Watershed Awareness using Technology and Environmental Research for Sustainability (WATERS)

The WATERS project is developing and researching a student-centered, place-based, and accessible curriculum for teaching watershed concepts and water career awareness for students in the middle grades. This 10-lesson unit includes online, classroom, and field activities. Students use a professional-grade online GIS modeling resource, simulations, sensors, and other interactive resources to collect environmental data and analyze their local watershed issues. The WATERS project is paving a path to increased access to research-based, open access curricula that hold the potential to significantly increase awareness of and engagement with watershed concepts and career pathways in learners nationwide.

This material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. The software is licensed under Simplified BSD, MIT or Apache 2.0 licenses. Please provide attribution to the Concord Consortium and the URL https://concord.org.

Explore how the polarity of molecules affects how they mix (or don’t) when combined.

In this activity, you will use a computer model to investigate the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have occurred around the world since 1960.

In this activity, students are guided through graphs of surface air temperature anomaly data and Vostok ice core data to illustrate how scientists use these data to develop the basis for modeling how climate is likely to change in the future.

Set the amount and type of charge on particles and compare the potential energy of the electric field that is generated.

Set the charge of two particles and compare the potential energy of the electric field they generate as the particles are moved around.

The interactions of electrons with matter have great explanatory power and are central to many technologies from transistors, diodes, smoke detectors, and dosemeters to sophisticated imaging, lasers, and quantum computing. A conceptual grasp of the interactions of electrons in general allows students to acquire deeper understanding that can be applied to a very broad range of technologies.

Use a series of interactive models and games to explore electrostatics. Learn about the effects positive and negative charges have on one another, and investigate these effects further through games. Learn about Coulomb's law and the concept that both the distance between the charges and the difference in the charges affect the strength of the force. Explore polarization at an atomic level, and learn how a material that does not hold any net charge can be attracted to a charged object. Students will be able to:

Apply knowledge of the interactions between charged particles to guide an object through a maze.

Compare the surface charges on various molecules and explore which atom types tend to cause uneven sharing of electrons.

Explore how heating works in different rooms in the home. Rooms may be bigger or smaller, may have windows or no windows, and may have multiple sources of heat or one. All of the conditions will affect how well a room will be heated, and subsequently the room’s energy efficiency. A more energy-efficient room will require less energy to produce the same outcome (e.g., the same level of heating).

Explore how different elements come together to form bonds and compare changes in potential energy and forces.

Set the initial height of a pendulum and observe how potential, kinetic, and thermal energy change during pendulum swings.

Set the initial position of a mass on a spring and observe how potential, kinetic, and thermal energy change when the spring is released.

El módulo de Calidad del Aire de Alta Aventura Científica contiene cinco actividades. En este módulo se explora la pregunta: ¿Estará el aire lo suficientemente limpio como para respirarlo? Serán guiados a través del análisis de modelos y datos del mundo real a medida que exploran las interacciones de los factores que afectan la calidad del aire de una región. Al finalizar el módulo serán capaces de predecir el efecto del desarrollo humano sobre la calidad del aire de una región.

Explore the concept of evaporative cooling through a hands-on experiment. Use a wet cloth and fan to model an air-conditioner and use temperature and relative humidity sensors to collect data. Then digitally plot the data using graphs in the activity. In an optional extension, make your own modifications to improve the cooler's efficiency.

This activity introduces students to the idea that all living organisms must compete for food. Students control a rabbit in a field with edible plants, at first alone, and later joined by computer-controlled rabbits. With such competition it becomes harder and harder for the students to keep their rabbit alive. Students shift their thinking from a focus on individual organisms to a concern for the well-being of the population as a whole. (Evolution Activity 6 of 10.)

This activity places the control of the environment under the student's control. A field starts off with a uniform light level, and thus capable of growing plants with medium-sized leaves. Students can alter the environment by 'growing' a chain of mountains through the field. Students are challenged to grow the mountains to their maximum height (corresponding to the maximum change in light level on either side of the chain) while maintaining a viable population of plants on each side. (Evolution Activity 4 of 10.)