Bluetooth is everywhere—from smartphones to computers to cars. Even though students are …
Bluetooth is everywhere—from smartphones to computers to cars. Even though students are exposed to this technology, many are not aware of how they can use it themselves to wirelessly control their own creative projects! For this challenge, students build on what they learned during a previous Arduino maker challenge, Make and Control a Servo Arm with Your Computer, and learn how to control a servo with an Android phone (iPhones do not work with the components used in this challenge). By the end of the exercise, expect students to be wirelessly controlling a servo with a simple phone application!
This activity describes the construction and use of a pneumatic cannon and …
This activity describes the construction and use of a pneumatic cannon and free falling target used to teach the concepts of projectile motion in introductory physics.
In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium. …
In this activity, learners make their own heat waves in an aquarium. Warmer water rising through cooler water creates turbulence effects that bend light, allowing you to project swirling shadows onto a screen. Use this demonstration to show convection currents in water as well as light refraction in a simple, visually appealing way.
Winner of the Nobel Prize for his role in the invention of …
Winner of the Nobel Prize for his role in the invention of the laser and maser, UC Berkeley Professor Charles Townes recounts his adventures as a scientist. (54 min)
Students teams design and build shoe prototypes that convert between high heels …
Students teams design and build shoe prototypes that convert between high heels and athletic shoes. They apply their knowledge about the mechanics of walking and running as well as shoe design (as learned in the associated lesson) to design a multifunctional shoe that is both fashionable and functional.
Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and …
Students learn about using renewable energy from the Sun for heating and cooking as they build and compare the performance of four solar cooker designs. They explore the concepts of insulation, reflection, absorption, conduction and convection.
The phenomenon is thermal expansion of copper. This demonstration allows an observer …
The phenomenon is thermal expansion of copper. This demonstration allows an observer to see the effect of heating (and cooling) a copper tube. When heated, the copper tube lengthens and thickens. When cooled, the tube shrinks. The lengthening of the rod rotates a toothpick with an attached flag to make the expansion visible and measurable.
This video from NASA features the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS), which allows …
This video from NASA features the Cosmic Origin Spectrograph (COS), which allows scientists to use spectrographic analysis to assess the composition of intergalactic material.
Everything around us is made from different chemical elements: carbon, silicon, iron, …
Everything around us is made from different chemical elements: carbon, silicon, iron, and all the other elements from the Periodic Table. The lighter elements were mostly produced in the Big Bang, but the rest were (and are) formed within stars and in the explosions of supernovae. In this series of short lecture videos, created to accompany her book Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe (Princeton University Press, 2019), Professor Anna Frebel reveals the secrets of stardust and explains the cosmic origin of the elements.
In this lesson, students will explain CRaTER's purpose and how it works. …
In this lesson, students will explain CRaTER's purpose and how it works. They will also design (using paper and pencil) a cosmic ray detector to answer their own questions. CRaTER's purpose is to identify safe landing sites for future human missions to the moon; discover potential resources on the Moon; and characterize the radiation environment of the Moon. The lesson includes background information for the teacher, questions, and information about student preconceptions. This is lesson 4 of 4 from "The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation."
This course provides an overview of astrophysical cosmology with emphasis on the …
This course provides an overview of astrophysical cosmology with emphasis on the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, galaxies and related phenomena at high redshift, and cosmic structure formation. Additional topics include cosmic inflation, nucleosynthesis and baryosynthesis, quasar (QSO) absorption lines, and gamma-ray bursts. Some background in general relativity is assumed.
In this example students examine and critique an argument which implies that …
In this example students examine and critique an argument which implies that it is not cost effective to pay for an automobile with increased fuel efficiency. Using a few reasonable assumptions shows that some of the writer's quantitative claims are not very accurate.
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