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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The students discover the basics of heat transfer in this activity by …
The students discover the basics of heat transfer in this activity by constructing a constant pressure calorimeter to determine the heat of solution of potassium chloride in water. They first predict the amount of heat consumed by the reaction using analytical techniques. Then they calculate the specific heat of water using tabulated data, and use this information to predict the temperature change. Next, the students will design and build a calorimeter and then determine its specific heat. After determining the predicted heat lost to the device, students will test the heat of solution. The heat given off by the reaction can be calculated from the change in temperature of the water using an equation of heat transfer. They will compare this with the value they predicted with their calculations, and then finish by discussing the error and its sources, and identifying how to improve their design to minimize these errors.
Folder with syllabus and course outline for General Physics (Algebra) I course …
Folder with syllabus and course outline for General Physics (Algebra) I course that uses Openstax College Physics as textbook (https://openstax.org/details/books/college-physics).
This course covers classical mechanics, which essentially means the physics of forces and motion that was developed before the start of the 20 th century. This physics accurately describes the behaviors of objects that are: large enough to be seen with microscopes but smaller than planets or moons, roughly room temperature (give or take a few hundred degrees), and traveling much slower than the speed of light—in other words, most of our everyday experience.
The classical mechanics covered in this course can be boiled down to seven key concepts: Newton’s three laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, and the laws of conservation of momentum, energy, and angular momentum. We’ll be focusing on these central ideas and how they apply to practical examples.
Course Content and Outcomes After completion of this course, students will 1) Apply knowledge of motion, forces, energy, and circular motion to explain natural physical processes and related technological advances. 2) Use an understanding of calculus along with physical principles to effectively solve problems encountered in everyday life, further study in science, and in the professional world. 3) Design experiments and acquire data in order to explore physical principles, effectively communicate results, and critically evaluate related scientific studies. 4) Assess the contributions of physics to our evolving understanding of global change and sustainability while placing the development of physics in its historical and cultural context.
This interactive activity from ChemThink takes a closer look at a covalent …
This interactive activity from ChemThink takes a closer look at a covalent bond--how it is formed and how the sharing of two electrons can keep atoms together.
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