STEM
November 13-November 19, 2013

Find the latest educational resources from Iowa Public Television.

PBS Kids Writers Contest: Read & Create Stories
Grades: K-3

The PBS Kids Writers Contest is for students who want to write and illustrate their own stories. Read stories by other students and create new stories using the story creation tool. Support materials include a comprehensive Writing Guide and handouts that teach students the elements of story writing.

Cow's Eye Dissection
Grade Range: 6-12

This interactive activity adapted from the Exploratorium delves into the structure and function of the vertebrate eye. Follow a videotaped dissection of a cow eye and then compare and contrast what you've seen with an interactive diagram of the human eye.

Energy Transfer in a Trebuchet
Grade Range: 6-12

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a team of historians, engineers, and trade experts recreate a medieval throwing machine called a trebuchet. To launch a projectile, a trebuchet utilizes the transfer of gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy. A massive counterweight at one end of a lever falls because of gravity, causing the other end of the lever to rise and release a projectile from a sling. As part of their design process, the engineers use models to help evaluate how well their designs will work.

Velcro
Grade Range: 1-4

In this animated video from LOOP SCOOPS, a sphinx asks two children how a pair of sneakers is like a dog that has been outside. The kids discuss how dogs, after being outside, sometimes return to the house covered in burrs. Looking at both burrs and Velcro� under a magnifying glass, the children discover that both are covered with tiny hooks. The sphinx explains that the inventor of Velcro� was actually inspired by a walk in the woods with his dog.

The Science of Lewis and Clark
Grade Range: 4-6

This video segment from IdahoPTV's D4K points out that the mission of the Core of Discovery was map and to document the science of the plants, animals, land and people of their journey. They wrote about 178 plants and 120 animals. You hear their descriptions in their own words from their journals.

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