This collection of fun facts is from Sharks and Rays: Myth and Reality, part of the Museum's Seminars on Science series. These distance-learning courses are designed to help educators meet the new national science standards. A brief explanation page is provided for the six fun facts: Did you know sharks can gestate for up to two years? Did you know sharks and rays don't have bones? Did you know sharks and rays are cosmopolitan in distribution? Did you know an individual shark can produce upwards of 30,000 teeth in its lifetime? Did you know shark skin, or shagreen, feels rough if you stroke it in one direction, but smooth if you stroke it in the other.

Using simple, inexpensive items, students build and test submarine models in a single class period. They gain insight into the engineering that's required to make these machines ascend, descend, and hover safely in extreme environments. The printable eight-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions that get students thinking about the complex engineering required for submersibles, illustrated experiment directions, and a worksheet that includes thought-provoking questions along with areas for recording experiment data.

Learners compare a life-size drawing of a Tyrannosaurus rex head and a full-size Sinornithosaurus body to understand that dinosaurs varied in size. Learners trace individual pieces of a dinosaur on paper and then work together as a group to arrange the pieces of the "puzzle". This is an opportunity to understand scale drawings as well as learn how to work as a group.

Students ponder "weightlessness" in this creative Moveable Museum unit. The four-page PDF guide includes suggested background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, and information about where to obtain a video that enhances the lesson.

In this Moveable Museum lesson plan, students examine cultural artifacts from three different nomadic cultures, first on their own, and then in contextual photographs, gaining insight into the work of anthropologists. The 13-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Everyday Objects activity worksheet has isolated photographs of three cultural artifacts, with information on their materials and size. The Objects in Context activity worksheet has photographs of each object with explanatory text (object name, culture, use, and significance). The Putting It All Together activity has a list of discussion questions to help students further investigate material culture.

It probably comes as no surprise that telescopes do a better job of collecting light and observing outer space than your eyes. But do you know why? (Hint: the answer is NOT magnification!) This Moveable Museum article, available as a nine-page printable PDF file, offers a thorough, kid-friendly look at telescopes. It discusses how different types of telescopes work and provides some suggested additional resources for further research.

In this lesson, students will learn what a fable is, explore fables told along the Silk Road, and then create their own.

In this activity, students will explore the geography and significance of Silk Road trade, and create a collage map of the region's topography and trade.

In this activity, students will investigate a variety of technologies used along the Silk Road. They will then invent a new technology or improve upon an existing one.

In this classroom activity, middle school students explore cladistics by creating a cladogram. The activity opens with background information for teachers about cladistics. After discussing the relationship of some familiar mammals, students learn about how scientists use cladistics to determine evolutionary relationships among animals. Working in pairs, students complete a worksheet that directs them to examine coins and create a cladogram based on their shared characteristics. Then, small groups of students examine dinosaur illustrations, identify their shared features, and those features to classify the dinosaurs.

This classroom activity, which is structured as a series of mini-research projects, helps students understand how technological advances have aided the exploration of Antarctica. The printable handout includes a set of 10 research topics in three categories, explorers, Antarctica today, and technological advances for you to assign to small student teams.

In this classroom activity, middle school students gain an understanding of geologic time. The activity opens with background information for teachers about carbon and radiometric dating. In a classroom discussion, students share what they know about geologic time. Then, working in small groups responsible for different eras, students create a timeline for their assigned era by conducting library and Internet research. The activity concludes by having students review all the timelines to compare how long humans have been on the Earth to the length of time dinosaurs inhabited the planet.

In this classroom activity, young students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. Working in small groups, students look through dinosaur books to gather interesting facts to share. As a class, students use their facts to create a semantic map. Then they explore the differences in dinosaur and lizard legs, and examine how these differences affect their stances. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify the dinosaurs within a collection of animal illustrations.

In this classroom activity, young students explore the differences between bone and trace fossils. The activity opens with background information for teachers about fossils. After describing what a fossil is in their own words, students learn that a fossil is "any evidence of life that is at least 10,000 years old." They then explore the differences between trace and bone fossils by examining pictures. The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify trace and bone fossils.

In this classroom activity, middle school students learn what distinguishes dinosaurs from other animals. The activity opens with background information for teachers about these prehistoric reptiles. As a class, students compare the stance of lizards and dinosaurs in pictures and try to replicate both reptiles' walks. Students then learn that Museum paleontologists classify birds as dinosaurs, and work in groups to compare a T. rex skeleton with pictures of birds.

In this classroom activity, young students investigate what paleontologists can tell from a dinosaur's teeth. The activity opens with background information for teachers about dinosaur teeth. Students begin by looking at animal photos and describing each creature's teeth. They then conduct an experiment that helps them differentiate between the teeth of meat-eaters and plant-eaters .The activity concludes with a student worksheet that challenges them to identify meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs.

This classroom activity helps students understand how the angle of the Sun affects temperatures around the globe. After experimenting with a heat lamp and thermometers at differing angles, students apply what they learned to explain temperature variations on Earth. The printable six-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions to get students thinking about what they already know about temperature patterns, detailed experiment directions and a worksheet that helps students use the experiment results to gain a deeper understanding of seasonal temperature changes and why Antarctica is always so cold.

This classroom activity helps students understand the benefits and drawback of globes, Mercator maps, and polar map projections. After closely examining all three, students discuss how we represent a spherical object like the Earth on flat surface. The printable five-page handout includes a series of inquiry-based questions related to the representation of Antarctica on the three types of maps.

Students learn about the subtractive nature of white light in this Moveable Museum unit. It contains two procedures in which students "take apart" white light and then "put it back together again." The six-page PDF guide includes suggested general background readings for educators, activity notes, step-by-step directions, an easy-to-assemble color wheel, and information about where to obtain supplies. Students use special glasses to see that white light is made up of all the colors of the rainbow and then create a colorful top and spin it to see how the different colors blend into white.

In this Moveable Museum lesson plan, students write a research proposal, drawing on their knowledge of a nomadic culture. Then they submit their proposals to you - the governing agency that determines what fieldwork will be supported. The 12-page PDF guide has educator materials including background information, teacher strategies, assessment guidelines, and detailed notes about the curriculum standards addressed. The Writing the Research Proposal activity worksheet has six questions designed to guide students' research and help them gather the information needed for their proposals.