This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Microbes are widely known to spread disease, but could they also help prevent it? A look inside in the mosquito gut reveals a community of microbes fit for the job. Mosquitoes are well-known vectors of disease, transmitting West Nile and Zika virus and the pathogens that cause malaria and dengue fever. Unfortunately, traditional control methods have led to insecticide resistance and negative impacts on other organisms, but mosquitoes, like other animals, also host non-disease-causing microbes in their gut. These benign microorganisms can directly interact with the deadly pathogens harbored by these insects. They can also affect mosquito traits influencing pathogen transmission, such as their population density, development, biting rate, and survival. For example, certain bacterial strains can reduce female fertility and the egg-hatching rate, while others can protect mosquitoes from environmental stress..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Students are presented with a challenge question that they must answer with scientific and mathematical reasoning. The challenge question is: "You have a large rock on a boat that is floating in a pond. You throw the rock overboard and it sinks to the bottom of the pond. Does the water level in the pond rise, drop or remain the same?" Students observe Archimedes' principle in action in this model recreation of the challenge question when a toy boat is placed in a container of water and a rock is placed on the floating boat. Students use terminology learned in the classroom as well as critical thinking skills to derive equations needed to answer this question.

Student teams are challenged to evaluate the design of several liquid soaps to answer the question, “Which soap is the best?” Through two simple teacher class demonstrations and the activity investigation, students learn about surface tension and how it is measured, the properties of surfactants (soaps), and how surfactants change the surface properties of liquids. As they evaluate the engineering design of real-world products (different liquid dish washing soap brands), students see the range of design constraints such as cost, reliability, effectiveness and environmental impact. By investigating the critical micelle concentration of various soaps, students determine which requires less volume to be an effective cleaning agent, factors related to both the cost and environmental impact of the surfactant. By investigating the minimum surface tension of the soap, students determine which dissolves dirt and oil most effectively and thus cleans with the least effort. Students evaluate these competing criteria and make their own determination as to which of five liquid soaps make the “best” soap, giving their own evidence and scientific reasoning. They make the connection between gathered data and the real-world experience in using these liquid soaps.

Astronaut Randy Bresnik explains why exercising in space is so important. Also learn about bone density in a hands-on classroom activity using cereal.

Students review what they know about the 20 major bones in the human body (names, shapes, functions, locations, as learned in the associated lesson) and the concept of density (mass per unit of volume). Then student pairs calculate the densities for different bones from a disarticulated human skeleton model of fabricated bones, making measurements via triple-beam balance (for mass) and water displacement (for volume). All groups share their results with the class in order to collectively determine the densities for every major bone in the body. This activity prepares students for the next activity, "Can It Support You? No Bones about It," during which they act as biomedical engineers and design artificial bones, which requires them to find materials of suitable density to perform as human body implants.

Students will explore with solids and liquids to discover what density is. Students will be involved in small group experiments and a full group experiment. Observing, predicting, exploring and discovering are all included in this lesson.

In this activity, the students will apply the concepts they learned regarding mass, volume and density in the previous activities to design a boat.

In this experiment, students create a "lava lamp" - a beaker on a hotplate, and investigate buoyancy, convection and other fluid and thermodynamic properties using ink, water, vegetable oil and Alka-Seltzer tablets. The activity 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.

The Challenge:
The challenge is to design and build a water filtration device using commonly available materials. To meet this challenge,
students use an iterative repeating process as they build, test, and measure the performance of the filtration
device, analyze the data collected, and use this information to work towards an improved filtration design. It is the
same design process used by engineers and scientists working on ECLSS for NASA. Although students will work in
teams of two–three, they are encouraged to think of their entire class as a single design team working cooperatively
and learning from the efforts of all members in order to produce the best water filtration device.
Students measure the effectiveness of their filtration device using pH test strips. Detailed plans and a complete materials list are provided.

The Challenge:
The challenge is to design and build a water filtration device using commonly available materials. To meet this challenge, students use an iterative repeating process as they build, test, and measure the performance of the filtration
device, analyze the data collected, and use this information to work towards an improved filtration design. It is the
same design process used by engineers and scientists working on ECLSS for NASA. Although students will work in teams of two–three, they are encouraged to think of their entire class as a single design team working cooperatively and learning from the efforts of all members in order to produce the best water filtration device. Students measure the effectiveness of their filtration device using pH test strips. Detailed plans and a complete materials list are provided.

The Challenge:
The challenge is to design and build a water filtration device using commonly available materials. To meet this challenge,
students use an iterative repeating process as they build, test, and measure the performance of the filtration
device, analyze the data collected, and use this information to work towards an improved filtration design. It is the
same design process used by engineers and scientists working on ECLSS for NASA. Although students will work in
teams of two–three, they are encouraged to think of their entire class as a single design team working cooperatively
and learning from the efforts of all members in order to produce the best water filtration device.
Students measure the effectiveness of their filtration device using pH test strips. Detailed plans and a complete materials list are provided.

The Challenge:
The challenge is to design and build a water filtration device using commonly available materials. To meet this challenge, students use an iterative repeating process as they build, test, and measure the performance of the filtration
device, analyze the data collected, and use this information to work towards an improved filtration design. It is the
same design process used by engineers and scientists working on ECLSS for NASA. Although students will work in teams of two–three, they are encouraged to think of their entire class as a single design team working cooperatively and learning from the efforts of all members in order to produce the best water filtration device. Students measure the effectiveness of their filtration device using pH test strips. Detailed plans and a complete materials list are provided.

Explore pressure under and above water. See how pressure changes as you change fluids, gravity, container shapes, and volume.

For many years, Cambridge, MA, as host to two major research universities, has been the scene of debates as to how best to meet the competing expectations of different stakeholders. Where there has been success, it has frequently been the result, at least in part, of inventive urban design proposals and the design and implementation of new institutional arrangements to accomplish those proposals. Where there has been failure it has often been explained by the inability - or unwillingness - of one stakeholder to accept and accommodate the expectations of another. The two most recent fall Urban Design Studios have examined these issues at a larger scale. In 2001 we looked at the possible patterns for growth and change in Cambridge, UK, as triggered by the plans of Cambridge University. And in 2002 we looked at these same issues along the length of the MIT ‘frontier’ in Cambridge, MA as they related to the development of MIT and the biotech research industry.
In the fall 2003 Urban Design Studio we propose to focus in on an area adjacent to Cambridgeport and the western end of the MIT campus, roughly centered on Fort Washington. Our goal is to discover the ways in which good urban form, an apt mix of activities, and effective institutional mechanisms might all be brought together in ways that respect shared expectations and reconcile competing expectations - perhaps in unexpected and adroit ways.

This studio discusses in great detail the design of urban environments, specifically in Providence, RI. It will propose strategies for change in large areas of cities, to be developed over time, involving different actors. Fitting forms into natural, man-made, historical, and cultural contexts; enabling desirable activity patterns; conceptualizing built form; providing infrastructure and service systems; guiding the sensory character of development: all are topics covered in the studio. The course integrates architecture and planning students in joint work and requires individual designs and planning guidelines as a final product.

This studio discusses in great detail the design of urban environments, specifically in Providence, RI. It will propose strategies for change in large areas of cities, to be developed over time, involving different actors. Fitting forms into natural, man-made, historical, and cultural contexts; enabling desirable activity patterns; conceptualizing built form; providing infrastructure and service systems; guiding the sensory character of development: all are topics covered in the studio. The course integrates architecture and planning students in joint work and requires individual designs and planning guidelines as a final product.

This article highlights activities for elementary students that model icebergs and develop an informal understanding of the concepts of buoyancy and density. Suggestions for inquiry-based activities are included.

Students use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine their designs so that their boats will carry as great a load (metal washers) as possible. Building a clay boat to hold as much weight as possible is an engineering design problem. Next, they compare amount of water displaced by a lump of clay that sinks to the amount of water displaced by the same lump of clay when it is shaped so as to float. Determining the masses of the displaced water allows them to arrive at Archimedes' principle, whereby the mass of the displaced water equals the mass of the floating clay boat.

Expanding on the topic of objects in motion covering Newton's laws of motion, acceleration and velocity, which are taught starting in third grade, students are introduced to new concepts of speed, density, level of service (LOS) (quality of roadways), delay and congestion. Every day we are affected by congestion even if we do not step out of our homes. For example, the price we pay for goods increases due to increases in shipping costs caused by congestion delays. A congestion metric would help us to compare roadways and assess improvement methods. A common metric used to measure congestion is called level of service (LOS).