STEM
October 2-October 9, 2013

Find the latest STEM resources from Iowa Public Television.

Crack Hacker's Safe
Grades: 3-5

In this Cyberchase interactive, you must complete a series of shape, number and color patterns to crack Hacker's safe. Given the first four terms in the pattern, you must select the correct color/number/shape combination of the next term.

Formulas: Area of a Circle

Grades: 9-13+

Learning about formulas will help you develop a strong foundation for your work in geometry. This video explains the formula for finding the area of a circle.

Unit Conversion: Water Use

Grades: 5-8

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students watch videos and complete interactive activities to learn how much water various activities use and explore ways that they can conserve water resources. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore a mathematics focus on using fractions to convert units of measurement. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities.

Critical Condition: The U.S. Health Care Crisis
Grade Range: 9-13

This lesson plan is designed to be used with the film Critical Condition, which tells the stories of four uninsured Americans as they battle illness over a two-year period. Classrooms can use this lesson to examine health insurance coverage in America and create public service announcements to connect the uninsured with free and subsidized health care services.

Illuminating Photosynthesis
Grade Range: 3-12

This interactive feature from NOVA explores the process plants use to convert solar energy into chemical energy. The site points out that photosynthesis is responsible for feeding nearly all life forms on Earth, and that the process generates, as a by-product, an element that is critically important to the survival of humans and most other animals: oxygen.

Tiktaalik: A Fish Out of Water
Grade Range: 5-8

In this blended lesson supporting literacy skills, students learn that transitional fossils provide scientists with evidence to establish how major animal groups are related to one another in evolutionary terms. Students develop their literacy skills as they explore a science focus on a recently discovered fossil named Tiktaalik. During this process, they read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through a video and interactive activities.

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