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Improving the Building Envelope System
Students explain the different heat transfer mechanisms and how they influence the building envelope. They develop ways in which the building envelope can be improved and test hypotheses about building envelope designs.
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Improving the HVAC System
Students describe the components of an HVAC system and determine which factors influence how efficient the system can be. They work together to develop hypotheses about the systems and their cost effectiveness and efficiency.
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Building Up, Breaking Down
Students investigate how rocks are modified into construction materials. In this building up and breaking down lesson plan, students explore what happens to building materials over time and how people modify natural materials. Students...
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Cloudy With a Chance of...
Second graders will write a story. In this writing and meteorology lesson, 2nd graders read the story Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, then use KidPix to create a weather picture. The picture is imported into a word processor and the...
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Cloud Fun
Students observe cumulus clouds. For this weather lesson, students go outside to look at cumulus clouds and observe what the weather is like when they find these types of clouds. They create a cumulus cloud in an art project and complete...
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Polar Energy
Students define and read an article on polar energy. In this polar energy lesson, students answer questions about the article. Students participate in activities related to isotopes, half-life and radiocarbon. Students...
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Too Hot? Gotta Vent!
Students study deep sea exploration and underwater geology, specifically hydrothermal sea vents. They create digital video projects of their own to demonstrate their knowledge, illustrating the discoveries of the explorers of the ocean's...
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Blame It On El Nino
Young scholars understand what the weather phenomenon El Nino is and what causes it. Students recognize how remote sensing technology can detect and predict El Nino. Young scholars discover how El Nino effects weather conditions...
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The Envelope System: A Partial Solution
Studnet identify examples of conduction, convection and radiation. They develop an example of a building envelope. They also describe how heat transfer mechanisms can affect home energy costs.
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Earthquake Epicenter
Students use chart data to determine the location of the epicenter of an earthquake. This task assesses students' abilities to generalize and infer, organize data, interpret data, and apply mathematical concepts.
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Michigan Food: From Farm to You
Students recognize Michigan on a map and understand how its climate is affected by the Great Lakes. In this Michigan food lesson plan, students play a trivia game to identify the produce of Michigan. Students relate the climate in each...
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Atmospheric Processes - Conduction
Students explain the process of conduction using a molecular explanation, and explain how different materials conduct at different rates.
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Is There Liquid Water on Mars?
Students assess whether there is liquid water on Mars by analyzing images and data. In this planetary lesson students analyze temperature and pressure graphs and hypothesize about how water could have flowed on Mars.
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Floodplain Modeling
Students simulate the impact of fluctuating river volumes on structures and landforms. They experiment with table top-sized riverbed models and water. Students consider how human design can help mitigate the effects of a flood.
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Comparing Amount of Rainfall in Different Geographical Areas
Third graders create rain gauges and take them home. Individually, they record the rainfall amounts at all of their homes over a 2-week period and then bring the data back to class so they can compare the different amounts of rainfall...
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Capturing the Sun's Warmth
Students explore the variety of ways to use solar energy. They investigate the thermal energy storage capacities of different test materials to determine which to use in passive solar building design. They explain how passive solar...
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Falling Water
Learners drop water from different heights to demonstrate the conversion of water's potential energy to kinetic energy. They see how varying the height from which water is dropped affects the splash size. In seeing how falling water can...
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Newton Rocket Car
Students observe a demonstration of Newton's third law of motion using a small wooden car. They discuss Newton's third law of motion and what happens to motion if the mass or acceleration is increased, construct their car, and record...
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TE Activity: You're in Hot Water
Young scholars study different ways of using solar energy. They design a solar water heater and determine how much water it can heat in a set amount of time. They examine how the heaters work by solar radiation and convection.
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Meet the Corals
Students investigate the types of coral. In this oceanography lesson, students access the Fisheye View Cam Website and create their own coral garden by using various art supplies.
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Newton Gets Me Moving
Learners discuss Newton's laws of motion. The conduct motion experiments by building "Newton Rocket Cars" from assorted materials. They propel the cars with rubber bands and wooden blocks and record the distance traveled on data sheets.
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TE Lesson: Renewable Energy
Students examine renewable energy sources such as solar, water, and wind. They experiment to determine how renewable energy is transformed into electricity. They investigate the role of engineers who work in the field of renewable energy.
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Rockets on a Shoestring Budget
Young scholars, operating under simulated budget constraints, build pop-rockets and launch them. Working in pairs, they complete budget worksheets and use their "Blast Off Bucks" to pay for the construction. They then redesign their...
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Stations of Light
Student groups rotate through four stations to examine light energy behavior: refraction, magnification, prisms and polarization. They see how a beam of light is refracted (bent) through various transparent mediums. Young scholars...