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Greenhouse Gas Lab
Students compare the ability of a sample of carbon dioxide gas to
absorb thermal energy compared to a sample of air. They build a visual representation of the greenhouse effect to illustrate the heat-absorption of
atmospheric carbon...
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Flour Beetles
Students observe life stages in flour beetles and graph the results. They write a summary report.
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How Do The Colors of Light Mix?
Students investigate the mixing of light. They form a hypotheses to reason why color changes occur and they write conclusions and ask new questions arising from the investigation. Students identify the primary and complementary colors of...
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Hooke's Law
Students explore the relationship between the force applied to a spring and its stretch. They design and conduct an experiment to determine the stretch of spring with 15N of force without having an actual 15N mass.
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Scientific Method "Lab Writeup"
High schoolers analyze and experience the scientific method. They discuss the various steps of the method, conduct various experiments, and write a three-paragraph essay regarding their conclusion.
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Yeast Cells and their Environment
Pupils study the scientific method and explore how to design an experiment. In this investigative lesson students explore and hypothesis an experiment then carry it out to find the results.
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Stellar Magnitudes
Learners analyze the stellar magnitude scale. In this stellar magnitude lesson, students examine the stellar magnitude scale. Learners predict the Sun's magnitude from various planets.
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Bird Populations
Students gather data about bird populations. They study bird migratory patterns using the methods that researchers use. They write an essay explaining the differences between the four types of population movements.
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Predicting: Making a Hypothesis
Students analyze information from various sources to create a hypothesis about the origin of a family artifact. Students create a hypothesis about the origin of the item and write a paragraph explaining why they believe the hypothesis is...
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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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Keep the Environment Clean
Students discuss ways our environment becomes polluted. They make a list of ways to keep it clean.
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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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Lift Relationships
Students use FoilSim (downloadable) to determine how lift is affected by varying parameters on the Airfoil simulation.
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Meteorology (Condensation)
Second graders define condensation and evaporation. They identify and describe the steps in the water cycle. They ask questions to end the lesson.
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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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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.
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Coat Caper
Students examine pollen and fibers taken from a garment. They analyze pollen from new hybrids and compare it to the samples from the garment then make individual conclusions concerning the specific historical authenticity of the garment.
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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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Coffee Cooling
Students explore the factors that affect how long coffee stays hot. They develop a question and a testable hypothesis for one factor such as initial temperature or size of opening of the container. Then they design and conduct an...
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The effectiveness of Antacids
High schoolers design and conduct a scientific experiment to test which of four antacids would be most effective for neutralizing acids. They rank the antacids in order from most effective to least effective and explain how they...
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That's the Way the Ball Bounces
Students investigate and compare the bouncing ability of the materials from which four different balls are made. They determine which material performs the best for use as a basketball. After collecting data in a small group they...