This activity shows you how to make a mold terrarium using a jar and leftover food. Learners explore mold, an "icky but necessary" thing that helps living matter rot, return to the soil, and provide nutrients for other plants. If you use a variety of food scraps, with preservatives and without, you'll see the different kinds of mold and be able to compare the rate of growth on various foods. Note: don't put meat or fish in your mold terrarium--after a few days, these would start to smell very, very bad.

In this activity, students interact with 12 models to observe emergent phenomena as molecules assemble themselves. Investigate the factors that are important to self-assembly, including shape and polarity. Try to assemble a monolayer by "pushing" the molecules to the substrate (it's not easy!). Rotate complex molecules to view their structure. Finally, create your own nanostructures by selecting molecules, adding charges to them, and observing the results of self-assembly.

Created by the Concord Consortium, the Molecular Workbench is "a modeling tool for designing and conducting computational experiments across science." First-time visitors can check out one of the Featured Simulations to get started. The homepage contains a number of curriculum modules which deal with chemical bonding, semiconductors, and diffusion. Visitors can learn how to create their own simulations via the online manual, which is available here as well. The Articles area is quite helpful, as it contains full-text pieces on nanoscience education, quantum chemistry, and a primer on how transistors work. A good way to look over all of the offerings here is to click on the Showcase area. Here visitors can view the Featured simulations, or look through one of five topical sections, which include Biotech and Nanotechnology. Visitors will need to install the free Molecular Workbench software, which is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

A fun lab experience with little extra prep or materials needed. Kids are amazed that 1+1 doesn't equal 2!

Spreadsheets across the Curriculum Module. Students build spreadsheets to practice converting between moles, grams, and atomic mass units.

In this two-part activity, learners use everyday materials to visualize one mole of gas or 22.4 liters of gas. The first activity involves sublimating dry ice in large garbage bag. The second activity uses plastic bottles.

This task asks students to solve a problem in a context involving constant speed. This task provides a transition from working with ratios involving whole numbers to ratios involving fractions.

This task is designed to help students focus on the whole that a fraction refers to. It helps students to realize that two different fractions can describe the same situation depending on what you choose to be the whole.

This assignment uses a computer simulation of fruit fly genetics to have students design and interpret monohybrid crosses of a trait with simple dominant and recessive alleles. Detailed instructions with animated examples, background material, a sample report and a rubric are included.

Students predict then calculate and graph profit-maximizing the price for an isolated, desert monopoly gas station.

This activity is an observation opportunity for students to view the phases of the moon and learn that the juxtoposition of the Earth and moon dictates the appearance of the moon in the sky.

This counting activity is done in pairs and helps reinforce the concepts of greater than, less than, and equal to.

This task presents a straight forward question that can be solved using an equation in one variable. The numbers are complicated enough so that it is natural to set up an equation rather than solve the problem in one's head.

This activity is a lab where students make measurements of a mass on a spring and work through appropriate calculations dealing with simple harmonic motion.

Study the motion of a toy car on a ramp and use motion sensors to digitally graph the position data and then analyze it. Make predictions about what the graphs will look like, and consider what the corresponding velocity graphs would look like.

The purpose of this task is for students to solve problems involving decimals in a context involving a concept that supports financial literacy, namely inflation.

In this brochure the European Aluminium Association (EAA) outlines the advantages of aluminum use in road transport. These advantages include environmental, revenue, energy, material composition, recycling, sustainability, and safety.

In a class demonstration, students observe a simple water cycle model to better understand its role in pollutant transport. This activity shows one way in which pollution is affected by the water cycle; it simulates a point source of pollution in a lake and the resulting environmental consequences.