Science Topics

Lists of web sites categorized by subject areas within science.

Gravity

1. NatureShift!: linking learning to life
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): 3 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 028270
   This web site, produced by the North Dakota Science Center, contains hands-on, problem-based activities, which are aligned with the NSES and National Social Studies Standards. The site helps children learn about concepts within science and technology, as well as about North Dakota history and geography.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
2. Field map: a multidisciplinary exploration of nature
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029511
   This Internet site contains guides for five projects that engage students in biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and meteorology. While completing these projects, students gather data on the type of rocks, species of trees, and direction of the prevailing winds in their area.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
3. The physics classroom
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2004 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 014539
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 9 to 12 by physics teacher, presents an online physics tutorial. The coverage of topics at The Physics Classroom coincides with the coverage of topics in the Physics 163 class at Glenbrook, Illinois South High School.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
4. Reeko's mad scientist lab
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 025809
   This Internet site provides simple chemistry and physics experiments for students to perform with adults. The site features Reeko, the Mad Scientist, as the narrator who encourages student learning through his comical writing and interesting experiments.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
5. Aspire
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 018954
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 6 to 12 by the University of Utah's Department of Physics, contains web based, interactive lessons that allow students to explore physics topics. The interactive labs consist of general physics and astrophysics labs.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
6. Mars Academy
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 1998 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 012761
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 9 to 12 and postsecondary, presents an online collaborative project where students all over the world are designing a simulation of a manned mission to Mars. The mission design uses existing and foreseeable technology (for example, the existence of the International Space Station) to approximate and integrate solutions to the design problems into a Mars mission.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
7. Science fun with airplanes
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 1999 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 016348
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 6 to 12 by the Extension 4H Specialists in the Ohio State University, provides self guided lessons to help students learn about the principles of flight and why planes fly the way they do. These lessons are taken from the book, titled Science of Flight 4H Project Book, which provides over 20 hands-on experiments.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
8. Amusement park physics: what are the forces behind the fun?
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 1998 Grade(s): 7 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 013231
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained by the Annenberg/CPB Project, provides colleges, high schools, corporations, organizations, and informal learners around the world with interactive learning experiences in amusement park ride design. Throughout these exhibits students are encouraged to find what the physics laws are behind the fun.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
9. Roller coaster physics
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 1997 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 011780
   This World Wide Web (WWW), maintained by physics teacher Tony Wayne, demonstrates the educational value in attending an amusement park for the purpose of doing lab work by showing how teachers can incorporate the the principles of roller coaster design into the curriculum. The site assumes some rudimentary knowledge of physical science and provides a simplified view of what design considerations and science a mechanical design engineer must know when designing a roller coaster.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
10. Bad science
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1995 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 004086
    This purpose of this Internet resource, developed for secondary school students and their teachers, is to sensitize teachers and students to examples of scientific concepts that are commonly mistaught in schools, universities, and offered in popular articles and even textbooks. The home page explains what is meant by bad science and provides pointers to specialized pages on bad science within various disciplines, such as Bad Meteorology, Bad Chemistry, and Bad Physics.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
11. Einstein revealed
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1996 Grade(s): 9 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 016495
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, developed by NOVA ONLINE, is intended as a companion to the two hour NOVA television special of the same name. The site profiles the life and works of Albert Einstein, the German born scientist who contributed more than any other to our modern vision of physical reality.
    
    The site includes a timeline that summarizes the major events of Einstein's professional and personal life.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
12. Bad astronomy
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1996 Grade(s): 9 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 014043
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained by astronomer Phil Platt, is devoted to correcting myths and misconceptions in astronomy and related topics. The main menu features five subcategories that describe Bad TV, Bad Movies and Bad News as the main sources of these misconceptions; and reveal Popular Misconceptions and Bad Briefs pages.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
13. WaterWorks
    Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1996 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 001896
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site is an introduction to the physics of water and the mechanics of moving liquids. The goal of this resource is to help teachers do more inquiry with students in the classroom.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
14. Kinetic City, mission to Vearth: join the battle to save the universe!
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1997 Grade(s): 2 - 7 Cost: Free ENC#: 009984
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, maintained for grades 2 to 7 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), invites children to an adventure with the Kinetic City Super Crew, a team of six inquisitive kids and one talkative supercomputer, who travel the world on a high tech train to solve science mysteries and help friends in need. The site aims to capture the imaginations of children, while they fight the Deep Delete virus that attacks the virtual earth.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
15. NASA CONNECT: the program that connects you to math, science, technology, and NASA
    Date: 2004 Grade(s): 6 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 029820
    This Internet site describes a program called NASA CONNECT, a TV broadcast series that airs on local television stations around the United States on Thursday mornings. Videotapes of the 30-minute episodes can be obtained through the site.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
16. National Center for Microgravity Research (NCMR) on Fluids and Combustion
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029648
    This Internet site explores areas of research involving fluids physics, combustion physics, and biological processes on Earth and in space. It features the National Center for Microgravity Research's (NCMR) past and present projects and its current capabilities and lab facilities.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
17. The International Space Station: a unique resource for learning
    Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028429
    This web site, developed by NASA, contains downloadable print materials and descriptions of audiovisual products for grades preK-12 about the design, construction, and operation of the International Space Station (ISS). The Educator Guides are booklets containing lesson plans on space station topics.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
18. Wireless drop tower for microgravity demonstrations
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028851
    This Internet site, designed by NASA Spacelink, is a teacher's guide for grades 9-12 for using a wireless drop tower to demonstrate the effects of microgravity. The guide provides instructions to build and use a wireless drop tower and payload compartment.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
19. Sir Isaac Newton (grades 8-12)
    Date: 2001 Grade(s): 8 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 100750
    Created for teachers of grades 8-12, this resource presents a biography of the seventeenth-century scientist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton, together with descriptions of related online and real materials. The biography chronicles Newton's life and achievements, including his theories concerning astronomy, mathematics, and mechanics.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
20. Exploring gravity
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 6 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029718
    This Internet site contains short readings and sample problems on topics related to gravity. Articles and pictures of early physicists such as Galileo and Tycho Brahe tell how scientists before Sir Isaac Newton's time contributed to early studies of this new, inconceivable force.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)