21st Century Explorer
This site answers questions that include: Why do we want to travel to Mars? How would your body change in space? Where would a space explorer find water and oxygen? How can we travel faster in space? Student actors (on video) and hands-on activities are featured with each answer. The site is for Grades 3-5 and available in Spanish.
FoilSim: Basic Aerodynamics Software
This is an interactive simulation software that determines the airflow around various shapes of airfoils.
Cosmology 101
This is is a primer on scientific efforts to understand the origin, evolution, and fate of the universe. Among the questions it explores: What types of matter and energy fill the universe? What is the age and shape of the universe? How rapidly is it expanding? The website examines the Big Bang theory, as well as tests and limitations of the theory.
Investigating the Climate System: Clouds
This activity casts students as interns in a state climatology office. Their assignment: to investigate how clouds form, how they're classified, and their role in heating and cooling the earth. This 30-page guide also helps students understand why clouds (and the study of them) are important.
Center for Educational Resources (CERES) Project
This is an extensive library of on-line and interactive K-12 science education materials for teaching astronomy. The site contains both classroom science projects and reference materials.
Multiwavelength Astronomy
presents images of our own galaxy and sun, other galaxies and stars, and other heavenly bodies as viewed from different portions (or frequencies) of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Engineering Design Challenges
This site presents challenges faced by NASA engineers who are developing the next generation of aerospace vehicles. The challenges: thermal protection systems, spacecraft structures, electrodynamic propulsion systems, propellers, and personal satellite assistants. Students design, build, test, re-design, and re-build models that meet specified design criteria, using the same analytical skills as engineers.
FoilSim and CurveBall
FoilSim II computes the theoretical lift of a variety of airfoil shapes. The user can control the shape, size, and inclination of the airfoil and the atmospheric conditions in which the airfoil is flying. The program includes a stall model for the airfoil, a model of the Martian atmosphere, and the ability to specify a variety of fluids for lift comparisons. The program has graphical and numerical output, including an interactive probe which you can use to investigate the details of flow around
Video Gallery: Why Conserve Sharks?
This video gallery is from the Museum's Seminars on Science, a series of distance-learning courses designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. Part of the Sharks and Rays: Myth and Reality seminar, Video Gallery: Why Conserve Sharks? features two brief videos, each with a printable PDF transcript:Resistance to Cancer discusses why sharks make an interesting model to look at when investigating resistance to cancer. Immune System looks at the Mote Marine Laboratory's projec
Astronomy Picture of the Day: Earth At Night
NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day website hosted this photo of Earth at night in November 2000. The photo shows what Earth looks like at night with urban centers highlighted by concentrations of city lights. The image is a composite of hundreds of satellite photographs taken by orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellites Program satellites.
Applied Calculus
This is an on-line resource on topics of Applied Calculus, including on-line tutorial sessions.
The Tell-Tale Heart
A narrative performance of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," with subtle sound effects to enhance mood.
Start Smart: Money Management for Teens
This site tells how teenagers can save and earn money, decide where to keep it, spend it wisely, protect against identity theft, be charitable, and get help about money matters. Take an online quiz -- find out what you know about managing your money.
Forsyth Tech CC Demand Driven Biotech Program
A video diary of how Forsyth Tech Community College developed a demand driven biotech curriculum to respond to the needs of local industry. Forsyth Tech is one of 5 centers of expertise that make up the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce. The video was produced by SLAM, Inc.
X-Ray Vision, Crystallography
This site features a tutorial designed to allow students to gain an appreciation of how X-ray crystallography works. Using X-ray diffraction patterns to determine the arrangement of atoms in a molecule requires sophisticated mathematics. This activity depends only on light from an overhead projector passing through a ball-and-stick molecular model placed on the stage of the projector, making it an ideal introduction to x-ray diffraction.
Historical Geology Animations
This site features Flash and Windows Media animations that illustrate various aspects of geologic history. They depict fossil cast formation, the Big Bang and earth through geologic time, the significance of isotopic dating techniques, and views of dinosaurs. These resources are suitable for use in lectures, labs, or other teaching activities.
Martin Van Buren's "Return to the Soil"
is a curriculum-oriented site using the home, named Lindenwald, the eighth President moved to after his term in office to introduce a discussion of Van Buren and his times. The site contains photos and drawings of Lindenwald as well as discussions how Van Buren interacted with other political leaders of the day, like Andrew Jackson and John C. Calhoun. The site offers many questions and suggestions for student assignments.
The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
helps students analyze -- through maps, readings, and images -- the historical and cultural influences that shaped the symbolic meaning of the Liberty Bell.
Thaw in the Cold War: Eisenhower and Khrushchev at Gettysburg
describes how President Eisenhower's personal diplomacy at his Gettysburg farm helped ease the tensions of the Cold War. The site offers photos and maps of the home as well as readings and suggestions for student assignments.
Aviation: From Sand Dunes to Sonic Booms
features 100 aircraft, airfields, research labs, military installations, battle sites, launch facilities, and other places that tell about people and events that made the U.S. a world leader in aviation. Highlights of this travel itinerary include stories of Lt. Edward Rickenbacker, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, and the Wright Brothers.
