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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

What is energy? Scientifically speaking, energy is the ability to do work or the ability to move an object. How can energy be changed? What forms of energy are needed to support life? These and other questions are explored in this guide. Students are intrigued by the idea of living and working in space and their curiosity can be used to better understand the different forms of energy on Earth and in the universe. Space science can be used to teach the abstract concepts of energy and matter by learning about the ways NASA astronauts, scientists, and engineers continue to explore these concepts to develop space colonies and exploration vehicles of the future.

The concept of energy is intertwined throughout our study of science whether it be life, physical, Earth or space. As NASA and its world partners continue to build the International Space Station, scientists and engineers on Earth will use the new information to improve our lives in many ways. We may learn new ways of changing, or transforming, energy to create new technologies that can help us use energy more efficiently, and to better understand how energy sources impact humans globally. We can use this knowledge to protect our environment through the use of renewable (such as wind, solar, air) and alternative (such as geothermal, nuclear) resources, to produce new and better medicines to treat illness and disease, and to create new and improved technologies for the advancement of Earth and space science.

This web guide offers teachers a motivational “hook” to get students engaged in the study of energy by providing teacher-evaluated links to NASA resources. It is through these links that students discover how living in space relates to living on Earth. Lesson plans and web links correlate to the National Science Education Standards (NSES) as well as technology standards and the AAAS benchmarks. NASA has a wealth of educational resources available online; this guide is meant to provide teachers with a streamlined way to incorporate these resources into the classroom.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

NASA has a vision and goal of returning humans to the moon for long-duration missions by the year 2020, how will they do it? Humans have not ventured to the moon since the Apollo missions from 1969–1972 and those were brief excursions. 30 years later, new technologies and applications have been developed that will make lunar living a reality. Why not incorporate this new and exciting adventure into your study of life, physical, and Earth science in a motivating way? Pique your students’ natural curiosity by using space science as your “hook.”

As NASA designs and develops habitats and life support systems for their lunar missions, they will be focusing on the task of having an “Earth like” environment on the moon that contains food, shelter, water, and air for all living things. Scientists and engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center have already begun “to make living on the moon a reality.” Beginning with a lunar landing “mock-up” that has a crew cabin with a small galley, waste collection area, sleep area, storage compartments, and even medical supplies, they are designing “mini” space habitats to support life in space for up to seven days. Living in space requires attention to health and fitness, food production and waste management, sources of power, transportation, and communication, and social adaptations that space ecosystems will depend upon.

Teaching about ecosystems, habitats, and health through space science helps students to see the real-life application of their studies, transfer their knowledge to other situations, and wonder about the future. Isn’t this what we all want to accomplish when we design our curriculum around the teaching standards? The web resources in this SciGuide will help students learn core science content in a fun, meaningful context. Using what they know about life on Earth, they will make predictions and inferences about the success of human life in space. Now that’s engaging!

This web guide offers a variety of resources for you and your students, all of which have been evaluated and rated by master teachers across the country in an effort to make your task of incorporating technology into the classroom easier. Looking for life science lesson plans about ecosystems, populations, interdependence, microorganisms, and more? You will find them in this guide along with interactive simulations, images, hands-on investigations, and content background. NASA strives to provide teachers with standards-based, inquiry lessons and this SciGuide is an example of their efforts.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

What is light? Our experience with light is that which we can see. Our eyes contain two different types of photoreceptors, rods and cones. Rods are extremely sensitive to light but can’t distinguish color. Cones which are less sensitive than rods, respond to light of different wavelengths, producing color vision. Instruction for understanding light begins with an understanding of mechanical waves and the properties of those waves. However, light also has particle-like properties, and exhibits a wave-particle duality.

This SciGuide breaks down the complexity of teaching the nature of light into manageable chunks arranged in a logical sequence for learning. You may choose specific Themes or Keywords appropriate to your students and teaching objectives. Individual Themes and Keywords identify misconceptions and conceptual difficulties. Many web resources provide simulations and data to enhance understanding and engage students in inquiry.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

Nutrition can be defined quite simply as the science of how the body uses food. But what is food? How does food transform into substances that nourish the body? What do those substances do, and what foods provide them? And how do we make informed food choices to sustain life? Using a variety of online resources – including simulations, games, articles, and science demonstrations to do in class -- students will learn these nutrition basics. They’ll learn a variety of tools to make wise food choices, and they’ll track and evaluate their own food choices, using science-based food and nutrition guidance.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

As older students enter the prepubescent years, they start to ask complex and sometimes sensitive questions. How does the egg become an organism? Do plants reproduce the same way as animals? Teaching about reproduction and heredity in these years is important since inaccuracies and misconceptions are easily developed. Whether you are teaching elementary students about characteristics and life cycles, or middle school students about reproduction and heredity, this web guide is an excellent resource for locating some of the best web sites to help develop student understanding from kindergarten through eighth grade.

This web guide has multiple sites to help students and teachers develop an understanding of themes. Some sites are interactive and allow for student exploration into a deeper understanding of the theme. Others are good for core content, career information, or data sources. Use the icons associated with each site to select those that will meet your instructional needs. If you are looking for something specific, such as assessment, you can use the icons at the top as a filter to help you locate the resources you need.

The content contained here also reminds teachers of the sensitive issues that arise when investigating human pedigrees, and offers alternative investigations into all characteristics -- whether genetic or environmental.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

This guide explores rocks, from processes that can change them (such as weathering), to what can happen to them as they move through the rock cycle. Using this guide, teachers of middle school students will focus on the tangible process of sedimentary rock formation, but will also touch on the rock cycle as a whole. Use the sites in this guide to learn about rocks through text and multimedia simulations, read about scientists’ work, develop inquiry activities that encourage students to explore rocks, and discover common misconceptions about rocks and rock formation.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

Each year millions of people in the United States are known to become ill due to food poisoning (food-borne illness). How ill can you become? Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and fever are just some of the symptoms that a person can have from food poisoning. Not very pleasant is it? Health authorities have a saying: “First you’re afraid that you’re going to die, then you’re afraid you are not going to die.” In 1999 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated that there were over 76 million cases of gastrointestinal disease including 325,000 hospitalizations and over 5,000 deaths that were directly attributable to food poisoning.

The main concern in food-service sanitation is the prevention of illness caused by contaminated food. Bacteria, parasitic worms, and chemicals can all cause food-borne illness. Unfortunately, most food-borne illness is not recognized as such and is therefore seldom reported.

By now you are probably wondering why someone would prepare or eat poisoned food? Doesn’t poisoned food taste, look, or smell bad? No! If it did, people wouldn’t eat it. Would you eat a piece of pie that smelled bad? Would you cook a piece of green chicken? Of course not!

According to experts at the CDC, the leading factors causing food-borne illness are:

• Improper cooling, such as leaving cooked foods at room temperature.
• Lapse of a day or more between preparing and serving.
• Holding hot foods at the wrong temperature.
• Improper and inadequate refrigeration of foods.
• Infected persons touching and handling food.
• Improper reheating of previously cooked foods.
• Improper cleaning of kitchen equipment such as knives, pots, and cutting boards.

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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

Whether planning a trip to mars, determining the structure of atoms and molecules, or using tire marks to recreate an automobile accident, many of the applications of science involve prediction of what objects are going to do and how they will interact. Fortunately, we know a great deal about such motions and interactions, thanks to centuries of scientists studying just these things.

This SciGuide addresses four main themes—describing position and motion, Newton’s first law, Newton’s second law, and Newton’s third law. Accurate and reliable descriptions of where something is and what it’s doing are essential for laying a groundwork for the causes of motion and changes in motion. Newton’s laws, used by scientists and laypeople alike, provide the solid framework of those causes. The contents of this SciGuide will provide resources for understanding and applying all these concepts in a way that will tie the formal statements with practical experiences and applications.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

The Cell Division and Differentiation SciGuide includes a variety of resources that explore the cell cycle (including mitosis) and explore how the selective expression of genes allows undifferentiated cells to differentiate and become specialized cells. Additionally, this SciGuide looks at how, once specialized, cells are organized into tissues, organs, and organ systems.
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SciGuides are a collection of thematically aligned lesson plans, simulations, and web-based resources for teachers to use with their students centered on standards-aligned science concepts.

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) for this Life Science topic call on students to appreciate the interrelationships among plants, animals, and their environments. In this guide, "environments" include both living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) components.

Science textbooks and the Internet describe organisms and their environments using common terminology, such as habitats and biomes; food webs, behavior, and populations; and so on. This web guide provides links to teacher- and student-friendly core content, inquiry, and aligned assessment websites.

Some of the examples enable teachers to develop meaningful lesson plans and activities that help students understand organisms and their environments. A team of experienced science teachers reviewed and evaluated each website before submission, and all resources correlate with the NSES.
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