Group items tagged

The assessment items on this website are the result of more than a decade of research and development by Project 2061, a long-term science education reform initiative of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Here you will find free access to more than 600 items. The items:Are appropriate for middle and early high school students.Test student understanding in the earth, life, physical sciences, and the nature of science.Test for common misconceptions as well as correct ideas.

Thanks for sharing this John. Project 2061 has made important strides over the past 15 years. Good to see they offer some items for teachers to use in assessments.

This interactive infographic from Number Sleuth accurately illustrates the scale of over 100 items within the observable universe ranging from galaxies to insects, nebulae and stars to molecules and atoms. Numerous hot points along the zoom slider allow for direct access to planets, animals, the hydrogen atom and more. As you scroll, a handy dial spins to show you your present magnification level. While other sites have tried to magnify the universe, no one else has done so with real photographs and 3D renderings. To fully capture the awe of the vastly different sizes of the Pillars of Creation, Andromeda, the sun, elephants and HIV, you really need to see images, not just illustrations of these items. Stunningly enough, the Cat's Eye Nebula is surprising similar to coated vesicles, showing that even though the nebula is more than 40,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times larger, many things are similar in our universe.

This video was taken by the crew of Expedition 30 on board the International Space Station. The sequence of shots was taken December 29, 2011 from 20:55:05 to 21:14:09 GMT, on a pass from over central Africa, near southeast Niger, to the South Indian Ocean, southeast of Madagascar. The complete pass is over southern Africa to the ocean, focusing on the lightning flashes from local storms and the Milky Way rising over the horizon. The Milky Way can be spotted as a hazy band of white light at the beginning of the video. The pass continues southeast toward the Mozambique Channel and Madagascar. The Lovejoy Comet can be seen very faintly near the Milky Way. The pass ends as the sun is rising over the dark ocean.

Can the spooky world of quantum physics explain bird navigation, photosynthesis and even our delicate sense of smell? Clues are mounting that the rules governing the subatomic realm may play an unexpectedly pivotal role in the visible world. Leading thinkers in the emerging field of quantum biology explored the hidden hand of quantum physics on the scales of everyday life.

But now Oxford University and National University of Singapore scientists have shown that birds may really 'see' the invisible force of magnetism, giving them a compass on top of their normal vision: rather like aircraft 'head up displays' which overlay crucial navigation information on a transparent screen in front of the pilot.

very interesting subtlety about the definition of resistance and finding R from a I-V plot. 

awesome explanation of chemistry/ activation energy/bonds. This is one of the best blogs I've read-simply lyrical descriptions of science. 

Beautiful definition of science 

great video of Adam Savage explaining Fizeau's measuremnt of the speed of light. 

Carolyn Durley is a fast talking, multi-tasking, teacher of students first and biology second, who has fallen hard for technology. She attended McGill University and after receiving a Bachelor of Science she ventured West and made BC home for the last 20 years. She is currently in her 18th year of teaching; Biology 12 and AP Biology at OKM in Kelowna, B.C.

nice calculation of the fuel efficiency of a human. 

At the end of every year, we here at ScienceNOW take a look back at some of our favorite and most popular stories of the past twelve months. Here are our top 10, including our most popular story of all time. Be sure to also check out our year in photos.

great post (with code) of a statistical model of entropy. 

Soci History, sociology and other studies of science are great windows into the nature of science. They both motivate students and help them interpret the science they encounter in public policy and personal decision-making. How does one begin?

In Sponge Lab Biology's Build a Body students construct a human body system-by-system. To build a body students drag and drop into place the organs and bones of a human body. Each organ and bone is accompanied by a description of the purpose of that bone or organ. The systems that students can build in the Build a Body activity are the skeletal, digestive, respiratory, nervous, excretory, and circulatory systems.

cool first day of class ideas

use this site to make really cool QR codes to use in class. one idea I found for how to use these is to assign a code to a page for your classroom text. give the kids the QR codes at the start of the new unit of study and tell them to "zap the code" when they get to a given section of the new chapter, etc.

cool cell animations of replication, translation, transcription, synthesis, etc. Tons of different cell functions are capture here.

large library of animation of various cell processes

cool interactive diagram of structure of pterosaur