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Physics

Chemistry

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Amazing Heart Facts

Amazing Heart Facts

This feature from the NOVA "Cut to the Heart" Web site highlights facts about the heart -- including its size and placement -- and will help you to understand the importance of this wondrous organ in our bodies.

6-8

Document

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

Are We Alone?

Are We Alone?

This video segment adapted from NOVA features a variety of scientific perspectives on the age old question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Animations make vivid the improbability that we could intercept a radio wave signaling extra terrestrial intelligence.

6-12

Video

Atomic Structure of an Alloy

Atomic Structure of an Alloy

Learn about the atomic structure of bronze, a copper alloy, in this video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements." OER Level

6-12

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

Birth of a Supernova, Type II

Birth of a Supernova, Type II

In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type II supernova — that is so large it has a mass 10 times greater than the mass of our Sun.

6-12

Interactive

Body Needs

Body Needs

This interactive feature from the NOVA "Dying to Be Thin" Web site describes the nutritional needs of the body and how to meet them.

3-8

Interactive

Build a Steroid

Build a Steroid

In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about the molecular structure of steroids. See the intermediate molecules that are part of the pathway for synthesizing cortisone from diosgenin.

9-12

Interactive

Cave Formation: Biogeochemical Cycles

Cave Formation: Biogeochemical Cycles

This video segment adapted from NOVA chronicles the discoveries that led to a radical new theory in which living organisms, not just geological processes, play an active role in cave formation.

6-12

Video

Cave Formation: Kane Cave

Cave Formation: Kane Cave

This video segment adapted from NOVA describes a simple experiment that confirmed the idea that microbes can accelerate the biogeochemical process of cave formation. OER Level

6-12

Video

Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life

Caves: Extreme Conditions for Life

This video segment adapted from NOVA raises the provocative idea that if life can exist in the most extreme environments on Earth — such as in dark, toxic caves — then perhaps living things can also survive in harsh environments on other planets. OER Level

6-12

Video

Climate Change

Climate Change

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the difference between weather and climate and features groundbreaking analysis revealing that Earth's climate has changed much faster than previously believed.

6-12

Video

Create a DNA Fingerprint

Create a DNA Fingerprint

Learn DNA profiling, the technique police use to catch the guilty and free the innocent. From NOVA: "The Killer's Trail" Web site. OER Level

6-12

Interactive

The Dating Game: Radioactive Carbon

The Dating Game: Radioactive Carbon

In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, learn about the atomic structure of radioactive carbon and how it can be used to determine the age of organic remains, such as bones and teeth.

6-12

Document

Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi

Dating Lava Flows on Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawaiʻi

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists search for carbonized remains of plants preserved in lava flows to find out how long it has taken rain forests on Hawaiʻi to regenerate after a volcanic eruption. OER Level

3-12

Video

Decomposers

Decomposers

Without the work of decomposers, living organisms would eventually use up all the raw materials in the environment, and dead organisms and wastes would pile up. This video segment from Interactive NOVA: "Earth" describes the role of decomposers as the Earth's great recyclers.

K-5

Video

Deep-Sea Vents and Life's Origins

Deep-Sea Vents and Life's Origins

Deep-sea vents are home to life forms that do not rely on the Sun's energy. They depend instead on energy from volcanoes on the ocean floor. This video segment adapted from NOVA hypothesizes that life on Earth may have begun in this extreme environment. OER Level

3-12

Video

Demolition Woman

Demolition Woman

Find out how controlled explosions are used to demolish multi-story buildings in this interview from the NOVA Web site.

6-12

Document

Developing the Periodic Table

Developing the Periodic Table

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" looks at how early chemists developed the periodic table of elements. OER Level

6-12

Video

Discovering Air

Discovering Air

Our understanding about the air we breathe has changed dramatically through time. This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site tracks the changing thought on air and the creation of the Periodic Table of the Elements.

6-12

Document

Duck Development

Duck Development

This video segment from NOVA: "The Shape of Things" follows the growth of a duck embryo, from a single fertilized egg cell to a complex, hatching duckling.

6-8

Video

Einstein: How Smart Was He?

Einstein: How Smart Was He?

This essay from the NOVA Web site explores the impact Einstein made on physics and most everything we know about the cosmos.

6-12

Document

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

The Elements: Forged in Stars

The Elements: Forged in Stars

The story of how elements from lithium to uranium are created by stars is illustrated through animation and a hands-on periodic table in this video segment adapted from NOVA. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Embryo Takes Shape

The Embryo Takes Shape

This video segment from NOVA: "Life's Greatest Miracle" explores the developmental process of an embryo beginning just two weeks after fertilization.

9-12

Video

Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem

Energy Flow in the Coral Reef Ecosystem

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, describes the energy flow in a coral reef, including its food web. OER Level

3-12

Video

Explore a Stretch of Code

Explore a Stretch of Code

Try your hand at reading a segment of genetic code in this interactive feature from the NOVA "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

9-12

Interactive

Fighting Back

Fighting Back

Help the immune system fight off an infection in this interactive feature from the NOVA: "Surviving AIDS" Web site.

6-8

Interactive

Fireworks! Lifting Charge

Fireworks! Lifting Charge

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how pyrotechnicians use common compounds to blast fireworks into the sky and give them shape.

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

A Fission Chain Reaction

A Fission Chain Reaction

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements” uses ping-pong balls and mousetraps to demonstrate nuclear fission. OER Level

6-12

Video

Forensic DNA Analysis

Forensic DNA Analysis

This video segment from NOVA: "The Killer's Trail" investigates the potential for DNA evidence to solve murder cases, even those from the distant past. OER Level

9-12

Video

From Seed to Flower

From Seed to Flower

Watching plants grow is like watching paint dry: It happens so slowly that the changes are imperceptible from one moment to the next -- and yet the end results are dramatic. This video segment shows just how amazing plant development can be by depicting various phases of the process using time-lapse photography. Footage from NOVA: "The Shape of Things." OER Level

K-5

Video

Fuel Cells

Fuel Cells

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, hydrogen fuel cell cars promise pollution-free driving, but will we see them anytime soon?

6-12

Video

Getting an Education

Getting an Education

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, chronicles the education of leading chemist Percy Julian. Although Julian began his elementary school years in the Deep South under Jim Crow laws, he became one of the few African Americans of his time to earn a Ph.D. OER Level

6-12

Video

Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect

Global Warming: Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect

This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE demonstrates the physical property of carbon dioxide that causes the greenhouse effect. OER Level

6-12

Video

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story

Examine these graphs from the NOVA/ FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic increases in the temperature of Earth's surface and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

6-12

Document

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story

Global Warming: Graphs Tell the Story

Examine graphs from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site to see dramatic changes in the temperature of Earth's surface and in the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

9-12

Document

Global Warming: The Hydrogen Car

Global Warming: The Hydrogen Car

Is the hydrogen car the answer to global warming? This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE looks at the pros and cons of this developing technology. OER Level

3-12

Video

Global Warming: The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect

Global Warming: The Physics of the Greenhouse Effect

This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE examines the greenhouse effect, its role in keeping Earth habitable, and the industrial changes that have led to an increase in the planet's average temperature. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Grand Canyon: Ancient Mountains

The Grand Canyon: Ancient Mountains

This video segment adapted from NOVA features the twisted and melted forms of the Grand Canyon's oldest rocks, the 1.7-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Science Behind Appetite

The Science Behind Appetite

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, tells the story of a ballerina battling anorexia. It explains how serotonin regulates appetite, and presents some of the health risks that accompany the eating disorder. OER Level

5-12

Video

HIV Immunity

HIV Immunity

Although repeatedly exposed to HIV, Steve Crohn's blood cells were never infected. Dr. David Ho investigates in this video segment from NOVA: "Surviving AIDS."

9-12

Video

A Hole in the Sky

A Hole in the Sky

This video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA profiles two scientists who were surprised in 1984 to discover a hole in our atmosphere's ozone layer as big as the United States.

6-12

Video

How Did Life Emerge Here?

How Did Life Emerge Here?

This video segment adapted from NOVA describes the emergence of life on the islands of Hawaiʻi from a barren volcanic platform under the ocean waves to the rich explosion of life that covers the many climate zones of the islands today.

3-12

Video

How Elements Form Compounds

How Elements Form Compounds

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" examines how elements come together in chemical reactions to form compounds. OER Level

6-12

Video

How the Body Responds to Exercise

How the Body Responds to Exercise

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, follow novice runners as they train for a marathon, and discover how quickly the body responds to regular aerobic exercise. OER Level

6-12

Video

Human Genome Project

Human Genome Project

This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" looks at the meaning and significance of the effort to decode the human genome. OER Level

6-12

Video

Illuminating Photosynthesis

Illuminating Photosynthesis

This interactive feature from the NOVA: "Methuselah Tree" Web site details the process of photosynthesis and its role in the oxygen/carbon dioxide cycle.

3-12

Interactive

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

Ingredients for Life: Carbon

This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets. OER Level

6-12

Video

Ingredients for Life: Water

Ingredients for Life: Water

This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.

3-12

Video

Island of Stability

Island of Stability

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, follow scientists in their quest to understand how stable elements are made and how to create the elusive element 114. OER Level

9-12

Video

Journey into DNA

Journey into DNA

Travel deep into the human body to see exactly where your DNA resides. From the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

6-12

Interactive

Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi

Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientist Mike Garcia draws lava samples at the foot of the active Kilauea volcano to see if it is related to its neighboring volcano, Mauna Loa. OER Level

6-12

Video

Making Cortisone From Plants

Making Cortisone From Plants

This video segment adapted from NOVA is a dramatized story of chemist Percy Julian’s work to synthesize cortisone. Find out how a biological process, not a chemical one, proved the key to producing cortisone in bulk. OER Level

6-12

Video

Mirror Neurons

Mirror Neurons

This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNow, introduces the latest research on a system of neurons that plays a part in how people relate to each other. OER Level

6-12

Video

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

Name That Shell

Name That Shell

The way a firework shell is designed and assembled determines the shape and color of a firework display. Choose a video clip and try to identify each firework variety in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12

Interactive

A Nanotube Space Elevator

A Nanotube Space Elevator

In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, find out about the discovery of a new building material, the carbon nanotube, whose physical properties could theoretically enable the creation of a 22,000-mile elevator to space. OER Level

6-12

Video

Nature's Pharmacy

Nature's Pharmacy

In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about chemicals in nature that are used in medicine.

3-12

Interactive

Nature vs. Nurture Revisited

Nature vs. Nurture Revisited

Which dictates our existence -- our genetic makeup or the environment we grow up in? Kevin Davies offers an update on this long-standing debate, from the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.

9-12

Document

NOVA Elements

NOVA Elements

Explore the periodic table, and build atoms and molecules in this web edition of the NOVA Elements iPad App. OER Level

6-12

Interactive

Oil Spill: <em>Exxon Valdez</em>, 1989

Oil Spill: Exxon Valdez, 1989

This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the clean-up effort after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska. Also featured is a marsh where an oil spill occurred 20 years earlier; analysis suggests that environmental damage may last for decades. OER Level

6-12

Video

On Fire

On Fire

Learn about the chemical reactions that take place when things burn in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12

Interactive

Organic Farming: Conserving Topsoil

Organic Farming: Conserving Topsoil

Against the backdrop of the devastating 1930's Dust Bowl, this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA profiles an organic farmer and the techniques he uses to conserve topsoil. OER Level

3-12

Video

The Origin of the Elements

The Origin of the Elements

This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types. OER Level

6-12

Video

Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis

This video segment from Interactive NOVA: "Earth" looks at photosynthesis, the chemical process plants use to make their own food.

3-12

Video

The Power of Touch

The Power of Touch

This video segment explores the role of touch in the development of young animals, including humans. Footage from NOVA: "Mystery of the Senses: Touch."

3-8

Video

Pyrotechnically Speaking

Pyrotechnically Speaking

Meet chemistry professor Dr. John Conkling in this interview from the NOVA Web site and learn why fireworks are his passion.

6-12

Document

Pyrotechnics: It's Elemental

Pyrotechnics: It's Elemental

In this interactive periodic table from the NOVA Web site, find out the role of various elements in making fireworks.

6-12

Interactive

Quarks: Inside the Atom

Quarks: Inside the Atom

This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how the particle accelerator helped physicists find parts of the atom even smaller than protons and neutrons.

6-12

Video

Radioactive Decay of Carbon-14

Radioactive Decay of Carbon-14

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" examines carbon isotopes and radiocarbon dating. OER Level

6-12

Video

Rare Earth Elements

Rare Earth Elements

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" explores the ubiquity of rare earth elements. OER Level

6-12

Video

Ringed-Carbon Compounds

Ringed-Carbon Compounds

In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA, learn about alkaloids and steroids, both examples of compounds with carbon rings. Short videos with interviews, animations, and photographs are featured. OER Level

9-12

Interactive

The Role of Genetics in Obesity

The Role of Genetics in Obesity

In this video segment from NOVA scienceNOW, meet researchers who are studying obesity and trying to understand the role that hormones and genetics can play in regulating appetite. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Sense of Taste

The Sense of Taste

This video segment explores the sense of taste in humans -- why we have it, and what happens when we lose it. Footage from NOVA: "Mystery of the Senses: Taste."

3-8

Video

Sequence for Yourself

Sequence for Yourself

How do researchers read the tiny As, Gs, Ts, and Cs that comprise DNA? This step-by-step explanation shows you. From NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life."

9-12

Interactive

Should We Grow GM Crops?

Should We Grow GM Crops?

Learn the pros and cons of genetically modified (GM) crops, and cast your vote on whether they should be grown. From the FRONTLINE/NOVA: "Harvest of Fear" Web site.

9-12

Interactive

Snapshot of U.S. Energy Use

Snapshot of U.S. Energy Use

This video segment adapted from NOVA/FRONTLINE looks at American energy consumption and the resulting production of greenhouse gases. OER Level

3-12

Video

Solar Paint Your Roof

Solar Paint Your Roof

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, see how nanotechnology might be used to create a new, cheaper way to produce solar electricity for the home. OER Level

6-12

Video

Sources of Radiation

Sources of Radiation

This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site explores sources of radiation, both harmful and beneficial, natural and manmade.

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

Stories in the Ice

Stories in the Ice

Take a journey back through time, on the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site, using ice cores to learn about Earth's climatic history, including evidence of global warming and nuclear activity.

6-12

Document

The Structure of Metal

The Structure of Metal

In this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site, animations explain different aspects of the properties of metal.

6-12

Interactive

Synthesizing an Alkaloid

Synthesizing an Alkaloid

In this video segment, adapted from NOVA, learn how chemist Percy Julian revolutionized chemistry by synthesizing the alkaloid physostigmine from scratch—the first total synthesis of a chemical compound. OER Level

9-12

Video

Synthesizing a Steroid

Synthesizing a Steroid

This video segment, adapted from NOVA, tells the story of chemist Percy Julian's quest to make progesterone from a plant steroid, an important medical advancement of the 1940s. OER Level

9-12

Video

Talking Bacteria

Talking Bacteria

In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, microbiologist Bonnie Bassler shares her discovery that bacteria coordinate group activity by communicating through chemical signals. OER Level

6-12

Video

Trying to Breathe on Mount Everest

Trying to Breathe on Mount Everest

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, climbers attempting to reach Mount Everest's summit must contend with the low levels of oxygen at high altitudes. OER Level

6-12

Video

The Value of Copper

The Value of Copper

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" examines copper's many uses and how its price is an economic indicator. OER Level

6-12

Video

What Makes an Element Reactive?

What Makes an Element Reactive?

This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" explains why some groups of elements are more reactive than others. OER Level

6-12

Video

Your Carbon Diet

Your Carbon Diet

Find out how much energy you use and some ways to conserve in this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site.

3-12

Interactive

Your Carbon Diet

Your Carbon Diet

In this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site, you can click on various items in a typical New England house to find out how much energy each uses and some ways to reduce energy consumption in your home.

6-12

Interactive