An interactive applet and associated web page that demonstrate how to find the perpendicular distance between a point and a line using trigonometry, given the coordinates of the point and the slope/intercept of the line. The applet has a line with sliders that adjust its slope and intercept, and a draggable point. As the line is altered or the point dragged, the distance is recalculated. The grid and coordinates can be turned on and off. The distance calculation can be turned off to permit class exercises and then turned back on the verify the answers. The applet can be printed as it appears on the screen to make handouts. The web page has a full description of the concept of the concepts, a worked example and has links to other pages relating to coordinate geometry. Applet can be enlarged to full screen size for use with a classroom projector. This resource is a component of the Math Open Reference Interactive Geometry textbook project at http://www.mathopenref.com.

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Students gain an understanding of the factors that affect wind turbine operation. Following the steps of the engineering design process, engineering teams use simple materials (cardboard and wooden dowels) to build and test their own turbine blade prototypes with the objective of maximizing electrical power output for a hypothetical situation—helping scientists power their electrical devices while doing research on a remote island. Teams explore how blade size, shape, weight and rotation interact to achieve maximal performance, and relate the power generated to energy consumed on a scale that is relevant to them in daily life. A PowerPoint® presentation, worksheet and post-activity test are provided.

Students will learn the potential costs and benefits of social media, digital consumption, and our relationship with technology as a society in the three-week lesson. This inquiry based unit of study will answer the following questions:

Essential Question: How can we use science fiction’s ability to predict the future to help humanity?

Supportive Questions 1: What predictions of future development has science fiction accurately made in the past? This can include technology, privacy, medicine, social justice, political, environmental, education, and economic.

Supportive Question 2: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are positive for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to make these predictions reality?

Supportive Question 3: What predictions for future development in contemporary science fiction are negative for the future of humanity? What factors need to begin in your lifetime to stop these negative outcomes?

Doodle Splash combines the process of drawing with analytical thinking by pairing online drawing with writing prompts that encourage students to make connections between their visual designs and the text.

This is an overview of a dramatic play restaurant center. It includes description, purpose, suggested materials, questioning examples, considerations, photo examples, literature connections and downloadable resources.

This lesson unit is intended to help assess how well students are able to interpret and use scale drawings to plan a garden layout. This involves using proportional reasoning and metric units.

This project is meant to be cross-curricular, requiring students to utilize many instructional skills to complete each step. Such skills will include number sense to one million, addition and subtraction to one million, area/perimeter/scaling, 3-D design, and writing/advertising. The project could be completed in sequential order, completed as isolated projects or hand selected for which components are used in your classroom.

This Super Lesson utilizes Project Based Learning to assist learners with designing, building, and testing flying contraptions as an introduction to Engineering. The goal of this project is to engage students in collaborative team work and to introduce students to the Science and Engineering Practices: Asking Questions and Defining Problems, Planning and Carrying Out Investigations, and Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions.

We have offered this Super Lesson as an 8-week elective course, developing and strengthening student interest in applied Math and Science topics. It could also be offered within upper elementary or middle school Science and Math courses. In addition, each week’s topic could be used as a stand alone mini-lesson if time is limited. We have worked to include multiple options within this unit to make it accessible to both general education and special education programs, including recommendations for modifications and extensions.

This course deals with the design of drinking water treatment plants. We discuss theory and design exercises.

The Middle East conflict and terrorism are issues we hear about almost daily in the news. This lesson will use video clips from WIDE ANGLE's 'Suicide Bombers' (2004), Internet sites, and primary sources to examine the roots of the Middle East conflict. The video contains interviews with young Palestinians who participated -- or intended to participate -- in suicide bombings. These young Palestinians share the personal, religious, political and emotional reasons behind their participation in these suicide operations. This lesson could be used to review information about the three major monotheistic religions and their connections to Israel, to relate post-World War II policies to the current political state of the Middle East, and/or to get students to understand the roots of the terrorism that threatens the world we live in.

Students play an identification game of hot and cold using their voices and dynamics.

There can be many reasons why a family finds themselves facing a new country, a new language and even new customs. This program is aimed towards families attempting to learn English together, although it could work for anyone learning a new language. Learning the language of your new country can greatly lessen the stress of unfamiliar circumstances as well as bring the family closer by doing it together.

The methods are to write letters to each other, and thereby increasing vocabulary. Getting confident in writing, reading and understanding English while bonding as a family.

The purpose of this lesson is for students to practice and improve English conversation, writing, vocabulary, and reading through the lens of the Earth Day holiday (April 22nd). Also, students can brainstorm and share what we can do to preserve the Earth on a global or personal scale.

In this Cyberchase video segment, the CyberSquad figures out how to earn 100 snelfus in 11 days.

How many calories are in your favorite foods? How much exercise would you have to do to burn off these calories? What is the relationship between calories and weight? Explore these issues by choosing diet and exercise and keeping an eye on your weight.

Students, in partners, will use an online graphing program to complete this discovery lesson. Each pair will change one component of an equation at at time and then complete a worksheet to describe the effect of the change.

In this activity, students will learn about and apply the Laws of Physics to successfully launch and land a raw egg. The activity frames the problem around designing and building a bottle rocket that will protect a raw egg being launched into the air at least seven meters. Resources included in this lesson are found at the bottom of this document and include:

-Teacher guide
-Physics note sheets on motion, speed, velocity, acceleration, momentum, force, friction, Newton’s Laws of Motion, potential and kinetic energy and gravity.
-Egg Launch Instructions
-Link to Bottle Rocket Launching Instructions
-Links to videos
-Post Assessment

The CyberSquad must construct a clock of sorts in order to keep track of the amount of time they have to rescue Dr. Marbles in this video segment from Cyberchase.