This is an interactive graph that involves records of ice cover in two Wisconsin lakes - Lake Mendota and Lake Monona - from 1855-2010.

This is an interactive webtool that allows the user to choose a state or country and both assess how climate has changed over time and project what future changes are predicted to occur in a given area.

Cocaine afflicts many individuals and is potently addictive. Originally hailed as a wonder-drug in the late 19th century, cocaine is now considered an illegal substance. Cocaine’s addictive properties can be attributed to changes in the dopamine reward pathway of the Ventral Tegmental Area and Substantia Nigra, Prefrontal Cortex, Dorsal Striatum, Nucleus Accumbens, Amygdala, Globus Pallidus, and Hippocampus. This drug affects the brain in two processes: binge and crave. The binge process highlights cocaine’s ability to block dopamine reuptake from the synapse resulting in hyperstimulation of the postsynaptic neuron in the dopamine reward pathway. The crave process promotes drug-seeking behavior through conditional and contextual cues. Understanding the effects of cocaine in the brain may grant insight in creating future medication and therapies to treat individuals addicted to this drug.

Investigate collisions on an air hockey table. Set up your own experiments: vary the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Is momentum conserved? Is kinetic energy conserved? Vary the elasticity and see what happens.

This visualization shows the molecular interaction of infrared radiation with various gases in the atmosphere. Focus is on the interaction with C02 molecules and resultant warming of the troposphere.

Explore the energy exchange between colliding objects and observe how energy transfer occurs under various circumstances.

Make a whole rainbow by mixing red, green, and blue light. Change the wavelength of a monochromatic beam or filter white light. View the light as a solid beam, or see the individual photons.

This demonstration shows that similar-appearing lights can be distinctly different, suggesting that the light emitted is generated in different ways. It requires some advance preparation/setup by the teacher and three recommended sources of orange light, that can be purchased at a hardware or department store. Includes extensions and additional background information on light generation in a section on underlying principles. This resource is from PUMAS - Practical Uses of Math and Science - a collection of brief examples created by scientists and engineers showing how math and science topics taught in K-12 classes have real world applications.

Students observe a burning candle and the byproducts given off through the burning process. This observation leads to a discussion to the effects of air pollution on our lives.

Investigate the difference in attractive force between polar and non-polar molecules by 'pulling' apart pairs of molecules. While all molecules are attracted to each other, some attractions are stronger than others. Non-polar molecules are attracted through a London dispersion attraction; polar molecules are attracted through both the London dispersion force and the stronger dipole-dipole attraction. The force of attractions between molecules has consequences for their interactions in physical, chemical and biological applications.

Investigate the difference in attractive force between polar and non-polar molecules by "pulling" apart pairs of molecules. While all molecules are attracted to each other, some attractions are stronger than others. Non-polar molecules are attracted through a London dispersion attraction; polar molecules are attracted through both the London dispersion force and the stronger dipole-dipole attraction. The force of attractions between molecules has consequences for their interactions in physical, chemical and biological applications.

Compare the change in potential energy when you separate molecules from each versus when you break molecules apart.

This well-designed experiment compares CO2 impacts on salt water and fresh water. In a short demonstration, students examine how distilled water (i.e., pure water without any dissolved ions or compounds) and seawater are affected differently by increasing carbon dioxide in the air.

An interactive applet and associated web page that demonstrate the concept of complementary angles (angles that add to 90 degrees). The applet shows two angles. You can drag the endpoints of each angle and the other angle changes so that they always add to 90 degrees. They are drawn in such a way that it is visually obvious that together they form a right angle, although they are separate on the page. The angle measure readouts can be turned off for class discussions. Applet can be enlarged to full screen size for use with a classroom projector. This resource is a component of the Math Open Reference Interactive Geometry textbook project at http://www.mathopenref.com.

The intent is to provide a map-based framework, complete with animations showing the geologic evolution of the area to be visited, so that students can then better appreciate the observations made at the various stops along the way and see how they each relate to the other and the big picture.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Before Ernest Rutherford's famous gold foil experiment in 1911, it was not known how the positive part of the atom was distributed. His experiment showed that if you shot positively charged particles at the atoms in a very thin sheet of gold foil, that very rarely, a particle would bounce back from the foil rather than going straight through it. Experiment with changing the distribution of positive charge and see how it affects the paths of positively charged particles moving near it.

Watch your solution change color as you mix chemicals with water. Then check molarity with the concentration meter. What are all the ways you can change the concentration of your solution? Switch solutes to compare different chemicals and find out how concentrated you can go before you hit saturation!

The heat conductivity of a solid material defines how fast heat will flow through it. You can probably think of several everyday examples of materials with high (fast) conductivity or low (slow) conductivity. This model illustrates the effect of different conductivities by placing different materials between a hot and a cold object and graphing the changing temperatures.