This classroom lab is a guided practice for inquiry using brine shrimp as the subject to be investigated.
SSAC Physical Volcanology module. Students build a spreadsheet and apply the ideal gas law to model the velocity of a bubble rising in a viscous magma.
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This activity is a field investigation where students gather data on physical characteristics of the ecosystem surrounding their school.
This activity is a field investigation where students gather data on physical changes of the ecosystem surrounding their school habitat.
Bug Hunt uses NetLogo software and simulates an insect population that is preyed on by birds. There are six speeds of bugs from slow to fast and the bird tries to catch as many insects as possible in a certain amount of time. Students are able to see the results graphed as the average insect speed over time, the current bug population and the number of insects caught. There are two variations to try for the predator, one where the predator pursues the prey and one where the predator stays still and captures insects that pass nearby. In the first case the bird catches the slow insects and the faster ones survive, reproduce and pass genes on. The average speed of bug should increase over time. In the second case the faster bugs come near to the bird more often than the slow ones. The slow ones survive more, reproduce and pass their genes on.
This activity is a biology lab investigation where students create habitats to observe decomposers in a controlled setting.
Build Your Own Earth is a freely available web site to explore the factors that affect Earth's climate. Climate model simulations reveal the annual distributions of 50 different quantities. An accompanying homework for undergraduates is included that could be adapted for other students.
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How can we design buildings to withstand an earthquake? This activity uses simple materials and gives learners a chance to experiment with structures that can withstand an earthquake. Two optional activities explore building damage by subjecting models to ground vibration on a small shake table.
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Bring the rainforest to life in your classroom! Give your students hands-on experiences that will build their understanding of the importance of tropical rainforests and the need for protecting these valuable ecosystems. Explore topics including the water cycle in the Amazon, the life cycle of rainforest plants, rainforest conservation challenges, and more. You can use this kit to prepare your students for a field trip to the Academy's Rainforest Exhibit. Or, if you can't make it to the Academy, use the kit on its own to bring the rainforest to you! This version of the rainforest kit is for grades 4 - 8.
Lab 1: the students begin by describing on a worksheet their own ideas
of delta formation using concept sketches and written descriptions of
the stages of formation, with only broad guidance from the instructor.
They are also asked to describe the key features of their concept
sketches, and to hypothesize how those features might develop (the
processes). The students have all been exposed to deltas in Physical
Geology, but likely only have rudimentary knowledge of them. Once they
have completed the worksheet, the entire class moves to a lab with a
stream table in it, preset to run a "model delta." The model has both a
web cam and a time-lapse web cam set up over the table to record the
development. The students help start the water flowing and the cameras
recording, then watch as it develops over the next 2-3 days.
Lab 2: In the second lab, we use grain-size analysis of the
stream-table delta as a means of testing some of their ideas from lab
1. The students as a class develop a strategy to sample the
stream-table delta for grain size, using a laser grain-size analyzer.
Each pair of students collect one sample, but are also asked to predict
the changes in grain size distribution for samples elsewhere in the
delta. The particle size analyzer rapidly provides results to the
students near the end of lab.
Lab 3: the final lab is a field trip to a pair of gravel pits that
expose the guts of two natural stranded deltas, including topset and
foreset beds. The students are asked to assess the landforms on a topo
map before arriving, and to describe the deposits at each site we
visit. On the final writeup, the students need to synthesize all the
elements of the three labs, along with input from our readings in the
textbook (Easterbrook) and McPhee's "Control of Nature."��
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In association with rock and mineral ID tables, this lab introduces students to basic rocks and minerals via grouping and comparison, rather than as individual samples. I use this lab in my environmental geology course, where we don't have enough lab time to examine each set of rocks and minerals separately, but students need a basic familiarity with these materials and a context in which to place them. I find these groupings teach them how to look at rocks and minerals and give them the cursory experience identifying geologic materials necessary to go on successfully in the course.
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All living beings are made up of cells. Some of them are made up of only one cell and others have many cells. Also in: Dutch | French | Hungarian | Spanish
At the beginning of a course-based research project, each student in a research team is asked to read primary literature related to the team investigation. A mix of provided readings and readings found by the students builds the team content knowledge concurrent with team work on research design and data collection. Students reflect and report on the readings in an annotated bibliography, which is a graded assignment in the course.
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This activity involves building crystal structure ball models in order to strengthen students' understanding of crystalline order, relative atomic size, atomic coordination, crystal chemistry, and crystal symmetry.
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Building Oscillation Seismic Simulation, or BOSS, is an opportunity for learners to explore the phenomenon of resonance for different building heights while performing a scientific experiment that employs mathematical skills. They experience how structures behave dynamically during an earthquake.
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Students in an area remote from igneous and metamorphic rocks wrote papers on the properties of locally used building stones and gave a walking tour in which they presented their results.
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This assignment, depending on the level and depth of implementation, seeks to challenge students by asking them to look beyond "greenwashed" advertisements and buzzwords to grapple with what sustainability means, whether it can be achieved, and what kinds of questions communities must confront in a search for sustainability.
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Educators with an interest in hands-on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines will receive introductory instructions on how to design, engineer and build a fully functional underwater ROV.
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Students build a stratigraphic column for a pre-selected area through the compilation of a series of individual research projects. Students are required to conduct introductory field research as well as a literature search to become "experts" on a selected stratigraphic unit. In addition to a final report, students will present their information at an outcrop on an end-of-semester field trip.
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The center of this sequence of assignments is a collaborative, "New Media" writing project that involves publishing to a wiki a synthesis of knowledge about how humans inhabit places. Writers work in groups with others interested in a common sub-topic and develop information related to local places that local audiences who are invited to join the wiki may use.
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