High School Integrated Physics and Chemistry Course

The High School Integrated Conceptual Science Program (ICSP) is a NGSS-aligned curriculum that utilizes the conceptual progressions model for bundling of the NGSS, High School Conceptual Model Course 1 and strategies from Ambitious Science Teaching (AST) to focus on teaching practices needed to engage students in science discourse and learning. Course 1 is the High School Integrated Physics and Chemsitry Course.   The goal of these units is to encourage students to continue in STEM by providing engaging and aligned curriculum. The focus of this year long course is on the first year of high school (freshman).  While the course is designed to be taught as a collection of the units, each unit could be taught as a separate unit in a science course.  A video about the new course shared its unique approach to learning and teaching. Wenatchee School District, one of the participating districts, wanted a way to share the program with the community. https://youtu.be/9AGk19YUi2oCourse 1 of the ICSP development was funded by Northwest Earth and Space Sciences Pipeline (NESSP) which is funded through the NASA Science Mission Directorate and housed with Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium at the University of Washington.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Full Course, Lesson, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: Carissa Haug, MECHELLE LALANNE

Science Here, Science There, Science Careers EVERYWHERE!

The students will explore, research, and become more knowledgeable in various careers in science. Students will apply this knowledge by creating a lab, hands-on activity, visual, or video. Opportunity for student choice is provided and creativity to apply their understanding is given.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Renee Huber

Supporting Students’ Science Learning During School Closures

As schools close their doors as part of public health measures to limit the spread of COVID-19, educators are faced with how to support the diverse needs of all learners when students are not in school. This guide recognizes that solutions will not be – nor should be – “school as usual,” simply delivered in a virtual environment. Instead, this resource was developed by members of the Council of State Science Supervisors to provide guidance around how to support student science learning during these unique circumstances. Image by April Bryant from Pixabay 

Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Barbara Soots, Kimberley Astle, Ellen Ebert, Washington OSPI OER Project

COVID-19! How Can I Protect Myself and Others?

COVID-19! How Can I Protect Myself and Others? will help you, and your community, understand the science of the virus that causes COVID-19 and other viruses like it. It will help you to figure out how this virus is impacting or affecting you or may impact you in the future. It will help you to understand the actions that you can take to keep yourself and your community safe. In this project, you will discuss how people feel about the virus. You will investigate the science of this virus. You will explore public health measures, which are things that are happening in your community or may happen soon to keep COVID-19 from spreading. You will take action to support health in your community.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Authors: InterAcademy Partnership, Smithsonian Science Education Center

Food! How Do We Ensure Good Nutrition for All?

Food! is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. These Smithsonian Science for Global Goals community research guides use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to focus on sustainable actions that are defined and implemented by students. Food! is a module broken up into seven parts. Each part contains a series of tasks to complete. Each task contains additional resources to support that task. We have provided a suggested order for the parts and tasks. However, the structure of the guide hopefully allows you to customize your learning experience by selecting which parts, tasks, and resources you would like to utilize and in what order you would like to complete them.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Module, Unit of Study

Authors: InterAcademy Partnership, Smithsonian Science Education Center

Mosquito! How Can We Ensure Health For All From Mosquito-borne Diseases?

Mosquito! is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. These Smithsonian Science for Global Goals community research guides use the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a framework to focus on sustainable actions that are defined and implemented by students. Mosquito! is a module broken up into seven parts. Each part contains a series of tasks to complete. Each task contains additional resources to support that task. We have provided a suggested order for the parts and tasks. However, the structure of the guide hopefully allows you to customize your learning experience by selecting which parts, tasks, and resources you would like to utilize and in what order you would like to complete them.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Authors: InterAcademy Partnership, Smithsonian Science Education Center

Vaccines! How can we use science to help our community make decisions about vaccines?

Vaccines! is a freely available community research guide developed by the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) in partnership with the InterAcademy Partnership as part of the Smithsonian Science for Global Goals project. The Vaccines! guide helps young people learn more about the concerns of their community in order to communicate accurate, helpful, and trusted information about vaccines. Vaccines! features 8 tasks that incorporate investigations and hands-on science to help students discover, understand, and take action. Students learn about the science of vaccines throughout history; understand the science of how vaccines work; explore how vaccines are developed; examine issues of equity, access, and misinformation; and develop an action plan for addressing vaccines concerns in their communities.

Material Type: Lesson, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study

Authors: InterAcademy Partnership, Smithsonian Science Education Center

Afterimage

In this activity about light and perception, learners discover how a flash of light can create a lingering image called an "afterimage" on the retina of the eye. Learners will be surprised when they continue to see an image of a bright object after staring at it and looking away. Use this activity to introduce learners to principles of optics and perception as well as to explain why the full moon often appears larger when it is on the horizon than when it is overhead. This lesson guide also includes a few extensions like how to take "afterimage photographs."

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Agar Cell Diffusion

All biological cells require the transport of materials across the plasma membrane into and out of the cell. By infusing cubes of agar with a pH indicator, and then soaking the treated cubes in vinegar, you can model how diffusion occurs in cells. Then, by observing cubes of different sizes, you can discover why larger cells might need extra help to transport materials.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Aluminum-Air Battery

Use aluminum foil, salt water, and activated charcoal to construct a simple battery strong enough to power a small motor or light.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Ames Chair

Short pieces of chenille stem arranged inside a box look like a random jumble of line segments—until viewed in the proper perspective. Note: This activity is detail oriented and time intensive. It’s done by threading a long length of fishing line through twenty small holes, and then attaching short pieces of chenille stem to create a suspended pattern. When you look through a viewing hole, that random-looking pattern resolves into the form of a chair. If you think being a watchmaker is something you’d hate, then you might want to rethink doing this Snack!

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Anti-Gravity Mirror

In this demonstration, amaze learners by performing simple tricks using mirrors. These tricks take advantage of how a mirror can reflect your right side so it appears to be your left side. To make the effect more dramatic, cover the mirror with a cloth, climb onto the table, straddle the mirror, and then drop the cloth as you appear to "take off." This resource contains information about how this trick was applied during the making of the movie "Star Wars."

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Authors: California Department of Education, National Science Foundation, NEC Foundation of America, The Exploratorium

Anti-Sound Spring

In this simple exploration, a coiled phone cord slows the motion of a wave so you can see how a single pulse travels and what happens when two traveling wave pulses meet in the middle.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Avalanche

What starts out as a cascade of well-mixed granular materials sorts itself into alternating layers of salt and sand.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Backyard Bug Bonanza

Step outside and discover the diversity of insect life in your neighborhood. Insects are the world’s most diverse group of living things, with over 950,000 identified species and counting. You might think that you’d need to travel to the Amazon to study insects, but they can be found practically everywhere—including right where you happen to be.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Bacteria Culture Club

Yogurt is the byproduct of hungry bacteria that digest the lactose in milk. You can make more yogurt just by feeding the bacteria more milk.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Balancing Ball

This webpage from Exploratorium provides an activity that demonstrates the Bernoulli principle with readily available materials. In this activity a table tennis ball is levitated in a stream of air from a vacuum cleaner. The site provides an explanation of what happens, asks questions about the activity, and also describes applications to flight. This activity is part of Exploratorium's Science Snacks series.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Balancing Stick

In this quick and simple activity, learners explore how the distribution of the mass of an object determines the position of its center of gravity, its angular momentum, and your ability to balance it. Learners discover it is easier to balance a wooden dowel on the tip of their fingers when a lump of clay is near the top of the stick. Use this activity to introduce learners to rotational inertia.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Bean-Counter Evolution

Hunt for prey and discover the meaning of evolutionary “fitness” in this physically active group game. In this simulation game, teams of predators equipped with genetically different “mouths” (utensils) hunt for “prey” (assorted beans). Over several “generations” of play, the fittest among the predators and prey dominate the population, modeling the evolutionary process of natural selection.

Material Type: Activity/Lab

Bee Hummer

When you spin it around, this toy sounds like a swarm of buzzing bees.

Material Type: Activity/Lab