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Gene Puzzles
Students explain that in sexually reproducing organisms, such as humans, typically half of the genes come from each parent. They examine a fictional pedigree and determine which gene is responsible for a given trait.
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Fossils 1: Fossils and Dinosaurs
Students explain what can be learned from fossils and in doing so, realize the difference between fact and theory (idea). They also gain a general understanding of how fossils are formed.
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Plants 1: Plant Parents
Middle schoolers explain that most plants usually reproduce sexually. They learn the parts of the flower and the process of sexual reproduction in plants.
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Pond 1: Pond Life
Young scholars investigate familiar and unfamiliar ecosystems using Internet resources. They explore how various organisms satisfy their needs within their environments and study the kinds of relationships that exist between organisms...
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First Class First? Using Data to Explore the Tragedy of the Titanic
Students analyze and interpret data related to the crew and passengers of the Titanic. They draw conclusions to better explain the people who were lost or saved as a result of the disaster, and whether or not social status affected the...
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Ethics and Reproductive Issues: The Dilemma of Choice
High schoolers examine the ethical issues raised by three situations in which prenatal testing may be used to prevent or facilitate pregnancy.
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Physical Health
Pupils identify how germs are spread, the diseases they can cause, and how hand washing can help prevent the spread of germs.
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What Happens in the First 9 Months?
Students become familiar with the stages of human development during pregnancy.
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Values And Attitudes
Students identify some of the skills and attitudes that are essential for solving problems effectively. This lesson is designed to introduce students to the important habits of mind that one must develop in order to solve problems...
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Energy: The U.S. In Crisis?
High schoolers research and assess past, present, and future decisions related to energy shortages. They evaluate economic, political, and social impacts that led California to its near critical energy situation.
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Putting It All Together
Students experience the design of different structures. create, design, and evaluate different structures. They use Lego blocks to create several different designs. They evaluate the various steps involved in creating their structures.
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Sunspots 3: Tracking the Movement of Sunspots
Students analyze sunspots through the use of solar imaging from satellite instruments. They collect two types of images, and track the movement of sunspots using a latitude/longitude grid.
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Hot and Cold Colors
Students explore the effect of heating and cooling on the dispersal of food coloring in water.
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Materials and Manufacturing
Students examine different kinds of materials to identify the properties of materials and their suitability for different purposes using the story of the Three Little Pigs.
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Magnets 2: How Strong is Your Magnet?
Students experimentally measure the strength of a magnet and graph how the strength changes as the distance from the magnet increases, and as the barrier (masking tape) is built between the magnet and an iron object.
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Properties of Air
Learners investigate the physical properties of air on the substance level in order to help students' build toward future understanding of how air particles behave on a molecular level.
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Carbon: Structure Matters
Students explore the molecular structure of matter and how it can affect the physical characteristics of a specific material. They investigate the role carbon plays in the chemistry of life.
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It's a Crash Test, Dummy
Students research air bags on the Internet. They use the information to design and test a version of an air bag. They determine the correct ratio of acid and base that leaves no appreciable amount of either reactant behind, yet fully...
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Systems: Up, Up and Away
Learners design and test rockets to determine what variables are necessary in order to optimize the system to make it function best.
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The Little Transistor That Could
Students explore the nature of technology through the history of the transistor. They examine how the engineers at the Bell Labs used knowledge of science and technology, together with strategies of design, to solve practical problems.
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Sampling Rocks
Students study about sampling through an investigation of rocks found in the schoolyard. They sort the collected rocks by characteristics such as size, weight, and color, to see if any generalizations can be made about the types of rocks...
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Wonderful Waves - Wave Model
Students demonstrate that simple models can be used to represent real world objects that are not easily brought into a classroom. They create a wave model using two different types of simple models.
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Brine Shrimp Survival
Students develop an understanding of how growth and survival of an organism depend on physical conditions. They design an artificial environment in which brine shrimp can thrive.
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Be a Geography Observor and Recorder
Young scholars investigate the human and physical features of their school neighborhood. They observe the physical and man made features outside, make illustrations of their observations, and develop a class list of their observations.