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Design a Parachute
Students engage in a discussion about what a parachute is and how it works. They create a parachute using different materials that they think will work best. The students test their designs, which will be followed by a class discussion...
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Density Rainbow and the Great Viscosity Race
Students explore the densities and viscosities of fluids as they create a colorful 'rainbow' using household liquids. While letting the fluids in the rainbow settle, students conduct 'The Great Viscosity Race,' another short experiment...
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TE Activity: Heavy Helicopters
Students study the concepts of weight and drag while making paper helicopters. They measure how adding more weight to the helicopter changes the time for the helicopter to fall to the ground. They apply what they examine to the work of...
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TE Activity: Hot Cans and Cold Cans
Middle schoolers work on problems in which they investigate conduction, convection, and radiation. They attempt to maintain the warmth in one can of soda while cooling the other as much as possible in a thirty minute period. They examine...
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How Do Things Fall?
Students study forces by examining the force of gravitational attraction. They observe how objects fall and measure the force of gravitational attraction upon objects. Students discover that, since gravitational constants are different...
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Swing in Time
Students examine the motion of pendulums and come to understand that the longer the string of the pendulum, the fewer the number of swings in a given time interval. They see that changing the weight on the pendulum does not have an...
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TE Lesson: Factors Affecting Friction
Students investigate the effect of weight on normal friction or the friction due to surface roughness. They tell about the effects of contact area that occurs as a result of molecular attraction by looking at data on line graphs.
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TE Lesson: Using Heat from the Sun
Learners examine fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable fuels. They study investigate types of heat transfer such as convection, conduction, and radiation. They complete crossword puzzles based on the vocabulary. They design, construct and...
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TE Activity: Yogurt Cup Speakers
Sixth graders build a speaker as they investigate the roles of electricity and magnetism. They discover the properties of magnets, create an electromagnet, and determine the direction of a magnetic field. They show cause and effect...
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TE Activity: Wow! That Captures It!
Students examine how motion capture technology allows computer based animators to design realistic effects in animation. They study how the center of gravity contributes to animation and how to use the center of gravity to write an...
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Causal Patterns in Air Pressure Phenomena Section 3
Students investigate the effects of differences in air pressure on a system. They answer the question, "What makes a liquid go up a straw when you suck on it?".
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Astronomy with a Stick
Students describe the movement of the Earth as it relates to the sun and
formulate a hypothesis for the movement and the changing length of the shadow. They express the relationship between the sun and the Earth and how that causes the...
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Inertia Tricks
Students explore inertia using magic tricks. They participate in demonstrations using tablecloths and dishes, Ken and Barbie, and Wine Bottles.
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Paper Airplane Contest
Students research principles of flight. They design their own paper airplanes and make predictions about the performance of different designs. Students keep track of their findings in an electronic journal.
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Exploring Basic Physical Science Concepts
Students use the concepts of simple machines to construct a mobile. The inquiry is made in groups and presentations are made by constructing reports. The assessment is based upon the final product of the mobile and how students use...
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Truss Strength
Learners are introduced to the design of Old Faithful Lodge at Yellowstone Park including its use of trusses. They work in groups and use straws and modeling clay to design and test a variety of building supports.
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Secrets of Lost Empires II -- Medieval Siege
Students design a working working model of a trebuchet and demonstrate the power of a Class 1 lever. They test their models by throwing grapes the greatest distance and raising and lowering bricks.
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Secrets of Lost Empires II -- Roman Bath
Students build an arch with no mortar following the design of the Romans. They use cookies to represent the blocks used and work to distribute the weight on the stones.
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Skateboard Disaster
Students conduct a hands-on experiment with collisions between two skateboards of different masses. They are introduced to the concept of conservation of momentum in collisions and consider how their observations might help engineers...
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Sliders - Static and Kinetic Friction
Learners work in groups to conduct experiments the demonstrate the differences between static and kinetic friction. They consider how friction affects us in our everyday lives, determine the effects of weight on friction and complete a...
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Riding the Radio Waves
Students examine the basic concepts of radio waves and magnetic fields. They study how the AM radios are built and demonstrate the concepts of amplitude and frequency.
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What's Matter?
Students explore many of the basic properties of matter including atoms, ions, elements, molecules, and density. The class explores an interactive flash-animated Web site to answer questions and clarify misconceptions they might have had...
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Weight A Minute
Students watch a video and engage in hands-on activities which introduce scientific information made real through re-cognition and understanding the phenomena of gravitational force and how it impacts life on our planet.
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Magnets: They Are Totally Attractive
Students classify objects that magnets are attracted to and aren't attracted to. They also magnetize metal. They construct and use a compass. They develop a product which show they explain the properties of magnetism.