Sign up for a free account on the Gizmo website (https://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=Controller.dspFreeAccount) for free access to two simulations that were collaboratively developed by the teams at Explore Learning and the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These simulations replace those previously available on our website that were developed nearly two decades ago and no longer function on modern operating systems. Fast Plants Gizmos were created as a collaboration between ExploreLearning and the Wisconsin Fast Plants Program of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They weredesigned to support many of the experiments that students can do using Fast Plants seeds and plants. By using these Gizmos in combination with firsthand experiences growing Fast Plants, students can compare simulated growth, development and reproduction with observations of living Fast Plants. In addition, the Gizmos genetic simulation makes it possible for students to gather data from a significantly larger plant population than is typically grown in classrooms. These Gizmos also stand alone, supporting topics both in plant life cycles and Mendelian genetics and can be used by any student. Simulation, Simulations, Genetics, Inheritance

This video segment adapted from Last Oasis explores the use of new dams as a way to provide or store water. In the 1990s, the city of Denver was looking for a new source of water for its growing population, and its plan to build a new dam suddenly became highly controversial.

Students conduct a simple experiment to see how the water level changes in a beaker when a lump of clay sinks in the water and when the same lump of clay is shaped into a bowl that floats in the water. They notice that the floating clay displaces more water than the sinking clay does, perhaps a surprising result. Then they determine the mass of water that is displaced when the clay floats in the water. A comparison of this mass to the mass of the clay itself reveals that they are approximately the same.

With an introduction to the ideas of energy, students discuss specific types of energy and the practical sources of energy. Hands-on activities help them identify types of energy in their surroundings and enhance their understanding of energy.

This six-day lesson provides students with an introduction to the importance of energy in their lives and the need to consider how and why we consume the energy we do. The lesson includes activities to engage students in general energy issues, including playing an award-winning Energy Choices board game, and an optional graphing activity that provides experience with MS Excel graphing and perspectives on how we use energy and how much energy we use.

Students will extend their understanding of probability by continuing to conduct experiments with outcomes that do not have a theoretical probability. They will make predictions on the number of outcomes from a series of trials, and compare their predictions with the experimental probability calculated from an experiment.Key ConceptsStudents continue to investigate the Law of Large Numbers.Goals and Learning ObjectivesDeepen understanding of experimental probability.Use proportions to predict results for a number of trials and to calculate experimental probability.Understand that some events do not have theoretical probability.Understand that there are often many factors involved in determining probability (e.g., human error, randomness).

Students are introduced to sedimentary rocks through field observations and measurements of sediments in different environments. This allows them to proceed from processes to products and engages them through field work in the local area.

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Students learn about nanocomposites, compression and strain as they design and program robots that compress materials. Student groups conduct experiments to determine how many LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT motor rotations it takes to compress soft nanocomposites, including mini marshmallows, Play-Doh®, bread and foam. They measure the length and width of their nanocomposite objects before and after compression to determine the change in length and width as a function of motor rotation.

This is a task from the Illustrative Mathematics website that is one part of a complete illustration of the standard to which it is aligned. Each task has at least one solution and some commentary that addresses important asects of the task and its potential use. Here are the first few lines of the commentary for this task: SCREEN I In science class, some students dropped a basketball and allowed it to bounce. They measured and recorded the highest point of each bounce. ht...

The PDF describes the course, why it is being created, and what our intentions are.

As the Rolling Stones song says, "You can't always get what you want." So we make choices. Every day, governments and individuals choose how much money to spend and what to purchase. The January 2013 issue discusses opportunity costs and scarcity and how they effect our spending decisions.

The purpose of this task is to have students compute and interpret an expected value, and then use the information provided by the expected value to make a decision. The task is designed to encourage students to communicate their findings in a non-technical form in context.

The purpose of this task is to assess (1) ability to distinguish between an observational study and an experiment and (2) understanding of the role of raandom assingment to experimental groups in an experiment.

Students will learn about the twin STEREO spacecraft and how they are being used to track solar storms through reading a NASA press release and viewing a NASA eClips video segment. Then students will examine data to learn more about the frequency and speed of solar storms traveling from the Sun to Earth. This activity is part of the Space Math multimedia modules that integrate NASA press releases, NASA archival video, and mathematics problems targeted at specific math standards commonly encountered in middle school textbooks. The modules cover specific math topics at multiple levels of difficulty with real-world data and use the 5E instructional sequence.

This course explores how citizen science can support community actions to combat climate change. Participants will learn about framing problems, design ways to gather data, gather some of their own field data, and consider how the results can enable action. Leaks in the natural gas system—a major source of methane emissions, and a powerful contributor to climate change—will be a particular focus.
The course was organized by ClimateX and Fossil Free MIT, with support from the National Science Foundation for the methane monitoring equipment. It was offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week January term at MIT.

Students investigate the intelligence of dinosaurs by comparing the relative size of brain and body mass to living animals. Students plot the living animals to determine a general relationship of brain and body mass and then use that relation to interpret a range of dinosaurs. The activity gives students practice in graphical data comparison and other methods of data analysis. Students also investigate how well this method works and what weaknesses it might have.

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Working in groups, students learn to navigate a virtual globe, read geophysical data, and assess plate tectonic models. They prepare by studying about plate tectonics from their notes or from the text, and then apply that knowledge to real tectonic settings on the virtual globe. Students drag 3D models out of the subsurface and compare real data to model interpretations. They can also substitute their own sketches for our images.

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In this lesson, students use data to analyze the participation of white, black, Asian and Hispanic men and women in STEM careers as compared with their participation in the general workforce. They then discuss the possible reasons identity groups are unequally represented in STEM careers.

The goal of these class activities is to help students interpret maps and associated data. The first activity highlights underinvestment in disadvantaged communities across the United States. The second activity explores women’s rights and inequality from a global perspective.

Handling statistical data is an essential part of psychological research. However, many people find the idea of using statistics, and especially statistical software packages, extremely daunting. This unit takes a step-by-step approach to statistics softw