Students use pennies to determine the traits for a smiley face, then use Microsoft Word to create the smiley face. Faces are displayed in the classroom and students use their knowledge of genetics to answer questions about smiley faces, traits, and probability. NOTE: Teacher notes and a "Wrapping It Up" analysis activity are separate complementary resources.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource is a set of teacher notes to accompany the activity "Genetics with a Smile". It includes directions and tips for teachers as well as a sample smiley face.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This student worksheet, with answer key, is used to wrap up the activity "Genetics with a Smile".
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This activity introduces students to pedigree analysis and how they can be used by disease researchers.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Students will graph data to better understand the relationship of low pressure to storm severity.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
Lesson plan that uses students' step length to understand the relationship between distance, speed and acceleration. Includes graphing of data and interpretation of graphs.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
In this activity, students explore how two cylinders that look the same may roll down a hill at different rates.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, students will explore the parts of a lever and will build a model of each class of lever on a wooden stand using dowels and modified wooden rulers. Using a spring scale and hanging weights, students will study the forces and will determine the advantage of each type of lever. As a grand finale to the activity, students will apply their newly found knowledge of levers as they compete in a contest called the “Little Bit of Effort Contest.†Students will work in their groups to design the most efficient lever in each class, i.e., the lever that can move the most weight with the least amount of effort.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this activity, students will use a model of the human arm, including an artistically modified scapula, humerus, radius and ulna. After measuring the weight of the forearm on their model with a spring scale, they will assemble the bones so that the elbow joint is movable. Once students have assembled the model, they will attach string “biceps and triceps muscles†to the model at origin points labeled on the model. An approximation of the actual insertion point will be labeled on the model and the other end of the string “muscle†attached to that location. The student will then investigate how the biceps muscle operates the joint as a lever system, exploring angles and the resistance and effort forces. Next, students will move the insertion point of the string muscle to examine how the lever system changes. Both the triceps and biceps will be studied in this part of the activity. Finally, using body segment weight percentages, students will relate their findings to their own bodies.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
In this invention challenge activity, students see how many objects they can grab with a homemade "bionic" arm. Students will follow the design process to build a grabber that can reach at least two feet, develop a way to open and close the grabber’s jaw, and figure out how to connect the “jaw†to a stick. Educators can use this activity to introduce learners to the design process as well as simple machines (lever, fulcrum).
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource is the online interactive for the Simple & Complex Machines activity "Inclined Plane and Pulley." In this activity, students will describe and investigate two of the simple machines, represent data in a table and calculate the mechanical advantage.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This multimedia resource, part of the NC Science Now series, describes how researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine are applying their understanding of the hierarchical structural organization of multicellular organisms to culture a variety of human tissues. By growing miniature human livers, hearts and kidneys and linking them together with a blood substitute, they can evaluate the effects of new drug therapies. Components of this resource include a video and a related blog article. Links to these components are provided on the page under the heading "UNC-TV Media."
Material Type: Lesson
The main resource on this website is an informative interactive that instructs students on the four types of tissues in the human body. Note: Other links on the site align to additional standards.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive, Lesson
Students will observe that biological organization is a hierarchial system of classification in which each successive level is more complex than the lower level, and each successive level has properties that did not exist before. Students will sequence the levels of organization and make a foldable that lists and describes the levels.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan
Explore relationships between temperature, pressure, and humidity with daily weather forecasts. GeoInquiries are designed to be fast and easy-to-use instructional resources that incorporate advanced web mapping technology. Each 15-minute activity in a collection is intended to be presented by the instructor from a single computer/projector classroom arrangement. No installation, fees, or logins are necessary to use these materials and software.
Material Type: Lesson
