University of Delaware: Extreme 2003: To the Depths of Discovery
The first University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies website listed above chronicles the fourth in a series of Extreme missions to explore deep-sea hydrothermal vents. This particular mission--titled To the Depths of Discovery--took place in 2003 and followed an international team of marine scientists on a 23-day expedition as they studied the life-forms and structure of hydrothermal vents. Utilizing great multimedia features, the Extreme 2003 website shares information about the
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science
The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science was established in 1876 and remained the only high quality research facility for the basic sciences until the early decades of the twentieth century. Visitors can discover an abundance of information on its research in the fields of Material Science, Solid State Physics, Inorganic Chemistry, Biological Chemistry, Energy Research, and much more. Scientists can find out about upcoming conferences such as the Colloquium for Young Physicists. The
Introduction to Spreadsheets
The WiseOwl project is sponsored by the Instructional Technology Division of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction offering resources for K-12 education. Although this website is specifically geared toward teachers in North Carolina whose students are expected to know measurement for the fifth grade End of Grade Test, several of the resources are applicable to any teacher looking for ways to teach about spreadsheets. The website offers links to other web resources on using spreadsh
Animal Alert
This Web site from Animal Planet offers visitors the very latest news about animals around the globe. Scroll along the map of the world, and then click on an icon. A pop-up window will appear with a synopsis of a news story, a link to the full story, and a list of related features on the Animal Planet Web site. A key to the map icons is provided. The full news story page also provides general information and trivia about each animal. This is a great resource for anyone wishing to keep informed a
Platonic Realms
The Platonic Realms website is a project initiated by a small group of math and math education graduate students, led by B. Sidney Smith, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The group's goal is "to provide high-quality mathematical content for secondary-school and college students that was free, motivational, and instructional." The introductory page features a historical note, a daily quotation, a daily mathematics challenge, humorous articles, and a "math moment" which uses multi-media t
Forces, Forces Everywhere
Students are introduced to Newton’s laws of motion. They learn about forces associated with motion, gravitational acceleration, weight, normal force, static and kinetic friction, drag, and free-body diagrams. These concepts are reinforced with the associated activity, Dragged Racers, to analyze frictional forces as they use their mousetrap-powered model cars to relate displacement, velocity and acceleration with external forces acting upon them.
Bubbling Plants
Students learn a simple technique for quantifying the amount of photosynthesis that occurs in a given period of time, using a common water plant (Elodea). They can use this technique to compare the amounts of photosynthesis that occur under conditions of low and high light levels. Before they begin the experiment, however, students must come up with a well-worded hypothesis to be tested. After running the experiment, students pool their data to get a large sample size, determine the measures of
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.
Dress for Success
In this design activity, students investigate materials engineering as it applies to weather and clothing. Teams design and analyze different combinations of materials for effectiveness in specific weather conditions. Analysis includes simulation of temperature, wind and wetness elements, as well as the functionality and durability of final prototypes.
Pointing at Maximum Power for PV
Student teams measure voltage and current in order to determine the power output of a photovoltaic (PV) panel. They vary the resistance in a simple circuit connected to the panel to demonstrate the effects on voltage, current, and power output. After collecting data, they calculate power for each resistance setting, creating a graph of current vs. voltage, and indentifying the maximum power point.
Sounds Like Music
Music can loosely be defined as organized sound. The lesson objectives, understanding sound is a form of energy, understanding pitch, understanding sound traveling through a medium, and being able to separate music from sound, can provide a good knowledge base as to how sound, math, and music are related. Sound exists everywhere in the world; typically objects cause waves of pressure in the air which are perceived by people as sound. Among the sounds that exist in everyday life, a few of them pr
The Visual Spectrum
In this activity, students make simple spectroscopes (prisms) to look at different light sources. The spectroscopes allow students to see differing spectral distributions of different light sources.
Seismic Waves: How Earthquakes Move the Earth
Students learn about the types of seismic waves produced by earthquakes and how they move the Earth. The dangers of earthquakes are presented as well as the necessity for engineers to design structures for earthquake-prone areas that are able to withstand the forces of seismic waves. Students learn how engineers build shake tables that simulate the ground motions of the Earth caused by seismic waves in order to test the seismic performance of buildings.
Nidy-Gridy
Normally we find things using landmark navigation. When you move to a new place, it may take you awhile to explore the new streets and buildings, but eventually you recognize enough landmarks and remember where they are in relation to each other. However, another accurate method for locating places and things is using grids and coordinates. In this activity, students will come up with their own system of a grid and coordinates for their classroom and understand why it is important to have one co
Test and Treat Before You Drink
Students learn about water quality testing (coliform bacteria, turbidity) and what is involved in basic water treatment designs. Biological, physical and chemical treatment processes are addressed, as well as physical and biological water quality testing, including testing for bacteria such as E.coli.
Solar Angles and Tracking Systems
Students learn about the daily and annual cycles of solar angles used in power calculations to maximize photovoltaic power generation. They gain an overview of solar tracking systems that improve PV panel efficiency by following the sun through the sky.
Taking the Boat to Manaus
In this activity, the students will apply the concepts they learned regarding mass, volume and density in the previous activities to design a boat.
Downhill Science: Alpine Skiing
The following resource is from Lessonopoly, which has created student activities and lesson plans to support the video series, Science of the Olympic Winter Games, created by NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation. Featuring exclusive footage from NBC Sports and contributions from Olympic athletes and NSF scientists, the series will help teach your students valuable scientific concepts. In this activity, students will explore the physics of alpine skiing by simulating a downhill run and r
Nanoscience in Nature: A Webquest for Middle and High School Science
In this activity students act as design specialist for Wayne Industries, the leading provider for technologies used in the superhero community, to create and market a specialized superhero tool based on nanoscience and biomimicry. Teams of students learn about nanoscale, biomimicry, and nanoscience and then use their knowledge to design and present the tool they have designed. Worksheets are provided that students complete as they investigate web sites. A rubric for assessing students' designs,
Everyday Engineering: What makes a squirt gun squirt?
You may not think of engineering and squirt guns in the same sentence. However, like many examples of engineering design, the squirt gun pump mechanism is uncomplicated, yet elegant, and very inexpensive to manufacture. The design is widely used because of its simplicity and low cost. With only a few moving parts, it is able to deliver a stream of water, a spray of cleanser, or a squirt of liquid soap. In this article, the authors will examine how these simple, everyday pumps operate. In additio
