Background Information for Models and Designs
 
On this page, you'll find links that fellow
teachers and KSN staff have recommended. These
links are tools to help guide your background
research on the topics covered within your kit.
energy/work | machines | paper | solar
energy | symmetry and
printing | time
Energy/Work
Work, Energy, and Power
This is an excellent resource for those working with the
middle school STC Energy, Machines, and Motion kit. Written
for ninth graders, the information may be a touch more
advanced than you need, but this is likely to be a
comprehensive source for you to gain a thorough
understanding of the principles at work in this kit.
How a Block and Tackle Works
How Stuff Works offers an explanation of the block and
tackle arrangement that uses rope and pulleys to trade force
for distance. The diagrams and text are very
straightforward.
How Force, Power, Torque, and Energy Work
How Stuff Works tackles a lot of the
terms key to understanding mechanics, carefully and
precisely defining mass, force, torque, work, power, and
energy, while giving excellent illustrative examples to
explain each.
Physics4Kids: Motion
This site takes the time to break down the terms involved
in discussing motion and mechanics, such as acceleration,
vectors, friction, and velocity, and strings the subjects
together in a sensible narrative. It's especially good for
middle school aged students.
How a Battery Works
This page provides detailed information and useful diagrams
that explain the parts of a battery and how it all works.
This is a nice summation, but the language gets a little
advanced, so it may be most appropriate for you or older
students.
Batteries Movie
Check
out this animated movie from BrainPOP that explains and
illustrates exactly how batteries work. The explanation gets
a little complicated, so the visuals are especially helpful
in keeping it from getting too confusing.
Cars Movie
The
friendly animated science folks at BrainPOP offer this short
movie that explains how car engines work, carefully
illustrating the roles of the pistons, fuel, spark plug, and
more. This is a good movie for students learning about
vehicles and for adults who'd like to know more about how
their cars work.
Related kits: Energy, Machines, and Motion
(STC/MS); Models and Designs (FOSS); and
Structures (Insights)
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Machines
Simple Machines
This
page from The Franklin Institute provides easy-to-understand
explanations and images of simple machines, including the
inclined plane, lever, wedge, screw, pulley, and wheel and
axle. There are also useful links interspersed in the text
and at the bottom of the page if you'd like to investigate
further.
The Elements of Machines
Featuring photographs and brief text explanations, this
page from the Boston Museum of Science provides an overview
of the most common simple machines as well as machines that
build upon the elements of simple machines, such as gears,
cams, and chains and belts.
Simple Machines Made Simpler
Singaporean students created this site, and they
offer clear, comprehensive explanations of simple machines,
as well as a worthy photo journal of the simple machines
they located in and around their school building. This site
is useful for the content as well as for their student
perspective.
What Is a Lever?
From
Scholastic.com, the Dirtmeister explains the science of
levers, using scissors as an example that incorporates the
basic elements of levers. You can also click to his Science
Lab activity that explores how you could build a lever that
could lift four times your weight.
Inclined Plane Movie
This animated BrainPOP movie uses a question about ramps as
a starting point to explain what inclined planes are, what
work is and how inclined planes can modify work, as well as
where inclined planes show up in everyday life.
Levers Movie
BrainPOP reveals how levers work through clever animation.
They explain how levers magnify effort, detail the parts of
levers (lever, load, fulcrum) and show real-life examples of
levers and their applications, all in an appealing, kid-
friendly way.
Related kits: Energy, Machines, and Motion
(STC/MS); Models and Designs (FOSS); Structures
(Insights); and Measuring Time (STC)
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Paper
Paper University
As
the site proclaims, this is "the place where students and
teachers explore the world of paper." Great graphics and
information make this site friendly, and there are many
useful sections, including facts about paper, recycling, and
the environment; links and resources for students and
teachers; science activities that use paper; and papermaking
projects.
Paper
These short
encyclopedic pages explain what paper is, how it is made,
and offers some history on paper's origins. This information
is written at a level better suited to adults than younger
students. Good trivia: read the section that explains that
paper was first produced in the American colonies in
Philadelphia.
How Paper Is Made
The
Idaho Forest Products Commission's website for kids offers
this section that explains each step of how paper is made.
There's also a very nice short movie linked at the bottom of
the page that clearly explains how paper tissue (as used in
toilet paper, facial tissues, and napkins) is made.
From Pulp to Paper
This site, written for kids, walks you though each step of
how recycled paper is made. Each step has good animations
that illustrate the process. It features straightforward
language appropriate for adults and students.
Related kit: Technology of Paper (STC)
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Solar Energy
Solar Power FAQs
This
questions and answers cover some of the big issues related
to solar power, including "What is solar power?," "What
happens when the sun doesn't shine?," and "How much does
solar power cost?"
How Solar Cells Work
This piece from How Stuff Works explains just how solar
cells—such as those found on some calculators,
emergency road signs, and even satellites—convert the
sun's energy directly into electricity. This article would
provide neat information not only for those working with the
Solar Energy kit, but may provide some interesting
connections for those studying Ideas and Inventions as
well.
How the Sun Works
Yes, here's an explanation of the workings of the star that
makes all life on earth possible. This resource explores the
parts of the sun, the way it makes light and heat, and its
major features.
Related kit: Solar Energy (FOSS)
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Symmetry and Printing
Line and Point
Symmetry
The author
(a teacher) has created short and pictorial descriptions and
mini-lessons dealing with line and point symmetry. This site
is very helpful for illustrating exactly what symmetry
means.
Mirror Systems in Kaleidoscopes
This FAQ page on a commercial kaleidoscope site
provides a nice (if somewhat mathematical) explanation of
how the mirrors within kaleidoscopes produce certain types
of symmetrical images.
Symmetry and Pattern: The Art of Oriental
Carpets
This site
from Drexel University's Math Forum and The Textile Museum
in Washington, DC provides really easy to understand details
about symmetry, asymmetry, basic types of symmetries, and
grids. Click on "About Symmetry and Pattern."
Carbon Printing
Most relevant for those working with FOSS's
Ideas and Inventions, this page explains the
history and process of carbon printing. (If you
continue to click through the sequence, it will
take you through other photography
methods.)
Related kit: Ideas and Inventions (FOSS)
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Time
Clockworks from Sundials to the Atomic Second
This lovely site from Brittanica.com offers an animated
exhibition explaining the sundial, clepsydra, astrolabe,
candle clock, sandglass, weight driven clock, spring driven
clock, pendulum clock, quartz watch, and cesium atomic
clock.
Time and the History of its Measurement
This simple page nicely covers some of the major ways humans
have used to demarcate and track time in different
civilizations over the millennia, focusing on sun clocks and
water clocks.
Pendulums
This is a basic and thorough explanation of what pendulums
are, how they work, and why they're used, including how
they're employed to create pendulum clocks.
How Pendulum Clocks Work
Investigate one of the seemingly complex and yet quite
simple applications of simple machines. Pendulum clocks were
the first clocks with any sort of accuracy, and you can
learn the details of how they operate here.
Clocks. . . Teaching Time
This large resource, created by a group of educators working
in collaboration with The Franklin Institute Online, offers
stories of historic timepieces in the museum's collection as
well as activities and resources that complement the clocks
and the study of time in general. Explore the list of
projects, activities, lesson plans, and vocabulary and book
lists arranged along the left side of the home page.
How Time Works
This How Stuff Works article seeks to explain how humans
came to track time and why, as well as how clocks and
calendars got developed.
Phases of the Moon
From the Astronomy Department at the University of Maryland,
this simple page explains and illustrates the phases of the
Earth's moon. This is a handy, straightforward
reference.
Sun or Moon Rise/Set Table for One Year
The U.S. Naval Observatory offers this simple page that will
calculate and chart the times that the sun and moon will
rise and set over the course of a year. This could be a neat
opportunity to challenge your students to record the rise
and set times on their own and see how they compare to the
chart. Note that the chart provides times written in the
military style, and you may need to adjust for daylight
savings time.
Related kit: Measuring Time (STC)
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