NOAA Weather Education
NOAA offers links to a variety of educational materials on meteorology, hydrology, climatology, and other weather-related fields for children, teens, and young adults at this website. Students can find websites where they can learn about hurricanes, storms, tornadoes, and floods through interactive games. Teachers can find lightning safety presentations, satellite images, lightning photos, and glossaries. The website offers materials on weather related careers, degree programs, distance learning
USA Today - How Weather Works
This is a very extensive site, providing backround information about virtually all aspects of weather. Topics include: the role of the sun; wind; storms and fronts; forms of water; flood and droughts; snow and ice; lightning, thunderstorms and tornadoes; hurricanes; the sky; weather prediction; climate change; weather extremes; and a bibliography of other resources. Within each topic are several brief articles about a specific weather-related phenomena, typically accompanied by excellent illustr
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.
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.
PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans
Here is an overview of PET (polarized emission tomography), a brain scanning technique. The web page offers a description of how PET scans are conducted and an example of the kind of image they can produce. The science behind PET's ability to document levels of brain activity is also briefly addressed. As part of a set of materials about brain scanning technologies, this overview also points out how PET differs from earlier types of brain scans. Copyright 2005 Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
National Geophysical Data Center: Relief Globe Slides
This set of 20 slides contains 14 global views of the Earth in full color shaded relief, showing land and undersea topography. The planet is seen from vantage points over the poles and each major ocean and land mass. Also included are a rectangular Mercator projection view of the whole Earth, as well as displays of crustal plates and their relation to world seismic activity. The images are computer-generated from a digital database of oceanic bathymetry and land topography.
Science Sampler : Reading science
Nonfiction books have the power to excite students about learning and fuel their desire to know more about a topic or person. Using a variety of books can differentiate instruction and provide suitable reading to students at all levels and for almost any interest. This article provides a list of recommended reading and some lesson ideas that correspond with the material.
Science News For Kids
This resource is meant to enhance the usefulness of Science News in the middle-school classroom and offer recreational reading and activities for students interested in science. It is comprised of six zones: a weekly brainteaser for those who enjoy solving and inventing puzzles, entertaining science-fiction composition exercises for those interested in writing, and weekly science fair profiles and tips. The GameZone contains a small selection of logic and memory games, implemented as Java applet
Racing Game with One Die
This activity allows the user to play a game in which two players move towards the finish line based on the roll of a six-sided die.
Data Analysis and Measurement: Ahead, Above the Clouds
This is the Educator Guide of an archived NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) CONNECT program designed to help students discover that in predicting severe weather and tracking clouds, NASA engineers and scientists are developing technologies to collect data that will help them better understand Earth's climate. The guide includes an activity in which students play a game that will help them understand the complexity of hurricane forecasting. They will be given the coordinates fo
Boil, Boil, Toil and Trouble: The International Boiling Point Project
People from all over the world boil water at different elevations and post data to discover which factor in the experiment (room temperature, elevation, volume of water, or heating device) has the greatest influence on boiling point. Anyone can boil water, record information, and send it in for inclusion in the database of results. Students can analyze all the data to answer the question: What causes a pot of water to boil? Participation is invited at any time during the project's three-month sp
Relay For Life 2011
Celebrate. Remember. Fight Back.
Sign up for this year's Relay For Life event, taking place April 8 and 9 at Plaster Sports Complex. Learn more about the event and how to donate at http://www.missouristate.edu/relayforlife
Exploring Bone Mineral Density
In this activity, students will explore two given websites to gather information on Bone Mineral Density and how it is measured. They will also learn about X-rays in general, how they work and their different uses, along with other imaging modalities. They will answer guiding questions as they explore the websites and take a short quiz after to test the knowledge they gained while reading the articles.
Bone Mineral Density Math and Beer's Law
In this lesson students revisit the mathematics required to find bone mineral density, to which they were introduced in Lesson 2. They will learn the equation to find intensity and how to use it. There is a sheet of practice problems included which has students practice using this equation.
Dams
Through eight lessons, students are introduced to many facets of dams, including their basic components, the common types (all designed to resist strong forces), their primary benefits (electricity generation, water supply, flood control, irrigation, recreation), and their importance (historically, currently and globally). Through an introduction to kinetic and potential energy, students come to understand how dams generate electricity. They learn about the structure, function and purpose of loc
Sound and Light
The Sound and Light unit provides students with an understanding of sound and light waves through the theme of the “Sunken Treasure,” a continuous story line throughout the lessons. In Lessons 1-5, students learn about sound, and in Lessons 6-10, they explore the concepts of light. The first lesson introduces the concepts of longitudinal and transverse waves. Students then move on to the concepts of wavelength and amplitude in transverse waves. In the third lesson, students learn about sound
Energy Perspectives
Students utilize data tables culled from the US DOE Energy Information Agency to create graphs to illustrate what types of energy we use and how we use it. An MS Excel workbook with several spreadsheets of data is provided. Students pick (or the teacher assigns) one of the data tables for the students to create a plot from and interpret the information provided. Each group of students then shares their interpretation and new perspectives on energy resources and use with the rest of the class.
Energy Projects
This lesson includes the various components required for the completion of the unit project related to identifying and carrying out a personal change to reduce energy consumption. Ideally, the preliminary homework assignments should be interspersed throughout the unit so that the students stay focused on their ultimate culminating project.
Energy Choices Game
This board game is used to introduce the concepts of energy use in our lives and the very real impact that personal choices can have on our energy consumption, energy bills and fuel supply. The game begins as each student selects cards that define their mode of transportation and home design. The players roll dice and move around the board, landing on “choice” or “situation” blocks and selecting cards that describe consumer choices and real life events that impact their energy consumptio
