Swedish Museum of Natural History-Department of Vertebrate Zoology: Guide to South American Cichlida
Sven Kullander of the Swedish Museum of Natural History developed the _Guide to the South American Cichlidae_ as "a non-commercial, technical source of information about the systematics, taxonomy and geographical distribution of South American cichlids." The Guide features a Cichlid Names Database containing 469 nominal species and 60 Nominal Genera with search fields for keywords, Genus/Species, Record/Table, Status, and more. The site also offers a phylogenetic tree representing major cichlid
The La Silla Observatory
This European Southern Observatory website features the La Silla Observatory's latest news, telescopes, and observation reports. Visitors can find sun and moon tables, a meteorological monitor, and satellite maps. Students can learn how the mountain's geologic and geographic features impact observational abilities. Researchers can find out about visiting the Observatory and how to apply to use the observation equipment. Everyone can view amazing images of La Silla's Chilean landscape and the Obs
MEDLINEplus: Medical Dictionary
MEDLINEplus, the consumer health Web site from the National Library of Medicine, had recently added an online version of Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary. Added in response to feedback from MEDLINEplus users, the medical dictionary provides definitions, correct spelling, and pronunciation help for 60,000 words and phrases used by healthcare professionals. The dictionary also offers "biographies of individuals who have given their names to the language of medicine." With the addition of this
Interactions.org: Particle Physics News and Resources
The Interactions.org website serves as a hub for news, information, images, and links for particle physicists. Educators and students can find a sizeable image collection and short videos and animations describing the research and history of key physics institutions. Researchers can discover a global data grid and a database of talks in cosmic physics, linear collider, ethics and science, and other particle physics topics. The website offers links to various physics glossaries, universities, and
Bouncing Balls
Students examine how different balls react when colliding with different surfaces, giving plenty of opportunity for them to see the difference between elastic and inelastic collisions, learn how to calculate momentum, and understand the principle of conservation of momentum.
Life Science
This unit covers the processes of photosynthesis, extinction, biomimicry and bioremediation. In the first lesson on photosynthesis, students learn how engineers use the natural process of photosynthesis as an exemplary model of a complex yet efficient process for converting solar energy to chemical energy or distributing water throughout a system. In the next lesson on species extinction, students learn that it is happening at an alarming rate. Students discover that the destruction of habitat i
Design a Solar City
Students design and build a model city powered by the sun! They learn about the benefits of solar power, and how architectural and building engineers integrate photovoltaic panels into the design of buildings.
Ring around the Rosie
Students learn the concept of angular momentum and its correlation to mass, velocity and radius. They experiment with rotation and an object's mass distribution. In an associated literacy activity, students use basic methods of comparative mythology to consider why spinning and weaving are common motifs in creation myths and folktales.
Save Our City!
Students learn about various natural hazards and specific methods engineers use to prevent these hazards from becoming natural disasters. They study a hypothetical map of an area covered with natural hazards and decide where to place natural disaster prevention devices by applying their critical thinking skills and an understanding of the causes of natural disasters.
Controlling Sound
In this activity, students use a variety of materials to design and create headphones that absorb sound.
20/20 Vision
Students determine their own eyesight and calculate what a good average eyesight value for the class would be. They learn about technologies to enhance eyesight and how engineers play an important role in the development of these technologies.
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
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.
Global Climate Change : The Ross Ice Shelf
This video lecture explores the effects of climate change on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica. Slides depict how a large iceberg fell off the Ross Ice Shelf in March 2000. The lecturer describes his expedition to the ice shelf shortly after this event. He describes dives conducted to observe the underwater ecosystems containing krill and jellyfish, and the ocean currents around the icebergs. Facts about the icebergs in Antarctica are presented, and the sensitivity of polar regions to climate is
Understanding Rational Numbers and Proportions
The three activities in this investigation center on situations involving rational numbers and proportions that students encounter at a bakery. These activities involve several important concepts of rational numbers and proportions, including partitioning a unit into equal parts, the quotient interpretation of fractions, the area model of fractions, determining fractional parts of a unit not cut into equal-sized pieces, and equivalence.
Quick take on Pythagoras and his theorem
A topic once reserved for high school geometry, the Pythagorean theorem is now part and parcel of the middle school curriculum. These resources offer visual demonstrations that can make the abstract theorem more concrete for students and lead them in analyzing the mathematical relationships involved, as recommended by the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics. The last resource offers background information on Pythagoras himself.
Look Alike Liquids
In this introductory activity, students will compare the way water and isopropyl alcohol appear on different surfaces. Through the activities in this investigation, students will see that liquids have characteristic properties that can be used to identify an unknown. There is a downloadable activity sheet that will be very helpful to educators, and will help students stay on track. An assessment sheet is also available on the activity page to keep track of students progress. There is also a step
Weather: Rainfall
In this activity, students use and create scatterplots based on information from a table, and compare and contrast annual rainfall in various places around the world.
Duke Medicine Profiles: John Tanner, MD
Get to know Duke Medicine's primary care providers.
Nick Barker lecture, Part 6 of 6
Once your business is up and running how do you maintain success?
