Wind Wise Education
What are Wind Shear and Turbulence?
Let's go fly a kite. By flying a kite, class members observe the difference in air flow. The class notices the characteristics of banners tied to the kite string to determine where wind turbulence stops. Adding an anemometer to...
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Pilots, Airplanes, and the Tangent of Three Degrees
Students explore how to use trigonometry in the aviation field. In this aviation lesson students complete trigonometry equations that show what planes should do to land their airplanes.
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Vectors
High schoolers listen to a lecture and complete a number of problems as they go. There are a variety of examples given and they are guided through the problem solving steps for each of the real-world scenarios regarding the purpose of...
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Measuring The Earth
Students use their geometry and trigonometry skills to determine the distance between their school and another school.
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Measuring the Earth
Students use principles of geometry to measure the circumference of the Earth. In this applied geometry lesson, students use mathematics to determine scientific information. They make measurements, calculate the central angle, and...
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When a Ruler is Too Short
Learners measure distances using parallax. In this math lesson, students explain how this method helped astronomers with their studies of the solar system. They determine the length of their arm using parallax and compare it with other...
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Refraction B2—When is Light Reflected Internally?
Physics is phun in this lesson. Young physicists use a lightbox to test how and where light is refracted and reflected as it travels through transparent materials. Angles of incidence and refraction, sine of both angles, and the...
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Determining the Altitude of Iridium Flares
Learners examine what iridium flares are and when they occur. In this iridium flare instructional activity students complete an activity to see how far overhead Iridium satellites are.
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Attributes of Renewable Energy: From Nanopossibilities to Solar Power
Students explore solar energy, why we use it and how we use it. In this renewable energy lesson students compare active and solar techniques.
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How Distant is the Moon?--2
Students examine total eclipses of the Sun and their limited regions of totality. They explain that this limited view occurs because the Moon is close enough to us for different points on Earth to view it differently.
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Parallax
High schoolers discover how astronomers used the diameter of the Earth's orbit around the Sun as a baseline for estimating the distance of some stars, and the meaning of "Parsec" and "light year."
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May The Earth Be Revolving Around The Sun?
Students trace the beginning of the heliocentric theory of the solar system--the idea that the solar system revolves around the Sun--to an observation by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus, which convinced him that the Sun was much bigger...
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How Distant Is The Moon?
Students discover how Aristarchus, a Greek astronomer around 230 BC, used a simple observation of the eclipse of the Moon, plus clever reasoning, to deduce the distance of the Moon. They practice the same calculation technique.
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Coordinates
Students use cartesian coordinates (x,y,z) in 3-dimensional space. [Optional: appreciate there exist two ways of defining the z axis, and which of them is used.] They become familiar with the tools and terms used by surveyors.
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May Earth be Revolving around the Sun?
Ninth graders explore how Aristarchus used the position of the half-full Moon to estimate the distance to the Sun, and how he made a great error, but still figured out that the Sun is much larger than Earth.