Like Latitudes
Students will learn how latitude affects weather patterns.
Articles by Teachnet Staff
Scientific Method: Consumer Testing in the Classroom
Those whiners who constantly mewl “why do I need to learn this?” can be in charge of this lesson – let them brainstorm ways to use the scientific method in testing consumer products. The following are just samples; have your kids come up with other products to test, and devise ways to test them.
Fossils: Be A Paleontologist
Introduce students to fossils and how paleontologists mark out a dig. Using cooperative learning techniques, students use plastic forks to systematically, probe through the sand, starting at one corner of the box.
Predicting the Future
Moore’s Law states that computer processor speed doubles every 18 months. Compare that to progress in the early 1900’s and your students can see how things are moving zillions of miles per hour faster than in the past. With the new millennium upon us, what better time to predict the future?
Design Your Own Remote
Assign students to examine a remote control at home, drawing a picture of it as well as thinking about how they would change it.
Trash to Treasure
Before you toss out that old floppy disk or wristwatch, think about how your kids, with minimal tools, could disassemble it and use it for something else.
Photograms
Heat sources: Part of this learning process is figuring out how different heat sources react differently with the paper. Some possibilities are hair dryers, irons, electric griddles, cups of hot water, soldering irons, curling irons and heat lamps.
Altering Climate in the Classroom
If it rains in, you close the window. But what if your room is too hot or cold? Get students involved in trying to moderate temperature extremes based on their level of competence and how you can integrate the project into existing weather or science lessons.
Speed of Sound
Parents can help their students with this exercise using readily available items to figure the rough speed of sound. Incorporate this into your regular lessons on sound.
Water Displacement
Students will use critical thinking skills to formulate a hypothesis.
Cause & Effect With Eggs
Overview: To show examples of cause and effect and encourage students to recognize the process around them. Resources: Teacher: one hardboiled egg; one raw egg; >>>
Field Trips and Simple Physics
You can turn a bus ride into a physics experiment that will even have your fellow teachers scratching their heads. Everyone knows that a weight >>>
Magneto-hydrodynamic Drives
The objective of this lesson and demonstration is to get the students to see how electric and magnetic fields can be used to force water out of a chamber in order to propel a vehicle such as a submarine.
Day and Night in the Desert
Overview: Draw contrasting scenes representing daytime and nighttime activities in the desert. Requires previous discussions of plant and animal life Procedure Ideas: 1. Students tape >>>
Creating Water in the Desert
This is such a neat little experiment, it’s fun and informative for all ages. Based on the process of condensation, it appears to create water from nothing (which is, of course, not the case).