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Book Chapter
Lab 5: Geologic Time and the Fossil Record
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of The History of Planet Earth as they identify major extinction and diversification events that happened during the last 650 million years of Earth’s history. Include...
Book Chapter
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions as they explore plate tectonics and the geologic activity that occurs near different types of plate boundaries. In...
Book Chapter
Lab 7: Formation of Geologic Features
In this lab investigation, students apply the disciplinary core ideas of (a) The History of Planet Earth and (b) Plate Tectonics and Large-Scale System Interactions as they develop a conceptual model that explains how the Hawaiian archipelago formed ...
Book Chapter
Lab 8: Surface Erosion by Wind
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Earth Materials and Systems as they develop a conceptual model that can be used to explain why wind speed, wind duration, and soil moisture affect the amount of soil ...
Book Chapter
Lab 9: Surface Erosion by Wind
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Earth Materials and Systems and (b) The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes as they figure out how stream flow volume affects the size and shape of riv...
Book Chapter
Lab 10: Deposition of Sediments
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Earth Materials and Systems and (b) The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes as they explore the factors that affect the settling velocity of sediments ...
Book Chapter
Lab 11: Soil Texture and Soil Water Permeability
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Earth Materials and Systems and (b) The Roles of Water in Earth’s Surface Processes as they determine how soil texture affects soil water permeability. Include...
Book Chapter
Lab 12: Cycling of Water on Earth
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Earth Materials and Systems as they determine how temperature and the surface area to volume ratio of water affect the rate of water evaporation. Included are the Tea...
Book Chapter
Lab 13: Characteristics of Minerals
In this lab investigation, students apply the disciplinary core idea of Earth Materials and Systems as they identify a set of unknown minerals. Included are the Teacher Notes, Lab Handout, and Checkout Questions for the lab, in addition to the book�...
Book Chapter
Lab 14: Distribution of Natural Resources
In this lab investigation, students apply the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Earth Materials and Systems, (b) Natural Resources, and (c) Human Impacts on Earth Systems as they evaluate competing plans for a new copper mine. Included are the Teacher N...
Book Chapter
Lab 15: Air Masses and Weather Conditions
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Weather and Climate as they determine how the motions and complex interactions of air masses result in changes in weather conditions. Included are the Teacher Notes, ...
Book Chapter
Lab 16: Surface Materials and Temperature Change
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core ideas of (a) Earth Materials and Systems and (b) Weather and Climate as they determine the relationship between the materials covering an area and the rate at which the tempe...
Book Chapter
Lab 17: Factors That Affect Global Temperature
In this lab investigation, students are introduced to the disciplinary core idea of Weather and Climate as they determine how the temperature of Earth responds to changes in the amount of cloud cover and the concentration of various greenhouse gases ...
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...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students investigate how to construct a simple circuit from a battery, flashlight bulb, and items that might be found in someone’s pocket. Teams of students engineer a simple flashlight using a flashlight bulb, two AA batteries, an...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students wire the lighting in a miniature house to meet preset specifications. These specifications can be altered to make the problem more or less complex. Students wire circuits with batteries, bulbs, and different numbers of switc...
Book Chapter
In this problem, students are asked to build a battery-operated, personal fan from household materials. This entails building a small electric motor. It is not expected that students will figure out how to make a motor without guidance. Electric moto...
Journal Article
Enter the Nation’s First Student Chief Science Officers
Students vote for one of their peers to become a STEM advocate in their school. These Chief Science Officers select and promote STEM programming, connect with STEM organizations to bring STEM programming to their communities, or participate in loca...
By Jeremy Babendure, Nagib Balfakih, Susan Farretta, and Becky Hughes
Journal Article
The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education hosts resources for designers, evaluators, and researchers of informal STEM learning experiences and settings....
By Jamie Bell and Ashley Gary
Journal Article
Delving Below the Surface With the Montana Groundwater Academy
The Montana Groundwater Academy is a high school program that integrates classroom and field-based experiences to teach the fundamentals of groundwater science. ...
By Beth Covitt, Agatha Podrasky, Deb Fassnacht, Rebecca Paquette, and William Woessner
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children will use observation skills to describe the physical features of roly-polies. They will make comparisons with other animals to identify similarities and differences to infer which animal roly-polies are most like. Assessment ...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children will use vocabulary and drawings to represent detailed observations of crickets and use these observations as a basis for making inferences about the function of crickets’ external parts. Assessment criteria and connections...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children will observe and describe characteristics of earthworms and compare them to other animals. Students will investigate how various conditions affect the earthworms. Assessment criteria and connections to standards are provided....
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children use observation skills to describe the characteristics of snails. Students will infer the role of the mucus or slime in snail movement and compare the amounts produced on different surfaces. Assessment criteria and connection...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children will use vocabulary and drawings to represent detailed observations of goldfish and will use their observations as a basis for making inferences about the functions of different body parts. Assessment criteria and connections...
Book Chapter
In this lesson, children will observe and compare how different animals can be camouflaged on different surfaces and in different environments. They will discuss why animals camouflage themselves and communicate their learning through speaking, writi...