In this open-ended investigation, students use visualizing skill and work systematically to explore surface area. Learners use linking cubes to build three-dimensional objects with exactly 28 faces exposed. Ideas for implementation, extension and support are included.

Students are confronted with a scenario of a student who is texting and driving in the school parking lot and they are tasked to determine the effect of various parameters to see if a student will collide with a pedestrian. Students must begin by breaking the scenario down into more manageable parts to determine what must be studied about the situation. Through a series of labs and activities, students learn how to model and predict situations with constant velocity and acceleration. Then, coding a spreadsheet, students model the complex situation of a texting driver, reacting, and braking during a potentially hazardous situation to create an evidence-based argument.

This problem reinforces the telling of time on a digital clock, and it requires students to work systematically. The number of 'times' the digit 5 appears in a 24-hour period is a matter of a solver's assumptions. Ideas for implementation, extension and support are included along with a printable poster. A link to an interactive Class Clock (cataloged separately) is provided.

This video segment adapted from First Light explains why the highest peak in the Pacific, Mauna Kea, is an ideal site for astronomical observations. Featured are new telescope technologies that allow astronomers to explore the universe in more depth.

This segment from Swift: Eyes through Time traces the history military officers and engineers discovering a strange phenomenon in the sky that astronomers now know are gamma-ray bursts.

In this video segment, the ZOOM cast demonstrates how to use cabbage juice to find out if a solution is an acid or a base.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate what happens when vinegar is added to baking soda inside a container. The resulting chemical reaction produces enough carbon dioxide to launch their paper rocket skyward.
Recommended for: Grades K-5

A car propelled by the reaction between lemon juice and baking soda has more in common with rockets and jet aircraft than one might think. In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, two cast members demonstrate the power of rocket-propelled vehicles and how to exploit the force produced by the carbon dioxide gas. Grades 3-8.

It would seem that bottles of lemon juice and rockets have only their basic shape in common. However, as two cast members from ZOOM demonstrate in this adapted video segment, when baking soda is added to the mix, a plastic bottle can act very much like a real rocket. Grades 3-8.

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make their own hovercraft and demonstrate how the air leaking out of a balloon can make a plastic plate hover above a table.

This article provides an overview of icebergs' formation and characteristics and the hazards associated with icebergs.

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.

What would happen if a portion of the Antarctic Ice Sheet were to melt? This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animations to show the effect of a 6-meter sea-level rise on coastal cities across the world.

What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.

This video segment adapted from NOVA uses microwave images to reveal how sea ice doubles the size of Antarctica each winter. Rare footage shows how sea ice crushed the famous ship Endurance in 1914.

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."

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.

Laszlo Tisza was Professor of Physics Emeritus at MIT, where he began teaching in 1941. This online publication is a reproduction the original lecture notes for the course "Applied Geometric Algebra" taught by Professor Tisza in the Spring of 1976. Over the last 100 years, the mathematical tools employed by physicists have expanded considerably, from differential calculus, vector algebra and geometry, to advanced linear algebra, tensors, Hilbert space, spinors, Group theory and many others. These sophisticated tools provide powerful machinery for describing the physical world, however, their physical interpretation is often not intuitive. These course notes represent Prof. Tisza's attempt at bringing conceptual clarity and unity to the application and interpretation of these advanced mathematical tools. In particular, there is an emphasis on the unifying role that Group theory plays in classical, relativistic, and quantum physics. Prof. Tisza revisits many elementary problems with an advanced treatment in order to help develop the geometrical intuition for the algebraic machinery that may carry over to more advanced problems. The lecture notes came to MIT OpenCourseWare by way of Samuel Gasster, '77 (Course 18), who had taken the course and kept a copy of the lecture notes for his own reference. He dedicated dozens of hours of his own time to convert the typewritten notes into LaTeX files and then publication-ready PDFs. You can read about his motivation for wanting to see these notes published in his Preface below. Professor Tisza kindly gave his permission to make these notes available on MIT OpenCourseWare.

This video segment adapted from Building Big illustrates the strength of the arch in bridge design and construction.

This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.