[NAEP] Global projects and space ships

[Dawn Wiseman]

As you are settling in to the new school year, here are a few 
resources that might be useful.

All the best,
Dawn
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Global Water Sampling Project
Registration is now open for the Global Water Sampling Project; a
high school level online collaborative project in which students
investigate their local environment and share that information with
other students from around the country and the world.  The focus of
the project is to assess the quality of water based on physical
characteristics and chemical substances and to look for relationships
and trends among the data collected by all project participants.
http://www.ciese.org/curriculum/waterproj/index.shtml

Global Boiling Point Project
Ever wonder what causes a pot of water to boil? If you have,
this project is for you. The purpose of this project is to discover
which factor (room temperature, elevation, volume of water, or
heating device) has the greatest influence on the boiling point of water.
http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/boilproj/

The Human Genetics Project
Is the dominant trait the most prevalent?
Or put another way, does the dominant allele for a given trait show
up as the prevalent phenotype in the population at large?
How do you know the dominant trait is dominant?
The Human Genetics Project is an Internet-based project which will
enrich a student's learning experience through "Unique and
Compelling" applications of instructional technology. In particular,
this project taps into some of the exciting applications of the
Internet in education by having students collaborate in large numbers
across great distances to "pool" large amounts of data. By
participating in this project, students also have the opportunity to
interact with experts online, use an online asynchronous discussion
board to to discuss project-related topics, and publish their own
work to this project web site.
http://www.ciese.org/curriculum/genproj/index.html

The Noon Day Measurement Collaborative Project
Over 2,000 years ago Eratosthenes made a remarkably accurate
measurement of the earth's circumference. This project is a recreation of
that measurement and requires collaboration of students in places at
different latitudes on the earth to make shadow measurements, share
data, use a spreadsheet (optional) to make comparisons, and then replicate
and share their results.
http://www.stevens.edu/ciese/noonday

NASA: Rocket Activities
There are many things in this world that are described as not being 
as difficult as rocket science. Then, of course, there is the actual 
science behind rockets. Understandably, this can be difficult for 
budding space scientists to grasp. Fortunately, NASA has created 
these fun and interactive activities which relate both to the science 
and math of rocketry. These particular activities are taken from the 
"Rocket Educators Guide", and they include activities related to 
altitude tracking, the world of pinwheels, balloon staging, and of 
course the construction of an actual paper rocket. Each activity 
comes complete with instructions, diagrams, and information on the 
necessary materials. Taken as a whole, these activities could be 
equally fun whether outside on a brisk fall day as in a classroom 
setting.
http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/TRCRocket/RocketActivitiesHome2.html