Teach Engineering
Stormy Skies
Young meteorologists examine the four main types of weather fronts and how they appear on a weather map. Participants learn about the difference between the types of weather fronts along with their distinguishing features. A...
Teach Engineering
Dress for Success
Dressing for success is not always about looking sharp. Sometimes it is about staying warm and dry. Present your class with an activity that challenges groups of pupils to design a layered material for blizzard conditions. The teams test...
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Practice PT - The Internet and Society
Speaking of the Internet. The culminating lesson for the unit on the Internet challenges pupils to prepare short, two-minute speeches on an issue facing society. The pupils chose from three topics that connect the Internet and society,...
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Practice PT - Design a Digital Scene
The final performance task for the unit requires class members to utilize what they have learned to create a personal digital scene. Groups work together to develop a scene and then, using top-down design, break the scene into manageable...
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Creating Functions with Parameters
The pupils practice modifying parameters in a function to add variations to their under the sea scene. The resource also introduces random number functions that alter the scene every time the program runs.
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Functions and Top-Down Design
Let me break it down for you! Introduce your class to a way of breaking up a complicated task into its component pieces. Individuals draw a complex figure using JavaScript and then break it down to help determine the functions needed in...
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The Need for Programming Languages
LEGO see if you can recreate my design. Individuals build an arrangement from LEGO blocks and write directions for someone else to follow in order to recreate the arrangement. Pairs then swap directions and try to replicate the original...
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Discover a Data Story
"Data is so boring, there's no way to find any patterns in them." Or is there? Pairs investigate data sets using different data visualization tools to discover a trend that may exist in a data set. Once they find a trend or pattern,...
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Check Your Assumptions
Always check your assumptions when interpreting data and data visualizations. That's the take away from this exercise. Class members examine a failed project that looks at search trends to predict flu outbreaks and consider the...
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Introduction to Data
Data, data everywhere. Challenge your class to begin thinking about data, the ways people collect information, and what we can learn from this data. Class members discuss sources of data and then individuals answer questions in the class...
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Encoding B and W Images
Imagine drawing with zeros and ones. The third instructional activity in a unit of 15 introduces the class to creating black and white images. Pairs get together to create an encoding scheme in order to make these images. They move on to...
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HTTP and Abstraction on the Internet
Introduce your class to the layers of abstraction of the Internet with a lesson on the HTTP protocol. Pupils review previous lessons on levels of the Internet, then investigate new high levels by examining the HTTP traffic on their own...
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Algorithms Detour - Minimum Spanning Tree
This optional lesson introduces the class to the idea of a minimum spanning tree. The activity focuses on determining an algorithm that will find the most efficient path in a network to transfer data.
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The Need for Addressing
You sunk my battleship via the Internet? Groups of three play a modified game of Battleship using the Internet Simulator. Team members determine how to address messages, so each player knows who the message is for, and refine their text...
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The Internet Is for Everyone
What is this thing called the Internet? A KWL activity elicits what the class knows about how the Internet works. Then pupils read a copy of a memo about the need to keep the Internet open and accessible by everyone.
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Binary Numbers
All you need is a zero and a one. Build pupils' understanding of binary values and number systems to gain familiarity with binary numbers. Using a hands-on activity and technology, scholars learn how the binary system works and its place...
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Sending Bits in the Real World
A bit optional. How do computers transmit in the real world? Pupils research a device that is used in transmitting bits, then individuals create a poster that presents the information they have learned about their device.
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Earthquakes Living Lab: Locating Earthquakes
There are patterns in nearly everything — even earthquakes. Pairs research current earthquakes to see if there are any patterns. They determine the mean, median, and mode of the earthquake data, along with the maximum and minimum. Using...
NOAA
Technology II
Ping, ping, ping. The last installment of a 23-part NOAA Enrichment in Marine sciences and Oceanography (NEMO) program explores technology use in marine studies, such as sonar. Activity involves simulating sonar techniques to identify a...
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Looping and Random Numbers
Repetition, repetition, repetition. Get your class to efficiently repeat a section of code over and over again by introducing looping. Class members learn looping to quickly recreate objects they want to appear more than once in their...
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Creating Functions
Quit repeating yourself ... you can make this simpler! Rather than repeating the same set of code over and over, class members learn to build and call functions in a series of challenges in App Lab. In the end, they combine functions to...
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Creativity in Algorithms
Groups work with the program they built in the previous lesson to make it more creative. The resource challenges pupils to add functionality to their existing programs by adding a new command.
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The Need for Algorithms
Pairs work through two scenarios that require them to generate an algorithm. The first activity requires pairs to define a common language to use; the second comes with the language. The pairs then must determine how to code the...
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Creating Summary Tables
Let the computer summarize all that data. Pairs work together to learn how to create pivot tables by following directions in the online module. They then utilize the data collected from the beginning of the unit to create their own...