"Pieces of Science" is an online gallery of sixteen educational resources related to a collection of historical science objects. These pages discuss the history of Ben Franklin and the lightning rod. There are references for additional information and links to lesson plans and student activities, both on and off-line. Full description.

In this lesson, students explore different aspects of solar energy by building a solar hot box and testing various colors and materials to find the maximum temperature that can be reached. They will review the basic needs for alternative energy sources, identify three materials and colors that will produce maximum heat, and solve a design problem for the hot box. Full description.

Looking at the World in a Different Light is a Windows to the Universe Exploratour and provides information and images about radiant energy, infrared light, ultraviolet light, electromagnetic radiation, visible light, rods, and cones. Windows to the Universe is a user-friendly learning system pertaining to the Earth and Space sciences. The objective of this project is to develop an innovative and ... Full description.

This classroom project will compare and contrast three NASA satellites: The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE), The Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The lesson includes access to data and images from these three satellites, contrasting the way the sky appears in three very different electromagnetic wavelengths or colors of light. Other satellite information ... Full description.

This tour of auroral phenomena utilizes research images and taped interviews with scientists. Diagrams and text provide background on qualitative magneto-dynamics, and locations of auroral zones on the Earth. Variations in color are used to introduce ideas about spectroscopy. This activity will familiarize students with auroral phenomena and where they appear on the Earth's surface, relate auroras ... Full description.

This lesson is based on the concepts of frequency and wavelength, how they relate to each other, and how they correlate with the colors of the visible spectrum. The students will examine these concepts through a hands-on lab that involves measuring and timing wavelengths by pulling adding machine tape through a simple, student-made apparatus. This lab is followed up with critical thinking and performance ... Full description.

In this lesson students are provided background information about telescopes. In addition the site presents an activity in which students study the properties of lenses and build a simple refracting telescope. They are instructed to add optical telescope, refracting telescope, objective lens, and eyepiece to a vocabulary list. The site contains the first in a series of six lessons in astronomy. Full description.

In this activity, students investigate the presence of magnetic fields around magnets, the sun and the earth. They will explore magnetic field lines, understand that magnetic lines of force show the strength and direction of magnetic fields, determine how field lines interact between attracting and repelling magnetic poles, and discover that the earth and sun have magnetic properties. They will also ... Full description.

In this activity students investigate the role of the Ultraviolet Imager on the Image for Magnetopause-to-Auroral Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite. They will experiment with color filters and discover that the sun's light can be broken into many colors through the use of a spectrograph. They will also learn that certain wavelengths of energy are not visible to our eyes, and that highly specialized ... Full description.

By performing various activities to model the magnetic fields around the sun, students will gain an understanding of how the restructuring of these magnetic fields can cause a variety of seemingly unrelated shapes and phenomena. They will discover how changes in this magnetic field cause phenomena like coronal mass ejections, filaments, sunspots, and magnetic loops. Students will also examine images ... Full description.