This video segment adapted from Northwest Indian College reveals how Native American life and knowledge is connected to natural cycles.
In this video from DragonflyTV, follow the investigation of Isaac and Anjali as they record, measure, and analyze data about how the Sun's position in the sky affects a solar-powered car's speed.
What is a solar eclipse and why are they only visible in some parts of the world? In this video segment adapted from NASA, astronomer Susan Stolovy uses animations to provide an answer to these questions.
The students will paint and arrange spheres to form a model of the solar system. They will first make models using the plastic spheres of different sizes. Then they will make similar models using clay, cotton, etc., and organize them in the right order from the Sun.
This activity is based on a reduced-scale model of the Solar System built on a map of a city students are familiar with. This provides them with an understanding of the great distances between the different bodies of the Solar System and their relative size. Students will investigate the characteristics that are required from these bodies to build a scale model using common objects.
What is a star and what shape is it? Students explore both artistic and scientific representations of stars, learn that stars are like the sun but much further away and make their own star hat.
Have you ever wondered what happens to the different stars in the night sky as they get older? The Star in a Box application lets you explore the life cycle of stars. It animates stars with different starting masses as they change during their lives. Some stars live fast-paced, dramatic lives; others change very little for billions of years. The app visualises the changes in mass, size, brightness and temperature for all these different stages.
Have you ever wondered what happens to the different stars in the night sky as they get older? The Star in a Box application lets you explore the life cycle of stars. It animates stars with different starting masses as they change during their lives. Some stars live fast-paced, dramatic lives; others change very little for billions of years. The app visualises the changes in mass, size, brightness and temperature for all these different stages.
In this video profile produced for Teachers' Domain, meet conservationist Steve MacLean, an Inupiaq from Barrow, Alaska, who works to preserve the health of the Bering Sea ecosystem.
Street lights of the same type will look brighter when they are close to you, and less bright when they are farther away. The same applies to astronomical objects: a given star will look brighter to a nearby observer than to an observer far away. In both cases, the difference in brightness can be used to deduce the relative distances of suitable objects. Standard candles, objects of constant intrinsic brightness or whose intrinsic brightness can be determined by careful measurements, are a key tool for astronomical distance determination. In this exploration, you will explore standard candles (and also effects that complicate distance measurements) in a simple everyday setting, namely that of street lights, using a digital camera and freely available software.
This article describes early studies of the auroras, including techniques used from 1960 when Henry Brecher first spent the winter at Byrd Station in Antarctica.
This article provides elementary school teachers with background knowledge about science concepts needed to understand the first of seven essential principles of climate literacy--the sun is the primary source of energy for our climate system. Graphs, diagrams, and oneline resources provide more background for the teacher. The article appears in a free online magazine that focuses on the seven essential princples of the climate sciences.
This book list contains children's books that have been screened for accuracy in depicting scientific concepts. Each book's content is briefly described and its cover pictured. The topics of the books support learning in Grades K-5 about the issue's theme. The list appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which focuses on the essential principles of climate literacy.
Watch shadows during the course of the day to explore the influence of the Sun’s position in the sky on them, as well as how they change over the seasons. During the next season, repeat the experiment and note the changes from the previous season. Repeat over a period of one year for each season.
The Take Action column in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle suggests actions young people (K-grade 5) can take to reduce the impacts of climate change. The magazine examines the recognized essential principles of climate literacy and the climate sciences as well as the guiding principle for informed climate decisions.
This article provides an overview of Tapped In, a web-based learning environment for educators and professional development providers.
In this video adapted from KUAC-TV and the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, learn how tectonic plate movement is responsible for building mountains, such as the Wrangell and St. Elias Mountains.
This interactive activity produced for Teachers' Domain shows the relationship between tectonic boundaries and the locations of earthquake events and volcanoes around the world.
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site challenges you to think like Einstein and understand how time travel might be possible.
This video from NASA explains the process by which gamma-ray flashes associated with storms produce matter/antimatter particle pairs.