For this lesson, educators will need LEGO Mindstorms kits. Students will be arranged in groups of approximately 2 to 4 students. Students will create a robot that will pick up and transport a tennis ball to a container.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
Students will determine whether the amount of air in a balloon changes the distance it will travel on a fishing line. They will collect data from multiple tests and then create a graph to visualize the variation.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Data Set, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive, Lesson Plan, Simulation
Computing Mathematics and Logic units to supplement Code.org's AP CSP course.
Material Type: Assessment, Lecture Notes, Unit of Study
The project objective is to have students make a realistic 3-D model that is to scale. Student Mission: Your objective is to create a 3-D model of a building of your choice or imagination. The building must be to scale relative to an average-sized person. You make recreate a dwelling, barn or famous building OR create your dream home. Your building must be to scale and should be finished (windows, roof, shutters, steps, furniture, etc.). The outside of your building should include some surrounding features (e.g. bushes, trees, sidewalks, street, shed, etc.). Your final project should incorporate the elements listed on the rubric and be as detailed as possible. Be creative!
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Lesson Plan, Unit of Study
Summative Assesments for use with Units 1 through 4 of Code.org's AP CSP.
Material Type: Assessment
Students will use a perceived weak material to construct something that is surprisingly strong. Students can experiment with different shapes and configurations to see what holds the most weight. The cube size is defined, what each student places within each 4x4 square, is up to them.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson
Construct and measure the energy efficiency and solar heat gain of a cardboard model house. Use a light bulb heater to imitate a real furnace and a temperature sensor to monitor and regulate the internal temperature of the house. Use a bright bulb in a gooseneck lamp to model sunlight at different times of the year, and test the effectiveness of windows for passive solar heating.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Diagram/Illustration, Lecture Notes, Student Guide
This series of lessons will teach all of the key features in Tinkercad, a free, web-based 3D design platform. When you have finished the lessons you will have a comprehensive knowledge of how to design/draw in 3D. After that all you need is practice to improve your skills.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Interactive, Lesson, Lesson Plan, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study
Students are introduced to several key concepts of electronic circuits. They learn about some of the physics behind circuits, the key components in a circuit and their pervasiveness in our homes and everyday lives. Students learn about Ohm's Law and how it is used to analyze circuits.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
The interactive roller coaster ride demonstrates the relationship between kinetic & potential energy.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive
This is not a typical e-book; it is a free, web-based, open-source “textbook” available to anyone interested in using mapping tools to create maps. This e-text focuses primarily on Geographic Information Systems (GIS)—a geospatial technology that enables you to create spatial databases, analyze spatial patterns, and produce maps that communicate more effectively. While this GIS textbook is principally an introduction to GIS, most of the chapter’s concepts are applicable to other geotechnologies including remote sensing, global positioning systems (GPS), Internet mapping, and virtual globes. Creating good maps and analyzing spatial data is a time consuming and challenging practice, but recently, a new set of powerful mapping tools has enabled almost anyone with a computer to make maps easily and to perform at least some low-level analyses. The results, however, are not encouraging. Most of the new mapmakers do not have adequate training in mapping concepts and spatial analysis principles, and their maps are often improperly designed and do not communicate easily nor effectively. This e-text—GIS Commons—seeks to help you analyze spatial data and communicate more effectively. In short, GIS education is our goal.
Material Type: Textbook
Geographic information systems (GIS) are important technology that allows rapid study and use of spatial information. GIS have become increasingly prevalent in industry and the consumer/internet world in the last 20 years. Historically, the basis of GIS was in mapping, and so it is important to understand the basis of maps and how to use them as well as why they are different from GIS. In this lesson, students learn the value of maps, how to use maps, and the basic components of a GIS. They are also introduced to numerous GIS applications.
Material Type: Lesson Plan
Students are tasked with designing their own experiment to discover why you cannot add fresh pineapple to Jell-O. After analyzing their results, they will construct a CER that will be used to assess their understanding of the concepts.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment
Students will discover how electromagnets work.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students learn about the concept of pushing, as well as the relationship between force and mass. Students practice measurement skills using pan scales and rulers to make predictions about mass and distance. A LEGO MINDSTORMS(TM) NXT robot is used to test their hypotheses. By the end of the activity, students have a better understanding of robotics, mass and friction and the concept of predicting.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Film study of historical fiction film, Pad Man: a fictionalized account of the quest of a real-life social entrepreneur from India who ultimately used the engineering design process to reverse-engineer series of mini-machines to manufacture affordable sanitary pads for women.
Material Type: Assessment, Lesson
This illustration shows the semiconservative nature of DNA replication
Material Type: Diagram/Illustration
The goal of this book is to teach you to think like a computer scientist. This way of thinking combines some of the best features of mathematics, engineering, and natural science. Like mathematicians, computer scientists use formal languages to denote ideas (specifically computations). Like engineers, they design things, assembling components into systems and evaluating tradeoffs among alternatives. Like scientists, they observe the behavior of complex systems, form hypotheses, and test predictions.
Material Type: Primary Source, Textbook
New Edition! The goal of this book is to provide an Informatics-oriented introduction to programming. The primary difference between a computer science approach and the Informatics approach taken in this book is a greater focus on using Python to solve data analysis problems common in the world of Informatics.
Material Type: Textbook
Career Gates: Manufacturing is discussed by various employees of Rexroth, Just Born Candy, Coca-Cola and Martin Guitars. Steve Morrow, General Manager of the Coca-Cola plant begins the tour, followed by Ross Born from Just Born Candy. Products highlighted are Just Born Peeps, Martin Guitars and Coca-Cola sodas. Technologies highlighted are robotics and the use of AutoCad. The last section highlights what these employers look for when evaluating employees that will be hired. ***Access to Teacher's Domain content now requires free login to PBS Learning Media.
Material Type: Lecture
