Description: Ice cube spikes form when the exterior of the ice cube freezes first and the expanding water from the inside is forced out through a small hole or weak spot in the exterior. The phenomenon can be used to show the reversible change of freezing in elementary or the intermolecular forces between molecules in high school chemistry.
Web Resource: Spikes on Ice Cubes
Description: Simon Rodia spent 30 years building the The Towers of Watts using material that other people had thrown away. This large object is made of pieces that were once part of other objects and can be used as a phenomenon to start building the foundations of chemistry. The book also can be connected to a literacy and sustainability unit.
Web Resources: Watts Tower - Wikipedia, The Wonderful Tower of Watts on Amazon
Description: Conductivity is an excellent way to classify material by their observable properties. Conducting material (e.g. metal), non-conducting material (e.g. plastic), and semi-conducting material (e.g. graphite) should all be used. A simple circuit with a lightbulb is used to determine the conductivity of different materials. These properties can be used to determine if a chemical change has occurred by testing before and after substances have been mixed. These properties can also be used in the design of an engineering solution.
Web Resource: Teach Engineering - Conductivity
Description: Precious Plastics was created in 2013 by Dave Hakkens. It is a website that shares DIY plans for building machines that can recycle plastic. Plastic is recreated through a non-reversible reaction and if it isn't recycled this valuable plastic is often lost forever when it is dumped in a landfill. These plans have spawned a community of DIY plastic recyclers around the world. Even though most students lack the ability to construct these machines it may lead to simple projects like the Ecobricks project linked below.
Web Resources: Precious Plastic, Ecobricks - plastic, solved
Description: The Marianas Trench is the deepest point in the ocean. It is located in the western Pacific and reaches a maximum depth of 10,994 meters below sea level. If Mount Everest were dropped into the trench the peak would still be a mile underwater! This trench is formed at a subduction zone as the Pacific and Marina oceanic plates collide. This also creates the volcanic Mariana island. This phenomenon can be used to introduce patterns of landforms in elementary and the plate tectonics in middle and high school.
Web Resource: Marianas Trench - Wikipedia
Description: The UAE is exploring the idea of building a mountain to increase rainfall in the area. The government has already used cloud seeding in the area to increase rainfall and is currently exploring a mega-project to build a mountain. This could be used as an anchoring phenomenon in a unit on weather and climate. The design solution would mimic the role of mountains in affecting climates around the world.
Web Resource: Independent - UAE to Build ‘Fake” Mountain
Description: Stilt houses are built on pilings to avoid local weather conditions like storms and flooding. This engineering design solution allows humans to reduce the impact of weather-related hazards. Students can evaluate the merits of this solution or design solutions of their own for a local environment.
Web Resources: Stilt House - Wikipedia, Make it Right
Description: The Himalayan rabbit is an excellent example of an organism that shows how the environment can affect traits. A rabbit kit (baby) that is exposed to as little as 20 minutes of cold will develop darker fur. Since the ears and feet of a Himalayan rabbit are colder they are generally black in color. In a classic genetics experiment a Himalayan is shaved and then an ice pack is placed on its back. The fur grows back black in the location that was cooled.
Web Resources: Himalayan Rabbit Markings - Wikipedia , Pathwayz - Genetics/Environment
By SableSteel [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
By SableSteel [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons
Description: Ants show one of the highest forms of social (or group) interactions, known as eusociality. In the following two videos ants work together to carry a large food item and create a bridge made of ants. The individual goals of ants are less important than the overall goals of the colony. Bees, wasps, termites and even some mammals (like the the naked mole-rat) show a similar behavior.
Web Resource: Eusociality - Wikipedia
Description: Dams provide hydroelectric power and recreation to much of the Pacific Northwest. However these dams block the normal migration of salmon upstream to spawn. Whoosh Systems has created a "salmon cannon" that may the problem of salmon migration. Salmon are moved up a vacuum tube and launched into the water above the dam.
Web Resources: Meet the Salmon Cannon - Geek Wire, Whooshh Innovations
Description: The cordyceps fungi has a fascinating life cycle. Spores from the fungi are ingested by an insect (like an ant). The fungi takes over the insect causing it to climb to a high branch and hold tight with its mandibles. A fruiting body then emerges from the head of the insect and spreads more spores that infect more insects. Different species of cordyceps infect different species of insects. This phenomenon can be used to introduce the diverse and unique life cycles found in organisms.
Web Resource: Cordyceps Fungi - Wikipedia
Description: As ocean water freezes into solid ice the remaining saltwater forms into icy "stalactites" that descend into the ocean. This can be used as a phenomenon in an elementary class to show changes in state. In middle and high school the chemistry can be explored more deeply.
Web Resource: Brinicle - Wikipedia
Description: Time lapse allows students to see phenomenon that they would normally be able to see. Make sure to use some phenomenon that are reversible (e.g. melting and freezing) and some that are non-reversible (e.g. burning)
Description: Human skin color can change in response to environmental changes (i.e. getting a sunburn or a suntan). However the root cause of our skin color is genetic and comes from our ancestors. UV radiation causes damage to the DNA in our cells and can lead to various forms of cancer. If your ancestors lived in an area that received large amounts of UV radiation (i.e. closer to the equator) humans evolved darker skin for protection through the process of natural selection. However light is also important since it allows humans to synthesize vitamin D. Therefore if your ancestors lived in an area that receives little light (i.e. near the poles) they evolved lighter skin.
Web Resources: Human Skin Color - Wikipedia, The Biology of Skin Color - HHMI
Description: It is estimated that 75% of plant and animal (including dinosaur) species went extinct after the Earth was hit with a massive asteroid 66 million years ago. Evidence includes a thin layer of rock containing iridium (rarely found on Earth but common in asteroids) around the planet. Scientists have also discovered a large impact crater. The cause of the extinction is fairly clear but the details of the effects leave much to be explored.
Web Resource: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event - Wikipedia
Description: When Darwin visited the Galapagos Island he collected a number of bird species that he brought back to England. He presented them to ornithologist John Gould thinking they were a variety of birds and he was told that they were all different varieties of finches. This led Darwin to speculate that a population of finches had arrived on the islands and had adapted to different climates through natural selection. However Darwin was never able to observe evolution taking place. Researchers Peter and Rosemary Grant have been observing evolution of Galapagos finches for the last 40 years. One of the most famous studies involved the change in beak depth of medium ground finches during times of drought. Birds that had small beaks were unable to open the dry seeds causing microevolution in the surviving birds.
Web Resources: Peter and Rosemary Grant Research - Wikipedia, The Beak of the Finch - HHMI
Description: North America (like Africa today) was once covered with large megafauna (animals weighing more than 100 pounds). This included giant mammoths, ground sloths, and beavers the size of a large bear. However most of these animals disappeared by 11,000 years ago. What was the cause of this extinction? Humans, climate, or a combination of the two? Phenomenon like this can be found around the World and can introduce the idea of human impacts on the environment.
Web Resource: What Killed the Great Beasts of North America?
Description: The tail of the male peacock is a great example of sexual selection. Female peafowl are attracted to male peacocks with the largest and most ornate train. The ability of male peacocks to create a large train is related to their overall fitness. Therefore females are more likely to have healthy chicks if they mate with a male with the largest train. Scientists were able to measure female choice by trimming the trains of normally healthy male peacocks which led to them not being selected as potential mates.
Web Resources: A Peacock’s Tail - The Guardian, Evolution and Sexual Selection in Peafowl - Wikipedia
Description: Biology Professor Con Slobdochikoff and his team have shown that prairie dogs have a complex language for communicating danger from predators. Dogs, badgers, coyotes, and humans all have distinctive calls to alert the other members of the colony. Dr. Slobdochikoff has even shown that these warning calls can have descriptors (e.g. a large human with a green shirt is approaching). This phenomenon can be used to show the advantages of group living as well as information sensation, processing, and behavior / memory formation.
Web Resource: Can Prairie Dogs Talk? - The New York Times
Description: Everyone loves slime...especially elementary students. This phenomenon is a great introduction into chemical reactions. The properties of the reactants can be compared to the properties of the products to show that a chemical reaction has occurred. In high school the chemistry of polymers and cross-linking can be explored through slime.
Web Resource: The Science of Slime - American Chemical Society
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