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Mathematics

Measurement

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Anatomy of a Firework

Anatomy of a Firework

There's more to a fireworks display than meets the eye. This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site looks at the technology behind each burst of light.

6-12

Interactive

Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day

Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day

What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica. OER Level

3-12

Video

Bee Navigation

Bee Navigation

This video segment from NOVA: "The Mystery of Animal Pathfinders" explores honeybee communication and navigation. OER Level

6-8

Video

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.

6-12

Interactive

Buoyancy Basics

Buoyancy Basics

This illustrated demonstration from the NOVA Web site explains the concepts of buoyancy and density by showing what happens when different kinds of wood blocks are dropped in water.

3-8

Document

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to explain the behavior of a helium-filled balloon in a moving car.

3-8

Interactive

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what happens to the water level when a rock is resting in a boat and when it is submerged in water.

3-8

Interactive

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question

This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what causes an object to sink.

3-8

Interactive

Earthquakes: The Seismograph

Earthquakes: The Seismograph

This video segment adapted from NOVA uses historical illustrations, photographs, and animations to explain how seismographs work, the difference between P and S waves, and the Richter scale.

6-12

Video

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

What happens when you approach the speed of light? This video segment adapted from NOVA follows one of Albert Einstein's thought experiments and his quest to find the answer.

9-12

Video

Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether

Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether

Do light waves travel through the ether like waves on a lake travel through water? In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a young Albert Einstein grapples with this question while examining the speed of light. OER Level

6-12

Video

Everest: Test Your Brain

Everest: Test Your Brain

This interactive feature from the NOVA "Everest" Web site lets you take the same brain quizzes that researchers used to test the brain function of climbers on Mount Everest.

6-8

Interactive

Fastest Glacier

Fastest Glacier

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, scientists in western Greenland explain how a glacier there is shrinking and moving faster due to increased melting. OER Level

6-12

Video

Fireworks! Making Color

Fireworks! Making Color

What gives a fireworks display its brilliant blue, green, and red colors? Learn how pyrotechnicians give fireworks color in this video segment adapted from NOVA.

6-12

Video

Galileo: His Experiments

Galileo: His Experiments

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site samples Galileo's experiments with falling objects, projectiles, inclined planes, and pendulums.

6-12

Interactive

Galileo: His Place in Science

Galileo: His Place in Science

Einstein called Galileo the "father of modern physics." This media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site looks at Galileo's quest to understand the mathematics of motion.

6-12

Document

Galileo's Inclined Plane

Galileo's Inclined Plane

How did Galileo figure out the mathematics of falling bodies? This video segment adapted from NOVA examines Galileo's work on motion.

6-12

Video

Galileo's Telescope

Galileo's Telescope

The invention of the telescope helped change our understanding of the universe. This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at Galileo's contribution to this technology. OER Level

6-12

Video

Galileo: Timeline of His Life

Galileo: Timeline of His Life

This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site turns back the clock to the late 1500's to relive the dramatic life of one of the world's most renowned scientists.

6-12

Document

Gravity at Earth's Center

Gravity at Earth's Center

In this video segment from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about the effects of gravity as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson falls through a virtual hole through Earth's center. OER Level

6-12

Video

History of the Universe

History of the Universe

This interactive timeline from the NOVA Web site recaps the theoretical origin and formation of the universe, and forecasts its eventual fate.

6-12

Interactive

How Big Is the Universe?

How Big Is the Universe?

In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, astronomer Brent Tully of the University of Hawaiʻi walks you through the latest scientific theories about the size of the universe.

6-12

Document

Hurricanes: New Tools for Predicting

Hurricanes: New Tools for Predicting

This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW features new advances in predicting the intensity of hurricanes. OER Level

6-12

Video

Imaging with Radar

Imaging with Radar

This interactive activity from NOVA features synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which uses radio waves to create high-quality images. Examine SAR images of Washington, D.C., and learn about this technology's unique advantages.

6-12

Interactive

The Leaning Tower: Where It Stands Today

The Leaning Tower: Where It Stands Today

Will the Leaning Tower of Pisa give way to gravity? In this interview from the NOVA Web site, engineer John Burland relates the difficult job of saving the tower.

6-12

Document

Mount Pinatubo: Predicting a Volcanic Eruption

Mount Pinatubo: Predicting a Volcanic Eruption

This video segment adapted from NOVA relates the dramatic story of vulcanologists trying to predict the timing of the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines.

6-12

Video

Raising an Obelisk: An Engineering Puzzle

Raising an Obelisk: An Engineering Puzzle

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows two teams as they each test a different engineering design in an effort to explain how ancient Egyptians raised a giant stone obelisk. OER Level

3-12

Video

Relativity and the Cosmos

Relativity and the Cosmos

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site introduces the basic concepts of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and what we know about cosmology as a result.

6-12

Document

Robot Race

Robot Race

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, cars drive themselves. Teams of designers using different technologies compete for a two-million-dollar prize to see which unmanned vehicle will make it to the finish line first. OER Level

3-12

Video

Sagan on Time Travel

Sagan on Time Travel

Astronomer Carl Sagan discusses the possibility of time travel in this audio-enhanced interview from the NOVAWeb site.

9-12

Document

Shipwrecks Reveal Ocean Currents

Shipwrecks Reveal Ocean Currents

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a detailed map showing the trajectories of abandoned ships from the late 1800's is used to reveal the routes of surface currents in the Atlantic Ocean. Animations illustrate the role played by ocean currents in the colonization of North America. OER Level

6-12

Video

Sound Waves Underwater: Experiment with Sonar

Sound Waves Underwater: Experiment with Sonar

This animation from the NOVA Web site describes how sonar uses sound waves to "see" underwater.

6-12

Document

Speed of Light: How Fast Is That?

Speed of Light: How Fast Is That?

How fast is 300,000 kilometers per second? This text from the NOVA Web site offers a few real-world comparisons for the speed of light.

6-12

Interactive

Speed of Light: Time Traveler

Speed of Light: Time Traveler

This interactive game from the NOVA Web site explores what happens to time as a traveler approaches the speed of light.

6-12

Interactive

Stellar Velocity: The Doppler Effect

Stellar Velocity: The Doppler Effect

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site illustrates the Doppler effect and shows how it applies to measuring the direction and speed of stellar objects.

6-12

Interactive

String Theory: A New Picture of Gravity

String Theory: A New Picture of Gravity

This video segment from NOVA describes the general theory of relativity and the theory of electromagnetism.

6-12

Video

String Theory: A Sense of Scale

String Theory: A Sense of Scale

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site puts the infinitesimally small world of string theory into perspective.

6-12

Interactive

String Theory: A Strange New World

String Theory: A Strange New World

This video segment from NOVA chronicles Einstein's quest to unify the forces of electromagnetism and gravity.

6-12

Video

String Theory: A Theory of Everything?

String Theory: A Theory of Everything?

This video segment from NOVA introduces the basic ideas behind string theory and looks at the quest for unification.

9-12

Video

String Theory: Elementary Particles

String Theory: Elementary Particles

This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site looks at the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter.

6-12

Document

String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out

String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out

This video segment from NOVA describes the discovery in the 1930s of two forces in addition to electromagnetism: the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

9-12

Video

String Theory: Science or Philosophy?

String Theory: Science or Philosophy?

This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of proving the scientific validity of string theory, in question because strings may be too small to ever be seen or detected, and therefore tested.

9-12

Video

String Theory: Strings to the Rescue

String Theory: Strings to the Rescue

This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of unifying the force of gravity and the forces described by quantum mechanics into a single theory of unification.

9-12

Video

Taking the Earth's Temperature

Taking the Earth's Temperature

This video segment from FRONTLINE/NOVA: "What's Up with the Weather?" depicts research efforts to record Earth's past and present temperatures shifts. OER Level

9-12

Video

Think Like Einstein

Think Like Einstein

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site challenges you to think like Einstein and understand how time travel might be possible.

6-12

Interactive

To Survive at High Velocity

To Survive at High Velocity

This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at speed, velocity, and centripetal force on the racetrack. OER Level

6-12

Video