Search ALEX...

In this PhET activity, students will construct series and parallel circuits using available materials. Students will explore how resistors, batteries, and various types of insulators and conductors affect circuits. Students will explore Ohm’s law by  determining how resistance affects circuits by utilizing voltmeters, ammeters, and charts to measure voltage and current. Students will prove Kirchhoff’s laws by demonstrating that current is equal on each side of a node and that the sum of voltage differences is 0. This activity can be used to introduce a unit on circuits or to reinforce students’ knowledge of circuits.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. Students will interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can introduce students to the concept of tectonic plate movement, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. 

In this activity, students locate and label geologic features of the ocean and explore the relationship of these features to plate tectonics.

What are the “physical properties” of matter, and how can they be measured and observed? Students will learn about some basic characteristics of matter—including those that depend on the amount of a substance and those that don’t—with this interactive lesson.

In this lesson, students explore the experience of a total solar eclipse and learn about the mechanics of eclipses. The opportunity to observe a total solar eclipse in person is relatively uncommon; however, photographs and videos from August 21, 2017, total solar eclipse provide students a sense of the experience. Through an interactive lesson, students investigate the orbits and relative positions of the Moon, the Sun, and Earth to understand what causes eclipses and why they are rare. At the end of the lesson, students create a model to explain why lunar and solar eclipses occur in pairs.

This resource was developed through WGBH’s Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms project, in collaboration with NASA.

This online interactive asks students questions about their daily activities. After answering all of the questions, students are presented with their daily carbon dioxide emissions based on their activities. Each student's results will be compared with the average American's daily carbon footprint. The interactive also provides students with methods to reduce their carbon footprint. 

We talk a lot about bridges in Physics. Why? Because there is a lot of practical physics that can be learned from the planning and construction of them. This video discusses simple harmonic motion, oscillation, resonance and how these relate to the problems with the Millennium Bridge. 

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch videos about gravity and investigate the motion of falling objects on Earth and on the Moon. They examine how the force of gravity acts on falling objects and how air resistance counteracts gravity. This resource is part of the Inspiring Middle School Literacy Collection. This lesson is a great resource to use to give students background information on gravity and forces before they conduct a test of a falling object. 

Students need to be signed in to complete this lesson. Go to "About This Activity" in "Support Materials" or click here.

Observe a group of children using light to communicate over a distance in this live-action video produced by WGBH. Use the video to observe strategies for using light to communicate across a distance as well as to design a light signal code to help you communicate to solve a problem from different locations.

Support materials include Background Reading, Teaching Tips, and Discussion Questions. This resource was developed through WGBH’s Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms project, in collaboration with NASA.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to introduce students to the phases of matter, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity will provide important background information before students create their own investigations. 

Magnets have a north pole and a south pole. Two of the same pole will repel each other, while opposites attract. Only certain materials, especially those that contain iron, can be magnets. There’s a magnetic field around Earth, which is why you can use a compass to figure out which way is north. In this episode of Crash Course Physics, Dr. Shini takes us into the world of magnetism.

Beware of squirrels! Experience the science of force and motion while learning that an author’s reason to write is either to inform or entertain the reader. In this interactive lesson, write a motion story and use motion words as you practice reading with a nutty squirrel.

Students interpret and organize temperature and precipitation data into tables, plot graphs, and compare the data across different locations and times of the year. They look for patterns and support claims about temperatures and precipitation across different seasons and locations.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity can be used to provide information regarding geologic events that happen over a short period of time, serve as reinforcement after students have already learned this concept, or be used as an assessment at the conclusion of a lesson. This learning activity includes a StepRead: StepReads are less complex versions of the original article. StepRead1 (SR1) is less complex than the original article, and StepRead2 (SR2) is less complex than SR1. This will allow the teacher to use this learning activity with students of varying ability levels. 

In this video, Hank brings us the story of the electron. He describes how reality is a kind of music, discussing electron shells and orbitals, electron configurations, ionization and electron affinities, and how all these things can be understood via the periodic table.

Changes in air pressure, caused by air’s height above sea level, temperature, and amount of water vapor, cause wind. The Earth’s rotation also helps. It causes the Coriolis Effect, which makes the wind blow on a curved path.

The classroom resource provides a video that will explain how changes in air pressure create wind in the atmosphere and how the Earth's rotation causes global wind belts to curve. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.

Students will discuss vibrations, frequency, amplitude, and wavelength. They will observe instruments, hypothesize how sound waves are created, and experiment with creating sound.  

The classroom resource provides a video that will describe the steps in the nitrogen cycle. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding. Students can use the information presented in this video to create their own model of this biogeochemical cycle. 

Atoms are a lot like us. We call their relationships "bonds," and there are many different types. In this video, you will learn that chemical bonds form in order to minimize the energy difference between two atoms or ions; that those chemical bonds may be covalent if atoms share electrons, and that covalent bonds can share those electrons evenly or unevenly; that bonds can also be ionic if the electrons are transferred instead of shared: and how to calculate the energy transferred in an ionic bond using Coulomb's Law.

Observe the regular, predictable patterns of the Sun, Moon, and stars in the sky in this media gallery from WGBH. Interact with the animated storybook to observe and predict patterns of the Sun, Moon, and stars over a day and analyze evidence of the apparent movement of the Sun along the arc-like path over a day in a time-lapse video.

In this lesson, students will design and build a structure that can block the sun to create a shaded area and will test to see if the shady spot is cooler. As a class, students go outside on a sunny day and go under a tree or in the shadow of the school building to get in the shade. Students should feel that it is cooler in the shade than in the sun. Students look at pictures of structures designed to block the sun to make shade. Students design and build a small structure to provide shade and then test whether their structure helps keep a surface cooler than the same surface exposed to the sun.

The teacher will present an informational text from the website, ReadWorks. The students and teacher can interact with this non-fiction text by annotating the text digitally. The students will answer the questions associated with the article as an assessment. This learning activity will describe how genetic mutations in organisms can lead to beneficial effects in the structure of the organism. This learning activity includes a StepRead: StepReads are less complex versions of the original article. StepRead1 (SR1) is less complex than the original article, and StepRead2 (SR2) is less complex than SR1. This will allow the teacher to use this learning activity with students of varying ability levels.

In this episode, Hank talks about transmutation among elements, isotopes, calculating half-life, radioactive decay, and spontaneous fission.

Electricity is a form of power that is produced by the movement of electrons. When the flow of electrons is constant, it produces an electric current.

The classroom resource provides a slide show that will describe electricity and how it works. This resource can provide background information for students before they carry out their own investigations. There is also a short test that can be used to assess students' understanding.