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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What's the Conductivity of Gatorade?

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students use conductivity meters to measure various salt and water solutions, as indicated by the number of LEDs (light emitting diodes) that illuminate on the meter. Students create calibration curves using known amounts of table salt...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Nxt Ball Shooter

For Teachers 4th - 8th
This activity helps students understand how a motor in a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot uses electricity produced by the battery to move a robot to do useful work in the form of throwing a ball. Students relate the concepts of electricity and...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Whose Field Line Is It, Anyway?

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Students teams each use a bar magnet, sheet of paper and iron shavings to reveal the field lines as they travel around a magnet. They repeat the activity with an electromagnet made by wrapping thin wire around a nail and connecting...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Good, the Bad and the Electromagnet

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Using plastic straws, wire, batteries and iron nails, student teams build and test two versions of electromagnets-one with and one without an iron nail at its core. They test each magnet's ability pick up loose staples, which reveals the...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Circuits and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
In this activity, students use the same method as in the activity from lesson 2 to explore the magnetism due to electric current instead of a permanent magnet. Students use a compass and circuit to trace the magnetic field lines induced...
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Ohm's Law I

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will work to increase the intensity of a light bulb by testing batteries in series and parallel circuits. It analyzes Ohm's Law, power, parallel and series circuits, and ways to measure voltage and current.
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Activity
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Introduction to Circuits and Ohm's Law

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will explore the basics of dc circuits analyzing the light from light bulbs when connected in series and parallel circuits. Ohm's Law and the equation for power dissipated by a circuit will be the primary equations used. Using...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Put a Spark in It! Electricity

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Uncountable times every day "with the merest flick of a finger"each one of us calls on electricity to do our bidding. What would your life be like without electricity? Students begin learning about electricity with an introduction to the...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Through nine lessons, students are introduced to a range of energy types--electrical, light, sound and thermal-as well as the renewable energy sources of wind, hydro (water) and solar power. Subjects range from understanding that the...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Energy Efficient Housing

For Teachers 9th - 10th
We all know that it takes energy to provide us with the basics of shelter: heating, cooling, lighting, electricity, sanitation and cooking. To create energy-efficient housing that is practical for people to use every day requires...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Photovoltaic Efficiency

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Through a series of four lessons, students are introduced to many factors that affect the power output of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels. Factors such as the angle of the sun, temperature of the panels, specific circuit characteristics,...
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Unit Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Mri Safety Grand Challenge

For Teachers 11th - 12th
This module was written for a first year accelerated or AP physics class. It is intended to provide hands on activities to teach end of the year electricity and magnetism topics including the magnetic force, magnetic moments and torque,...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Off the Grid

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. They also learn about our nation's electric power grid and what it means for a residential home to be "off the grid."
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Maximum Power Point

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn how to find the maximum power point (MPP) of a photovoltaic (PV) panel in order to optimize its efficiency at creating solar power. They also learn about real-world applications and technologies that use this technique, as...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Concentrated Solar Power

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students learn how the total solar irradiance hitting a photovoltaic (PV) panel can be increased through the use of a concentrating device, such as a reflector or lens. This is the final lesson in the Photovoltaic Efficiency unit and is...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Electrifying the World

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
This lesson introduces students to the fundamental concepts of electricity. This is accomplished by addressing questions such as "How is electricity generated," and "How is it used in every-day life?" The lesson also includes...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Generators: Three Mile Island vs. Hoover Dam

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Students are given a history of electricity and its development into the modern age lifeline upon which we so depend. The methods of power generation are introduced, and further discussion of each technology's pros and cons follows.
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Particle Sensing: The Coulter Counter

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students are presented with a short lesson on the Coulter principle, an electronic method to detect microscopic particles and determine their concentration in fluid. Depending on the focus of study, students can investigate the...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: What Is Bluetooth?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students learn about electrical connections, how they work, and their pervasiveness in our world. Two specific skills explored are Morse code and the function of Bluetooth. Using bluetooth, they control LEGO robots remotely from Android...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: How Does a Robot Work?

For Teachers 4th - 8th
This lesson introduces electricity, batteries and motors using a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot. The associated activity guides students to build a simple LEGO NXT set-up and see the practical implementation of the concepts discussed. Before...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: The Electric and Magnetic Personalities of Mr. Maxwell

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Young scholars are briefly introduced to Maxwell's equations and their significance to phenomena associated with electricity and magnetism. Basic concepts such as current, electricity and field lines are covered and reinforced. Through...
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Lesson Plan
TeachEngineering

Teach Engineering: Electricity and Magnetic Fields

For Teachers 9th - 10th
The grand challenge for this legacy cycle unit is for students to design a way to help a recycler separate aluminum from steel scrap metal. In previous lessons, they have looked at how magnetism might be utilized. In this activity,...
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Handout
Chem4kids

Chem4 Kids: Plasma

For Students 9th - 10th
Here you can learn all about plasma. Explore what plasma is, its basic characteristics, and how plasma is created.
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Primary
Nobel Media AB

The Nobel Prize: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1905

For Students 9th - 10th
This Nobel E-Museum website commemorates the work of Philipp von Lenard and his Nobel prize achievement. This detailed resource includes a biography, Lenard's Nobel Lecture, and the "The Nobel Prize in Physics 1905 Presentation Speech."