How does energy flow in and out of our atmosphere? Explore how …
How does energy flow in and out of our atmosphere? Explore how solar and infrared radiation enters and exits the atmosphere with an interactive model. Control the amounts of carbon dioxide and clouds present in the model and learn how these factors can influence global temperature. Record results using snapshots of the model in the virtual lab notebook where you can annotate your observations.
This is a short experimental study of what happens to aluminum hydroxide, …
This is a short experimental study of what happens to aluminum hydroxide, silicic acid, magnesium oxide, and calcium carbonate (or reagents of instructors choice) when they are heated to 110 and 1200 degrees.
Students determine the formula and calculate the mole percent and weight percent of each element and oxide in each reagent. They heat the samples and calculate percentage weight loss or gain. Finally, they write a lab report summarizing their results.
Be sure to have students save their samples for later use in a lab that introduces X-ray diffraction.
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Real World Math is a collection of free math activities for Google …
Real World Math is a collection of free math activities for Google Earth designed for students and educators. Mathematics is much more than a set of problems in a textbook. In the virtual world of Google Earth, concepts and challenges can be presented in a meaningful way that portray the usefulness of the ideas.
In this activity, students replicate the slope failure experiment presented by Densmore …
In this activity, students replicate the slope failure experiment presented by Densmore et al. (1997) in the journal Science. They are given the original article and the slope failure apparatus (along with all associated materials) and then they need to figure out how to replicate the experiment. Once they have completed an experimental run of sufficient length, they compile and analyze their data and compare it to the article's results.
After completing this portion of the lab, the students read the discussion and reply (Aalto et al., 1998; Densmore et al., 1998) and critically evaluate they results of the experiment and its applicability to the real world and landscape evolution.
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When piecing together the geologic history of the Earth, geologists rely on …
When piecing together the geologic history of the Earth, geologists rely on several key relative age-dating principles that allow us to determine the relative ages of rocks and the timing of significant geologic events. In a typical Historical Geology class or textbook, instructors/authors briefly discuss the important early researchers in the geological sciences, and then give the name of the stratigraphic principle, useful for relative age-dating of rocks and events, that these 17th and 18th century scientists are credited with discovering. After the instructor/author defines these principles, students are usually shown several examples so they can see how the principle can be applied.
But why not start with the examples and let students discover these principles for themselves?
Students are split into small groups which each work to discover a different relative age-dating principle. The groups are shown photos and given handouts with drawings of rock outcrops illustrating the various principles. These handouts include worksheets for which they must answer a series of prompts that help lead them to the discovery of their relative age-dating principle. Groups must also invent a name for their principle, and select a spokesperson who will present the group's results to the rest of the class.
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Students are given a short introduction to fossils, strata, Steno's law of …
Students are given a short introduction to fossils, strata, Steno's law of superposition, and the development of the geologic time scale from initial description of systems, through the realization that fossils could be used to correlate between systems, to the assembly of the modern geologic time scale. Then, each student in the course is given a sheet of paper with a simple stratigraphic column and associated fossils representing a geologic system on one side and a short description of the location and history of discovery of the system on the other. On a large wall, students then assemble four geologic columns from their systems representing mainland Europe, Great Britain, the Eastern U.S. and the Western U.S. using the fossils illustrated on their sheets to correlate systems. The instructor guides this process by placing the first system on the wall and by providing some narration as the columns take shape. Europe and Great Britain are assembled first, one sheet at a time, providing when completed the framework of the modern geologic time scale. Once this is up on the wall, the remaining students can assemble the other two columns in minutes using fossils to correlate between American and European systems. A temporal gap in the Grand Canyon sequence provides an opportunity to discuss the incompleteness of the rock record in any one place and a system composed of igneous and metamorphic rocks with no fossils is used to point out the difference between radiometric (absolute) and biostratigraphic (relative) dating.
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This lesson on the nature and cost of scholarly publishing could be …
This lesson on the nature and cost of scholarly publishing could be taught by itself, or as part of a series on scholarly communication, or as a small part of a larger lesson on information privilege.
Use a virtual scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to observe electron behavior in …
Use a virtual scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to observe electron behavior in an atomic-scale world. Walk through the principles of this technology step-by-step. First learn how the STM works. Then try it yourself! Use a virtual STM to manipulate individual atoms by scanning for, picking up, and moving electrons. Finally, explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two modes of an STM: the constant-height mode and the constant-current mode.
Explore your own straight-line motion using a motion sensor to generate distance …
Explore your own straight-line motion using a motion sensor to generate distance versus time graphs of your own motion. Learn how changes in speed and direction affect the graph, and gain an understanding of how motion can be represented on a graph.
Semiconductors are the materials that make modern electronics work. Learn about the …
Semiconductors are the materials that make modern electronics work. Learn about the basic properties of intrinsic and extrinsic or 'doped' semiconductors with several visualizations. Turn a silicon crystal into an insulator or a conductor, create a depletion region between semiconductors, and explore probability waves of an electron in this interactive activity.
What happens when an excited atom emits a photon? What can we …
What happens when an excited atom emits a photon? What can we deduce about that atom based on the photons it can emit? A series of interactive models allows you to examine how the energy levels the electrons of an atom occupy affect the types of photons that can be emitted. Use a digital spectrometer to record which wavelengths certain atoms will emit, and then use this knowledge to compare and identify types of atoms. Students will be abe to:
Learning about complexities carbon stabilization firsthand with the Princeton University Carbon Mitigation …
Learning about complexities carbon stabilization firsthand with the Princeton University Carbon Mitigation Initiave's Sabilization Wedges Game
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Watch different types of molecules form a solid, liquid, or gas. Add …
Watch different types of molecules form a solid, liquid, or gas. Add or remove heat and watch the phase change. Change the temperature or volume of a container and see a pressure-temperature diagram respond in real time. Relate the interaction potential to the forces between molecules.
The syllabus used for the University College Groningen course Biopsychology in Spring …
The syllabus used for the University College Groningen course Biopsychology in Spring 2021. This syllabus outlines the general lesson plan for the course, but focuses most heavily on the main assessment method used in the course: the Signature project. For this project, students worked together in small teams to create an interdisciplinary webpage on a Biopsychology topic. These resulting research-based, peer-reviewed webpages cover a range of topics, and contain active learning assignments for others to use. The webpages were tied together to create another open educational resource, found related to this syllabus.
The syllabus outlines in detail how the project was created and graded, and can be used as inspiration for others to create their own active learning assignment which results in the creation of open educational resource.
Transistors are the building blocks of modern electronic devices. Your cell phones, …
Transistors are the building blocks of modern electronic devices. Your cell phones, iPods, and computers all depend on them to operate. Thanks to today's microfabrication technology, transistors can be made very tiny and be massively produced. You are probably using billions of them while working with this activity now--as of 2006, a dual-core Intel microprocessor contains 1.7 billion transistors. The field effect transistor is the most common type of transistor. So we will focus on it in this activity.
The basic objective of Unified Engineering is to give a solid understanding …
The basic objective of Unified Engineering is to give a solid understanding of the fundamental disciplines of aerospace engineering, as well as their interrelationships and applications. These disciplines are Materials and Structures (M); Computers and Programming (C); Fluid Mechanics (F); Thermodynamics (T); Propulsion (P); and Signals and Systems (S). In choosing to teach these subjects in a unified manner, the instructors seek to explain the common intellectual threads in these disciplines, as well as their combined application to solve engineering Systems Problems (SP). Throughout the year, the instructors emphasize the connections among the disciplines.
Students will conduct a virtual exploration of Harrier Meadow, a saltmarsh in …
Students will conduct a virtual exploration of Harrier Meadow, a saltmarsh in the New Jersey Meadowlands. They will identify its vulnerability to pollution, its tidal connection to the Hackensack Estuary and the Atlantic Ocean along with its proximity to New York City. Vegetation patterns within this wetland will be explored, focusing on a salinity tolerant native plant (Pickleweed) that is returning to the marsh. The return of such native species is critically important to wetland restoration efforts that aim to reclaim native habitat following decades of environmental degradation since the industrial revolution. These vegetation patterns are the focus of resistivity and electromagnetic surveys that the students explore in the subsequent units of this module. The geophysical surveys aim to better understand the underlying factors controlling the distribution of Pickleweed. By understanding where the Pickleweed is thriving, restoration efforts could subsequently be improved by locating regions of such wetlands with similar underlying factors where Pickleweed (and other native plants) could be successfully reintroduced. In the first unit of this module, students will use Google Earth (on the web), high-resolution video acquired from an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and an ArcGIS Storymap in their exploration. Primary outcome: students comprehend the association between salinity and Pickleweed and formulate plans to test a hypothesis for Pickleweed persistence/patterning in Harrier Meadow that will ultimately be implemented using near surface geophysical methods in the remaining units of the module.
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