Big Idea 1: The Practice of Science

This site uses text and images to describe methods that the U.S. Geological Survey measures water temperature, pH, specific conductance, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, hardness, and suspended sediment.

Type: Image/Photograph

Students will discover how paleontologists study and classify dinosaurs and how evolutionary biologists study the relationships between organisms. Students will use fossil and genetic evidence to investigate evolutionary relationships between living and extinct organisms.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will identify signs of weathering and erosion on their school campus in a fieldwork investigation. They will then identify the appropriate school/district official to contact about their concerns, and create a professional email to that official advocating for the maintenance and repair of their school.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will examine the impact humans can have on the water quality at a popular public fishing pier and ways that citizens can interact with the government to address cleaning the pier in this integrated MEA. Students will analyze the revenue from the fishing pier, peak visiting times, and amounts of marine debris accumulated to determine the pros/cons of closing the fishing pier more frequently to clean the marine debris. Students will research which government agency must be contacted with a proposal.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of 3 in the Goldilocks’ Café Just Right unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature and turbidity level. Students will use both the temperature probe and turbidity sensor and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 2 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” level of turbidity. Students will use turbidity sensors and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 3 in the Just Right Goldilocks’ Café unit. This lesson focuses on systematic investigation on getting a cup of coffee to be the “just right” temperature. Students will use temperature probes and code using ScratchX during their investigation.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will collect, analyze, and interpret data to develop an understanding of how the speeds of sound and electromagnetic waves change through different mediums. Students will simulate and construct and explanation relating to how sound and electromagnetic waves move at different speeds through different mediums.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be tasked with an engineering challenge to design an effective and efficient portable water filtration system. The designs will take dirty water and make it clear so it can be boiled for safe drinking. This lesson aligns to both math and science content standards.

Type: Lesson Plan

Dr. Alex Wilson of the University of Miami is an evolutionary biologist whose research centers on symbiotic relationships. "" from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo is the last of four films created with funding from the National Science Foundation. This lesson, which includes a pre-test, slide presentation, and activity, was developed to support the learning concepts provided by Dr. Wilson's films.

Type: Lesson Plan

Dr. Alex Wilson of the University of Miami is an evolutionary biologist whose research centers on symbiotic relationships. In this short animated film, she introduces the concept of symbiosis to the viewers. from Day's Edge Productions on Vimeo is the first of four films created with funding from the National Science Foundation. This lesson, which includes a pre-test, slide presentation, activity, and formative assessment was developed to support the learning concepts provided by Dr. Wilson's films.

Type: Lesson Plan

The student will collect and analyze data, collaborate and discuss their findings, compare their findings to one another, and apply their findings to unknowns. Students will build a timeline based on the masses of substances to develop a basic understanding of absolute age by radioactive dating and how it compares to relative age based on the Law of Superposition. Students will measure the mass of several objects which will represent "fossils." Each object's mass will represent a specific age of the object. Students will gain an understanding of how scientists use absolute dating to accurately determine the age of objects and how relative dating is used to generally determine the age of objects.

Type: Lesson Plan

The students will identify patterns in fossils and explain their understanding of how rock layers are deposited. They will use the evidence from the activity to make inferences about what the Earth was like during the time the fossils existed. Students will develop an understanding of how fossils give scientists clues as to what the early Earth was like in the past. Students will also show how fossils can be used to relatively date rock layers using the Law of Superposition and index fossils.

Type: Lesson Plan

The changing climate is an important topic for both scientific analysis and worldly knowledge. This lesson uses data collected by the National Snow and Ice Data Center to create and use statistical analysis as a tool to evaluate the sea ice loss. Students will use technology to quickly generate graphs for each month looking for trends, patterns, or deviations over time.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

This lesson uses the Hip Sciences Sensor Wand and Temperature Probe. Please refer to the corresponding Hip Science Sensor Guide(s) for information on using the sensor.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this week-long, open-ended activity, students will observe their local environment, devise and pose a testable research question, conduct observations using sensors, and use mathematics skills for quantitative analysis and plotting. To communicate results, students will summarize their findings on a custom poster that explains their work.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this interdisciplinary lesson, students will practice the skill of data collection with a variety of tools and by statistically analyzing the class data sets will begin to understand that error is inherent in all data.

This lesson uses the Hip Sciences Sensor Wand and Temperature Probe. Please refer to the corresponding Hip Science Sensor Guide(s) for information on using the sensor.

Type: Lesson Plan

This STEM lesson, complete with a design challenge, helps students design, build, and test irrigation methods. Students will incorporate and develop math skills through solving proportions as they work in teams to solve an engineering challenge.

Type: Lesson Plan

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson introduces the concept of an invasive species, the Burmese python, and its impact on other animal populations in the Florida Everglades. Students will interpret and evaluate graphs to investigate correlation and causation as well as evaluate claims using evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a STEM-Engineering Design Challenge lesson. Students will go through the process of creating an organ transport container using their knowledge of human body systems, heat flow, and volume.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will participate in a simulation model of the rock cycle. Collecting data by throwing die, students will develop an understanding of the movement of atoms and rock particles through the rock cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity asks students to become scientists who are studying the components of a bald eagle's diet. They will collect data by pulling prey chips from an envelope and recording this data. They then graph their research data, draw conclusions about what a bald eagle eats, and share their conclusions with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is about Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution through natural selection. Students will explore the theory of evolution using anecdotal imagery (evolution of technology - pagers/phones, cars, computers, watches) that will help them understand how fossil evidence in biological systems is vital to mapping out the origin and development of life through time.

Type: Lesson Plan

While working in groups, students will be provided various materials to design models that illustrate the refraction, reflection, and absorption of light.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a physical survey of our school's microhabitat. Students will make quantitative and qualitative observations of the flora and fauna, as well as making notes on the biotic and abiotic elements within the area they are examining. Through the collection and organization of data, students will make assumptions as to the relationships between all components comprising the microhabitat, including limiting factors.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan that will help students to understand that the Law of Conservation is applicable to all systems in nature, including their cell phone that they use regularly. It means that energy, though it might seem to have been created or destroyed, is actually conserved, but simply transformed from one form to another.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students write a procedure and conduct an investigation that helps them to differentiate replication from repetition. Students drop the whirligig 3-5 times and record how long it takes to fall to the ground.

Type: Lesson Plan

7th grade math/science lesson plan that focuses on the concept of circumference and rotation relationship. Culminates in a problem-solving exercise where students apply their knowledge to the "rotations" field in programming a LEGO/NXT robot to traverse a set distance.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a simple hands-on activity which will help students understand the difference between repetition and replication. It is designed to be science notebook friendly.

Type: Lesson Plan

The scientific method has not only helped scientists but also helped engineers create a design process to solve problems. Within this lesson students will be introduced to the idea that there is not a single design process that is better or more useful that another. Although the process goes by many names, the essential elements are the same, and using a design process to solve problems helps us achieve an optimal solution. A design process should encourage the students to consider as many of the possible solutions. Students will evaluate design processes and will use them to guide their actions.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a hands-on (write it, read it, do it) activity to help students master the standard

The learning objectives of this lesson are that the students will demonstrate that replication is the ability to make an exact copy, explain the importance of writing and following precise directions and differentiate replication by others and repetition (multiple trials) and its importance in science. There is an engaging activity, PowerPoint, YouTube video, and much more to help the students understand and know the difference between replication and repetition.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will review the basic ideas of heat, the direction it flows, and the results of this flow on the kinetic energy and expansion of the particles. Students will investigate this concept in a 5E lesson format using claim, evidence, reasoning in their conclusion. They will determine how different temperature water baths effects the ease/difficulty of opening jars with tight fitting lids and link these results to the knowledge that heat flows from warmer to cooler materials. Applying the knowledge that increasing the amount of heat of the matter will increase the kinetic energy of it's particles, will result in expansion of that matter. Because each type of matter has a different coefficient of expansion, the amount of expansion will vary in different materials. Students will realize that a jar with a tight fitting lid may loosen if hot water is applied.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson combines many objectives for seventh grade students. Its goal is for students to create and carry out an investigation about student backpack mass. Students will develop a conclusion based on statistical and graphical analysis.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using a guided-inquiry model, students in a math or science class will use an experiment testing the effect of temperature on cricket chirping frequency to teach the concepts of representative vs random sampling, identifying directly proportional relationships, and highlight the differences between scientific theory and scientific law.

Type: Lesson Plan

This activity allows students to experiment with balloons. Students are given basic instructions to blow up and pop a balloon wearing goggles. Students will make observations and come up with testable questions. A lesson is given on the different types of variables. Students then design an experiment coming up with the testable question and identifying the variables. The idea behind this lesson is not for the student to conduct the experiment and collect the data, but that is a possible extension.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will measure the length of different sized leaves and corresponding veins to determine proportionality.  Students will graph their results on a coordinate grid and write about their results. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will work in groups to collect water from different areas in a watershed and measure the following characteristics: pH, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and temperature. Students then construct a water filtration apparatus and observe changes in the listed characteristics based on filtration. This activity guides the students to understanding the differences in water quality in various locations within the watershed through investigation and collaboration.

Prior to teaching the lesson, teachers should have a basic understanding of the watershed where the water will be collected. Detailed information can be obtained from the water management district. See for links to Florida's water management districts.

Ideally, the water should be collected by the students from a site on or near school property. Be sure to follow school and district guidelines for field work.

Type: Lesson Plan

The NASA BEST Activities Guides is designed to teach students the Engineering Design
Process. These lessons are created to accommodate grades 6-8.

All follow the same set of activities and teach students about humans' endeavor to return to the
Moon. Specifically, how we investigate the Moon remotely, the modes of transportation to and on
the Moon, and how humans will live and work on the Moon.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a detailed lesson based on the germination of seeds, science vocabulary of plants, diseases, and insect infestations with tomato plants. Tomatoes grow nutrients that the human body needs to survive. It is a companion lesson to: Survival Journal Parts 1 and 2 available on CPALMS.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will predict if the temperature will rise inside of an empty sock compared to the air outside the sock then they will test their hypothesis. This lesson addresses heat transfer and variables.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a complex text reading lesson dealing with continental drift and plate tectonics.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a fun lab activity to be used as part 3 of a 4 part series on Interdependence. It can also be used as a stand alone activity. Animal crackers are used - they can be eaten at the end of the activity- so double check with your students about any food allergies (ie gluten).

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, each student will explain and document in a science journal how they will over come a natural disaster/plague for 15 days. They will continue with part two of this lesson "Outdoor Gardening."

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a lesson to energize your classroom with real world, hands-on advanced science equipment. This lesson could work well at the beginning of the school year when students learn about the Nature of Science or to start off the second semester with an exciting exploration of the objects invisible to the unaided eye.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discover the importance of peer review and peer critique in the development of scientific proof.

Type: Lesson Plan

Repetition requires the experiment to be repeated at least three times and replication requires the experiment to be conducted by another researcher. Repetition and replication ensures that experiments and experimental results are valid.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students create their own examples using basketball to differentiate between repetition and replication.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will conduct a simple laboratory experience that practices the proper use of controls and variables. Students will conduct a controlled experiment in their laboratory groups.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn that scientists not only do controlled experiment but other forms of investigations. Different types of questions lead to different types of investigations. Not all scientific knowledge is obtained through experimentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students manipulate sealed "mystery" boxes and attempt to determine the inner structure of the boxes which contain a moving ball and a fixed barrier or two. The nature and sources of uncertainty inherent in the process of problem-solving are experienced. The uncertainty of the conclusions is reduced by student collaboration. The students are asked to relate this activity to how to learn about "mystery boxes" in nature (interior of the earth, the atom, etc).

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson (2 parts) is an engaging way to strengthen student understanding of the Law of Superposition and evidence of Earth's changes over time. Students will excavate "fossils" from plastic tubs in class and then have the option of a larger outside excavation. The lesson not only supports science benchmarks but Math and Language Arts Standards as well and has an optional Social Studies extension. Materials are required but can be easily obtained and are reusable year after year. The more imagination you put into setting the context, the more powerful the lesson's outcome.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students play a dice game to explore the differences between direct and indirect evidence. Student pairs roll dice and record the numbers rolled as a series of colors instead of numbers. Other pairs of students try to crack the color code to figure out the sequence of numbers rolled. In this way, students gain an understanding of how indirect evidence of climate change can be interpreted. In conclusion, the class discusses the various records made by humans and indirect evidence found in nature that can be studied to understand how climate has varied through time.

Key Concepts

• Scientists collect data from many sources to identify, understand, and interpret past changes in Earth's climate.
• Natural records of climate change, such as tree rings, ice cores, pollen and ocean sediments offer indirect evidence of climate change. They require knowledge of how the natural recorder works.
• Records made by humans , such as artwork, harvest records, and accounts of changing seasons, are more direct, but can be incomplete.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a five day lesson integrating Science, Reading and Writing. It is developed on a Reading lesson plan format using Shared Reading, Core Reading, Guided Reading and centers but can easily be transferred on to a Science 5E lesson format. The versatility of the lesson and the integration between subjects lends itself to it being widely used among teachers for different reasons; whether the teacher's need be in Science, Reading or Writing the lesson provides opportunities for all areas to be addressed. Most importantly, it offers the busy teacher an opportunity to implement one lesson to cover three subjects.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how different scientists all over the world use vastly different skills to work toward the common goal of understanding and fighting an emerging disease in this interactive tutorial

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how math models can show why social distancing during a epidemic or pandemic is important in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Continue your scientific experiment about ghost ant food preferences by collecting the data, analyzing the results, and forming a conclusion with this interactive tutorial.

This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Click to open Part 1, Setting Up an Experiment. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to design a scientific experiment involving ants and what food they prefer. In this interactive tutorial, you will learn about variables and scientific processes required to conduct an experiment.

This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Click to open Part 2, Conducting an Experiment and Analyzing Results

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about different types of scientific investigations as you discover the Zebra Longwing, a special type of butterfly that calls Florida home. In this interactive tutorial, you'll also learn how scientists collaborate with each other and share empirical evidence. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Science isn't just about experiments! Learn about other ways to do science such as observational and comparative studies in this interactive tutorial. Science is varied and interesting as we use scientific skills to learn about the world!

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Engineering and science may be similar but their goals are somewhat different. In this interactive tutorial, learn about engineers; some of the different fields of engineering, where engineers work, what they do, and some of their goals. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the work of geo-scientists: What they do, where they work and the types of questions they strive to answer in this interactive tutorial. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the world of physics and explore what physicists do. In this interactive tutorial, you'll discover where they work and what kinds of questions they try to answer. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the work of chemists, various fields of chemistry, where chemists work and the types of questions they strive to answer in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the varied job of a biologist; where they work, what they do and the types of questions they try to answer. 

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to differentiate replication (by others) from repetition (multiple trials) in experimental design through the information and practice exercises in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Explore how scientists have used scientific thinking and methods to develop hypotheses about the development of life on Earth. Throughout this interactive tutorial, you'll see how learning through science requires retesting data, reconsidering evidence, and debate between scientists.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn to identify the independent variable and the dependent variable in an experiment with this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

<p>Researchers Frank Johnson, Richard Bertram,&nbsp;Wei&nbsp;Wu, and Rick&nbsp;Hyson&nbsp;explore the necessity of scientific and mathematical collaboration in modern neuroscience, as it relates to their NSF research on birdsong.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Fish Ecologist, Dean Grubbs, discusses how using statistical sampling can help determine legal catch rates for fish that may be endangered.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

<p>Jens Foell&nbsp;discusses how statistical noise reduction is used in fMRI&nbsp;brain imaging to be able to determine which specifics parts of the brain are related to certain activities and how this relates to patients that suffer from phantom limb pain.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Charlotte Sjunneskog, currator of the Antarctic Reasearch Facility, discusses the ocean sediment cores that are collected and what scientists look for in these samples.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Charlotte Sjunneskog, curator of the Antarctic Research Facility, discusses the aspects of the cores that are collected and what researchers are looking for in the samples.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

F-15 Experimental Test Pilot discusses the importance of the iterative process of collecting data, analyzing data and communicating the findings when developing aircraft for the United States Air Force.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Dr. Bill McShea from the Smithsonian Institution discusses how camera trapping allows him to study elusive organisms he might not otherwise be able to find.

This video was created in collaboration with the Okaloosa County SCIENCE Partnership, including the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Did you hear? Science methods are always changing to help us learn about the world around us.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Expert

Ecologist, Rebecca Means, describes the process of determining remote locations in the USA and developing quantitative questions that are appropriate.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Find out how math and technology can help you (try to) get away from civilization.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

<p>Ecologist Rebecca Means discusses the use of statistical sampling and comparative studies in field biology.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

Listen as this modern-day bird researcher paints a picture of how naturalists conducted research in the past.

Produced with funding from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast

In this video, Angela Lodge describes the value of hands-on experiences gained from field research for transforming both teachers and their classroom practices. 

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Field experiences are powerful and capable of improving teachers' ability to impact students in the classroom. Watch as USF Outreach Coordinator Teresa Greely explains the experiences offered to teachers through the NOAA Bay Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program.

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

In this video, science teacher Susan Cullum describes the impact of field research experiences on classroom teaching practices.

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Listen as science teacher Patty Smukall recounts past and present marine field experiences and how they affect teaching practices back in the classroom. 

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Listen as science teacher Lauren Watson explains how marine field experiences are translated for the classroom.

This research is made possible by a grant from the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative (GoMRI/C-IMAGE II).
This research is made possible by a grant from the NOAA Gulf of Mexico BWET program.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

<p>This teacher explains how a 3D-printed quadrat can be used with an M&amp;M sampling lesson to engage students when they explore how to use data from a random sample to draw inferences about a population.</p>

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Hands-on modeling can help build process and observational skills. Encourage your students to think like scientists with this open-inquiry lab modeling earthquake damage to buildings.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Want an unforgettable field trip led by a real scientist where your students get hands-on experience with collecting population data? Consider the "" educational program from Remote Footprints.

Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.

Type: Perspectives Video: Teaching Idea

Students are asked to design an experiment to answer an experimental question. Students should identify a control group, dependent and independent variables and possible outcomes or what type of data would be gathered. Students are not actually performing these experiments but will need to explain their investigations.

Type: Problem-Solving Task

This activity is a statistical analysis of recorded measurements of a single value - in this case, a partially filled graduated cylinder.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will measure the mass of one nickel 10 times on a digital scale precise to milligrams. The results will be statistically analyzed to find the error and uncertainty of the scale.

Type: Teaching Idea

The Earth is 4.6 billion years old. That's a hard number to conceptualize. What does 4.6 billion look like, and what happened during all those hundreds of millions of years between the formation of our planet and now?

This BLOSSOMS lesson will help students conceptualize the enormity of geologic time and learn about important events in Earth's history. Students will also learn how geologic time can help explain seemingly incomprehensible processes, like the formation of the Himalayan Mountains from a flat plain to their current height, and the evolution of a tiny group of reptiles into enormous dinosaurs.

The lesson will take approximately 45 minutes. Students should have a basic understanding of biology, and a familiarity with geology is helpful but not necessary. The supplies required include a measuring tape that is at least 5 meters long, a 5 meter long piece of string, ribbon, or rope, index cards or other stiff pieces of paper, and calculators.

During the breaks, students will construct a geologic timeline of their own in the classroom and do simple calculations to determine how long amounts of time can lead to impressive changes in the height of the Himalayan Mountains and the size of a group of reptiles.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will be able to gather information, organize, analyze, and present data when given a current environmental situation. They will participate in a decision-making process.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students will investigate how the shape and volume of body forms affect heat loss.

Type: Teaching Idea

A simulated crime scene is presented for teams of students to solve, using clues received piecemeal, adjusting hypotheses as more clues are found and discussed. The elements of science are recognized through discussion of the crime solution metaphor. Also clearly shows how science is used effectively to reveal unwitnessed events of the past (by weighing the evidence), much as we do in paleontology, geology, evolution and astronomy.

Type: Teaching Idea

Although a sheet of paper is much thinner than the divisions of a ruler, we can make indirect measurements of the paper's thickness.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text supports reading in the content area. This text discusses the findings of studying mite speed and mite's affinity for high temperatures. The article explores how the data could be used in the field of biomechanics.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes two studies that show how the decline of large sharks has adverse effects on other organisms in their food web. The article explains that without apex predators like sharks, other large fish and rays tend to thrive and prey too heavily on shellfish populations.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes an exciting series of experiments aimed at determining whether complex life could exist in the extremely harsh Antarctic environment of Lake Vostok. Researchers found some evidence of complex life from DNA analysis, but confirming such extraordinary findings would require substantial additional data and repeated confirmation. The text offers a great overview of the complex nature of the scientific process and what it takes to truly confirm an experimental finding.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists use radiometric dating to estimate the age of objects, including fossils and geological formations. Radiometric dating methods include measuring carbon-14 and uranium/potassium isotopes. This article details how these methods can be used to date a variety of objects, including the Earth itself.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area.Tiny particles of gold have been found in the leaves of trees growing high above an underground supply of it. Biogeochemical prospecting uses living organisms to locate precious metals deep beneath the surface. From termite mounds to "roo poo" from a kangaroo, biological clues point prospectors in the right direction.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article discusses current thinking and popular hypotheses for the function of zebra stripes. A recent study indicates that zebra stripes may protect the animals from fly bites, which are both a nuisance to the animals and a means of spreading infectious fatal diseases.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The science fair project of two junior scientists in Nigeria may hold the key to ending "morning breath." Through experimentation, the two teenage girls determined that African walnuts were able to kill bacteria that cause bad breath. Their project was presented at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article explores scientists' identification of the largest volcano on Earth—Tamu Massif—which is found below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Due to its underlying geology, the volcano is mostly found below the ocean floor at the edge of two tectonic plates. It formed when magma emerged as the plates pulled apart. The article compares Tamu Massif to other giant volcanoes on Earth and on other planets.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. In this article, scientists explore the fossil of a dead fish whose cells were perfectly preserved from 100 million years ago. The remains led to further studies of decay and fossilization. Taphonomy, the study of what happens after plants and animals die, is discussed in detail, showing how studying fossilized animals can tell us about how they evolved.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article reveals how scientists have found a way to make a synthetic chromosome and insert it into yeast cells. Scientists discovered that this chromosome can alter or create new traits in an organism. This research could lead to creating an entirely synthetic genome, which scientists expect to accomplish in the next few years.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes the discovery of mega-plumes of plasma within the sun. These long-lasting, larger than Earth heat elevators may be the reason the latitudes of the sun rotate at different speeds. Two different scientists have analyzed data that support this possible explanation.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article outlines the scientific mindset that led William Herschel to arrive at the discovery of infrared light, an unexpected consequence of an experiment he was conducting. More generally, the article demonstrates the scientific process, from hypothesis to observation and from inference to conclusion.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how an algae species previously thought to be invasive is actually a "hidden" native species that blooms when environmental conditions change. It describes those conditions as well as the algae's ecological impact on other populations. The article concludes by connecting that human impact—climate change—is causing algae blooms to become more and more common.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article focuses on how plate tectonics change the surface of Earth, and how new research is changing the way we think about geological behavior. The article goes in depth about two new ideas that are changing the way we think about the planet's layers and the processes that have shaped Earth over its long history.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. Scientists are finally able to support the hypothesis that electromagnetic radiation from human electronic equipment can confuse a bird's sense of direction; the radiation impacts the orientation necessary for birds' migration. When shielded by an aluminum screen (a Faraday cage), this interference is eliminated and birds can orient themselves properly.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article describes how scientists have found that Native Americans have ancestral roots in Asia using DNA evidence from a 12,600 year old toddler skeleton from the Clovis culture in Montana.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The text compares the bone and muscle structure of early Homo sapiens and Neandertals. It describes the ability to run long distances in one and not the other and explains how this difference may have evolved.

Type: Text Resource

This 13-minute video segment produced by NOVA Science Now explores the work by one committed family and researchers to identify patterns in the genetic information of autism patients.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation

This resource provides students with a framework to form an academic argument. Students must provide a justification for their position statement and support it with evidence.

Type: Worksheet

This resource provides students with a framework to examine multiple sides of an argument before taking a position. It is useful in helping students examine opposing views and strengthen their argument by anticipating the opposition's main points.

Type: Worksheet

This resource provides students with a framework to take and support their position on an open-ended or yes/no question. Its simplicity is especially useful for students with little to no experience forming an academic or scientific argument.

Type: Worksheet

This fun worksheet uses the popular Sponge Bob characters to help students learn characteristics of the process of science inquiry, specifically, the identification of variables. Other concepts and skills that are addressed include: developing a conclusion, the purpose of a control group, the placebo effect, the initial observation, and analyzing data charts.

Type: Worksheet