Demonstrations explain the concepts of energy forms (sound, chemical, radiant [light], electrical, atomic [nuclear], mechanical, thermal [heat]) and states (potential, kinetic).
This six-day lesson provides students with an introduction to the importance of energy in their lives and the need to consider how and why we consume the energy we do. The lesson includes activities to engage students in general energy issues, including playing an award-winning Energy Choices board game, and an optional graphing activity that provides experience with MS Excel graphing and perspectives on how we use energy and how much energy we use.
Students experiment with an online virtual laboratory set at a skate park. They make predictions of graphs before they use the simulation to create graphs of energy vs. time under different conditions. This simulation experimentation strengths their comprehension of conservation of energy solely between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy
In Activity 5, as part of the Going Public step, students demonstrate their knowledge of how potential energy may be transferred into kinetic energy. Students design, build and test vehicle prototypes that transfer various types of potential energy into motion.
This lesson covers concepts of energy and energy transfer utilizing energy transfer in musical instruments as an example. More specifically, the lesson explains the two different ways in which energy can be transferred between a system and its environment. The law of conservation of energy will also be taught. Example systems will be presented to students (two cars on a track and a tennis ball falling to the ground) and students will be asked to make predictions and explain the energy transfer mechanisms. The engineering focus comes in clearly in the associated activity when students are asked to apply the fundamental concepts of the lesson to design a musical instrument. The systems analyzed in the lesson should help a great deal in terms of discussing how to apply conservation of energy and energy transfer to make things.
This activity utilizes hands on learning with the conservation of energy with the inclusion of elastic potential energy. Students use pogo sticks to experience the elastic potential energy and its conversion to gravitational potential energy.
Students are introduced to sound energy concepts and how engineers use sound energy. Through hands-on activities and demonstrations, students examine how we know sound exists by listening to and seeing sound waves. They learn to describe sound in terms of its pitch, volume and frequency. They explore how sound waves move through liquids, solids and gases. They also identify the different pitches and frequencies, and create high- and low-pitch sound waves.
This activity utilizes hands-on learning with the conservation of energy and the interaction of friction. Students use a roller coaster track and collect position data. The students then calculate velocity, and energy data. After the lab, students relate the conversion of potential and kinetic energy to the conversion of energy used in a hybrid car.
Students are introduced to genetic techniques such as DNA electrophoresis and imaging technologies used for molecular and DNA structure visualization. In the field of molecular biology and genetics, biomedical engineering plays an increasing role in the development of new medical treatments and discoveries. Engineering applications of nanotechnology such as lab-on-a-chip and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) microarrays are used to study the human genome and decode the complex interactions involved in genetic processes.
Under the "The Science Behind Harry Potter" theme, a succession of diverse complex scientific topics are presented to students through direct immersive interaction. Student interest is piqued by the incorporation of popular culture into the classroom via a series of interactive, hands-on Harry Potter/movie-themed lessons and activities. They learn about the basics of acid/base chemistry (invisible ink), genetics and trait prediction (parseltongue trait in families), and force and projectile motion (motion of the thrown remembrall). In each lesson and activity, students are also made aware of the engineering connections to these fields of scientific study.
Students learn about applied forces as they create pop-up-books the art of paper engineering. They also learn the basic steps of the engineering design process.
Students use simple materials to design an open spectrograph so they can calculate the angle light is bent when it passes through a holographic diffraction grating. A holographic diffraction grating acts like a prism, showing the visual components of light. After finding the desired angles, students use what they have learned to design their own spectrograph enclosure.
This course is intended to understand the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, thermodynamics, fluid flow and heat transfer. This course includes the following: Reactor designs, Thermal analysis of nuclear fuel, Reactor coolant flow and heat transfer, Power conversion cycles, Nuclear safety and Reactor dynamic behavior.
This course is designed to be a survey of the various subdisciplines of geophysics (geodesy, gravity, geomagnetism, seismology, and geodynamics) and how they might relate to or be relevant for other planets. No prior background in Earth sciences is assumed, but students should be comfortable with vector calculus, classical mechanics, and potential field theory.
Students learn that buoyancy is responsible for making boats, hot air balloons and weather balloons float. They calculate whether or not a boat or balloon will float, and calculate the volume needed to make a balloon or boat of a certain mass float. Conduct the first day of the associated activity before conducting this lesson.
Students explore material properties in hands-on and visually evident ways via the Archimedes' principle. First, they design and conduct an experiment to calculate densities of various materials and present their findings to the class. Using this information, they identify an unknown material based on its density. Then, groups explore buoyant forces. They measure displacement needed for various materials to float on water and construct the equation for buoyancy. Using this equation, they calculate the numerical solution for a boat hull using given design parameters.
In this lab activity, students use a digital temperature probe to compare the temperature changes when four different alcohols evaporate. The analysis questions provided guide students to connecting the energy changes associated with the change of state with the structure of molecules of substances. Before beginning the lab, students are asked to consider the structural formulas of the alcohols used in the lab: methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, and 1-butanol. After collecting data for the first three alcohols, students predict the temperature change for 1-butanol and then collect data to test their prediction. The resource linked here is a sample. More complete information, including teachers guide and safety information, is available for purchase from Vernier Software and Technology using the link provided on the final page of the sample.
In this fun optics activity, learners explore principles of light, reflection (mirrors), and perception. Learners work in pairs and sit on opposite sides of a "two-way" mirror. Both partners vary the amount light illuminating their faces. As they adjust the light, they begin to see themselves gradually assuming aspects of their partner's features, so that their image becomes a "composite" person. This activate guide includes instructions on how to build a two-way mirror.
Evolution of Physical Oceanography was created to mark the career of Henry M. Stommel, the leading physical oceanographer of the 20th Century and a longtime MIT faculty member. The authors of the different chapters were asked to describe the evolution of their subject over the history of physical oceanography, and to provide a survey of the state-of-the-art of their subject as of 1980. Many of the chapters in this textbook are still up-to-date descriptions of active scientific fields, and all of them are important historical records. This textbook is made available courtesy of The MIT Press.
This is a field investigation where students experience Newton's 3rd law of motion.