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
Spinner
users can create a game spinner with one to twelve sectors to look at experimental and theoretical probabilities.
The Earth's Orbit
These eleven activities relate to the results of the motion and position of the Earth in its orbit, investigating both the causes and the effects of changing seasons. It starts simply by trying to quantify the observation that it is colder in the winter and ends by measuring the tilt of the Earth. This is chapter two of the online book Eyes on the Sky, Feet on the Ground, containing explorations into astronomy as a classroom tool for learning how to theorize, experiment, and analyze data. The ac
Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning
This book explores the dimensions of teaching and learning science as inquiry for K-12 students across a range of science topics. Detailed examples help clarify when teachers should use the inquiry-based approach and how much structure, guidance, and coaching they should provide. The book dispels myths that may have discouraged educators from the inquiry-based approach and illuminates the subtle interplay between concepts, processes, and science as it is experienced in the classroom. Inquiry and
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
El Nino Returns
This web page is an online companion to CNN's special coverage on El Nino for the 1997-98 season. El Nino is a strange but powerful weather phenomenon; tracker and background reports provide the user with the science behind El Nino, its history and impact. Topics covered include: forecast; ground zero (Peru); strange brew (weather); prediction meter; the wet coast (California); and the trackers. Links to other web sites are provided, and users may access more up-to-date El Nino stories by clicki
Astronomy
This page contains links to one pagers on historical instruments of astronomy with photos of the following : Astronomy Slides, Celestial Globe, Cometarium, Globe, Gregorian Telescope, Kepler's Laws Demonstration, Orrery, Planetarium, Planisphere, Stereoscopic Pictures of the Moon, Tellurian, and Transit.
Ice Cube of Exotic Microbes
This article describes a permafrost subglacial lake discovered beneath Antarctica. The lake offers scientists a chance to test their sterile drilling techniques before exploring elsewhere in search of exotic microbes. Techniques that avoid contaminating a drill site with microbes, suggests the author, would prove useful for future drilling into Mars polar caps in search of life.
Evolution : Online Lessons for Students: Learning Evolution
These seven online lessons provide multimedia pathways to help students understand evolution and the nature of science. Each lesson focuses on an essential question and contains two to three engaging activities. The website includes both student lessons and teacher pages for each topic.
Waves, sound and light
Teachers can give demonstrations and students can conduct virtual physics experiments related to waves using the Shockwave simulations at this site. Simulations are designed to explore sound wave frequencies, echoes, a phased array, ultrasound, interference patterns, the doppler effect, and more. Students will need teacher assistance as there is little explanatory material with the simulations.
Sketches of the history of Electromagnetics
This website outlines the history of light, electricity, magnetism and electromagnetic theory, placed in a linked timeline order with corresponding biographical sketches. It includes events from antiquity to 1933.
BBC historic figures : Isaac Newton
This concise biography includes an image of Newton and related links in the right navigation bar including: one to an article Newton papers revealed; The Newton Project; and to a lengthier biography, Isaac Newton.
Critical Evaluation of a Web Site : Middle School Level
This is a checklist designed to help middle school users critically evaluate web resources. By answering the questions in the checklist, students can then assess if the site would be a good one to use for their science research projects. There is a series of How does it look? questions and a series of What did you learn? questions that challenge students to think critically about what they are looking at and then summarize the effectiveness of the web site.
A Natural Fusion: Math and Science Across the Curriculum : Northwest Teacher, volume 4 number 1
Articles in this issue of Northwest Teacher focus on integrating math and science across the curriculum. Teachers create learning experiences for students, of all grade levels, that transcend the power of any one of them taught in isolation. With todays national spotlight on improving students reading and math skills, the potential for cross-disciplinary teaching of these subjects may be readily apparent. But science, too often nudged to the hinterlands of the curriculum when state standards and
Box and Whisker Plots
Construct a box-and-whisker plot to match a line plots, and construct a line plot to match a box-and-whisker plots. Manipulate the line plot and examine how the box-and-whisker plot changes. Then manipulate the box-and-whisker plot and examine how the line plot changes.
Written division
Factsheets emphasize the meaning of place value in division, the concept of division as repeated subtraction, division by 10 and 100, and well explained examples of both short and long division. A game as well as worksheets and quizzes are provided for practice.
The baby's brain : infant vision
In this feature, the user explorers how a baby's sense of sight develops. By dragging a slider bar to each of six different age markers, the user can see how the same image looks for babies as they get older. There is also a paragraph-long explanation of vision at each of the six ages shown: newborn, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 6 months, and adult. These explanations reveal what a baby can and cannot see at each age. They also discuss how a baby's brain and eyes mature, providing improved focus
Dr. Saul's Biology in Motion
This site offers an interactive simulation activity, which examines how natural selection works to bring about the evolution of adaptations. Using the simulation tool, the student can slow down the process to watch all the steps involved or can speed it up to watch how a population evolves over time. Links are provided to a variety of useful sites.
Smart Move!
This is a simple activity to visualize a communication system. In order to do this the students encode, decode, transmit, receive and store messages. They will use a code sheet and flashlight for this process. They will also maintain a storage sheet from which they can retrieve information as and when it is required.
Water reclamation plant
In this video clip, students see how wastewater is treated at a water reclamation plant. One of the plant's operators gives Bob the Vid Tec (a children's programming host) a tour of the plant, describing along the way what happens at each step in the water treatment process. For example, the operator explains that microorganisms are used to consume human waste in the biological nutrient removal step. Bob also talks with another plant operator about why kids should learn about wastewater treatmen
