Middle schoolers participate in an activity that replicates the creation of sea floor bathymetry by taking a simplified form of soundings in the classroom. They discuss sea floor mapping technologies, sonar, soundings, and remote...

Learners examine concept of time, and explore difference between analog and digital clocks; students make art project to represent time and create a time-story problem and solution.

Students develop their understanding of the effects of invisible air pollutants. In this invisible air lesson, students complete experiments with a rubber band air test, a bean plant experiment and by exploring engineering roles related...

Careful, that light bulb is hot! Compare heat and light energy using a simple light bulb. The exercise addresses energy conservation and presents actual calculations to determine the most cost-effective light bulb.

After determining the volume of various drinking glasses , class members evaluate sample responses to the same task to identify errors in reasoning.

Let your class bounce to examine the concept elastic potential energy. Individuals bounce on a pogo stick in order to calculate its elastic potential energy. Groups then compare the elastic potential energy to the gravitational...

Slip sliding away. Groups investigates the two types of friction by running an experiment that allows them to calculate the coefficient of static friction and the coefficient of kinetic friction. The experiment uses a box, a...

Solids come in many shapes and sizes. Using geometry, scholars create two-dimensional cross-sections of various three-dimensional objects. They develop the lesson further by finding the volume of solids. The module then shifts...

Obesity is a worldwide concern. Using survey results, learners compare local BMI statistics to celebrity BMI statistics. Scholars create box plots of the data, make observations about the shape and spread of the data, and examine the...

Students explain the practical uses of robots. They interpret possible careers in robotics, apply the safety guidelines of robots, and develop a perspective of the use of robots. They empathize with the cultural issues of robots in work...

Keep your pets slim, trim, and healthy using mathematics! Pupils use a linear programming model to optimize the amount and type of food to provide to a pet rabbit. They model constraints by graphing inequalities and use them to analyze a...

It might be silly to determine the creep rate of putty but groups will enjoy making different formulations of silly putty and playing with them to understand how the different mixtures behave. The second part of the activity has groups...

Let's paint the town equal parts yellow and violet, or simply brown. Pupils calculate the amount of blue and red paint needed to make six quarts of brown paint. Individuals then explain how they determined the percentage of the brown...

Scaling needs to be picture perfect. Pupils use proportional reasoning to find the missing dimension of a photo. Class members determine the sizes of paper needed for two configurations of pictures in the short assessment task.

Challenge the class with inscribed circles in triangles. The assessment task requests class members use their knowledge of circles and right triangles to prove two triangles are congruent. They go on to utilize their knowledge of...

The good thing about building this rover is you get to eat it afterwards. Pairs determine rover parts they want to include in their design based upon their cost and usefulness. The teams design their rovers, build them from edible...

Young mathematicians explore number values by utilizing food as a visual aide. They discuss the differences between halves, fourths, and eighths and how they are visually represented by a pizza. Then create their own pizza in class and...

Where am I? The second installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program starts with pupils guessing the years in which major ocean exploration events took place. The lesson then focuses on how...

Collaborative groups examine the importance of energy resources on quality of life by researching different energy sources and alternative energy sources through data analysis. They make a comparison of different countries and cultures,...

Hop into a resource on Beer's Law. A PowerPoint presentation introduces Beer's law as part of calculating bone density from X-ray images in the sixth lesson in the series of seven. Individuals work on practice problems with this law and...

Stick this resource in the "Use" column. In the second installment of a six-part series, learners use glue sticks to demonstrate forces. Using glue sticks, instructors can demonstrate tension, compression, and torsion.

Future engineers test different alloys to determine the specific strength of each one. Based on the results, they make a recommendation to NASA on which alloy to use on engines for spacecraft.

Can you see your class working on spatial visualization? The first installment of a five-part module introduces the concept of spatial visualization and provides a 12-question diagnostic assessment to test spatial visualization skills....

Certain things just do not mix, including liquids of varying densities. Learners collect data to determine the densities of several liquids. They then use the density information to predict the type of liquid.