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Book Chapter
Lab 20: Predicting Hurricane Strength
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Natural Hazards as they develop a conceptual model that can be used to predict changes in wind speed inside a hurricane over time. Included are the Teacher Notes, Lab...
Book Chapter
Lab 21: Forecasting Extreme Weather
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Weather and Climate and (b) Natural Hazards as they determine when and under what conditions tornadoes tend to form in the Oklahoma City area. Included are the T...
Book Chapter
Lab 22: Minimizing Carbon Emissions
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Natural Resources, (b) Human Impacts on Earth Systems, and (c) Global Climate Change as they develop a plan to minimize human impact on climate. Included are the...
Book Chapter
Lab 23: Human Use of Natural Resources
In this lab investigation, students apply the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Natural Resources and (b) Human Impacts on Earth Systems as they develop a plan to ensure that there is enough water available to meet the current and near-future needs of t...
Book Chapter
This problem addresses students to develop ways to use direction and distance to describe position and motion. Students are members of a fire department rescue team who practice giving each other directions to get out of a smoke-filled room in a burn...
Book Chapter
This problem addresses direction, distance, and speed by having students develop ways to use time and distance to describe speed. Students determine the winner of a race between a beetle that moves fast with intermittent pauses and a beetle that move...
Book Chapter
In this problem, direction, distance, and speed are addressed by having students develop ways to use time and distance to describe instantaneous and average speed. This problem can be adjusted for students of different ages and math skills. Students ...
Book Chapter
This problem addresses direction, distance, and speed by having students develop ways to use speed, time, and distance to describe a motion. Students determine whether self-propelled toy cars are moving at a constant velocity and focus on measuring t...
Book Chapter
This problem addresses direction, distance, speed, and acceleration by having students develop ways to use speed, time, direction, and acceleration to describe a motion. Students use acceleration data from an insurance car monitoring system to recons...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students explore how forces change the direction of motion of a spaceship moving between asteroids. They simulate the scenarios by using puffs of air delivered through straws to move balls through a maze made up of an “asteroid fie...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students compare the end velocities of cartoon characters that jumped up from, jumped down from, or fell from a cliff and landed in a river. Students are asked to design experiments to test the impact velocities of falling objects. T...
Book Chapter
This problem focuses on force, acceleration, direction, and mass, and is set in the context of a rescue team. Students figure out how to balance three forces to suspend a person in a particular position. They balance three forces of different strengt...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students work in teams to design a new type of roller coaster ride. Students act as engineers to design a model roller coaster with “cars” (marbles) that are launched using elastic potential energy. The problem specifies that the...
Book Chapter
Rube Goldberg machines are comical machines with many parts. This problem focuses on engineering energy transformations to make a functioning Rube Goldberg machine. The function of the machine, the materials used, and the number or type of energy tra...
Book Chapter
During a long trip in the car, a student wonders whether the expensive travel mug used for iced tea keeps drinks hot or cold better than the foam cup holding coffee. In this problem, students explore the insulating ability of several kinds of cups wi...