What is the role of Journalism in ensuring justice in society? In what ways has the Universal Declaration of Human Rights been violated in the world and our community? How do individuals and groups uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the world and our community?

This 15-day unit focuses on the fragility of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and our responsibility to uphold the document. It looks at the role of the media in defining our universe of obligation and highlights the importance of underreported news stories.

In their analysis of journalism, justice and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, students will use Pulitzer Center texts and materials to identify human rights violations in underreported global and local news. Students will analyze how individuals and groups uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the world and our community. In the culminating project for this unit, students will take civic action to address an underreported violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights within their community using the LAUNCH design thinking model.

Students will be presented with a problem; that is to determine the general characteristics (stratigraphy, water table depth) of a heterogeneous deposit (glacial till south of the MSU campus or proglacial sediments south of Ludington, MI) using electrical resistivity methods. The project consists of three separate activities: 1) use laboratory experiments to measure the relationship between soil water content and electrical resistivity for different soil samples obtained from the sites (2-3 samples per group), 2) use simple modeling software to calculate the resistivity response for simple geological models, based on information from well logs and the results of the laboratory measurements, and 3) design (min-max a-spacing and stepsize, based on the forward modeling results), execute, and analyze a field sounding experiment. Results will be summarized in a report and presented in class.
Uses geophysics to solve problems in other fields

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Model Diplomacy is the Council on Foreign Relations’ (CFR) free multimedia simulation program. It engages students through role-play and case studies to understand the issues, institutions, and challenges of creating and implementing U.S. foreign policy. It is an adaptable interactive resource that promotes independent research, critical thinking, effective communication, and collaborative approaches to problem solving. Model Diplomacy places students in the position of policymakers deliberating hypothetical scenarios based on real issues. Content is informed by CFR experts.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: choose appropriate mathematics to solve a non-routine problem; generate useful data by systematically controlling variables; and develop experimental and analytical models of a physical situation.

Student pairs experience the iterative engineering design process as they design, build, test and improve catching devices to prevent a "naked" egg from breaking when dropped from increasing heights. To support their design work, they learn about materials properties, energy types and conservation of energy. Acting as engineering teams, during the activity and competition they are responsible for design and construction planning within project constraints, including making engineering modifications for improvement. They carefully consider material choices to balance potentially competing requirements (such as impact-absorbing and low-cost) in the design of their prototypes. They also experience a real-world transfer of energy as the elevated egg's gravitational potential energy turns into kinetic energy as it falls and further dissipates into other forms upon impact. Pre- and post-activity assessments and a scoring rubric are provided. The activity scales up to district or regional egg drop competition scale. As an alternative to a ladder, detailed instructions are provided for creating a 10-foot-tall egg dropper rig.

Take a breath — where does the oxygen you inhaled come from? In our changing world, will we always have enough oxygen? What is in water that supports life? What is known? How do we know what we know about our vast oceans? These are just a few of the driving questions explored in this interactive STEAM high school curriculum module.

Students in marine science, environmental science, physics, chemistry, biology, integrated science, biotechnology and/or STEAM courses can use this curriculum module in order to use real-world, big data to investigate how our “invisible forest” influences ocean and Earth systems. Students build an art project to represent their new understanding and share this with the broader community.

This 4-week set of lessons is based on the oceanographic research of Dr. Anne Thompson of Portland State University in Oregon, which focuses on the abundant ocean phytoplankton Prochlorococcus. These interdisciplinary STEAM lessons were inspired by Dr. Thompson’s lab and fieldwork as well as many beautiful visualizations of Prochlorococcus, the ocean, and Earth. Students learn about the impact and importance of Prochlorococcus as the smallest and most abundant photosynthetic organism on our planet. Through the lessons, students act as both scientists and artists as they explore where breathable oxygen comes from and consider how to communicate the importance of tiny cells to human survival.

This module is written as a phenomenon-based, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) three-dimensional learning unit. Each of the lessons below also has an integrated, optional Project-Based Learning component that guides students as they complete the PBL process. Students learn to model a system and also design and evaluate questions to investigate phenomena. Students ultimately learn what is in a drop of ocean water and showcase how their drop contributes to our health and the stability and dynamics of global systems.

Using published writers' texts and students' own writing, this unit explores emotions that are associated with the artful and deliberate use of commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points (end-stop marks of punctuation).

THE PATTERNS APPROACH
The Patterns Approach to science instruction emphasizes the use of mathematical and phenomenological patterns to predict the future and understand the past. Students construct science knowledge by making an initial “wild-guess”, asking questions, planning and conducting experiments, collecting data, finding a mathematical model that fits their data, explaining the phenomenon based on that model, then finally making a data-informed prediction. Harnessing their own experiences, students compare and contrast low-evidence predictions (wild guesses) to their data-informed prediction to live the experience and learn the value of evidence-based reasoning. Additionally, students engage in several engineering projects in each course, where they must use the Patterns they discover in their designs to optimize their solutions. The Patterns Approach utilizes technology, student-constructed knowledge, frequent opportunities for student talk, and language supports to ensure the engagement and success of every student. By emphasizing, rather than removing, the mathematical connections to science, the Patterns Approach supports student conceptual understanding by connecting real-world inquiry experiences, graphical representations, and mathematical representations of science phenomena.

Petrographic problem-solving (PPS) assignments consist of a series of two-week mini-projects used within the context of an undergraduate petrology course. The central idea behind PPS assignments is for students to use thin sections as a geologic data source for conducting authentic scientific investigations. For each assignment, students are provided a thin section and corresponding hand sample. Drawing from their initial observations and foundation knowledge, students identify a scientific question, propose a working hypothesis to explain it, test the hypothesis using observations and data collected from the sample, and defend their results in oral presentations and written reports. They use digital cameras interfaced with microscopes to acquire photomicrographs and various software applications to collect and analyze data. For each assignment, students prepare a two-page paper and give a brief presentation to the class (5-10 minutes in duration with 3-5 minutes for discussion). During the presentation sessions, which each require a two-hour class period, class members are encouraged to question their student colleagues.
Students are introduced to PPS assignments as part of the take-home final in the prerequisite Microscopy course. Three PPS assignments are in turn engaged in the subsequent Petrology course during the 10-week term. A summative take-home PPS exercise is completed as part of the final exam. In Petrology, PPS assignments augment more traditional laboratory exercises and are specifically aligned with course content, as follows (refer to student handout sheets in supplemental materials section).

Using a set of rocks representing distinct lithologies, students are guided to think about what geologic conditions and/or environment the sample formed in.
Using a set of plutonic and volcanic rocks from a description and classification exercise, students define their own geologic problem.

Using a set of metamorphic rocks, students are instructed to interpret the genetic conditions based on textures and/or mineralogy.
Using several different andesite samples, students are directed to consider the origin of the sample in context of a case-study activity conducted during the term. This PPS assignment is completed as part of the final exam and requires a summative two-page paper.

In the context of a broad-based undergraduate Earth Science degree program, PPS assignments engage students in the study of Earth materials, actively involve them in the scientific process, and emphasize creative problem solving rather than factual recall.

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This curriculum unit, exploring the energy in food and the thermodynamics of cooking, will include 5 days of 80-minute lessons in which the students will pick a particular food to study. The food will either need to be purchased or produced, and will need to be a food that begins as batter or liquid and solidifies during cooking. For those students who, for any reason, cannot bring in the food, they will be provided a brownie, cupcake, or other common food item. The project will contain two main components or parts. First, the energy stored within the food will be analyzed by applying mathematics. This will require conversion between a common physics unit of kilojoules (kJ) and a common household unit of kilocalories (kcal, CAL or Calories). Students will then need to apply their knowledge of work and energy conservation to provide an example of physical exercise that would be required for them to expend an equal amount of energy that is contained in their food. If a student is uncomfortable sharing their own mass, they may use the common example of a 70-kg person. The second part of their project will involve them using experimental data to determine the heat diffusion constant for their particular food by using a method similar to that described by Rowat et al. published in 2014, “The kitchen as a physics classroom10.” This can be done by placing several thermocouples in their food sample (or probing with toothpicks as will be described later) while heating until the center of the food gets to a desired temperature. Once the diffusion constant is determined, it can then be used to derive an equation that will allow the students to determine the required cooking time based on the size of the food sample. Although larger meals may be interesting samples for the experiment, the food samples must remain reasonably small so that the experiment can be completed within a single class period and can be cooked using toaster ovens or small classroom heaters. Students, in groups of 2-3, will be required to share their data with the class so that the results can be discussed. Students will be graded on their mathematical analysis and an accurate derivation of an equation to predict cooking time based on their measured diffusion constant. Teacher checks will be structured strategically throughout the process to ensure student projects meet the requirements and that student groups remain on pace. By relating energy in food to exercises with equal outputs, and by generating equations to ensure foods will be cooked properly, students not only learn physics in an engaging way but also learn how physics can be used to tackle real-world problems.

SP.255 is a lecture, discussion, and project based seminar about the physics of rock climbing. Participants are first exposed to the unsolved problems in the climbing community that could be answered by research and then asked to solve a small part of one of these problems. The seminar provides an introduction to engineering problems, an opportunity to practice communication skills, and a brief stab at doing some research. This seminar explicitly does not include climbing instruction nor is climbing/mountaineering experience a prerequisite.

Plankton to Plastic Pollution STEM Kit. The Natural Sciences Education & Outreach Center collaborates with CSU faculty, National Parks and citizen science programs to translate their current scientific research into unique STEM experiences for students in the form of Educational Kits that can be checked out. Each kit contains just about all of the materials needed (minus common things like water and paper towels) to explore some really interesting scientific research topics. The kits are available for teachers and informal educators in Colorado to check out for a duration of a week by submitting either a local pickup form or a delivery form available at the linked website. Please use the contact information on the STEM Kit overview page to learn more. https://www.cns-eoc.colostate.edu/stem-kits/ This kit is provided free for educational use. This resource is also available in Spanish in the linked file.

This activity is a slight variation on an original activity, Discovering Plate Boundaries, developed by Dale Sawyer at Rice University. I made different maps, including more detail in all of the datasets, and used a different map projection, but otherwise the general progression of the activity is the same. More information about jigsaw activities in general can be found in the Jigsaws module.

The activity occurs in several sections, which can be completed in one or multiple classes. In the first section, students are divided into "specialist" groups, and each group is given a global map with a single dataset: global seismicity, volcanoes, topography, age of the seafloor, and free-air gravity. Each student is also given a map of plate boundaries. Their task in the specialist group is to become familiar with their dataset and develop categories of plate boundaries based only on their dataset. Each group then presents their results to the class.

In the second section, students reorganize into groups with 1-2 of each type of specialist per group. Each new group is given a plate, and they combine their different datasets on that one plate and look for patterns. Again, each plate group presents to the class. The common patterns and connections between the different datasets quickly become apparent, and the final section of the activity involves a short lecture from the instructor about types of plate boundaries and why the common features are generated at those plate boundaries. A follow-up section or class involves using a problem-solving approach to explain the areas that don't "fit" into the typical boundary types - intra-plate volcanism, earthquakes in the Eastern California Shear Zone, etc.

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This activity focuses on applying analytic tools such as pie charts and bar graphs to gain a better understanding of practical energy use issues. It also provides experience with how different types of data collected affect the outcome of statistical visualization tools.

This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to produce and evaluate geometrical proofs. In particular, this unit is intended to help you identify and assist students who have difficulties in: interpreting diagrams; identifying mathematical knowledge relevant to an argument; linking visual and algebraic representations; and producing and evaluating mathematical arguments.

Water conservation teams will perform a school water audit to determine how much water the school uses (indoors and outdoors), what activities and behaviors contribute to water loss and waste, and what changes could be enacted to conserve water at their school.

In this service learning project, students will collaborate in teams and with community partners to:

Collect data from existing sources such as past water bills, campus census data, and school facility maps
Measure school water use (indoors/outdoor) and make "field" observations by performing the 7-Step School Water Audit
Analyze data, formulate problem statements, and make recommendations for action plans to improve water efficiency
Create an extended abstract or poster for the project
Present the project to an authentic audience of students, teachers, school administrators, water supply entities and other community partners
Make real-world changes to conserve water

Short history of the Railroad in Grand Valley and historical timeline for the railroad with photos and diagrams.

Really Ancient Fossils STEM Kit. The Natural Sciences Education & Outreach Center collaborates with CSU faculty, National Parks and citizen science programs to translate their current scientific research into unique STEM experiences for students in the form of Educational Kits that can be checked out. Each kit contains just about all of the materials needed (minus common things like water and paper towels) to explore some really interesting scientific research topics.The kits are available for teachers and informal educators in Colorado to check out for a duration of a week by submitting either a local pickup form or a delivery form available at the linked website. Due to the extreme weight of the sand used in this Kit, local pickup is the only option. This kit is provided free for educational use. This kit is also available in Spanish.

This research-based student project used the problem of ocean acidification to cover the sustainability concept of fossil fuel combustion and the disciplinary concepts of kinetics, equilibrium, acid-base chemistry and solubility.

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Student pairs reverse engineer objects of their choice, learning what it takes to be an engineer. Groups each make a proposal, create a team work contract, use tools to disassemble a device, and sketch and document their full understanding of how it works. They compile what they learned into a manual and write-up that summarizes the object's purpose, bill of materials and operation procedure with orthographic and isometric sketches. Then they apply some of the steps of the engineering design process to come up with ideas for how the product or device could be improved for the benefit of the end user, manufacturer and/or environment. They describe and sketch their ideas for re-imagined designs (no prototyping or testing is done). To conclude, teams compile full reports and then recap their reverse engineering projects and investigation discoveries in brief class presentations. A PowerPoint(TM) presentation, written report and oral presentation rubrics, and peer evaluation form are provided.