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.

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 analyze a mountain man's map to see how the political boundaries of the US have changed over time

This activity is designed as a laboratory exercise and to take ~1-1.5 hours to finish.

On May 18, 1980, Mt. St. Helens in the state of Washington exploded in a cloud of ash, plus lava and mud flows. What had been a beautiful symmetrical snow-covered mountain with heavily forested slopes became a startling landscape of ash, mud, and downed trees surrounding a broken, irregular peak. The power of the initial blast was directed upward and laterally, snapping off trees for miles in the blast zone. In the years since 1980, many people �� geologists, biologists, environmentalists �� have been observing and studying how the landscape recovers after a major volcanic eruption.

In this exercise, students study simplified topographic maps of Mt. St. Helens to interpret the shape of the mountain before and after the 1980 eruption. An option is to have them look at the volcano on Google Earth at this point. Student materials include a graph on which to plot two topographic profiles across Mt. St. Helens to illustrate the change in its shape. The accompanying Instruction file includes calculation of the vertical exaggeration of the profiles, but this section of the exercise may be omitted. Assuming that the material removed by the eruption was in the form of a perfect cone, students use their profiles to measure the height and diameter of the cone to calculate the volume of material removed. Students then compare the result of their calculation with published values for the eruptive material removed from the mountain and identify possible sources of error in their work.

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.

The mission of the National Heritage Language Resource Center (NHLRC) at the University of California, Los Angeles is to develop effective pedagogical approaches to teaching heritage language learners, first by creating a research base and then by pursuing curriculum design and teacher education. Some of the center's projects for Arabic include facilitating STARTALK workshops, publishing articles on Arabic linguistics, and more. The NHLRC is one of 15 Language Resource Centers established under Title VI of the U.S. Department of Education.

In this activity, students use a piano keyboard to model spectral lines as musical chords. It is designed to aid student understanding of spectral analysis, what the patterns mean, how elements are involved, and how this relates to stars. Traditionally, spectral images are two dimensional, and related to text. This auditory activity allows students to "hear" differences in patterns of various elements (e.g., nickel or helium). This activity is part of the "What is Your Cosmic Connection to the Elements" information and activity booklet. The booklet includes photos, teachers notes and instructions, and a link to a color image pdf of visible light spectra that can be printed and used to do the activity. This activity requires a piano keyboard, color printout or construction paper and/or toothpicks (to mark spectral lines of elements).

The focus of many open education projects is to provide access to education. But what does access mean? If the materials are not accessible for each and every student, do they fulfill the mandate to deliver fully open education? The open education movement has helped people in different parts of the world access content that they would otherwise not be able to view or interact with. Open education resources reduce costs for students and allow for greater flexibility for instructors. Accessibility can help push the movement even further forward.

The goal of the OER Accessibility Toolkit is to provide the needed resources needed to each content creator, instructor, instructional designer, educational technologist, librarian, administrator, and teaching assistant to create a truly open and accessible educational resource — one that is accessible for all students.

This is the new progression for 6th Grade. This progression builds upon Math Framework Project Phase 1 work, taking many of the best features and building in an Overarching Question, Essential Questions, and Big Ideas for each unit.

This new model takes the work of bundling standards to the next level by grouping together grade level concepts under Big Ideas. The Big Ideas are designed to represent the critical mathematics of this grade level in a manner we believe to be more coherent and productive as a guide for planning instruction, assessment, and intervention. Big Ideas are not a replacement for the objectives.

Average inquiry level: Structured
Students explore mineral properties and the ways in which we distinguish among the variety of rock-forming minerals. Ultimately students will learn to classify various properties, apply them to unknown samples to identify, connect the properties to potential uses, and evaluate the effectiveness of their observations and descriptions. This lab is designed for online instruction.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Use this checklist to make sure that your resource meets all the requirements for open licensing. Please note that it is very helpful to review this checklist BEFORE you begin development work so that you are designing your resource with open licensing requirements in mind from the beginning.

This link goes to the Strategic Action group on OER Commons where you can download a pdf version of the document or remix the editable version.

Based on this model oral history experience, the toolkit includes instructional concepts, ideas, and strategies for use by educators to design a curriculum that reflects their instructional goals and the needs of their students while appreciating Vietnam veterans in their community.

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.

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.

Social distancing can be tough, and we are all in need of a little positivity! This week’s virtual Read & Seed will help us transform our neighborhood into that of something beautiful. We will read Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood by F. Isabel Campoy, Theresa Howell, and Rafael López and create our own positivity posters with nature as our inspiration. We will also participate in a Movement/Music/Finger Play activity by singing The More We Get Together. This lesson is aimed at connecting young learners to their natural world and promote school readiness skills. This Read & Seed activity is presented by The Gardens on Spring Creek by the City of Fort Collins. https://youtu.be/qaKv_ozqklo

This is an activity about solar energy. Learners will first use computers to research and learn how solar panels convert sunlight into electricity. Next, they will calculate the surface area of solar panels board a satellite and their total power generated in various positions of the satellite, given the dimension of the panels. After, learners will organize and write a report summarizing the information about the MMS mission satellites. This activity requires student access to internet accessible computers. This is lesson four as part of the MMS Mission Educator's Instructional Guide.

Designed to meet the scope and sequence of your course, Principles of Finance provides a strong foundation in financial applications using an innovative use-case approach to explore their role in business decision-making. An array of financial calculator and downloadable Microsoft Excel data exercises also engage students in experiential learning throughout. With flexible integration of technical instruction and data, this title prepares students for current practice and continual evolution.

Production of Educational Videos is an introduction to technical communication that is situated in the production of educational videos; the assignments are all focused on the production of videos that teach some aspect of MIT's first-year core curriculum. The objective of these assignments is improvement in both communication ability and communication habits; these improvements are effected by providing participants with instruction, practice, feedback, and the opportunity for reflection. In addition to improvements in communication skills, improvement is expected in students' attitude towards writing, oral presentations, and collaboration; as the semester progresses, students should feel confident of their ability to write, present, and collaborate.

This is a course in assembly language programming of the MIPS processor. It emphasizes the topics needed for the study of computer architecture: bits, bit patterns, operations on bit patterns, and how bit patterns represent instructions and data. This course is equivalent to a semester-long junior college or university course (except, perhaps, for the emphasis on bit patterns). The emphasis of the course is on understanding how computers work. This will provide a basis for further study of computer architecture and computer software. The MIPS processor, the subject of this course, has a well-designed architecture and is particularly fruitful to study.

Now it's your turn to show your stuff! Press play for instructions. To start your project you need to make a modification to this code and then click spin-off. "By participating in this activity, you acknowledge that similar characters may be independently created and you agree to waive any claims against Pixar or Khan Academy for any similarities between the images you produce and independently created characters."