Ocean Explorer: 2002 Explorations
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Ocean Explorer Web site (last mentioned in the March 8, 2002 -NSDL Scout Report for the Life Sciences_ ) has begun several of this seasons explorations. Six new voyages have been, or soon will be undertaken and the Web pages include daily updates, photos, and videos of the research efforts. Studies include biological monitoring of marine sanctuaries, hydrothermal vents, geological studies, and recovery of a sunken Civil War ship. An in
Mars Exploration Rovers: Home Demos
The Athena Project is collaborative and international effort to land a series of rovers on Mars in 2003. The Mars Exploration Rovers Web site chronicles these efforts, as well as offering various facts and learning activities like those found on the Home Demos page. The seven demos teach kids various things about Mars such as how scientists know there used to be water on Mars; how Mars seems to orbit back and forth; how difficult it is to land on Mars; what the soil on Mars is comprised of; how
Lubricants
The first Web site related to lubrication is presented by SynLube.com and its relevant page is entitled Basics: What You Need to Know About Lubrication (1). Visitors can learn why lubrication is so important to mechanical devices, why oil needs to be changed in your car, what synthetic oils can do, and more. Although the site is for a manufacturer of synthetic oil, there is a good amount of interesting physical science information. The second site provides an educational resource activity by The
Peabody College of Education: Department of Teaching & Learning
This website for the Peabody College of Education: Department of Teaching and Learningat Vanderbilt University describes current projects in mathematics education research. Findings and innovations developed from several projects are available from this website. Current and completed projects include: Investigating Multimedia Case Studies as a Tool for Pre-service Teacher Development, Multiplicative Reasoning as a Foundation for Stochastic Reasoning, The National Research and Development Center
Lancaster University Aquatic Chemistry Research Group
At this website, the Lancaster University Aquatic Chemistry Research Group discusses its goals "to apply basic physico-chemical principles to further understanding of aquatic chemistry, particularly of trace metals, redox sensitive elements, radionuclides, and nutrients." Users can find short introductions along with Curriculum Vitas for the researchers and students involved. The website presents in-depth explanations of three of the group's current research projects such as the Transport Reacti
Illustrated Glossary of Alpine Glacial Landforms
The Illustrated Glossary of Alpine Glacial Landforms is maintained by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point's Department of Geology and Geography. This simple but well done site lists over twenty landforms as either an erosional landform, depositional landform, or an ice feature -- each including a brief description. Clicking on the corresponding link brings up a page with a photograph, a topographical map, a more in-depth description, and links to additional examples.
Physical Science
Physical science is the science of matter and energy and their interactions and examines the physical world around us. Using the methods of the physical sciences, students learn about the composition, structure, properties, and reactions of matter and the relationships between matter and energy. Students are best able to build understanding of the physical sciences through hands-on exploration of the physical world.
Stop the Stretching
Students learn about composite materials, tension as a force and how they act on structural components through the design and testing of strips of plastic chair webbing.
Biot-Savart Law
This lesson begins with a demonstration prompting students to consider how current generates a magnetic field and the direction of the field that is generated. Through formal lecture, students learn Biot-Savart’s law in order to calculate, most simply, the magnetic field produced in the center of a circular current carrying loop. For applications, students find it is necessary to integrate the field produced over all small segments in an actual current carrying wire.
Swing in Time
Students examine the motion of pendulums and come to understand that the longer the string of the pendulum, the fewer the number of swings in a given time interval. They see that changing the weight on the pendulum does not have an effect on the period. They also observe that changing the angle of release of the pendulum has negligible effect upon the period.
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.
Biodomes Engineering Design Project: Lessons 2-6
In this multi-day activity, students explore environments, ecosystems, energy flow and organism interactions by creating a scale model biodome, following the steps of the engineering design process. The Procedure section provides activity instructions for Biodomes unit, lessons 2-6, as students work through Parts 1-6 to develop their model biodome. Subjects include energy flow and food chains, basic needs of plants and animals, and the importance of decomposers. Students consider why a solid und
Sugar Spill!
In this activity, students act as environmental engineers involved with the clean up of a toxic spill. Using bioremediation as the process, students select which bacteria they will use to eat up the pollutant spilled. Students learn how engineers use bioremediation to make organism degrade harmful chemicals. Engineers must make sure bacteria have everything they need to live and degrade contaminants for bioremediation to happen. Students learn about the needs of living things by setting up an ex
Possible Locations
Students will use their knowledge of scales and areas to cut out rectangular paper pieces to represent caverns to scale with the maps. These paper cutouts can then be placed on the maps to help students decide where the best locations.
What Is Energy? Short Demos
Three short, hands-on, in-class demos expand students’ understand of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body burns food to make energy. Then, students create paper snake mobiles to explore how heat energy can cause motion. Finally, students determine the effect that heat energy from the sun (or a lamp) has on temperature by placing pans of water in different locations.
We've Got the Power
In this lesson, students will research various sources of renewable energy. They will discover how each source can be used to generate electricity, the potential benefits and drawbacks of each and which source might best power their home or school. This lesson can be completed in 1-2 class periods.
PowerPoint Games: Teaching with Games. Excuse Me.... Teach with games?
This 2:38 video provides some startling statistics that should be viewed by all teachers. It also has good hints on how to make PowerPoint Games.
Normal - Station and Gait Exam - Station Sub-exam - Patient 1
Patient is a female with no known neurological health problems who volunteered to act as a simulated patient in order to demonstrate 'normal' responses to exam techniques. She is merely a reference point for exam procedures and protocols, as well as to denote subtle signs from diagnosed patients.
Urban Unrest
While the 1960s saw young people "tune out" by way of the hippie counterculture, other segments of society were also calling for change. Both ethnic minorities and women were hard at work challenging what they saw as unjust laws and unfair treatment by society (Video is narrated with slides and speeches.)
A moment in the mind of a director
Rob Roznowski with MSU's Department of Theatre goes behind the scenes of MSU's production of "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Produced by MSU student Erik Zinkel
