehensive cell biology tutorial created by graphic artist/biologist John Kyrk. Kyrk's animations demonstrate all major aspects of cell biology: amino acid structure, DNA replication, transcription and translation, cellular cycles (Krebs, glycolysis, mitosis), photosynthesis, and so on. The tutorial's beautiful graphics and cool animations should make studying cell biology relatively
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
The NOVA documentary Search for a Safe Cigarette recounts the tobacco industry's decades-long attempt to engineer a safer cigarette. This companion Web site offers a number of interesting and informative features, as well as a lesson plan for grades 5-8 and 9-12. The interactive feature titled Anatomy of a Cigarette offers a fascinating tour of the conventional cigarette and two safer versions. The Web site also includes: a review of the safer cigarette's checkered pedigree; an animated introduc
The Golden Ratio
This Web site provides a basic introduction to one of the most amazing discoveries in mathematics: the Golden Ratio. Created by David L. Narain, this site offers a particularly engaging way to bring together math and the natural sciences in the classroom. Seven straightforward activities have students construct a golden rectangle and spiral, and also explore the Golden Ratio in nature and in other contexts. The site also includes a quiz; answers are not provided, though. The activities are desig
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
The MathPARTNERS web site contains instructional materials that include background mathematics and pedagogical information arranged in four grade bands (K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 8-9 algebra). Materials are designed for use by instructors or mentors in after-school programs and other informal education situations. In each grade band, there are four units focused on topics such as number and operation, geometry and measurement, statistics and probability, and patterns and functions. Units within grade b
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
This online activity opens with a map that illustrates three intersecting airport runways. The introduction calls students' attention to the numbers present at both ends. One runway number is missing, and students are challenged to determine what the number should be. This activity is one of 80 applied mathematics challenges featured on the FigureThis! web site. The importance of navigation to pilots, explorers, and scouts is noted. Students are encouraged to begin the activity by adding a zero
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
In this activity, students are asked to decide which would melt faster: a large block of ice or the same block cut into three cubes. The activity is one of 80 mathematical challenges featured on the FigureThis! web site. The animated introduction to this activity notes that surface area and volume are important to the work of architects, interior designers, and chemists. Students are encouraged to compare the surface area of the ice cubes to the larger block. The complete solution demonstrates h
Census : how many people live in the United States?
This activity opens with a bar graph depicting low, middle, and high estimates of United States population growth between 2000 and 2100. Students are given two statements about population growth and asked to decide if the data support those statements. The activity, part of the Figure This! collection of 80 math challenges emphasizing math in the real world, explains how graphic representations of population growth are used by politicians and city planners. The Hint suggests that students approa
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
This activity challenges students to interpret a bar graph to determine the average number of hours teenagers work per week. The activity, part of the Figure This! collection of 80 real world math challenges, explains how averages are used to describe data on academic performance, athletics, and wages. The Hint suggests that students assume that 100 students participated in the survey. Related questions ask students to calculate averages for additional data sets. The Did You Know feature offers
Gone fishing : my, my little fish, how you've grown!
Opening with a cartoon showing the weights of three combinations of fish, this activity challenges students to determine the weight of each fish. This activity is part of the Figure This! collection of challenges emphasizing real-world uses of mathematics. The introduction discusses algebraic reasoning and notes its importance to scientists, engineers, and psychologists. Students are encouraged to begin by adding the weights on all three scales. The answer page describes three strategies for sol
Auburn vs. Stetson (1953)
"Auburn opened its 1953 season with a 47-0 trouncing of Stetson in Montgomery. Auburn fans got their first look at "One Platoon Football" and saw the Plainsmen show a strong running attack and a stubborn defense. The Plainsmen scored in every period of the onslaught with seven men figuring in the scoring. Fob James scored twice on runs of 13 and 3 yards and Jim Pyburn scored twice on passes from Bobby Freeman. Other scorers were Charles Hataway, Bobby Freeman and Charlie Littles, who scored one
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
In this activity, students explore the nature and impact of friction. Students will observe, predict and record an object's motion over smooth, slippery and rough surfaces. These tasks will include an introduction to basic statics and dynamics in engineering through a discussion of forces and friction and a hands-on activity. Learners conduct 2 demonstrations using marbles and coins to learn about friction. Forces, simple vectors and free body diagrams which depict the forces can be discussed wi
Middle School Portal: Math and Science Pathways (MSP2)
This book provides an introduction into why we need the ozone layer, the causes of ozone depletion, and some of the actions the world is taking to correct the problem. Copyright 2005 International Technology Education Association
Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
The OECD groups 30 member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications  and its statistics , its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development  and science and innovation. The site provies a myriad of resources on international econonmic development.
Logic for Computer Science: Foundations of Automatic Theorem Proving
This book is intended as an introduction to mathematical logic, with an emphasis on proof theory and procedures for constructing formal proofs of formulae algorithmically. This book is designed primarily for computer scientists, and more generally, for mathematically inclined readers interested in the formalization of proofs, and the foundations of automatic theorem-proving. The book is self contained, and the level corresponds to senior undergraduates and first year graduate students. However,
The Age of Einstein
The Age of Einstein, is a brief introduction to Einstein's Theories of Special and General Relativity. It is a book for the inquisitive general reader who wishes to gain an understanding of the key ideas put forward by the greatest scientist of the 20th-century. No more than a modest grasp of High School Mathematics is required to follow the arguments.
Online Poetry Classroom
"Songs My Teacher Taught Me," created by Teaching Fellow Anthony Consiglio, is a series of three lesson plans intended to guide students through approximately one month of poetry study. This unit involves minimal technology requirements but extends across a wide range of poetry. Of the eighteen poets included; eight are women, six are African-American; two are nineteenth-century poets and the three lesson plans are thematically broken into "What is Poetry?", "Poems of Childhood," and "Self and S
Light, Matter, and Energy
This fun Web site is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they are introduced to Einstein's life and work with four engaging and kid-friendly areas. Equation Invasion, a look at the world's most famous equation about the relationship between energy and mass. Web Master, the scientists whose ideas and discoveries shaped Einstein's career. Light the Way, an introduction to "the fastest thing in the universe" and the waves it travels in. E
Social Media in Plain English
An introduction to Social Media via a story about a small town with many flavors of ice cream.
Igneous Petrology
This PowerPoint presentation is part of the Whitman College petrology course. The presentation provides an introduction to the structure of the earth in the context of the generation of igneous rocks. Slides in the presentation cover the composition of layers of the earth, P-wave and S-wave velocities through layers of the earth, pressure and heat characteristics of the earth, and regions of igneous generation within the earth. This resource is part of the Teaching Petrology collection. http://s
Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology Class Materials
This web site is maintained by John Winter of Whitman College, and contains 31 PowerPoint presentations for an igneous and metamorphic petrology course. The course and the lectures are keyed to his text, An Introduction to Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology. The PowerPoint presentations are organized by chapter and contain many maps, graphs and illustrations. Each chapter is a separate PowerPoint file that can be downloaded and modified to suit the user's needs. In addition, the website includes
