Image from NOVA on PBS
Looking for some great resources for your classroom? You may want to check out some of the fantastic tools provided by NOVA on PBS. You can check out their offerings by subject also.
They have a weekly feature, which right now is showing Car of the Future.
Activity Summary
Student teams research and develop a proposal to decrease the carbon footprint of their city’s public transportation system through the use of various new technologies and/or alternative fuels. Students prepare a report that explains why their transportation plan is the best one for their community.Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
- understand the pros and cons of adopting new technologies or alternative fuels to replace existing gasoline-powered vehicles.
- describe the environmental impact of alternative fuels.
Suggested Time
Four class periods
It looks like there is quite a bit of depth to these classroom resources. Links, videos, background information, and more should help you to undertake some interesting and complex studies of contemporary science and technology.
These projects are mapped to the National Science Education Standards, but I still can’t find a good online resource for state by state curriculum frameworks. The Massachusetts frameworks are something of a hodgepodge of formats, and it is difficult to link directly to each individual item. Generally, they are huge documents of dozens or hundreds of pages in pdf or doc format covering many subjects and grades K-12. With no web-friendly indexing ability, it is kind of difficult to map a project directly to the subject and level.
Have you used the NOVA teachers’ resources? Where do you turn for curriculum materials? Do you keep online resources for your classroom? Let us know in the comments.
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