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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

There's Air in There!

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Students attempt to blow a wad of paper into a soda bottle.  For this physics lesson, students discover that air pressure inside of a soda bottle prevents new air from going in.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

V is for Vacuum

For Students Pre-K - K
In this handwriting practice worksheet, students trace and write the letter 'V.' They also identify words that begin with the letter and trace and write the word 'vacuum' as shown in the illustration.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Beyond Science?: New Energy Age

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students explore, examine, experiment and study the energy believed to exist in the vacuum of space called zero-point energy. They design and build a machine and then place their machines to test zero-pointed energy into a competition.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Can or Bottle Crusher (Demonstration)

For Teachers 4th - 12th
Learners witness the gas law from a demonstration in which a can collapses after the steam escapes. The steam pushes out most of the air from inside the can and then the air outside presses against the can crushing it.
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Handout
Cosmos 4 kids

Cosmos4 Kids: Much Ado About Nothing

For Students 3rd - 8th
This site will explain the cold, empty space in our universe called vacuums. Site also includes a video explaining the concept.
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Website
Rice University

Galileo Project: Evangelista Torricelli

For Students 9th - 10th
The Galileo Project fact sheet profiles the life and work of Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647), the Italian scientist and inventor.
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Handout
PBS

People and Discoveries: Lee De Forest

For Students 9th - 10th
A biography on audion inventor, Lee de Forest, from childhood on. Hyperlinks to additional information about the radio and broadcasting.
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Handout
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Mit: Invention of the Week: Lee De Forest

For Students 3rd - 8th
This website provides information on the life and inventions of Lee DeForest, the man who invented the audion tube, which made commercial radio broadcasting practical.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Let's Bag It

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Students observe and discuss a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouse to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.
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Unit Plan
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Bill Nye Demonstration: Candle in a Bottle

For Students 6th - 8th
Watch and learn with Bill Nye the Science Guy as he demonstrates this classic candle experiment. [0:57]
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Handout
Other

National Physical Laboratory: The History of Length Measurement

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource provides historic information on length measurement in the United Kingdom. Click on the topics on the left toolbar of the article to find out more information.
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Lesson Plan
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Ucar: Plunger Pull

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learners observe that air exerts pressure, something easy to see using air of very low pressure or a vacuum.
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Activity
Hunkins Experiments

Hunkin's Experiments: Potato Peel a Banana Automatically

For Students 9th - 10th
Hunkin's Experiments is a group of simple cartoon illustrations of scientific principles. Some would work well in the classroom, but others have little value beyond entertaining students. All of the projects are easy to do. This one is a...
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Activity
Hunkins Experiments

Hunkin's Experiments: Get an Egg In/out of a Bottle

For Students 9th - 10th
Hunkin's Experiments is a group of simple cartoon illustrations of scientific principles. Some would work well in the classroom, but others have little value beyond entertaining students. An easy-to-do example includes using air pressure...
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Graphic
The National Gallery (UK)

The National Gallery: Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

For Students 9th - 10th
As part of a larger exhibit on science and the history of scientific instruments, this site examines a painting by Joseph Wright and its connection to the scientific studies of the vacuum. The painting, which is accompanied by a...
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Activity
PBS

Pbs Teachers: Egg in a Bottle

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Examine how differences in air pressure affect objects with this classroom experiment.