Proving an Ecosystem’s Health Through Succession
Students engage in viewing day three of ecosystem changes in lab groups to determine if the ecosystem is healthy or unhealthy based on scientific data and factors.
Got Force?
Students use various surfaces and a weighted car to see how far the car will travel using balanced and unbalanced forces.
Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic Cells
Students will categorize cells as prokaryotic or eukaryotic by identifying the presence or lack of a nucleus.
Teacher Summing Up Lesson
Lights, Camera, Action!
Students compare and contrast potential and kinetic energy by creating a real-world model through a movie.
Does it have Potential?
Students will work with partners to investigate how mass, potential energy, and kinetic energy act on objects dropped from varying heights.
Video of the lesson being taught
Mendelian Genetics Using Monohybrids
Students will work collaboratively through a fictitious, real-world scenario to determine the probability of each breeding pair of dogs producing offspring with the desired trait for a fictitious client.
Demonstration and Analysis of Dihybrid Crosses
The students will review related vocabulary, watch the teacher model a dihybrid cross, and then perform a dihybrid cross and answer questions about the outcomes with a partner.
Producing Plump Produce
In collaborative groups, the students investigate the transport of water within potato cells placed in various tonicity solutions.
Teacher explains the task to the students
Energy Transfer in an Ecosystem
All matter contains energy. Energy can be transferred from one object to another. Energy transformation can occur through the conversion of energy from one form to another. Energy is never created nor destroyed; it is always transferred and/or transformed. Students will demonstrate how energy is transformed and transferred in an ecosystem. To do this, students will create energy pyramids by stacking cups that represent organisms and available amounts of energy. Students will graph and analyze the data.
Students working on the task
Biotic and Abiotic Factors of an Ecosystem
Students will explore abiotic and biotic factors in various ecosystems by working through stations. Students will be able to identify and describe abiotic and biotic factors within an ecosystem.
Motion Pictures
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the concept of motion representation using distance vs. time graphs. Students will recognize labeling of axes, steepness related to speed, horizontal lines as non-motion, and downward slope as return to origin.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Related to the Unit
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Earth: A Tilted Affair
After a brief review of direct and indirect sunlight, students will arrange heat maps and globes around a drawing of the Sun based on the tilt of Earth and how it affects Earth’s temperature.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) Related to the Unit
Click below to learn about the TEKS related to this unit.
DNA Sequencing
In this lesson, students will investigate how gene expression is a regulated process controlled by DNA and the interpretations of codons through translation.
Plant, Parts, and Function
Students use prior knowledge of body systems as they make connections to systems in plants. Students learn that some plant systems have similar functions as the respective animal systems. The lesson highlights the following systems in plants: root system, shoot system, vascular system, and reproductive system.
Gravity in Space
Students will participate in stations that reinforce their understanding of gravity, especially gravity in space.
What's going on with our plates?
The students will work collaboratively in small, ability-based groups in stations that will require them to use their academic vocabulary, academic language, and self-assessment to generate a product showing what they have learned.
Let's FIND Speed!
This research lesson requires students to distinguish between speed, distance, and time. Students will use formulas to calculate the three using a checklist. Students will also create their own speed, distance, or time word problem using the knowledge gained in this lesson.
Study Edge Chemistry
In Chemistry, students will conduct laboratory and field investigations and make informed decisions using critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Students will study a variety of topics that include characteristics of matter, use of the Periodic Table, development of atomic theory and chemical bonding, chemical stoichiometry, gas laws, solution chemistry, thermochemistry, and nuclear chemistry. Students will investigate how chemistry is an integral part of our daily lives (TAC §112.35(b)(1)).
This video book is brought to you by TEA and Study Edge. It may be used to teach an entire Chemistry course or to supplement traditional Chemistry textbooks.
This open-education-resource instructional material by TEA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License in accordance with Chapter 31 of the Texas Education Code.
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Study Edge Physics
In Physics, students will conduct laboratory and field investigations, use scientific methods during investigations, and make informed decisions using critical thinking and scientific problem solving. Students study a variety of topics that include: laws of motion; changes within physical systems and conservation of energy and momentum; forces; thermodynamics; characteristics and behavior of waves; and atomic, nuclear, and quantum physics. Students who successfully complete Physics will acquire factual knowledge within a conceptual framework, practice experimental design and interpretation, work collaboratively with colleagues, and develop critical thinking skills (TAC §112.39(b)(1)).
This video book is brought to you by TEA and Study Edge. It may be used to teach an entire Physics course or to supplement traditional Physics textbooks.
This open-education-resource instructional material by TEA is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License in accordance with Chapter 31 of the Texas Education Code.
Please provide feedback on Study Edge's open-education-resource instructional materials.
What’s the Verdict? An Investigation of Herbicide Drift on Grapevines
Students will investigate the possible effects of herbicide drift on grape production by making inferences from an article about a local vineyard and using various experimental materials.
Students demonstrate their experiment design