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Take a virtual tour of the prehistoric caves at Lascaux, France. The discovery of Lascaux in 1940 opened a new page in the knowledge of prehistoric art and our origins. Monumental work, the cave continues to feed the imagination and move the new generations of the world. This website is intended to help understand the secrets of the artists who painted and engraved bestiary at Lascaux 19,000 years ago, and to present the current trends in scientific research on the painted caves.

Create a laser by pumping the chamber with a photon beam. Manage the energy states of the laser's atoms to control its output.

This activity is a guided inquiry or demonstration where students investigate elastic potential energy and gravitational potential energy and interpret their findings as related to Newton's Laws of motion.

An interactive applet that allows the user to graphically explore the properties of a linear functions. Specifically, it is designed to foster an intuitive understanding of the effects of changing the two coefficients in the function y=ax+b. The applet shows a large graph of a quadratic (ax + b) and has two slider controls, one each for the coefficients a and b. As the sliders are moved, the graph is redrawn in real time illustrating the effects of these variations. Applet can be enlarged to full screen size for use with a classroom projector. This resource is a component of the Math Open Reference Interactive Geometry textbook project at http://www.mathopenref.com.

The unit is focused on the examination of geography in terms of “place.” Students dive into inquiry to answer the compelling question, What is unique about living in Washington? Through this question students will understand where and why people live in Washington State. Students will dive into the regions of Washington State and define it through many characteristics. Students will ultimately choose a region to become an expert on and communicate what makes that region unique. Each student’s performance task product will reflect choice and build upon student strengths according to their skill set.

In this interactive, students look at actual endoscopic images from a healthy person and from M’Kenna, the patient presented in the unit. They take a tour of the digestive system stopping at different points to look at images. This is used in Lesson 2 of Unit 7.3 of the OpenSciEd curriculum.

Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.

This video demonstration illustrates the parabolic motion of the center of mass of a moving object. Non-symmetric objects are tossed, first is full light and then black light. Black lights are used to show the motion of the center of mass marked with florescent paint. A distinction between the center of an object and the center of mass is also made. The video includes a short explanation of the demonstration. This video is part of a video demonstration collection created by the Physics Department at MIT.

This video displays normal modes in a vibrating system through the motion of air carts connected by springs on an air track. When this system is at resonant frequency, symmetrical patterns called normal modes appear. The normal modes are shown in both driven and undriven cases, and the demonstration is repeated for systems of two, three, and five coupled carts. The video includes a short explanation of the demonstration. See Related Materials for an interactive Java simulation that addresses the same concept. This resource is part of a video demonstration collection created by the Physics Department at MIT.

This simulation has students investigate changing the strength of forces in a magnetic field. It can be used in Lesson 11 of Unit 8.3 Forces at a Distance of the OpenSciEd curriculum.

A realistic mass and spring laboratory. Hang masses from springs and adjust the spring stiffness and damping. You can even slow time. Transport the lab to different planets. A chart shows the kinetic, potential, and thermal energy for each spring.

Learn about position, velocity, and acceleration in the "Arena of Pain". Use the green arrow to move the ball. Add more walls to the arena to make the game more difficult. Try to make a goal as fast as you can.

Insert channels in a membrane and see what happens. See how different types of channels allow particles to move through the membrane.

In this simulation, students are able to explore a microscopic model of friction.

How do microwaves heat up your coffee? Adjust the frequency and amplitude of microwaves. Watch water molecules rotating and bouncing around. View the microwave field as a wave, a single line of vectors, or the entire field.

How did scientists figure out the structure of atoms without looking at them? Try out different models by shooting light at the atom. Check how the prediction of the model matches the experimental results.

What determines the concentration of a solution? Learn about the relationships between moles, liters, and molarity by adjusting the amount of solute and solution volume. Change solutes to compare different chemical compounds in water.

Discover what controls how fast tiny molecular motors in our body pull through a single strand of DNA. How hard can the motor pull in a tug of war with the optical tweezers? Discover what helps it pull harder. Do all molecular motors behave the same?

Students will predict bond polarity using electron negativity values; indicate polarity with a polar arrow or partial charges; rank bonds in order of polarity; and predict molecular polarity using bond polarity and molecular shape.