971 Composting: Why Bother? Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–10 Professional Commentary: In this best practice ecology study, students learn about the composting process, and participate in the "Rot Off!” challenge, a contest that involves making the most compost from the school's kitchen and yard waste. To win the contest (and end up with something other than smelly sludge), students have to learn how to get organic material to decompose (an aerobic process) rather than rot (an anaerobic process).... 972 Designer Genes: One Size Fits All? Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This best practice unit asks students to research genetic engineering and issues related to risks and benefits of altering agricultural products. Students use their knowledge to create proposals for the town council of Ixtapa and create slideshows, newsletters, or Web sites to share their opinions and help the council decide whether they want local farmers to plant genetically engineered corn.... 973 Lights, Camera, Reaction! Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–10 Professional Commentary: This best practice unit teaches the basics of chemical reactions, and then challenges students to produce unique multimedia demonstrations that will be used in an educational instructional video. Students are also assigned one of five basic chemical changes (synthesis, decomposition, single displacement, double displacement, or combustion) to investigate further and are then asked to prepare a demonstration or experiment on their topic.... Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: In this best practice unit, students fully investigate linear motion. They are are introduced to the laws of motion, velocity and acceleration, vectors, and Newton's Laws using a series of teacher-prepared slideshows.... 975 Using Electricity on the Job! Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 9–12 Professional Commentary: This project-based learning unit focuses on electronic and magnetic phenomena. Students explore how energy is harnessed and electricity is used in industry.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Construction Technologies, Engineering & Science Technologies, Hospitality & Tourism, Law & Public Safety, Manufacturing Technologies, Transportation Systems, General Career Skills Projects: Standards First 976 Writing with Scientists with the American Museum of Natural History Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–5 Professional Commentary: This resource is an online interactive workshop where "young scientists" can move through the basic steps of organizing information on a topic of their choice to create a scientific report. Scholastic partners with the American Museum of Natural History to provide students with a step-by-step support system to transform a collection of notes, observations, research, and experiments into a well-organized and thorough science report.... 977 Analyzing a Weather Map Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: This promising practice lesson asks students to analyze weather maps according to surface pressure, air temperature, dewpoint and pressure change. Through a series of steps, students discover the different types of weather associated with weather systems based upon the information provided by weather observations.... Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–8 Professional Commentary: In this best practice lesson students take part in hands-on activities and real-time data investigations to develop a basic understanding of how weather conditions, such as temperature, wind, and precipitation, can be described in measurable quantities by studying and reporting on their local weather as well as the weather from other cities around the world... Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: Science Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–10 Professional Commentary: In this promising practice resource, students are introduced to the theory of plate tectonics and explore how the theory was developed and supported by evidence. Through class discussion, videos, and activities, students seek connections between tectonic activity and geologic features and investigate how the theory of plate tectonics evolved. (author/cb) Projects: COR Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Best Practice Discipline: Mathematics Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 8–10 Professional Commentary: The consideration of cord length is very important in a bungee jump—too short, and the jumper does not get much of a thrill; too long, and ouch! In this lesson, students model a bungee jump using a Barbie® doll and rubber bands. The distance to which the doll will fall is directly proportional to the number of rubber bands, so this context is used to examine linear functions. An activity packet, spreadsheet applet, discussion questions, suggestions for assessment, extensions of the lesson, and prompts for teacher reflection are included.... |