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Does Contact Area Matter?

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Students work together to design and implement an experiment on friction. They test to see if contact area affects the amount of friction. They discover how engineers use friction to make certain products better.
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Searching the Attic

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students investigate an attic or basement to "discover" family artifacts. They develop a grid map using string, create a naming system for the grid, and analyze items of interest.
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Golden Ratio of the Human Body

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers calculate the ratio of the height of the body to the height of the navel. They discover that the ratios are all approximately equal.
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GPS Receiver Basics

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Pupils practice using a GPS receiver. They walk in different directions and monitor their progress on maps. They enter specific locations and use information given to them to get them back to their original locations.
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State Your Position

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners practice using a global positioning system. They discuss the use of celestial objects as navigation points and its problems. They list the advantages and disadvantages of GPS as well.
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Testing the Hypothesis

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Learners create and conduct various experiments to determine the origin of a family artifact, and then determine whether their results were successful. Students summarize their results and evaluate whether their hypotheses were correct.
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Sediment Tubes

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Students observe how different density soils and rocks behave in wind and in water. They make predictions and careful observations as they explore sediment transport and sediment rates in streams and rivers.
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Building Paper Bridges

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students construct a bridge that can hold 100 pennies. In this math lesson, students evaluate the strength of their bridges. They predict how much weight a bridge can hold based on its design.
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Mill

For Teachers 5th - 6th
Students participate in a simulation of wool trading in the 1800's. They pass around a ball of yarn at various stations to simulate the interdependence of each stage of the wool trade, discuss what happens when there is a problem in the...
Lesson Plan
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A Proper Role for Government - Seeking Perfection in an Imperfect World

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Pupils discuss the proper role of government in the economy. Reviewing the foundations for a market economy to work properly, they decide how to best direct resources to get the most out of them. They distinguish between private and...
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What Is Chemistry, Anyway?

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students differentiate physical and chemical change. In this chemistry lesson, students list examples of those changes. They apply what they learned in a Jeopardy style team game.
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Applied Science -- Science and Math (3B) Pre Lab

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Set up stations around your science lab to introduce youngsters to different equipment. They examine a beaker, graduated cylinder, ruler, balance, and thermometer. The said worksheet is not included, but you will find a few useful tips...
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Similar or Not?

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders define the meaning of similar and congruent using concrete objects. They make similar and congruent figures using geoboards. They draw their figures on dot paper, and color their designs.
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Using Computer for Statistical Analysis

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners examine the use for spreadsheets in analyzing data. They make spreadsheets that display and calculate a given data set such as temperature change.
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Fishkill

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers analyze data to determine the effect of thermal pollution on a certain species of fish. They graph temperature and dissolved oxygen and make inferences on the impact a change in temperature could have on the fish. As a...
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Hardwood Veneer

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Young scholars explore uses of hardwood veneer and the manufacturing process. They view veneer samples and work in groups to answer questions about the process of making veneer. After touring the school to create a list of products made...
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Physical Pendulum Lab

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students calculate the moment of inertia of a disc. In this physics instructional activity, students differentiate the two methods used in finding the inertia. They construct their own pendulum for the lab.
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Don’t be a Stoic about Stoichiometry

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students review balancing chemical equations. In this chemistry lesson, students calculate moles of an unknown substance based on stoichiometric relationships in the balanced equation. They cite applications of stoichiometry in the...
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So, just how hot am I?

For Teachers 9th - 12th
High schoolers design a lab demonstrating the scientific method. For this earth science lesson, students investigate different materials for their heat absorbing property. They report their findings in class.
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Geometry Scavenger Hunt

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Students use the digital camera, identify geometric shapes (in nature as well as man-made), and gain a better understanding of geometric vocabulary. They search for and recognize geometric shapes in unusual settings
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How Do Things Fall?

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Students observe falling objects. They discover the rate of falling is based on air resistance and not the weight of the objects. They discuss how engineers use this type of information to design aerodynamic shapes.
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Mini-Sanitary Landfill

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders work in groups to bury a variety of trash items and arrange them in a mini-landfill. They predict which items will biodegrade and then keep records of what the items look like every ten days. Students consider how...
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Investigation of Hooke's Law Lab

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Students determine the spring constant by conducting an investigation. In this physics lesson, students collect data and create a graph of force vs. displacement. They compare the results of two different methods to find spring constant.
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Introduction to Scatter Plots and Correlation

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students examine the concept of scatter plots. They compare baseball statistics to locate the ones that correlate with winning, and identify the positive, negative, and no correlation in sets of data using MS Excel.