Graphical Just-in-Time-Teaching questions for use before classes in which students explore position, velocity and acceleration graphs.
In this demonstration students are given a position, velocity or acceleration graph showing the motion of an object. They are asked to write a short description of the motion, and make predictions by completing the remaining two graphs.
In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how to read and interpret a distance–time graph.
Students are introduced to different ways of displaying visual spectra, including colored "barcode" spectra, like those produced by a diffraction grating, and line plots displaying intensity versus color, or wavelength. Students learn that a diffraction grating acts like a prism, bending light into its component colors.
This is a lesson about visual spectra. Learners will explore different ways of displaying visual spectra, including colored "barcode" spectra, like those produced by a diffraction grating, and line plots displaying intensity versus color, or wavelength. Students learn that a diffraction grating acts like a prism, bending light into its component colors. The activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System.
This simulation is Graph matching between position + velocity graphs
Visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other. Change properties of the objects in order to see how it changes the gravity force.
Visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other. Change properties of the objects in order to see how it changes the gravity force.
We owe our lives to gravity. It holds the atmosphere to Earth and keeps us all from falling off into space. Not to mention that without gravity, the stars and planets—including Earth—wouldn't even exist! This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, introduces the key concepts of gravity, orbits, weight, and weightlessness.
Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!
Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!
This video lesson highlights how science can be learned from daily life experiences. It emphasizes the ways in which simple laws of physics can be understood from personal observations and experiences, and in fact it demonstrates that we use these laws as if they were built into our instincts. The video also introduces Newton's laws of motion. The title, Gravity at Work, comes from a fascinating example of two laborers working at a construction site in Pakistan. In this lesson, Newtonian equations of motion are used to determine the velocities and height achieved by the projectile in a very simple and basic manner.
This activity is a field lab where students use a half gallon milk/juice carton containing two raw eggs and "other" materials to design an internal protective structure that will prevent the eggs from breaking from a 50 foot drop off a roof top.
This is a debate-style learning activity in which student teams learn about energy sources and are then assigned to represent the different energy sources. Working cooperatively, students develop arguments on the pros and cons of their source over the others.
Students use water balloons and a length of string to understand how the force of gravity between two objects and the velocity of a spacecraft can balance to form an orbit. They see that when the velocity becomes too great for gravity to hold the spacecraft in orbit, the object escapes the orbit and travels further away from the planet.
In this short video, atmospheric scientist Scott Denning gives a candid and entertaining explanation of how greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere warm our planet.
Build your own miniature "greenhouse" out of a plastic container and plastic wrap, and fill it with different things such as dirt and sand to observe the effect this has on temperature. Monitor the temperature using temperature probes and digitally plot the data on the graphs provided in the activity.
Explore how the Earth's atmosphere affects the energy balance between incoming and outgoing radiation. Using an interactive model, adjust realistic parameters such as how many clouds are present or how much carbon dioxide is in the air, and watch how these factors affect the global temperature.
Make your own miniature greenhouse and measure the light levels at different "times of day"--modeled by changing the angle of a lamp on the greenhouse--using a light sensor. Next, investigate the temperature in your greenhouse with and without a cover. Learn how a greenhouse works and how you can regulate the temperature in your model greenhouse.
A series of spread sheets have been set up to provide a framework of observations and questions as a "guided discovery" exercise to clearly demonstrate the observations that a master petrographer would make. The observation of a thin section is broken down into a series of manageable tasks: reconnaissance overview of the thin section at low power; followed by creation of a systematic inventory of the rock-forming minerals (stable mineral paragenesis), alteration phases, and accessory minerals; and finally, analysis of the textures of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
Comprehensive lists of a) optical determinations, and b) textural features are provided as "cues" to the student to help focus attention on the full range of observations that could or should be made towards a comprehensive petrographic analysis of the thin section. These sheets are organized to include:
Consideration of the geologic context of the sample: What is the geologic setting where the rock was collected? What is the rock type (if known), or at least is it igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic? This type of contextual information will help guide you to interpret what minerals are likely to be present (or excluded) in the sample
Mineral Optics (identification of mineral phases in thin section.
Observations at low power in plane and cross polarized light.
Systematic characterization of the (stable) rock-forming minerals
Identification of a) secondary or replacement minerals, and b) important accessory minerals;
Description and Interpretation of Rock Textures
Igneous rocks
Clastic Sedimentary rocks
Non-clastic Sedimentary rocks (carbonates)
Metamorphic rocks
Applications; can these minerals/assemblages/textures be used to determine source area, physical conditions (thermobarometry), geo- or thermochronology, and other useful geologic information?
Initially, use of these spread sheets will appear to be prescriptive. However, given the complexity observed in Nature, no single set of questions can be universally applied to all types of samples. So, the steps and observations represented in these spread sheets provide a general framework--a place to start--and the lists of optical properties and textures are meant to be a reminder to students about the types of observations that should be made. Students can use these spread sheets as a guide to make decisions about what is important and useful for the overall interpretation.
Metacognitive components of the activity
Students derive an awareness of their own learning processes by considering "what" they are doing and "why" they are performing certain operations on the petrographic microscope.
Students monitor their own progress by considering a) what they expect to find based on geologic contexts, b) are their observations and interpretations consistent with what can (or cannot) occur in Nature, and
Adjust their learning strategies to accomodate new lines of evidence towards formulation of internally consistent (if not "correct") observations and interpretations of the thin section.
Metacognitive goals for this activity:
The first encounter with an unknown thin section can be both confusing and overwhelming: Where do I start? What should I look for? How should I proceed? How will I know if I'm doing the right thing, and making the right observations?....
The purpose of this exercise is to "unpack" the steps taken by a master petrographer, to describe "what" observations can be made, and explain "why" these steps should be taken, what the utility or significance of the observations is, and how these observations can be appropriately interpreted (often these observations are done instantaneously in the mind of the petrographer, but in this exercise we try to explicitly outline these steps). With practice and experience these steps will become second nature. The goal of this exercise is to help students master the art of petrography so that they can independently do petrographic analysis of any rock from any context.
Assessing students' metacognition
In the course of teaching petrography in my regular coursework, I find that I continually articulate to students (one at a time) what I am doing (and why), what I am seeing (and they may or may not be seeing the same thing), why certain relationships are to be expected or prohibited in Nature (by considering the larger geologic context). The development of these guided discovery activities is an attempt to clearly articulate to all students the steps that are routinely taken in the petrographic analysis of a thin section. The goal is to more efficiently and effectively get students past the "mechanical" stages of mineral identification and textural descriptions, and help them to begin to develop higher order thinking skills of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
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