Interactive and Experiential Science Tools

What happens when Katie, a 20-year-old junior with glasses, an aerospace engineering major, starts tutoring a roomful of students who are her own age or even a bit older? University of Colorado Boulder, has started a movement to improve the quality of science education around the country, not only on campuses but in K-12 classrooms, and the LAs, as they're called, are at the center of this work. Read more about "Making Science Teaching More Than 'A Backup Plan' here.

Visit prepmagic.com to check out the April interactives. The new ones that are coming in May are listed below.

CHEMISTRY

Kinetics Equilibrium

• Catalysts - Investigate how catalysts speed up a chemical reaction.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

• Disturbing Chemical Equilibrium - Investigate how equilibrium in a reversible reaction can be disturbed by changing concentration by adding reactants or removing products..

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

• Temperature and Reaction Rate - Investigate how change in temperature affects the rate of a chemical reaction.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, DCI - PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

• Reaction Quotient - Explore the change in reaction quotient Q of a chemical reaction as it proceeds towards equilibrium.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, DCI - PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

Acids Bases

• Diprotic Acid Titration - Explore titration of a strong diprotic acid with a strong base.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

BIOLOGY

Cell Structure Function

• Osmosis - Explore movement of water molecules through a semi-permeable membrane from area of lower solute concentration to area of higher solute concentration.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, LS1.A: Structure and Function.

Heredity Evolution

• Fitness - Explore how sexual selection and natural selection will cause favored alleles to become more common over time.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, LS3.B: Variation of Traits.

• Mutation - Explore why some mutations survive and thrive, while others wither away.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, LS3.B: Variation of Traits.

PHYSICS

Fluids

• Bernoulli's Principle - Investigate how Bernoulli's principle of fluids in motion and Newton's laws of motion determine the forces acting on an airplane that enable it to lift off the ground during take off.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, DCI - PS2.A: Forces and Motion

Hurrah! Spring is here. Spring is always an opportunity for a new beginning, for everything and everyone. "New research suggests that when students who are vulnerable to being stereotyped complete exercises that cause them to reflect on their own personal values, they perform better in class - and so do other students around them, even if those other students don’t complete the self-reflection tasks themselves". Read about this interesting research here.

If you think March interactives are awesome, check below the new ones that are coming in April.

CHEMISTRY

Acids Bases

• Indicators - Interactive demonstrating that different indicators show color change at different pH and therefore correct indicator has to be selected for titration of a given acid-base combination.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

Kinetics Equilibrium

• Rate of Chemical Reactions  - Interactive investigating the factors affecting reaction rates.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

• Chemical Reaction Equilibrium - Interactive investigating the factors that shift the equilibrium of a reversible reaction as given by Le Chatelier’s Principle.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

BIOLOGY

Heredity Evolution

• Genetic Drift Allele Fixation - Interactive exploring genetic drift phenomenon, which can eventually lead to allele fixation.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, LS3.B: Variation of Traits.

• Speciation  - Interactive demonstrating how different types of isolation lead to selective breeding, which may eventually lead to emergence of new species.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, LS3.B: Variation of Traits.

PHYSICS

Fluids

• Pressure Variation with Depth  - Interactive exploring static pressure exerted by a fluid at any point in space within that fluid.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS2.B: Types of Interactions.

Optics

• Curved Optics - Interactive ray diagrams illustrating characteristics of image formation based on focal length and position of the object.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS4.A: Wave Properties.

After 140 million miles and 340 days, let's welcome astronaut Scott Kelly back on earth. His year long mission on the International Space Station will help us better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration in space. These are monumental steps towards developing capabilities for manned missions to Mars. Read more about it here.

As promised, the February 2016 scheduled updates are now live on prepmagic.com. March 2016, will bring some very exciting interactives as listed below.

CHEMISTRY

Acids & Bases

• Strong-Weak Titration - Interactive demonstrating titration between weak acid and strong base. Compare and contrast with strong-strong titration curves.

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

Chemical Equations

• Balancing Chemical Equations - Interactive to practice balancing of chemical equations

NGSS: SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1.B: Chemical Reactions.

BIOLOGY

Heredity & Evolution

• Genetic Equilibrium - Interactive exploring genetic equilibrium condition proposed by the Hardy-Weinberg principle

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Systems and system models, LS3.B: Variation of Traits.

• Natural Selection - Case of peppered moths - Interactive investigating how natural selection affects population distribution

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Systems and system models, LS4.B: Natural Selection.

PHYSICS

Electricity

• Electrical Power - Interactive exploring the heating effect of electric current or Joule heating

NGSS: SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, PS2.B: Types of Interactions.

Sound & Waves

• Doppler Effect - Interactive illustrating Doppler effect, the shift in frequency when the source and observer are in relative motion.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, PS4.A: Wave Properties.

• Sub-sonic, Sonic & Super-sonic - Interactives exploring wave formations in case of objects moving slower or faster than speed of sound

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, PS4.A: Wave Properties.

Electromagnetic Waves

• Amplitude Modulation of Radio Waves - Interactive exploring application of electromagnetic waves in communication technology, involving amplitude modulation of a carrier wave based on the signal wave.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, PS4.B: Electromagnetic Radiation