In this exercise, students investigate long-term weather variables such as temperature and humidity to determine their affect on the climate of a particular region. They will choose two cities, use an online resource to obtain geographic and climatic information for each, and use a spreadsheet program to produce graphs that compare data for the two cities.

Students use compasses and bar magnets to simulate the collection of sea floor magnetic polarity data. Even though the students do not directly observe the magnets, they use the information to infer tectonic processes present at the mid-ocean ridges and calculate the spreading rates for two different ridges.

Students learn about electrical connections, how they work and their pervasiveness in our world. They consider the usefulness of wireless electrical connections for connecting electrical devices. Morse code is introduced as a communication method that takes advantage of on/off states to transmit messages by electrical bursts sent via wires, light or sound. They learn the Morse code rules and translate a few phrases into Morse code. Specifically, they learn about a wireless connection type known as Bluetooth that can be used to control LEGO robots remotely from Android devices, which leads into the associated activity.

Portland Public Schools has developed this unit. Their hope is that ALL K-5 students will be able to access rigorous, standards-aligned science instruction that engages them in hands-on experiences and sense-making through student discourse. They want to encourage all students to be critical thinkers and lifelong learners. To that end, the science and ESL departments at Portland Public Schools, in consultation with NGSS writer Rita Januszyk, have developed units that are aligned with both Next Generation Science Standards and Oregon’s English Language Proficiency standards.

In this unit, students investigate how gravity affects a variety of objects. They make and support a claim that the sun is a star and that the brightness of stars is related to their distance from Earth. Students use models to support a claim that the Earth’s movement is responsible for the patterns of movement that we see in the sky.

Students learn how common pop culture references (Harry Potter books) can relate to chemistry. While making and demonstrating their own low-intensity sparklers (muggle-versions of magic wands), students learn and come to appreciate the chemistry involved (reaction rates, Gibb's free energy, process chemistry and metallurgy). The fun part is that all wands are personalized and depend on how well students conduct the lab. Students end the activity with a class duel a face-off between wands of two different chemical compositions. This lab serves as a fun, engaging review for stoichiometry, thermodynamics, redox and kinetics, as well as advanced placement course review.

Kepler's laws show the effects of gravity on orbits. They apply to any object that orbits another: planets orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting a planet, spacecraft orbiting Earth.

This module focuses on the description of different vetation types that may be of use as part of an introductory physical geography course (biogeography), or for a class focused on the study of plants and vegetation. All images were collected from travels to learn about vegetation over the past 40 years and I openly make them available through the OER site. The resources attached to the module include:I. Description of terms used to describe and distinguish among global vegetation types (biomes)- descriptive notes and imagesII. Tropical Vegetation Types- descriptive notes and powerpoint slide showIIIl Subtropical_Temperate_Arctic Vegetation Types- descriptive notes; powerpoint slide show; supportive lists for desert and montane species. 

Student teams use the engineering design process to create a useful product of their choice out of recyclable items and "trash." The class is given a "landfill" of reusable items, such as aluminum cans, cardboard, paper, juice boxes, chip bags, egg cartons, milk cartons, etc., and each group is allowed a limited amount of bonding materials, such as duct tape, hot glue and string. This activity addresses the importance of reuse and encourages students to look at ways they can reuse items they would otherwise throw away.

The study of biomimicry and sustainable design promises great benefits in design applications, offering cost-effective, resourceful, non-polluting avenues for new enterprise. An important final caveat for students to understand is that once copied, species are not expendable. Biomimicry is intended to help people by identifying natural functions from which to pattern human-driven services. Biomimicry was never intended to replace species. Ecosystems remain in critical need of ongoing protection and biodiversity must be preserved for the overall health of the planet. This activity addresses the negative ramifications of species decline. For example, pollinators such as bees are a vital work force in agriculture. They perform an irreplaceable task in ensuring the harvest of most fruit and vegetable crops. In the face of the unexplained colony collapse disorder, we are only now beginning to understand how invaluable these insects are in keeping food costs down and even making the existence of these foods possible for humans.

An exercise on rotational velocity that helps develop critical thinking and data analysis and presentation skills.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

The relationship between the stress and strain that a particular material displays is known as that particular material's stress–strain curve. It is unique for each material and is found by recording the amount of deformation (strain) at distinct intervals of tensile or compressive loading (stress). These curves reveal many of the properties of a material (including data to establish the Modulus of Elasticity

Students are asked to present a speech at the opening of the River and Ocean Film Festival, explaining why marine debris is such a problem for wildlife. Use information from the video, the fact sheet, the infographic, and the data collected on the shoreline to outline a speech. The audience is visitors to the Washington Coast. Includes Teacher directions and scoring notes.

Teacher guide and tutorial for accessing data using the Quake Catcher Network (QCN) portal.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

As a supplement to the OpenStax textbook, we have also created lesson summaries for our OER course. Attached are some instructor created notes on the following topics.Introduction to StatisticsSampling MethodsBias in SamplingOrganizing Data using Frequency Distributions and HistogramsMeasures of CenterMeasures of Dispersion and Empirical RuleMeasures of Position, Fences and Outliers5-Number Summary and Boxplots

This interactive and collaborative activity asks students to estimate the demand of a product (pizza) based on different prices. Instructors can upload the materials to their own Google drives and run the experiment repeatedly to generate new data and demonstrate trends. This resource was developed by Birjees Ashraf, Sophie Haci, Renee Edwards, and Charles Hackner.

In Grade 8 Module 1, students expand their basic knowledge of positive integer exponents and prove the Laws of Exponents for any integer exponent.  Next, students work with numbers in the form of an integer multiplied by a power of 10 to express how many times as much one is than the other.  This leads into an explanation of scientific notation and continued work performing operations on numbers written in this form.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

(Nota: Esta es una traducción de un recurso educativo abierto creado por el Departamento de Educación del Estado de Nueva York (NYSED) como parte del proyecto "EngageNY" en 2013. Aunque el recurso real fue traducido por personas, la siguiente descripción se tradujo del inglés original usando Google Translate para ayudar a los usuarios potenciales a decidir si se adapta a sus necesidades y puede contener errores gramaticales o lingüísticos. La descripción original en inglés también se proporciona a continuación.)

En el módulo 1 de grado 8, los estudiantes amplían su conocimiento básico de exponentes enteros positivos y prueban las leyes de los exponentes para cualquier exponente entero. A continuación, los estudiantes trabajan con números en forma de entero multiplicado por un poder de 10 para expresar cuántas veces es uno que el otro. Esto lleva a una explicación de la notación científica y el trabajo continuo que realiza operaciones en números escritos de esta forma.

Encuentre el resto de los recursos matemáticos de Engageny en https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

English Description:
In Grade 8 Module 1, students expand their basic knowledge of positive integer exponents and prove the Laws of Exponents for any integer exponent.  Next, students work with numbers in the form of an integer multiplied by a power of 10 to express how many times as much one is than the other.  This leads into an explanation of scientific notation and continued work performing operations on numbers written in this form.

Find the rest of the EngageNY Mathematics resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-mathematics.

Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2023. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Advanced Low world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that world language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions or concerns.  

The precursors to what we study today as Trigonometry had their origin in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece and India. These cultures used the concepts of angles and lengths as an aid to understanding the movements of the heavenly bodies in the night sky. Ancient trigonometry typically used angles and triangles that were embedded in circles so that many of the calculations used were based on the lengths of chords within a circle. The relationships between the lengths of the chords and other lines drawn within a circle and the measure of the corresponding central angle represent the foundation of trigonometry - the relationship between angles and distances.

This multi-week project begins with a measurement of baseline consumptive behavior followed by three weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The assignment uses an Excel spreadsheet that calculates direct energy and water use as well as indirect CO2 and water use associated with food consumption. After completing the project, students understand that they do indeed play a role in the big picture. They also learn that making small changes to their lifestyles is not difficult and they can easily reduce their personal impact on the environment.