Soil Judging
This site describes a contest in which students must correctly characterize the horizons of soils in four different pits within a strict time limit. The site contains photographs of the activity as well as links to the Soil Science Education homepage, links, resources, soil science basics, soil and society, soil and the environment, information on working with soil, soil and agriculture and soil and students.
Phases of the Moon
This site contains a series of visualizations of the sun, moon and Earth System and how they relate to the changing face of the moon. Animations are in the form of Java applets, forms for field observation of the moon, and a collection of exercises and PDF versions of background material. There are practice questions and quizzes that discuss the animations.
Investigative Case-Malama Keone'o'oi
This Starting Point teaching module highlights a case study of Malama Keone'o'oi. Students will learn techniques for conducting a local environmental assessment in an ecologically sensitive area. Identification of native plants and methodologies for sampling will be taught in the classroom and then reinforced in the field. The module also includes a community awareness and conservation aspect. Users will find information regarding learning goals, context for use, teaching notes and tips, teachin
Planetary Climate Exercise
This MS Word document explains roles for a Planetary Climate role-playing exercise dealing with the atmospheres of Venus and the Earth. Roles include experts on coal, carbon dioxide, heat balance, spectroscopy, atmospheric transmission and the water cycle.
Starting Out With Earth History
This activity asks students to place 6-10 events in Earth history on a timeline, first working in small groups and then as a class. Then, through questions, important points such as how certain events are dated, where humanity fits in, and so forth, can be brought up. The Starting Point website builds a context for the exercise by detailing the learning goals, teaching notes and materials (downloadable), and additional resources.
Quicksand Questions: Short In-class Activity
This Starting Point classroom activity prompts students with questions during a lecture on quicksand. Their answers can be collected with classroom response systems or through a think-pair-share activity. This activity allows an instructor to review the answers with the class and immediately address any points of misunderstanding or content areas that need clarification. The details of this exercise are found on this website, which provides learning goals and context, teaching materials such as
Describe and Interpret Images: Folded Strata
This Starting Point exercise asks students to describe and interpret an image of folded strata at Dent De Morcles. There are several questions students must address with respect to the image. This Starting Point website includes suggestions for using this technique, as well as teaching notes, learning goals, and extensive additional resource links and references.
Japan's Nuclear Policy
Ambassador Ryukichi Imai-journalist, nuclear engineer, and general manager at Japan Atomic Power Company-was Japanese ambassador to the United Nations Disarmament Conference from 1982 to 1987. In this video segment, Imai explains why he believes that Japan will never embark on a nuclear-weapons program. He also predicts that, while Japan stands alone in its reliance on nuclear energy, rising energy prices-even post-Chernobyl-will revive worldwide interest in nuclear power. In the interview he co
From Mutual Assured Destruction to Star Wars
Caspar Weinberger served as U.S. president Ronald Reagan's secretary of defense from 1981 to 1987. In this video segment, Weinberger explains how deployment of the MX missile stopped the Soviet Union from believing it could successfully launch a first strike, which he feels is 'the essence of deterrence.' A better alternative to 'mutual assured destruction,' he argues, is the Strategic Defense Initiative, the Reagan administration's hotly contested proposal to design space-based weapons that cou
Building Peace
Bruce Kent, ordained a Catholic minister in 1958, became general secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in 1980 and chairman in 1987, the year he resigned from the ministry. In this video segment, he challenges the damaging spin that secretary for defense Lord Michael Heseltine used to undermine CND rather than engage in public debate about nuclear policy. Kent also refutes accusations that CND was in support of 'one-sided,' full unilateral disarmament. Instead, he argues for 's
City Archives
'City Archives' was written and directed by Richard Foreman, founder and director of the Ontological Hysteric Theater. He serves as the narrator for this work, discussing the power of 'the foreign' and images, talking directly into a microphone in a purposely stilted manner and addressing questions to the viewer. A sort of classroom overpopulated by adults sets the stage for the work. Phrases are written and erased on a blackboard, and women gaze out a window, physically supporting planks of woo
Femme a la Cafetiere, La
Acclaimed theater director brings movement to Cezanne's painting, reproduced in the studio for the camera. [Suzushi Hanayagi,] a dancer from the Kabuki theater, performs the role of the woman, whose slight, almost imperceptible, facial and body movements -- together with mysteriously animated objects and strange apparitions -- bring the painting alive. A spoon stirs a cup of coffee without the benefit of human assistance. An off-camera figure manipulates objects. The woman eats green candies. A
Barbara Two
'Barbara Two,' by Patrick Ireland, features a close-up portrait of a woman's face, with light and shadow playing across it by the manipulation of the light source. The woman in the piece is Barbara Novak. No master material exists for this piece that is two minutes long. Patrick Ireland was the pseudonym of Brian O'Doherty, a funder and critic of video art.
Color Schemes
'Color Schemes' features twelve performers and writers of color who collaborate to recount incidents of racism, particularly racism in the entertainment industry. The work uses the metaphor of washing a load of colored clothing and is divided up into four sections based on laundry cycles. Cycle One, 'Soak,' opens with an archival piece of animation about the price of labor, with a particularly offensive rendition of a Chinese man who is referred to repeatedly as a 'coolie.' In a staged vignette,
Sydney an der Wupper
'Sydney an der Wupper' is a film featuring the Australian dancer Meryl Tankard. Tankard goes through a day in the city, riding the subway, taking a singing lesson, and bathing at a public house. As the work progresses, it becomes harder and harder to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Tankard's character imagines herself dancing with a man across train platforms and through streets. In one scene the two of them are dancing on a hockey rink, sliding across the icy surface. Tankard climbs la
Hall's Crossing
'Hall's Crossing' refers to a place in the American West where natural rhythms collide with scenic cruisers and tour buses. 'Hall's Crossing' is an electronic 'see America,' set in a place where natural vistas and cultural myths overlap, a place where the canyon meets the road. Scenes of the Grand Canyon portray both the beauty of the area and its invasion by tourists. The tourists attempt to capture the imagery through the medium of photography. At one point a narrator, Dr. Giselda Benda, speak
Ellis Island (a work in progress)
'Ellis Island (a work in progress)' is a haunting, reflective piece on Ellis Island and the immigrants who passed through there. Black-and-white, near-static shots of actors and actresses realistically portraying turn-of-the-century immigrants are combined with color shots of a modern-day tour guide conducting a tour of the buildings. Re-creations of the medical examinations the immigrants underwent and the conditions they lived through are filmed in the run-down buildings of Ellis Island before
Belladonna
Artists Beth B. and Ida Applebroog use videotaped performance combined with figurative drawing and captions to create a disturbing, provocative program about the unthinkable yet prevalent occurrence of child victimization. The script for the program is delivered in brief monologues by a cast of several men and women reading statements from various texts, including the writings of Freud and the testimonies of Josef Mengele's victims. It is then intercut with a boy's voice repeating 'I am not a ba
Ciencia@NASA
ofrece las ltimas noticias de la ciencia. La clase de jueves proporciona nuevos planes y actividades de la leccin basados en una historia actual del ttulo y conecta la ltima investigacin de NASA con la instruccin. Pasados asuntos incluyen Buck Rogers, Cuidado!, Adis a la MIR, Despus de tres intentos, se retira La Nia?, y ms.
Robotics with the XBC Controller
This course offers a brief history of robotics, and a definition of robot and robotics. The course includes an introduction to IC and the XBC, downloading firmware,
Updating the bitstream, and IC Environment and simulator. It concludes with an activity building a Demo-Bot.
