Teaching science gives me the satisfaction of sharing my passion for the natural world with others. I try to create opportunities for students to experience science outside of the classroom much like I did in college, through local field trips, or even identifying and mapping out the various large landscape rocks scattered around
Attached is a resource for lessons and simulations that involve studying the Greenhouse Effect and how it affects temperature readings on our planet. The simulations created by PHET are incredible. https://phet.colorado.edu/ Aside from the Greenhouse Effect simulation in this lesson, this site has a large variety of resources for any grade levels to be used as lessons, labs
This lesson is a modification of what Dave Hess and I, Stan Skotnicki, use in our Earth Science classes at Cheektowaga Central High School. It is an extension of our lesson on Celestial Motions as we track the apparent path of the sun across the sky at different latitudes. Prior to this Lab activity they would have already
Newspaper article in the City & Region section of the Buffalo News highlighting Stan Skotnicki's trip to Siberia this summer as a middle school teacher through the PolarTREC program.
Presentation at the Western Science Teachers Association of New York State (STANYS) mini conference at the Buffalo Museum of Science on March 16, 2016. The focus of the presentation will be to highlight upcoming PolarTREC expeditions, an introduction to the programs educational opportunities, lesson plans and activities for teachers at all levels.
There is so much media hype and public misunderstanding regarding the issue of climate change that advanced students need to be equipped to sort through the information available, find data from appropriately moderated scientific data bases, and learn to support their views with good scientific evidence rather than emotion. This lesson provides the outline for giving students some preliminary
How can the ocean be colder than 0 degrees C, the temperature at which water freezes? As it turns out, the concentration of the particles (in this case, the ions from the salt) in ocean water lowers the temperature at which the saltwater will freeze. Students will learn how ocean water freezes at a lower temperature than freshwater by
Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles profiles one of its alumni, teacher Cristina Solis who also happens to be a PolarTREC alumnus. Read about her journey to become an educator and her participation in a PolarTREC study of microbial activity in thawing arctic permafrost near Barrow, Alaska.
Students will conduct a soil study by investigating pH and water absorption.
Objectives
Students will learn:
* How to describe the composition of soil and explain how it forms.
* That soil is made up of tiny particles of rock, plant, and animal matter.
* How to determine whether a solution is acidic, basic, or neutral.
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