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Katrina Case Study
Students explore the impact natural events have on the environment, specifically the wetlands. They view a video about the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Delta and answer discussion questions.
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Build Your Own Simple DC Motor
Learners, after brainstorming how we interact with some kind of motor every day in our lives, explore how to build their own DC motor. They collect all the parts needed for their experiment and review all safety precautions. In addition,...
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THE BUSINESS OF CLEAN AIR
Students determine that air pollution control is caused by a combination of market incentives and government regulation. They realize that businesses exist to make profits for their owners and that governments make rules for individuals...
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Torque Me Off
Students investigate the lever and the mathematics associated with levers. They determine the conditions necessary to balance a system of forces around a fulcrum.
Teach Engineering
Get Me Off This Planet
What do Newton's Laws have to do with getting from Earth to Mars?The activities in this resource show how Newton's Laws work with rockets to get them into space. Background information includes facts about orbits and how orbits are used...
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Rockets and Payloads
Students investigate Newton's Second Law of Motion as they predict the effect of a payload on the amount of energy needed to lift a rocket vertically. The constraints of the weight of the equipment carried to Mars is compared to the...
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Balls and Ramp
Students role several balls of different weights down a ramp and into a paper cup and record how far each ball made the paper cup move. They then answer questions that help them analyze their results and reinforce the idea that energy...
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How Things Fly
Students explain basic principles of aeronautics such as gravity and lift. In this How Things Fly lesson, students visit the interactive, hands-on How Things Fly gallery at the Smithsonian. Students perform three experiments that...
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Colored Dots 1
Young scholars observe that colored markers are a mixture of many different colors by performing a chromatography experiment. They make observations, record information, and make generalized inferences from their observations.
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Colored Drops
Students examine the properties of a liquid that contains water and food coloring and a liquid that contains water, food coloring and a liquid detergent. They interpret their data, describe properties, and make reasonable explanations...
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Spin Stabilization
Pupils investigate methods used by aeronautical engineers to keep rockets on target. After exploring the center of gravity and the center of pressure, students build water rockets. Pupils use various methods to design fins on the...
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Rocket Pinwheel
Young scholars explore the action-reaction principle of Newton's Third Law of Motion. In this rocketry lesson, students construct a pinwheel using a balloon, soda straw, and wooden pencil. Young scholars investigate the results.
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Floating Pencil
Students discover how salt water makes a pencil float better than freshwater by measuring and comparing the lengths of the portion of the pencil that floats above the water surface. They then determine if an unknown water sample is...
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Surface Tension and 3D Soap Films
Students are introduced to the concept of surface tension, its dependence on material composition, and how it can produce uniquely shaped surfaces.
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Beneath the Sea
Students build a model of a submersible that will allow them to explore ballasts and how they operate. In this hands on activity students participate in an activity that shows them how to control buoyancy.
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Airplane Wings
Students examine the aerodynamics of a wing and how it generates lift. In this flight lesson students complete several experiments including how to build a paper plane and how airfoils affect performance.
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Observing Objects
Students observe the motion of both a pendulum and a spring pendulum . They then explain the differences and the similarities between the two types of motions.
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Interdisciplinary Task: Weather
Students design a chart to use to record the weather for five days. They then build an anemometer to record wind speed and discover why they are used for this purpose.
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Temperature School
Students observ the cooling and warming of room temperature, hot, and ice cold cans of water by measuring the change in temperature over time. They then attempt to develop explanations for the observations made and apply their findings...
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Predator/Prey Relationship
Students study and analyze data collected on the relationship between the snowshoe hare and lynx in Canada over a 28 year period and create a graph. Students also write a response to a proposal to reduce the lynx population.
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Teaching the Bell Tetrahedral Kite
Pupils complete readings on kite making and kite flying. They analyze how the parts of a system interconnect and influence each other. Students identifies and uses color and form in a 3D artwork.
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How Things Fly
Students research the mechanics of flight and create a slideshow with one slide dedicated to each of these topics: lift, drag, thrust, and weight. They create a short quiz regarding the material that they presented and give it to their...
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Mechanically Inclined
Eighth graders examine the mechanical advantage of an inclined plane through experimentation.
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The Effects on Flight Characteristics/Performance Due To Variations in Design of Sled Kites.
Students expand upon previous lessons with sled kites by varying the dimensions or materials while building a news sled kite while working in a team. They fly their original kites and the new ones under similar conditions to determine...