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  • Burning Paper

    Book Chapter |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students' ideas about conservation of matter during combustion. The probe is designed to find out if students think the mass changes as paper burns inside a closed…

  • Ice Water

    Book Chapter |

    The purpose of this assessment probe is to elicit students' ideas about temperature in the context of phases of matter. The probe is designed to find out if students recognize that the temperature of a substance does…

  • Guitar Designs—Exploring How Music Is Made

    Book Chapter |

    In this activity, students use household items to make a functional guitar that can play at least one octave and a song. This selection highlights the physics concepts of sound and wave properties, as well as the core…

  • Temperature and Photosynthesis

    Book Chapter |

    The purpose of this lab is for students to apply their knowledge of photosynthesis and how to measure the chemical process, specifically, ”How Does Temperature Affect the Rate of Photosynthesis in Plants?” The Teacher…

  • Lab 19: Differences in Regional Climate

    Book Chapter |

    In this lab investigation, students apply the disciplinary core idea of Weather and Climate as they develop a conceptual model that explains the temperature and precipitation patterns in different cities. Included are…

  • Newton's First One

    Book Chapter |

    This first chapter deals with one of the most basic principles of motion, which happens to be known as Newton’s first law. Not coincidentally, it has something to do with Isaac Newton. It’s a nice law to start out with…

  • Newton's Second One

    Book Chapter |

    If you understood the first two chapters, you now know how to describe motion (using velocity and accelerations) and you know what causes changes in motion (net forces do it). Remember that net force refers to what you…

  • Newton's Third

    Book Chapter |

    In order to get a more complete understanding of how and why things move the way they do, it is necessary to consult with Newton one more time. Newton's Third Law, which sums up this idea of objects pushing on each…

  • Round and Round and Round in the Circle Game

    Book Chapter |

    If you recognize where the title of this chapter came from, then you're showing your age and your taste for FM music in the old days. For the record (and it was a record), it comes from a song written by Joni Mitchell…

  • Recognizing Energy

    Book Chapter |

    Energy is such a common notion. We talk about it all the time. Should you buy energy-efficient windows? The country needs an energy policy. That little kid at the store who screaming at the top of his lungs sure…

  • Energy on the Move

    Book Chapter |

    Up until now, we've been talking about things having a certain amount of energy and not about things gaining, losing, or changing their form of energy. We've already seen how energy can change, though. A marble at…

  • It Slices, It Dices--It Gathers Dust!

    Book Chapter |

    In case you can't tell from the title, this chapter is about machines. No, not salad shooters and makers of julienne fries but rather everyday things such as scissors and bottle openers and car jacks. These are known…

  • Temp-a-chur and Thermal Energy

    Book Chapter |

    In this chapter you will learn the basic concept of temperature and what it means for one thing to be hotter than another. The hotter something is, the faster its molecules are moving. And that means that a hot…

  • Close the Door--You're Letting the Cold In!

    Book Chapter |

    Actually no, you aren't letting the cold in when you leave the door open in winter. That's a common misconception that will be gently put to rest in this chapter. There will, however, be a discussion of the tranfer…

  • Taming Energy

    Book Chapter |

    Energy transformations take place all over the Earth without humans ever getting involved. Being the control freaks that we are, though, we spend a lot of time trying to direct those energy transformations to make our…

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