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Up, Up and Away with the Scientific Method
Students utilize the scientific method to design a way for a balloon to be suspended between the floor and the ceiling.
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Reading Trees: Understanding Dendrochronology
Students examine tree-ring dating and discuss the lack of water the settlers in Jamestown faced. They create paper tree rings, simulate rain patterns, and describe the history of construction paper tree sequences.
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Building a Pill Bug Palace
Students make "pets" of isopods (potato bugs) to determine their preferred environment and food sources. They record their results on a bar graph and in a scientific report.
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Unfold the Mystery of Mold
Students research the conditions in which molds thrive. They apply the scientific method to develop a hypothesis, conduct research and test results.
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Building Tetrahedral Kites
Students work together to build tetrahedral kites. They must follow directions and the provided materials. They discover the engineering concepts needed to make the kite.
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An Egg-cellent Osmosis Experiment
Learners investigate the problem of osmosis by conducting an experiment. They use eggs with the shells dissolved to tell whether fluid can move across the membranes. The experiment provides high interest for all kinds of students to keep...
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Apply Scientific Inquiry and Scientific Habits of Mind
Students review the components of the scientific inquiry method. In groups, they develop hypothesis on a variety of different topics and design an investigation or experiment to test it. They share their conclusions with the class and...
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Help Wanted: A Lighting Engineer For Popular Rock Group
Students are assigned to groups, and determine each member's role in the group. They will design an experiment to determine a way to produce the three primary and five secondary colors. Students discuss color and mood. They listen to a...
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Ants In Motion
Students brainstorm ants and their characteristics in a class discussion. They observe the ants and answer question pertaining to their behavior; then they apply the scientific method in creating and investigating a problem.
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Water Quality in the Greenhills Stream
Seventh graders conduct year long study of water quality over different seasons using variety of probes, including D.O., pH, conductivity and temperature, that are attached to portable technology. Students select three data points in...
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PBS - Scientific American Frontier:Affairs of the Heart:Teaching Guide:Exploring Vessel Physics
Learners explore the relationship between pressure and vessel diameter. They are given an open-ended design challenge in which they engineer their own remote repair device. Students see a model that represents how elevated blood...
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Population Density
Middle schoolers use the scientific method to conduct an experiment and use varied methods to gather background information. They correctly use lab equipment and prepare tables and graphs that organize, conclude, and present their...
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How Many Drops?
Students conduct a simple test to determine how many drops of each of three liquids can be placed on a penny before spilling over. They come up with an explanation for their observations about different amounts of liquids a penny can hold.
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Acceptance Sampling
In this algebra lesson, students sample food and identify acceptance sampling. They create specific plans to meet specific situations as they sample the food. There are 6 questions.
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Constructing Earthquake-Proof Buildings
Students examine different materials and design options that can affect the durability of a building. In this investigative lesson plan students conduct several earthquake experiments.
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The Wheels on the Bot Go Round and Round, Part I
Students determine how speed is measured. In this physics instructional activity, students design an experiment to find out if the robot's drive wheel size affects its speed. They collect data and discuss results.
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Science is Alive
Students explore the scientific method. In this science lesson plan, students create and conduct a science investigation for the science fair.
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Quadratic Relation and Parabola
Students identify the vertex and intercepts of a parabola. In this algebra lesson, students graph parabolas and factor quadratic equations. They perform transformation on the parabolas.
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"Go-Car" Lab
Students construct a car based on directions given. In this physics lesson, students calculate average speed using distance and time information. They collect data and create a graph of distance vs. time.
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Newton's Three Laws of Motion Lesson Plan
Students explore Newton's three laws of motion using a variety of activities. In this physics instructional activity, students calculate the average speed of a vehicle they constructed using distance and time information. They identify...
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Upside-Down Wings
Young scholars use FoilSim to demonstrate that the graphic analysis of the airflow around one object can be used to hypothesize airflow graphs for objects as they are elongated from a sphere to an airfoil shape.
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Design of Airfoil for Given Lift
Students use FoilSim to design an airplane wing that generates a given lift. As they change parameters such as airspeed, altitude, angle of attack, thickness and curvature of the airfoil, and size of the wing area, the software...
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Lift Relationships
Students use FoilSim (downloadable) to determine how lift is affected by varying parameters on the Airfoil simulation.
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Actual Airflow vs. Ideal Airflow: Stalls
Learners use 3-D modeling techniques to observe the characteristic signature of the stall condition apparent on an airfoil at high angles of attack. They use FoilSim to compare the above with ideal airflow.