Throughout our lives we are surrounded by sounds in our environment. Our ability to hear plays an essential part in our everyday existence. Students should develop an understanding of the role technology plays in personal and social decisions. If we are to meet these goals we need to integrate aspects of responsible behavior toward hearing health…

Suggests using the informal experiences students have through extracurricular activities such as music lessons to design a curriculum related to sound that encourages active student participation and learning. (DDR)

Presents an activity on the electrostatic phenomenon known as induction. Reviews the principles illustrated by each of the activities described in this series. (DDR)

Presents a modification of a procedure for making and launching hot air balloons made out of garbage bags. Student instructions for balloon construction, launching instructions, and scale diagrams are included. (DDR)

Everything moves. Even apparently stationary objects such as houses, roads, or mountains are moving because they sit on a spinning planet orbiting the Sun. Not surprisingly, the concepts of motion and the forces that affect moving objects are an integral part of the middle school science curriculum. However, middle school students are often taught…

Presents a unit on motion that allows students to apply what they learn from doing hands-on, minds-on activities, a key component of the National Science Education Standards. Also includes examples of the assessment instrument. (DDR)

Provides details of an activity in which students spear a toy fish and learn about the refraction of light. Plans for the sighting apparatus and for making the toy fish are included. (DDR)

Focuses on the use of push and go toys to discuss with students how the toy acquires potential energy when work is done on it and how this energy is stored in the internal mechanism for later conversion into kinetic energy. (DDR)

Details an ocean-based lesson and provides background information on the designation of 1998 as the "Year of the Ocean" by the United Nations. Contains activities on the poster insert that can help raise student awareness of coastal-zone hazards. (DDR)

Describes an educational program that asks students to attempt to prove that the earth is spherical and that it rotates. Presents tips to pique student interest and charts related to sensing the spin, nonrotation notions, flat earth fallacies, evidence that the earth is spherical and rotates, and the role of watersheds in proving that the earth…

Describes a Russian approach of using literature to make physics instruction more interesting and attractive to students. (PR)