GK-12 Materials

History

• Title: Material Culture Online Project

  Creator(s): John Naisbitt and Kris DuRocher Wilson.

  Description: Through research and analysis we can make educated observations and gain a greater understanding of the past and its people. We must think about the Context in which the images have been produced, who the target Audience is and the Agenda of the producer -how, when, where would people have encountered this cultural artifact? In this assignment, students are given a set of websites about material culture to explore and asked to write a 3-4 page paper.

  Files:

  Material Culture Handout [Word]
  Material Culture Assignment [Word]
  Material Culture Evaluation Form [Word]
  Material Culture Website List [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit   Class Website

• Title: World War II: Creating Primary Sources Veteran Interviews

  Creator(s): John Naisbitt and Kris DuRocher Wilson.

  Description: There are 19 million war veterans living in the United States today, but every day we lose 1,700 of them. This project will be a way for us to honor our nation's war veterans for their service and to collect their stories and experiences for future generations. In this project, students work in teams to contact a veteran and then learn how to conduct and record an interview with him.

  Files:

  WW II Project Packet [Word]
  WWII Veteran Interview [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit   Class Website

• Title: Civil War Multi-Media Group Project

  Creator(s): John Naisbitt and Kris DuRocher Wilson.

  Description: For this project we work on how to approach and analyze primary sources, as well as to allow students to follow their interests in the Civil War while working together collaboratively. The goal of this project is to allow students access to Civil War primary documents from multiple sources. They will be expected to examine multiple sources and to consider them through the primary source triangle: Context, Audience, and Agenda.

  Files:

  Civil War Handout [Word]
  Online Civil War Handout [Word]
  Civil War Web [Word]
  Multimedia Project Rubric [Word]
  Evaluation Questions for Civil War Multimedia Project [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit   Class Website

Chemistry

• Title:How do water striders walk on water?

  Creator(s): Katrina Lustofin

  Description: This lab is designed to help students understand surface tension and hydrogen bonding between water molecules; can also help students understand ecological impacts of water pollution.

  Files: Chemical Bonding Lab [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: Which plants or plant tissues produce hydrogen cyanide?

  Creator(s): Katrina Lustofin

  Description: Plants produce hydrogen cyanide gas as a defense against herbivory. The lab exercise uses a qualitatitive measure to determine which tissues/plants do this as a part of understanding the difference between qualitative and quantitative measures. Ties in balancing equations by examining the reactions.

  Files: Chemical Equations Lab [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: Which plants contain cucurbitacins?

  Creator(s): Katrina Lustofin

  Description: Cucurbitacins are complex compounds found in plants belonging to the cucumber family (Cucurbitaceae), which are thought to protect the plant from herbivores and are toxic to many animals. Certain species of beetles have specialized on these plants, and cucurbitacins now induce compulsive feeding in these beetles. This lab utilizes a unique way to visualize chromatography, by having cucumber beetles feed on material extracted from different parts of the plant.

  Files: Cucurbitacin Bioassay [Word]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: How do bombardier beetles defend themselves?

  Creator(s): Katrina Lustofin

  Description: The bombardier beetle possesses a unique method of defense: it sprays predators with hot corrosive liquid that is under pressure. This unit examines exothermic reactions in chemistry using bombardier beetle defense as a model.

  Files:

  Bombardier Beetle Lab [Word]
  Bombardier Math [Excel]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: Chemical Reactions

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: An understanding of the manner in which molecules interact can be obtained through a variety of approaches. The activities and demonstrations linked below utilize the relationship between relative molecular quantities and atomic properties in an effort to explain fundamentals of stoichiometry and chemical reactivity.

  Files:

  Introduction to Chemical Reactions [pdf]
  Investigating Trends in the Periodic Table [pdf]
  Oxidation-Reduction Reactions [pdf]
  Thermochemistry [pdf]
  Web References [pdf]
  

• Title: Chemical Kinetics and Equilibrium

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: Experimental determination of chemical reaction rates and the observation of steady-state kinetics or dynamic equilibrium can be a somewhat challenging task in the absence of analytical equipment. Pursuant to this fact, the following physical and computational models were created to give students the chance to obtain kinetic data and to analyze results through the use of analogous resources.

  Files:

  Chemistry in Action [pdf]
  Stella Chemical Kinetics [pdf]
  Stella Kinetics Equilibrium [pdf]
  Web References [pdf]
  

• Title: Application of Chemical Concepts

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: Some of the most fascinating examples of chemical processes are not addressed in laboratory courses; however, a far greater number of concepts can be examined if students are given the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to the world around them. These curriculum materials and multi-media links comprise a suite of activities designed to focus on environmental chemistry.

  Files:

  The Winkler Method [pdf]
  Field Data Collection and Dissolved Oxygen Analysis [pdf]
  Dynamic Visualization of Vermilion County Water Quality [pdf]
  Modeling Nitrate Dynamics and its Environmental Impact in the Classroom [pdf]
  Nitrogen Cycling and Human Impacts [pdf]
  Web References [pdf]

  Links: Video of Field Trip [Real]

Biology

• Title: Sequence Search

  Creator(s): Amy Lopez

  Description: This exercise provides students with sequences associated with several human diseases. Students search using bioinformatics tools to identify the diseases and answer questions about them.

  Files:

  Protocol Handout [Word]
  Unknown Sequences [Word]
  Sequence Key [Word]

• Title: Researching a Genetic Disease Using Bioinformatics

  Creator(s): Amy Lopez

  Description: In this exercise, students use bioinformatics databases to study a human disease and then create an academic poster on their research.

  Files:

  Genetic Disease Handout [Word]
  Sample Student Poster 1 [ppt]
  Sample Student Poster 2 [ppt]

• Title: Cystic Fibrosis

  Creator(s): Anuradha Murphy

  Description: This unit is on Cystic Fibrosis, a disease associated primarily with the respiratory system. It uses the Biology Workbench and tools available on the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) website to study the protein that causes this genetic disorder.

  Files: Cystic Fibrosis Presentation [Ppt]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: Photosynthesis

  Creator(s): Anuradha Murphy

  Description: In the presence of sunlight, green plants convert water and CO2 into glucose using a process called photosynthesis. We will investigate some of the factors involved in this process using freely available Education Technology tools such as the Biology Workbench.

  Files: Rubisco Presentation [Ppt]

  Links: Inquiry Unit

• Title: Quantitative Biology

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: Bacterial growth experiments provide an interesting opportunity to bridge the fields of mathematics and biology; as a result, these activities were devised to facilitate student conceptual and quantitative understanding of population growth.

  Files:

  The Bounds of Population Growth [pdf]
  Quantitative Analysis of Population Growth [pdf]
  Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Modeling Web References [pdf]

• Title: Modeling Protein Structure to Derive Function

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: Information has become the driving force for biological discovery in the 21st century. Accordingly, this set of materials was designed to give students the chance to access governmental databases, visualize biomolecular structure and hypothesize the functional similarity of various proteins as a result of their findings.

  Files:

  BLAST into the Future of Biological Research [pdf]
  Amino Acid Worksheet [pdf]
  ESR1.val [Cn3d protein visualization file]
  GR.val [Cn3d protein visualization file]
  Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Modeling Web References [pdf]

  Links: Cn3D Visualization Download Site

• Title: Cell Biology and the Cell Cycle

  Creator(s): Michael Kandianis

  Description: In order to explain the series of events that occur throughout the life of a cell, a textbook description may stretch for innumerable chapters. This level of depth, however, may not be needed in an introductory course, and therefore interactive java-applets and additional media may be helpful in enabling students to grasp the major concepts of cell biology. The activities below utilize web-based technology and microscopy to aid student study of pertinent cellular processes.

  Files:

  Examining the Cell Cycle [pdf]
  Organelle Identification [pdf]
  Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Modeling Web References [pdf]

Physics

• Title: Using Supercomputing Resources to Design and Analyze Structures

  Creator(s): Rebecca Hartman-Baker

  Description: In this exercise, students get a taste of what it's like to be a civil engineer. They use a supercomputer in order to analyze a structure and get a feel for how civil engineers design structures. First they draw a structure on graph paper. Then they use the program GiD to transform this drawing into a format that the computer can understand. Next, they transfer the file to the supercomputer, where the effect of loading the structure with a large force will be analyzed by a finite element program called FElt. Finally, we will transfer the output file back to our local machines and use GiD to visualize the stress analysis.

  Files: Supercomputing Project Handout [Pdf]

  Links: Inquiry Unit   Author's Homepage

Computer Science

• Title: Teaching OpenGL at the high school level using Java

  Creator(s): Mike Mullan

  Description: OpenGL is a cross platform API which is very commonly used in industry and academia to generate graphics. Unlike other similar APIs like Direct3D, OpenGL is relatively easy to use and can be learned by anyone who has taken or is taking an introductory programming class. By learning OpenGL, high school students not only learn how to use a commonly used tool, but they can also gain a better grasp of other concepts important in mathematics and computer science. Lessons include Cubes (sample code which manipultes cubes on the screen.); Pong; and Walk Through (code which lets one walk around a room.)

  Files: OpenGL Lessons [zip]

• Title: Teaching Maya in a high school Computer Science class

  Creator(s): Mike Mullan

  Description: This package includes two lessons using Maya, a graphics software package. The first lesson models a tie fighter; the second describes how to integrate the object into video footage.

  Files: Maya Lessons [zip]