The combined heat and power system at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut kept the lights on through Hurricane Sandy, and the system continues to support community resilience.
A regional conservation partnership in Massachusetts needed to update their approach to evaluating land acquisitions. Adding the complexity of climate change to their map helped resolve their vision.
Students explore material properties by applying some basic principles of heat transfer. They use calorimeters to determine the specific heat of three substances: aluminum, copper and another of their choice. Each substance is cooled in a freezer and then placed in the calorimeter. The temperature change of the water and the substance are used in heat transfer equations to determine the specific heat of each substance. The students compare their calculated values with tabulated data.
Students apply their mathematics and team building skills to explore the concept of rocketry. They learn about design issues faced by aerospace engineers when trying to launch rocketships or satellites in order to land them safely in the ocean, for example. Students learn the value of designing within constraints while brainstorming a rocketry system using provided materials and a specified project budget. Throughout the design process, teamwork is emphasized since the most successful launches occur when groups work effectively to generate creative ideas and solutions to the rocket challenge.
Students gain first-hand experience on how friction affects motion. They build a hovercraft using air from a balloon to levitate a craft made from a compact disc (CD), learning that a bed of air under an object significantly reduces the friction as it slides over a surface.
The Moon might be much bigger than you think it is. The video "How Big is the Moon? MM#1" is a resource included in the Space sciences topic made available from the Kurzgesagt open educational resource series.
Students learn about geotechnical engineers and their use of physical properties, such as soil density, to determine the ability of various soils to offer support to foundations. In an associated activity, students determine the bulk densities of soil samples, and assess their suitability to support foundations.
Students determine the mass and volume of soil samples and calculate the density of the soils. They use this information to determine the suitability of the soil to support a building foundation.
Students learn that it is incorrect to believe that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. By close observation of falling objects, they see that it is the amount of air resistance, not the weight of an object, which determines how quickly an object falls.
Students learn more about forces by examining the force of gravitational attraction. They observe how objects fall and measure the force of gravitational attraction upon objects.
Landing a spacecraft on Mars is one of the trickiest things we do. This 60-second video explains how it’s done, and the three landing systems we use at the Red Planet.
How being Earth's tilt causes seasons
To learn how friction affects motion, students explore how different textures provide varying amounts of friction to objects moving across them. They build a tool to measure the amount of friction between a note card and various surfaces by measuring the distance that a rubber band stretches. They experiment with a range of materials to determine which provides the least/most friction.
Is there a border we will never cross? Are there places we will never be able to reach, no matter what? It turns out there are. Far, far more than you might have thought. The video "How Far Can We Go? Limits of Humanity." is a resource included in the Space sciences topic made available from the Kurzgesagt open educational resource series.
While learning about volcanoes, magma and lava flows, students learn about the properties of liquid movement, coming to understand viscosity and other factors that increase and decrease liquid flow. They also learn about lava composition and its risk to human settlements.
Landing the Curiosity rover on Mars is the most difficult and nail-biting part of the whole mission. See just how hard it is to land on Mars in this 60-second video.
The video resource "How Power Gets to Your Home: Crash Course Physics #35" is included in the "Media Literacy" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.
Atoms are very weird. Wrapping your head around exactly how weird, is close to impossible - how can you describe something that is SO removed from humans experience? But then again, they kind of make up everything, so let us try anyways. The video "How Small Is An Atom? Spoiler: Very Small." is a resource included in the Physics topic made available from the Kurzgesagt open educational resource series.
The video resource "How To Speak Chemistrian: Crash Course Chemistry #11" is included in the "Chemistry" course from the resources series of "Crash Course". Crash Course is a educational video series from John and Hank Green.
Did you know that we could start building a Lunar Base today? The video "How We Could Build a Moon Base TODAY - Space Colonization 1" is a resource included in the Space sciences topic made available from the Kurzgesagt open educational resource series.