Concord Consortium
Understanding Probability Maps
What's the likelihood of your class understanding probability maps? Young scientists explore the concept using a virtual dartboard in an interesting simulation. The darts establish a pattern around the bull's-eye, which provides a visual...
Shodor Education Foundation
Spread of Disease
Control the spread of a contagious disease. An applet allows pupils to run a simulation on the spread of a disease. Rules govern how the disease is spread and the length of time it takes to recover. Learners view the spread visually and...
Curated OER
Coal Supply and Demand
A hands-on simulation perfect for an economics lesson, young learners investigate the availability of different sources of natural energy (coal, natural gas, oil, solar, and nuclear) and how this availability affects their cost....
PHET
Band Structure
Electricity travels at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. Through a simulation, classes see how the structure of energy bands in crystals of atoms determines how materials conduct electricity. Participants can change the...
Curated OER
Law of Large Numbers - Hospital
Students explore concepts of probability and independent events. They develop a formula for deviation percentage.
Shodor Education Foundation
Rabbits and Wolves
A change in a parameter can end in overpopulation. The resources gives pupils the opportunity to control the parameters of rabbits and wolves in a natural setting. Using the set parameters, the simulation runs and displays the population...
PHET
Double Wells and Covalent Bonds
Quantum tunneling plays an important role in nuclear fusion, the energy source of the sun. This simulation explores tunneling, double wells, and covalent bonds by allowing individuals to manipulate potential and total energy to learn...
Curated OER
Is This Really Okay for Me? A Public Health Statistical Analysis
Future public health consultants are asked in a letter to help determine if a fictitious drug is causing birth defects in a population. They perform a simulation using beans and probability calculations to come to a conclusion. Note that...
Teach Engineering
Curb the Epidemic!
Class members use an applet on the Internet to simulate the spread of a disease. The simulation allows individuals to determine two nodes to vaccinate to limit the number of nodes infected. By running several simulations, scholars...
Kenan Fellows
A Farmer’s Challenge to Breed to the Greatest of Grapes
What does your class know about GMOs? Are they savvy to selective breeding? Challenge young minds to engineer the greatest crop of all time using a hands-on genetics unit. Learners discover the good and bad details of selective breeding,...
Curated OER
Radioactive Decay: A Sweet Simulation of a Half-life
High schoolers demonstrate rates of decay of unstable nuclei can be measured. They understand ratios and multiplication of fractions. They simulate radioactive decay. They read about the accomplishments of scientists.
Curated OER
Paper Parachutes
Pupils participate in a simulation of a parachute-jump competition by making paper parachutes and then dropping them towards a target on the floor. They measure the distance from the point where the paper parachute lands compared to the...
Curated OER
Activity #8 Simulation of Oil Spills
Students conduct an experiment to simulate an oil spill and identify the characteristics of oil in water. They evaluate the effectiveness of various cleanup methods. They discuss the how to clean up an oil spill, and what causes oil...
Teach Engineering
Processes on Complex Networks
Introduces your class to random processes in networks with an activity that uses information about disease spread using the susceptible, infectious, resistant (SIR) model. Participants determine whether a susceptible person becomes...
Curated OER
Modeling Forest Fires Using Probability
Students explore forestry. They discuss creating fire breaks to control forest fires. Students create models to determine the best way to manage forest fires. They discuss current techniques of forest management.
Curated OER
How Big Is That Star?
Aspiring astronomers study stars. They compare stars and explain the relationship between radius, mass, and diameter. By creating a star simulation, they discover how a binary star system's orbit can cause changes in the observed...
Curated OER
Roots of the Mariana Arc
Plumb the depths of the Submarine Ring of Fire and explore seismic waves with this instructional activity. Junior geologists simulate s-waves and p-waves, calculate their speeds, and then apply the data to discover the material that...
Curated OER
Water Filtration
As an example of nature's water filtering system, young ecologists conduct an experiment in the lab. They construct a funnel out of a plastic bottle, fill it with specified layers of materials that simulate layers of soil, then run muddy...
Virginia Department of Education
Passing Traits to Offspring
What makes each one of us unique? Lead your class in this exciting and educational activity as you uncover traits that show how each individual is different from another. Pupils explore facts about DNA technology and predict the...
International Technology Education Association
Pixel This!
Did the image I drew match the image you saw? By simulating a satellite and a ground station, teams of two transmit data in the form of pixels in order to recreate an image. They use four different levels of brightness, creating slightly...
Curated OER
Lotto or Life: What Are the Chances?
Though the website does not seem to have the mentioned video, a reding and lottery style games simulate the chances of finding intelligent life somewhere other than Earth. Without the video, this lesson is short, but it can be a useful...
Curated OER
Disperse or Decrease
Students explore the dispersal of animals.. Students take on the role of a specific animal. They simulate finding a new home due to overpopulation. Through hands-on activities performed during the simulation, students discover the area...
Curated OER
What's the Matter? Locating Electrons in an Atom
Middle schoolers roll dice in order to simulate the probability of locating an electron in a certain region around the nucleus.
Curated OER
Genetic Drift
Students use a mathematical simulation of genetic drift to answer questions about the factors that influence this evolutionary process. They run a series of simulations varying allele frequency and population size and then analyze their...