Michigan State University
May I Take Your Order?
If you're a pest, come and get a tasty meal here! Scholars work collaboratively to construct a mini restaurant out of a shoe box and create a menu that feeds a pest their favorite food.
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Temperature Changes Everything
Learners determine the effect of temperature on the motion of particles. They study the difference between particles in a gas, liquid, and a solid and see how the characteristics of solids, liquids, and gases can be explained by particle...
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Take a Leap!
Eighth graders discuss the flight of the Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk. They study artwork of various sculptors showing the concept of flight. They write a paragraph and design a papier-mache' sculpture that shows movement.
National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
Nuclear Popcorn
Make your lesson on radioactive decay pop with this lab exercise. Using popcorn kernels spread over a tabletop, participants pick up all of those that point toward the back of the room, that is, those that represent decayed atoms. As the...
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CO2 and Air Pollution
Seventh graders observe and test for the presence of carbon dioxide gas. They compare concentrations of carbon dioxide gas and conclude high concentrations of carbon dioxide gas are unhealthy for human beings.
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Seashore Explorers
There are three separate lessons within this resource that can be used together, or that can each stand alone. In the first, five simple activities allow junior scientists to examine the amazing properties of water. In the second, they...
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Gravity and Circular Motion
Go around and around in your physics class with this presentation on circular motion. Diagrams bring the definition to life. Formulas for angular acceleration, centripetal force, gravitation, and potential in a radial field are given....
TerraCycle
What Can Nature Teach Us about Sustainable Design?
Talk about Velcro®, Gecko Tape, WhalePower turbine blades, and other innovations that mimic nature to inspire your STEM or engineering class. This set of worksheets gets them thinking about imitating nature in terms of sustainable...
Mathematics Vision Project
Quadratic Equations
Through a variety of physical and theoretical situations, learners are led through the development of some of the deepest concepts in high school mathematics. Complex numbers, the fundamental theorem of algebra and rational exponents...
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Blast's Cosmic Carnival
Students, after analyzing the history of a concentrator, model how a Genesis spacecraft concentrator works by playing a game. In groups of three or four, after being given materials to work with, are challenged to roll the rubber balls...
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Activity #5 'Empty' Bag?
Students review that air is a form of matter. They investigate how air takes up space. Pupils comprehend that they cannot see air, it takes up space and has mass, therefore it is a form of matter. Students investigate how to show that...
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Properties of Liquids
Seventh graders explain that liquids are made up of tiny particles and how these spaces allow other particiles to fit in between larger particles. They then plan and carry out simple scientific experiments.
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How Do You Know There is Air in a Bag?
Fourth graders explore air as a material substance. Through experimentation and discussion, they explore how air can be classified as a material substance. Students write three examples proving that air is a material substance in their...
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Weightlessness Demonstration
Young scholars explore the concept that free-fall eliminates the local effects of gravity. They discuss what an Earth-orbiting spacecraft experience is like as well as the terminology of weightlessness. Their lab experiment commences.
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Weightlessness
Learners predict the behavior of coffee in a cup while it is dropped during a demonstration. They relate their observations to the weightless conditions that astronauts experience in space and discuss the concept of free-fall.
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Liquid Crystal IR Detector
Students experiment with one method of detecting infrared radiation. They simulate the detection of infrared radiation using a liquid crystal sheet.
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Cosmic Collisions and Risk Assessment
In groups, pupils create their own scientific impact experiments using ordinary materials, and observe and measure results with a variety of impacting bodies and velocities.
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Drop Zone! Design and Test a Probe
Students work together to develop their own parachuting probe. They test it and record the results. They simulate other experiments that are going to be carried out by the Huygens probe.
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Radish Seed Garden
Fifth graders explore the effects of overpopulation in an ecosystem while applying the scientific method. They discuss overpopulation and its meaning. Students as an organism competes for space in an overpopulated area. They plant...
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Detecting Magnetic Materials in "Martian" Soil
Students simulate some of the Pathfinder experiments by devising methods of collecting and measuring magnetic substances in pseudo-Martian soil. The efficiency of each of the methods used to collect materials is evaluated in this lesson.
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an Explorative Journey Through the Solar System
Students, in groups, research a planet from our solar system. They create Styrofoam models of the planets and place the planets on a correct distance scale from the sun.
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Oxygen vs. Air Pressure
Learners conduct an experiment to determine if water level is affected by a change in oxygen level or air pressure.
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Current Interactions
Students design an experiment to see how wind, temperature, and salinity work together to influence ocean currents and present it in a report format. They explain to their classmates how experiment findings relate to ocean currents.
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Hurricanes
Students state and directly experience two laws of Physics (Law of Gravity, Law of Centrifugal Force) that affect weather. They explain the observations made when using the "hurricane machine" and relate them to other events and phenomenon.