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.

Wish you a very happy new year from the prepmagic.com team. The big news! The new year has been fantastic for the four who made it to the most elite club in the universe, 'the periodic table'. You can read more about it here.

Wanted to share our new year resolution with you. We will be sending you, at the beginning of the month, the list of what to expect in the month on prepmagic.com. This will be our commitment to you.In this month, we will be adding interactive simulations on acids and bases, solutions, gases, and energy in Chemistry. In Biology, we will have heredity, life functions, and ecosystems. Physics will see electrostatics and momentum. Check out our detailed list for January below.

CHEMISTRY

Solutions

Moles & Molarity - Series of interactives demonstrating:

• Concept of a mole and how it relates to atomic mass
• Molarity of a solution, based on moles of solute and volume of solvent
• Diluting a solution

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Scale, proportion, and quantity, PS1 - Matter and its interactions.

Acids & Bases

Acid-Base Titration - Series of interactives on

• Acid-base titration for exploring reaction between acids and bases, based on strength, molarity and pH value.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Scale, proportion, and quantity, PS1 - Matter and its interactions.

Gases

Gas Laws - Series of interactives demonstrating

• behavior of gases and the relationship between pressure, volume and temperature using Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law and the ideal gas equation.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Scale, proportion, and quantity, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1 - Matter and its interactions

Energy

Heating, Temperature & Phase Change - Interactives to

• investigate the process of heating and phase change using heating curves and to understand the concept of specific heat capacity and molar heat of fusion and vaporization.

Calorimetry - Series of interactives involving

• use of calorimeter to monitor energy changes due to specific heat, molar heat of fusion and vaporization, heat of solution and to measure energy content of common food items.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Scale, proportion, and quantity, CCC - Energy and matter, PS1 - Matter and its interactions, PS3 - Energy.

BIOLOGY

Life Functions

Homeostasis - Interactives investigating

• regulation of body temperature exhibited by endotherms, ectotherms and homeotherms.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Structure and function, CCC - Stability and change, LS1 - From molecules to organisms: Structures and processes

Heredity

Mendelian Inheritance - Interactives exploring

• inheritance patterns based on Mendel's laws of heredity.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, LS3 - Heredity: Inheritance and variation of traits.

Ecosystem

Population Growth - Interactives to interpret

• a population growth curve and understand the carrying capacity of populations.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Stability and change, LS2 - Ecosystems: Interactions, energy, and dynamics.

PHYSICS

Electrostatics

Coulomb's Law - Series of interactives demonstrating that

• electrostatic force between two point charges is a function of their magnitudes and the distance separating the two, as given by Coulomb's Law.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Scale, proportion, and quantity, PS2 - Motion and stability: Forces and interactions.

Momentum

Elastic Collisions - Interactives showing that

• linear momentum is the product of mass and velocity, and is conserved during an elastic collision along with the conservation of kinetic energy.

NGSS: SEP - Developing and using models, SEP - Planning and carrying out investigations, SEP - Analyzing and Interpreting Data, CCC - Patterns, CCC - Cause and effect, CCC - Stability and change, PS2 - Motion and stability: Forces and interactions.