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Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
General Notes
Laboratory investigations that include the use of scientific inquiry, research, measurement, problem solving, laboratory apparatus and technologies, experimental procedures, and safety procedures are an integral part of this course. The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recommends that at the high school level, all students should be in the science lab or field, collecting data every week. School laboratory investigations (labs) are defined by the National Research Council (NRC) as an experience in the laboratory, classroom, or the field that provides students with opportunities to interact directly with natural phenomena or with data collected by others using tools, materials, data collection techniques, and models (NRC, 2006, p. 3). Laboratory investigations in the high school classroom should help all students develop a growing understanding of the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work, as well as the skills to calibrate and troubleshoot equipment used to make observations. Learners should understand measurement error; and have the skills to aggregate, interpret, and present the resulting data (National Research Council, 2006, p.77; NSTA, 2007).
Special Notes
Instructional Practices
Teaching from a range of complex text is optimized when teachers in all subject areas implement the following strategies on a routine basis:
1. Ensuring wide reading from complex text that varies in length.
2. Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
3. Emphasizing text-specific complex questions, and cognitively complex tasks, reinforce focus on the text and cultivate independence.
4. Emphasizing students supporting answers based upon evidence from the text.
5. Providing extensive research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
Science and Engineering Practices (NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education, 2010)
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering).
- Developing and using models.
- Planning and carrying out investigations.
- Analyzing and interpreting data.
- Using mathematics, information and computer technology, and computational thinking.
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering).
- Engaging in argument from evidence.
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information.
Honors and Advanced Level Course Note: Advanced courses require a greater demand on students through increased academic rigor. Academic rigor is obtained through the application, analysis, evaluation, and creation of complex ideas that are often abstract and multi-faceted. Students are challenged to think and collaborate critically on the content they are learning. Honors level rigor will be achieved by increasing text complexity through text selection, focus on high-level qualitative measures, and complexity of task. Instruction will be structured to give students a deeper understanding of conceptual themes and organization within and across disciplines. Academic rigor is more than simply assigning to students a greater quantity of work.
Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (B.E.S.T.) Standards
This course includes Florida’s B.E.S.T. ELA Expectations (EE) and Mathematical Thinking and Reasoning Standards (MTRs) for students. Florida educators should intentionally embed these standards within the content and their instruction as applicable. For guidance on the implementation of the EEs and MTRs, please visit https://www.cpalms.org/Standards/BEST_Standards.aspx and select the appropriate B.E.S.T. Standards package.
English Language Development ELD Standards Special Notes Section:
Teachers are required to provide listening, speaking, reading and writing instruction that allows English language learners (ELL) to communicate information, ideas and concepts for academic success in the content area of Science. For the given level of English language proficiency and with visual, graphic, or interactive support, students will interact with grade level words, expressions, sentences and discourse to process or produce language necessary for academic success The ELD standard should specify a relevant content area concept or topic of study chosen by curriculum developers and teachers which maximizes an ELL's need for communication and social skills. To access an ELL supporting document which delineates performance definitions and descriptors, please click on the following link: https://cpalmsmediaprod.blob.core.windows.net/uploads/docs/standards/eld/sc.pdf
General Information
- Honors
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Explore and compare objects in the solar system, including planets, moons, the Sun, comets, and asteroids, with this interactive research page.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how weathering and erosion may have affected Pnyx Hill, the ancient Greek democratic meeting place which influenced our modern government with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the extraordinary autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as you examine the author's purpose for writing and his use of the problem and solution text structure. By the end of this interactive tutorial, you should be able to explain how Douglass uses the problem and solution text structure in these excerpts to convey his purpose for writing.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to study George Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" speech and his use of rhetorical appeals. In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll identify his use of ethos and pathos throughout his speech.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read George Vest's "Eulogy of the Dog" speech in this two-part interactive tutorial. In this series, you'll identify and examine Vest's use of ethos, pathos, and logos in his speech. In Part One, you'll identify Vest's use of logos in the first part of his speech. In Part Two, you'll identify his use of ethos and pathos throughout his speech.
Make sure to complete both part of this series! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to study epic similes in excerpts from The Iliad in Part Two of this two-part series. In Part Two, you'll learn about mood and how the language of an epic simile produces a specified mood in excerpts from The Iliad.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view "That's So Epic: How Epic Similes Contribute to Mood (Part One)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about how epic similes create mood in a text, specifically in excerpts from The Iliad, in this two-part series.
In Part One, you'll define epic simile, identify epic similes based on defined characteristics, and explain the comparison created in an epic simile.
In Part Two, you'll learn about mood and how the language of an epic simile produces a specified mood in excerpts from The Iliad. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to view "That's So Epic: How Epic Similes Contribute to Mood (Part Two)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to read the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker. In Part Two, you’ll cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text states explicitly, or directly. You'll also make inferences, support them with textual evidence, and use them to explain how the bet transformed the lawyer and the banker by the end of the story.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Make sure to complete Part Three after you finish Part Two. Click HERE to view "Risky Betting: Analyzing a Universal Theme (Part Three)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker in this three-part tutorial series.
In Part One, you’ll cite textual evidence that supports an analysis of what the text states explicitly, or directly, and make inferences and support them with textual evidence. By the end of Part One, you should be able to make three inferences about how the bet has transformed the lawyer by the middle of the story and support your inferences with textual evidence.
Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Text Evidence and Inferences (Part Two)."
Click HERE to launch "Risky Betting: Analyzing a Universal Theme (Part Three)."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Identify rhyme, alliteration, and repetition in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" and analyze how he used these sound devices to affect the poem in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the classic American novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott in this interactive English Language Arts tutorial. Using excerpts from chapter eight of Little Women, you'll identify key characters and their actions. You'll also explain how interactions between characters contributes to the development of the plot.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how allusions contribute to meaning in excerpts from O. Henry's classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi." In this interactive tutorial, you'll determine how allusions in the text better develop the key story elements of setting, characters, and conflict and explain how the allusion to the Magi contributes to the story’s main message about what it means to give a gift.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify imagery in William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" and explain how that imagery contributes to the poem's meaning with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how Isaac Newton's background, talents, interests, and goals influenced his groundbreaking work in this interactive tutorial.
This is part 4 in a 4-part series. Click below to explore the other tutorials in the series.
- Part 1: Discovering Newton's First Law of Motion: On the Soccer Pitch
- Part 2: Discovering Newton’s Second Law of Motion: On the Softball Diamond
- Part 3: Discovering Newton’s Third Law of Motion: On the Basketball Court
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study William Shakespeare's "Sonnet 18" to determine and compare two universal themes and how they are developed throughout the sonnet.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the form and meaning of William Shakespeare's “Sonnet 18.” In this interactive tutorial, you’ll examine how specific words and phrases contribute to meaning in the sonnet, select the features of a Shakespearean sonnet in the poem, identify the solution to a problem, and explain how the form of a Shakespearean sonnet contributes to the meaning of "Sonnet 18."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze how O. Henry uses details to address the topics of value, sacrifice, and love in his famous short story, "The Gift of the Magi." In this interactive tutorial, you'll also determine two universal themes of the story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore key story elements in more excerpts from the classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll analyze how important information about two main characters is revealed through the context of the story’s setting and events in the plot. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how character development, setting, and plot interact in "The Gift of the Magi."
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore key story elements in the classic American short story “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry. Throughout this two-part tutorial, you'll analyze how important information about two main characters is revealed through the context of the story’s setting and events in the plot. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how character development, setting, and plot interact in excerpts from this short story.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to view "How Story Elements Interact in 'The Gift of the Magi' -- Part Two."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read more from the fantasy novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald in Part Two of this three-part series. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to compare and contrast the archetypes of two characters in the novel.
Make sure to complete all three parts of this series in order to compare and contrast the use of archetypes in two texts.
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part One: Examining an Archetype in The Princess and the Goblin."
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Three: Comparing and Contrasting Archetypes in Two Fantasy Stories."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to determine the important traits of a main character named Princess Irene in excerpts from the fantasy novel The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll also identify her archetype and explain how textual details about her character support her archetype.
Make sure to complete all three parts of this series in order to compare and contrast the use of archetypes in two texts.
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Two: Examining Archetypes in The Princess and the Goblin."
Click HERE to view "Archetypes -- Part Three: Comparing and Contrasting Archetypes in Two Fantasy Stories."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify aspects of setting and character as you analyze several excerpts from “The Yellow Wallpaper," a chilling short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. You'll also determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting better reveal her emotional and mental state.
This interactive tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. By the end of Part Two, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting. Click below to launch Part Two.
The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part Two
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine several excerpts from the chilling short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. In Part Two of this tutorial series, you'll determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting reveal its impact on her emotional and mental state. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch "The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part One."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mysterious poem “The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in this interactive tutorial. As you explore the poem's message about the past, you’ll identify the features of a villanelle in the poem. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a villanelle contributes to the poem's meaning.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem "The New Colossus." By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part One: Exploring the Significance of 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine how setting influences characters in excerpts from The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez with this interactive tutorial.
This is part 2 in a two-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch "Analyzing the Beginning of The Red Umbrella -- Part One: How Setting Influences Events."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part One, explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
This famous poem also happens to be in the form of a sonnet. In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part Two: How the Form of a Sonnet Contributes to Meaning in 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the beginning of the historical fiction novel The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez in this two-part series. In Part One, you'll examine how setting influences events. In Part Two, you'll examine how setting influences characters.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the impacts on sea turtles, humans, and the economy when we live, work, and play at the beach with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This SaM-1 video provides the students with the optional "twist" for Lesson 17 and the Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) they have been working on in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation.
To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
This video introduces the students to a Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) and concepts related to conducting experiments so they can apply what they learned about the changes water undergoes when it changes state. This MEA provides students with an opportunity to develop a procedure based on evidence for selecting the most effective cooler.
This SaM-1 video is to be used with lesson 14 in the Grade 3 Physical Science Unit: Water Beach Vacation. To see all the lessons in the unit please visit https://www.cpalms.org/page818.aspx.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how scientists measure viral spread and use this information to make recommendations for the public in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify different sources of scientific claims and to evaluate their reliability in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to test scientific claims and judge competing hypotheses by understanding how they can be tested against one another in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" and examine words, phrases, and lines with multiple meanings. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze how these multiple meanings can affect a reader’s interpretation of the poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the topics of transformation and perfection as you read excerpts from the “Myth of Pygmalion” by Ovid and the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the end of this two-part interactive tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the short story draws on and transforms source material from the original myth.
This tutorial is the second in a two-part series. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine the topics of transformation and perfection as you read excerpts from the “Myth of Pygmalion” by Ovid and the short story “The Birthmark” by Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the end of this two-part interactive tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the short story draws on and transforms source material from the original myth.
This tutorial is the first in a two-part series. Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources, creating a Works Cited page, and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part series. This tutorial is Part Two. In this tutorial, you will continue to examine excerpts from Emerson's essay that focus on the topic of traveling. You'll examine word meanings and determine the connotations of specific words. You will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of this portion of the essay.
Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this two-part interactive tutorial series. You will examine word meanings, examine subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and think about the emotions or associations that are connected to specific words. Finally, you will analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of these excerpts.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this interactive two-part tutorial. This tutorial is Part Two. In this two-part series, you will learn to enhance your experience of Emerson's essay by analyzing his use of the word "genius." You will analyze Emerson's figurative meaning of "genius" and how he develops and refines the meaning of this word over the course of the essay.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance" in this interactive two-part tutorial. In Part One, you’ll learn to enhance your experience of a text by analyzing its use of a word’s figurative meaning. Specifically, you'll examine Emerson's figurative meaning of the key term "genius." In Part Two, you’ll learn how to track the development of a word’s figurative meaning over the course of a text.
Make sure to complete both parts of the tutorial! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how heat changes the temperature or the state of matter of a material in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the three types of heat transfer that occur in our world as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice analyzing word choices in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe, including word meanings, subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and emotions connected to specific words. In this interactive tutorial, you will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of the poem.
This is Part Two of a two-part series. Part One should be completed before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to open Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice analyzing word choices in "The Raven" by Edgar Allan Poe in this interactive tutorial. In this tutorial, you will examine word meanings, examine subtle differences between words with similar meanings, and think about emotions connected to specific words. You will also analyze the impact of specific word choices on the meaning of the poem.
This tutorial is Part One of a two-part series on Poe's "The Raven." Click HERE to open Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence drawn from a literary text: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson.
You should complete Part One and Part Two of this series before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One. Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Get ready to travel back in time to London, England during the Victorian era in this interactive tutorial that uses text excerpts from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. You should complete Part One before beginning this tutorial. In Part Two, you will read excerpts from the last half of the story and practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text. In the third tutorial in this series, you’ll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story.
Make sure to complete all three parts! Click to HERE launch Part One. Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how authors create mood in a story through this interactive tutorial. You'll read a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and analyze how he uses images, sound, dialogue, setting, and characters' actions to create different moods. This tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. In Part Two, you'll use Bradbury's story to help you create a Found Poem that conveys multiple moods.
When you've completed Part One, click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice writing different aspects of an expository essay about scientists using drones to research glaciers in Peru. This interactive tutorial is part four of a four-part series. In this final tutorial, you will learn about the elements of a body paragraph. You will also create a body paragraph with supporting evidence. Finally, you will learn about the elements of a conclusion and practice creating a “gift.”
This tutorial is part four of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice citing evidence to support analysis of a literary text as you read excerpts from one of the most famous works of horror fiction of all time, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part tutorial. In Part Two, you'll continue your analysis of the text. In Part Three, you'll learn how to create a Poem in 2 Voices using evidence from this story. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the third part of a four-part series. In previous tutorials in this series, students analyzed an informational text and video about scientists using drones to explore glaciers in Peru. Students also determined the central idea and important details of the text and wrote an effective summary. In part three, you'll learn how to write an introduction for an expository essay about the scientists' research.
This tutorial is part three of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify the central idea and important details of a text, as well as how to write an effective summary in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the second tutorial in a four-part series that examines how scientists are using drones to explore glaciers in Peru.
This tutorial is part two of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about how researchers are using drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs, to study glaciers in Peru. In this interactive tutorial, you will practice citing text evidence when answering questions about a text.
This tutorial is part one of a four-part series. Click below to open the other tutorials in this series.
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 1)
- Drones and Glaciers: Eyes in the Sky (Part 2)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 3)
- Expository Writing: Eyes in the Sky (Part 4)
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to avoid plagiarism in this interactive tutorial. You will also learn how to follow a standard format for citation and how to format your research paper using MLA style. Along the way, you will also learn about master magician Harry Houdini. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series on research writing.
Be sure to complete Part One first. Click to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about paraphrasing and the use of direct quotes in this interactive tutorial about research writing. Along the way, you'll also learn about master magician Harry Houdini. This tutorial is part one of a two-part series, so be sure to complete both parts.
Check out part two—Avoiding Plaigiarism: It's Not Magic here.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Found Poem with changing moods in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series. In Part One, students read “Zero Hour,” a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and examined how he used various literary devices to create changing moods. In Part Two, students will use words and phrases from “Zero Hour” to create a Found Poem with two of the same moods from Bradbury's story.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about that dreaded word--plagiarism--in this interactive tutorial that's all about citing your sources and avoiding academic dishonesty!
Type: Original Student Tutorial
See how data are interpreted to better understand the reproductive strategies taken by sea anemones with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine field sampling strategies used to gather data and avoid bias in ecology research. This interactive tutorial features the CPALMS Perspectives video .
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to cite evidence and draw inferences in this interactive tutorial. Using an informational text about cyber attacks, you'll practice identifying text evidence and making inferences based on the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to define and identify claims being made within a text. This tutorial will also show you how evidence can be used effectively to support the claim being made. Lastly, this tutorial will help you write strong, convincing claims of your own.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify explicit textual evidence and make inferences based on the text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll sharpen your analysis skills while reading about the famed American explorers, Lewis and Clark, and their trusted companion, Sacagawea. You'll practice analyzing the explicit textual evidence wihtin the text, and you'll also make your own inferences based on the available evidence.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mystery of muscle cell metabolism and how cells are able to meet the need for a constant supply of energy. In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify the basic structure of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), explain how ATP’s structure is related it its job in the cell, and connect this role to energy transfers in living things.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and analyze extended metaphors using W.B. Yeats' poem, "The Stolen Child." In this interactive tutorial, we'll examine how Yeats uses figurative language to express the extended metaphor throughout this poem. We'll focus on his use of these seven types of imagery: visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, kinesthetic, and organic. Finally, we'll analyze how the poem's extended metaphor conveys a deeper meaning within the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and analyze the central idea of an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several informational passages about the history of pirates. First, you'll learn the four-step process for pinpointing the central idea. Then you'll analyze each passage to see how the central idea is developed throughout the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn what scientific laws and scientific theories are and how they are different from what we commonly call laws and theories outside of science with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences based on the information included in the text in this interactive tutorial. Using the short story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry, you'll practice identifying both the explicit and implicit information in the story. You'll apply your own reasoning to make inferences based on what is stated both explicitly and implicitly in the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Join Baby Bear to answer questions about key details in his favorite stories with this interactive tutorial. Learn about characters, setting, and events as you answer who, where, and what questions.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this tutorial, you will practice identifying relevant evidence within a text as you read excerpts from Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire." Then, you'll practice your writing skills as you draft a short response using examples of relevant evidence from the story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences using the novel Hoot in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn how to identify both explicit and implicit information in the story to make inferences about characters and events.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to make inferences when reading a fictional text using the textual evidence provided. In this tutorial, you'll read the short story "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin. You'll practice identifying what is directly stated in the text and what requires the use of inference. You'll practice making your own inferences and supporting them with evidence from the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text and demonstrate how and why scientific inferences are drawn from scientific observation and be able to identify examples in biology.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn that a scientific theory is the culmination of many experiments and supplies the most powerful explanation that scientists have to offer with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to define what science is and what it is not. In this interactive tutorial, you will identify why certain ways of exploring the universe can and cannot be considered scientific practices.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how the chemical properties of water relate to its physical properties and make it essential for life with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to distinguish between questions that can be answered by science and questions that science cannot answer. This interactive tutorial will help you distinguish between science and other ways of knowing, including art, religion, and philosophy.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify and define types of biotechnology and consider the impacts of biotechnologies on the individual, society and the environment in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore green chemistry and what it means to be benign by design in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part Two of this two-part series, you'll continue to explore excerpts from the Romantic novel Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. In this tutorial, you'll examine the author's use of juxtaposition, which is a technique of putting two or more elements side by side to invite comparison or contrast. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the author’s use of juxtaposition in excerpts from the first two chapters of Jane Eyre defines Jane’s perspective regarding her treatment in the Reed household.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to view Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Dive deeper into the famous short story “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov and explore the impact of a fifteen-year bet made between a lawyer and a banker.
In Part Three, you’ll learn about universal themes and explain how a specific universal theme is developed throughout “The Bet.”
Make sure to complete the first two parts in the series before beginning Part three. Click HERE to view Part One. Click HERE to view Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Educational Games
This interesting game is to hit the target located opposite a electron gun. The electron gun will fire an electron. This electron must not hit any walls or obstacles during the attempt. The user may direct the electron along a path by placing stationary positive and negative charges at various locations. This game will help support learning about the concept of the electric field, which is created when electrons repel other electrons.
Type: Educational Game
Students attempt to save towns from damage prior to the arrival of several different natural disasters. Students will learn the importance of early prevention and actions to protect others, themselves and their property when faced with a natural disaster. Certain disasters are more appropriate for particular grade levels. Each scenario takes between 20 and 45 minutes to play, depending on the disaster for which your students are trying to prepare. There are five scenarios available, hurricane, tsunami, flood, earthquake, and wildfire. Each scenario can be played on easy, medium or hard difficulty levels. As with life, there are no "perfect solutions" to each scenario and no "perfect score", so students can play multiple times and the scenarios will still be slightly different.These simulation are part of a larger website that provides multiple links for natural disasters.
Type: Educational Game
Image/Photograph
This flyer describes how NASA partners with small businesses for research and development to further space exploration. It directly discusses the impact of research on the economy and provides specific examples of innovations that resulted from partnerships with small businesses.
Type: Image/Photograph
Lesson Plans
In this lesson plan, students will explore the history and meaning behind various patriotic holidays and make personal connections with those holidays including, Constitution Day, Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Patriot Day, President’s Day, Independence Day, and Medal of Honor Day.
Type: Lesson Plan
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the concept of sea level rise as it occurs through climate change by having them examine 3 specific parameters: ice distribution, thermal expansion, and analyzing and interpreting data. The lesson and activities within the lesson were designed using the three dimensions of the Framework for K-12 Science Education and the Next Generation Science Standards – specifically crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. While there isn’t any required pre-requisite learning required for this lesson, a general understanding of sea-level rise, glaciers, and climate may be beneficial to students. During classroom breaks, pairs of students will develop/discuss their models, revise their interpretations of their models or data, and think-pair-share their thoughts on the investigation segments.
Type: Lesson Plan
This BLOSSOMS lesson discusses Carbon Dioxide, and its impact on climate change. The main learning objective is for students to become more familiar with human production of Carbon Dioxide gas, as well as to gain an awareness of the potential for this gas to effect the temperature of Earth’s atmosphere. This lesson should take about an hour to complete. In order to complete the lesson, the teacher will need: printed copies of signs representing the different products and processes that take place in the carbon cycle (included), samples of matter that represent those products, handouts for the students to create a graphic of the carbon cycle (included) and graph paper or graphing software for students to create graphs. In the breaks of this BLOSSOMS lesson, students will be creating models of the carbon cycle as well as observing experiments and analyzing data from them. It is hoped that this lesson will familiarize students with ways in which carbon moves through our environment and provide them with some personal connection to the impact that an increased concentration of CO2 can have on air temperature. The goal is to spark their interest and hopefully to encourage them to ask and investigate more questions about the climate.
Type: Lesson Plan
Perspectives Video: Experts
Explore how pendulums show the transformation of gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy and back with Dr. Simon Capstick in this engaging video. Don't miss his broken-nose defying test of the physics with a bowling ball pendulum.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
Advances in "big data" are leading to rapid developments in personalized medicine. Learn more!
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
Dr. Oates uses engineering practices to design artificial muscles that react to electrostatic fields.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
Plants need visible light, just not all of it. Learn how space plants and their lights strive for efficiency.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
Humans aren't the only ones who get their fingerprints taken. Learn how this scientist is like a crime scene investigator using oil "fingerprints" to explain the orgins of spilled oil.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
The director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory describes electromagnetic waves.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
A viticulture scientist explains grape expectations for medicine and society.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Expert
Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiasts
If you want to understand the atom, you'll need a lot of energy. Learn how physicists use high energy light and electrons to study atomic structure.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
One way to figure out what something is made of is to see what kinds of wavelengths of electromagnetic energy it can absorb.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
An archaeologist explains how he is using x-rays to reconstruct a nineteenth-century battle!
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Dive deep into science as an oceanographer describes conduction, convection, and radiation and their relationship to oceanic systems.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Forge a new understanding of metallurgy and heat transfer by learning how this blacksmith and collier make nails.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Archaeologists can see underground trends before everyone else with ground penetrating radar (GPR).
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Learn more about how splitting light beams helps researchers detect hydrogen fires for the space program.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Hydrogen is used to launch spacecraft, but accidental fires are difficult to see. Learn about the physics of these fires and how we detect them.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Landfills have a come a long way! Explore modern techniques for managing our environmental impact through responsible waste disposal.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Factors to consider when making pottery on the wheel are discussed, but not in a way that would make your head spin.
Download the CPALMS Perspectives video student note taking guide.
Type: Perspectives Video: Professional/Enthusiast
Presentation/Slideshow
It is often difficult, sometimes impossible, to get a definitive answer to some of life's most enduring questions. Scientific processes provide alternative explanations for a wide variety of phenomena by piecing together all the available information. This interactive activity on the Evolution website explores four possible hypotheses to explain what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, inviting the viewer to consider the evidence and come to their own decision.
Type: Presentation/Slideshow
Text Resources
An online passage which addresses the Health and Environmental risks of genetic engineering.
Type: Text Resource
This site presents the basic ideas of magnetism and applies these ideas to the earth's magnetic field. There are several useful diagrams and pictures interspersed throughout this lesson, as well as links to more detailed subjects. This is an introduction to a larger collection on exploring the Earth's magnetosphere. A Spanish translation is available.
Type: Text Resource
This site from the National Academy of Sciences presents uses, sources, costs, and efficiency of energy.
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study students can discuss "How can an employee"s behaviors and actions drive their career stability and path?"
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study, students can answer the question, "What are the limits of fair use regarding copyright protection?"
Type: Text Resource
Using this case study, students can answer the question, "How does the composition of a scene influence how the viewer feels?"
Type: Text Resource
Tutorials
This Khan Academy video describes what happens to a zygote as it becomes an embyro. It further explains what a stem cell is and discusses why there are questions concerning the use of stem cells.
Type: Tutorial
Water is both essential and unique. Many of its particular qualities stem from the fact that it consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen, therefore creating an unequal sharing of electrons. From fish in frozen lakes to ice floating on water, Christina Kleinberg describes the effects of polarity.
Type: Tutorial
Every day, we are bombarded by attention grabbing headlines that promise miracle cures to all of our ailments -- often backed up by a "scientific study." But what are these studies, and how do we know if they are reliable? David H. Schwartz dissects two types of studies that scientists use, illuminating why you should always approach the claims with a critical eye.
Type: Tutorial
This lab simulation will allow you to explore how carbon circulates through the environment. Through data collection and analysis, you will experiment with the impact that humans are having on the cycling of carbon and make data based predictions on how these impacts may change environmental outcomes to the year 2100.
Type: Tutorial
This tutorial will help the learners to understand the solar system and will learn how it was discovered from the historical astronomy perspective.
Type: Tutorial
Molecular clocks are models that use mutation rates to measure evolutionary time. Mutations tend to accumulate at a constant rate for related species. The rate of mutations is the ticking that powers a molecular clock. This tutorial will help the learners understand this concept in order to recognize how species diverge from a common ancestors.
Type: Tutorial
This resource explores the electromagnetic spectrum and waves by allowing the learner to observe the refraction of light as it passes from one medium to another, study the relation between refraction of light and the refractive index of the medium, select from a list of materials with different refractive indicecs, and change the light beam from white to monochromatic and observe the difference.
Type: Tutorial
- Observe the change of color of a black body radiator upon changes in temperature
- Understand that at 0 Kelvin or Absolute Zero there is no molecular motion
Type: Tutorial
- Observe that light is composed of oscillating electric and magnetic waves
- Explore the propagation of an electromagnetic wave through its electric and magnetic field vectors
- Observe the difference in propagation of light of different wavelengths
Type: Tutorial
- Explore the relationship between wavelength, frequency, amplitude and energy of an electromagnetic wave
- Compare the characteristics of waves of different wavelengths
Type: Tutorial
Video/Audio/Animations
With an often unexpected outcome from a simple experiment, students can discover the factors that cause and influence thermohaline circulation in our oceans. In two 45-minute class periods, students complete activities where they observe the melting of ice cubes in saltwater and freshwater, using basic materials: clear plastic cups, ice cubes, water, salt, food coloring, and thermometers. There are no prerequisites for this lesson but it is helpful if students are familiar with the concepts of density and buoyancy as well as the salinity of seawater. It is also helpful if students understand that dissolving salt in water will lower the freezing point of water. There are additional follow up investigations that help students appreciate and understand the importance of the ocean's influence on Earth's climate.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Ocean explorer Robert Ballard gives a TED Talk relating to the mysteries of the ocean, and the importance of its continued exploration.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video contains a demo that can be performed to show that light consists of particles
It also uses Lasers with different wavelengths
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
- Explain the processes of absorption and emission
- Describe how a laser works
- Determine the factors affecting lasing
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
A 4-minute video in which an Olympic freestyle skier and a physicist discuss the physics behind freestyle skiing.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
The Sun produces a solar wind — a continuous flow of charged particles — that can affect us on Earth. It can, for example, disrupt communications, navigation systems, and satellites. Solar activity can also cause power outages, such as the extensive Canadian blackout in 1989. In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn about solar storms and their effects on Earth.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
This video examines the vocabulary essential for understanding the nature of science and evolution and illustrates how evolution is a powerful, well-supported scientific explanation for the relatedness of all life. A clear definition and description of scientific theory is given.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
In this National Science Foundation video and reading selection lab ecologist Janis Dickinson explains how she depends on citizen scientists to help her track the effects of disease, land-use change and environmental contaminants on the nesting success of birds.
Type: Video/Audio/Animation
Virtual Manipulatives
In this simulation, learn about the black body spectrum of the sun, a light bulb, an oven and the earth. Adjust the temperature to see how the wavelength and intensity of the spectrum are affected.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Learn more about collisions with the use of a virtual air hockey table. Investigate simple and complex collisions in one and two dimensions.Experiment with the number of discs, masses and initial conditions. Vary the elasticity and see how the total momentum and kinetic energy changes during collisions.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:
- Draw "Before and After" pictures of collisions.
- Construct momentum vector representations of "Before and After" collisions.
- Apply law of conservation of momentum to solve problems with collisions.
- Explain why energy is not conserved and varies in some collisions.
- Determine the change in mechanical energy in collisions of varying "elasticity".
- What does "elasticity" mean?
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This simulation activity will help you understand the concept of vapor pressure which is defined as the pressure of the vapor resulting from evaporation of a liquid (or solid) above a sample of the liquid (or solid) in a closed container. You will also recognize that the vapor pressure of a liquid varies with its temperature, which can be seen with the help of a graph in the simulation.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
The split brain experiments revealed that the right and the left hemisphere in the brain are good at different things. For instance, the right hemisphere is good at space perception tasks and music while the left is good at verbal and analytic tasks. This game guides students through some examples of the split-brain phenomenon and how the differences are understood.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will allow the user to see how a magnetic field will effect the motion of a charged particle. The charge of the particle and the size of the magnetic field can be changed.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
- Observe the orbit of the earth around the sun and its relationship to seasons
- Understand the factors affecting Earth's climate
- Observe the effect of Earth's tilt on the seasons
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help the students to understand how the light shines on a metal surface. Students will recognize a process called as photoelectric effect wherein light can be used to push electrons from the surface of a solid.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:
- Visualize and describe the photoelectric effect experiment.
- Predict the results of the experiment, when the intensity of light is changed and its effects on the current and energy of the electrons.
- Predict the results of the experiment, when the wavelength of the light is changed and its effects on the current and the energy of the electrons.
- Predict the results of the experiment, when the voltage of the light is changed and its effects on the current and energy of electrons.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will allow you to produce light by bombarding atoms with electrons. You can also visualize how the characteristic spectra of different elements are produced, and configure your own element's energy states to produce light of different colors.
Other areas to investigate:
- Provide a basic design for a discharge lamp and explain the function of the different components.
- Explain the basic structure of an atom and relate it to the color of light produced by discharge lamps.
- Explain why discharge lamps emit only certain colors.
- Design a discharge lamp to emit any desired spectrum of colors.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help the students generate electricity with a bar magnet. Students can discover the physics behind the phenomena by exploring magnets and how they can be used to make a bulb light. They will recognize that any change in the magnetic environment of a coil of wire will cause a voltage to be induced in the coil.
Some of the sample learning goals can be:
- Identify equipment and conditions that produce induction.
- Compare and contrast how both a light bulb and voltmeter can be used to show characteristics of the induced current.
- Predict how the current will change when the conditions are varied.
- Explain practical applications of Faraday's Law.
- Explain what is the cause of the induction.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This simulation will provide an insight into the properties of gases. You can explore the more advanced features which enables you to explore three physical situations: Hot Air Balloon (rigid open container with its own heat source), Rigid Sphere (rigid closed container), and Helium Balloon (elastic closed container).
Through this activity you can:
- Determine what causes the balloon, rigid sphere, and helium balloon to rise up or fall down in the box.
- Predict how changing a variable among Pressure, Volume, Temperature and number influences the motion of the balloons.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This is a virtual manipulative to understand beta decay. In the Beta decay process, a neutron decays into a proton and an electron (beta radiation). The process also requires the emission of a neutrino to maintain momentum and energy balance. Beta decay allows the atom to obtain the optimal ratio of protons and neutrons.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative will help you to understand the process of alpha decay. Watch alpha particles escape from a polonium nucleus, causing radioactive alpha decay. See how random decay times relate to the half life.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Whether it is a tumor or not, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can tell. Your head is full of tiny radio transmitters (the nuclear spins of the hydrogen nuclei of your water molecules). In an MRI unit, these little radios can be made to broadcast their positions, giving a detailed picture of the inside of your head.
In this simulation you can:
- Recognize that light can flip spins if the energy of the photons matches the difference between the energies of spin up and spin down.
- Recognize that the difference between the energies of spin up and spin down is proportional to the strength of the applied magnetic field.
- Describe how to put these two ideas together to detect where there is a higher density of spins.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This activity will help to investigate how a greenhouse gas affects the climate, or why the ozone layer is important. Using this simulation, explore how light interacts with molecules in our atmosphere.
Areas to explore:
- How light interacts with molecules in our atmosphere.
- Identify that absorption of light depends on the molecule and the type of light.
- Relate the energy of the light to the resulting motion.
- Identify that energy increases from microwave to ultraviolet.
- Predict the motion of a molecule based on the type of light it absorbs.
- Identify how the structure of a molecule affects how it interacts with light.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Play with one or two pendulums and discover how the period of a simple pendulum depends on the length of the string, the mass of the pendulum bob, and the amplitude of the swing. It's easy to measure the period using the photogate timer. Students can vary friction and the strength of gravity.
- Design experiments to describe how variables affect the motion of a pendulum
- Use a photogate timer to determine quantitatively how the period of a pendulum depends on the variables you described
- Determine the gravitational acceleration of planet X
- Explain the conservation of Mechanical energy concept using kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy
- Describe energy chart from position or selected speeds
Type: Virtual Manipulative
- Explain what happens when the magnet moves through the coil at different speeds and how this affects the brightness of the bulb and the magnitude and sign of the voltage.
- Explain the difference between moving the magnet through the coil from the right side versus the left side.
- Explain the difference between moving magnet through the big coil versus the smaller coil.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
The students will see and hear the effects of changing the frequency and/or amplitude of a sound wave. This animation may also be used to demonstrate the Doppler effect, reflection and interference of sound waves.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Complete this virtual manipulative to gain a better understanding of nuclear fission. Study the basic principles behind chain reactions and a nuclear reactor.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
The students will watch as gases become trapped by the Earth's surface. They can examine different variables and the relationship between concentration of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, and temperature.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Learn about conservation of energy with a skater! Build tracks, ramps and jumps for the skater and view the kinetic energy, potential energy, thermal energy as he moves. You can adjust the amount of friction and mass. Measurement and graphing tools are built in.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
This virtual manipulative allows you to investigate various aspects of gases through virtual experimentation. From the site: Pump gas molecules to a box and see what happens as you change the volume, add or remove heat, change gravity, and more (open the box, change the molecular weight of the molecule). Measure the temperature and pressure, and discover how the properties of the gas vary in relation to each other.
Type: Virtual Manipulative
Congratulations
