This site examines misconceptions about herps (the collective name given to reptiles and amphibians), how herps have been viewed throughout history, and how reptiles and amphibians are similar to and different from one another.
Overview of saturated fats, unsaturated fats, and trans fats.
Thinking about how large a cell is compared to viruses, proteins and simple molecules.
This wiki page documents the activities, articles, links, and resources used, as well as the teacher created Open Educational Resources (OER) during the SLANT Institute.On July 19-23, 2010 San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences, the de Young Museum, 826 Valencia, KQED, ISKME, and the Exploratorium launched the Science, Literacy, Arts iNtegration in the Twenty-first century (SLANT) Summer Institute for Pre-k through 8th Grade Teachers to explore and investigate science and art integration. Participants received resources to use in the classroom and on field trips as they plan lessons with grade level colleagues.
How the scientific method is used to ask questions and test explanations.
Second Law of Thermodynamics and entropy: the entropy of the universe constantly increases.
Students learn that engineers develop different polymers to serve various functions and are introduced to selectively permeable membranes. In a warm-up activity, they construct models of selectively permeable membranes using common household materials, and are reminded about simple diffusion and passive transport. In the main activity, student pairs test and compare the selective permeability of everyday polymer materials engineered for food storage (including plastic grocery bags, zipper sandwich bags, and plastic wrap) with various in-solution molecules (iodine, corn starch, food coloring, marker dye), assess how the polymer’s permeability relates to its function/purpose, and compare that to the permeability of dialysis tubing (which simulates a cell membrane).
Overview of how the body's immune system determines between self and non-self.
Conservative replication, dispersive replication, and semi-conservative replication.
In this video segment from Nature, see the value that sharks can have on the tourism industry in an area.
Species number and relative abundance affect the diversity of a community. We can use Simpson's index of diversity to quantify and compare the diversity of different communities.
In this video we will explore the structure and function of the human skeleton in depth, as well as some animal skeletons. Created by Tracy Kim Kovach.
This site explores the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, Arctic wildlife, migratory birds, stars and black holes, sky watching, the Galapagos Islands, invasive species, living fossils of the Bahamian sea floor, views of earth, milestones of flight, shade grown coffee, species of Indian River Lagoon, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, polio, and portraits of famous scientists, inventors, and engineers.
How the the sodium-potassium (Na+/K+) pump works. Its role in establishing resting membrane potentials. Created by Sal Khan.
Over the course of three sessions, students act as agricultural engineers and learn about the sustainable pest control technique known as soil biosolarization in which organic waste is used to help eliminate pests during soil solarization instead of using toxic compounds like pesticides and fumigants. Student teams prepare seed starter pots using a source of microorganisms (soil or compost) and “organic waste” (such as oatmeal, a source of carbon for the microorganisms). They plant seeds (representing weed seeds) in the pots, add water and cover them with plastic wrap. At experiment end, students count the weed seedlings and assess the efficacy of the soil biosolarization technique in inactivating the weed seeds. An experiment-guiding handout and pre/post quizzes are provided.
Echolocation is the ability to orient by transmitting sound and receiving echoes from objects in the environment. As a result of a Marco-Polo type activity and subsequent lesson, students learn basic concepts of echolocation. They use these concepts to understand how dolphins use echolocation to locate prey, escape predators, navigate their environment, such as avoiding gillnets set by commercial fishing vessels. Students will also learn that dolphin sounds are vibrations created by vocal organs, and that sound is a type of wave or signal that carries energy and information especially in the dolphin's case. Students will learn that a dolphin's sense of hearing is highly enhanced and better than that of human hearing. Students will also be introduced to the concept of by-catch Students will learn what happens to animals caught through by-catch and why.
Learn about speciation, including allopatric and sympatric speciation and mechanisms of reproductive isolation. Created by Sal Khan.
What a species is and isn't. Ligers, tiglons, mule, hinnies, and dogs.
Sal reflects on the amazing speed and precision with which DNA replication takes place.
Many students are squeamish about spiders. But when you spray spider webs with a water mister, they are easy to see and gorgeous, and just about anyone can get caught up in exploring them! After this activity, students will probably notice and appreciate spider webs everywhere, including when they return home. They will also probably be more careful to avoid knocking webs down while walking around. In this activity, students notice spider webs as they walk. When students arrive at an exploration site, pairs search for different kinds of webs in the area, mist them with water, then regroup to discuss their observations and think about how different types of webs help spiders catch different kinds of prey. Students learn about different web types, then return to the field to use a key to identify different kinds of webs. They also make explanations about how the structures of the webs they find function to catch prey.