Math-Sci-Guy

In this laboratory activity, students will read and plot stars on the HR Diagram. They will color the various parts of it the appropriate colors to relate them to the temperatures. The analysis questions lead students to discover the relative sizes of stars, explore the different star groups, and see where our sun fits into the picture. Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth Science Reference Tables. Even if you don't teach in New York State, they are a fan

This laboratory activity is about streams and erosion. It lets students watch erosion happen, deltas form, etc, and gives them experience trying to fight erosion. You will need stream tables, sand, buckets, etc to run this lab. This is one of the labs that I find my students have the most fun with. And honestly, the best lesson comes when some groups finish early and I tell them to try building dams and see how long they can stop the stream for. It usually only takes about a minute before som

In this lab, students practice correlating rock layers to determine the relative ages of fossils. The pictures in this lab were created as shapes in MS Word, so they do not get grainy when printed. :-) Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth Science Reference Tables. Even if you don't teach in New York State, they are a fantastic resource (both of information and to help students practice finding information elsewhere, which they will often do in the real wo

Students graph coastal water levels for two different cities, and discuss relationships that exist. Skills Practiced: graphing, reviewing the main graph types, applying math concepts to real life

Enjoy this laboratory activity about Latitude and Longitude! It gives students practice reading and using the latitude & longitude coordinate system on various maps. Specific skills practiced are reading locations on a map, plotting locations on a map, contemplating time zones and how they relate to Earth's rotation and solar noon vs clock noon. Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth Science Reference Tables. Even if you don't teach in New York State, the

Just like in the many disaster movies, this laboratory activity will allow students to investigate the effects of an asteroid hitting the earth. Students will drop plastic beads onto a tray of sand, causing impact craters from two different heights. They will measure the widths and depths of these craters, then answer questions that discuss their findings and relate it to the solar system, historical events, and possible real-life effects.

This laboratory activity is about watersheds in New York State and the USA. It lets students explore some major watersheds and gives them experience noting specific features. Most of these pictures are created as shapes in MS Word, so they do not get grainy when printed. Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth Science Reference Tables. Even if you don't teach in New York State, they are a fantastic resource (both of information and to help students practice findi

Students graph distances to various galaxies vs their speeds, and infer a direct relationship between the two. Skills Practiced: graphing, reviewing the main graph types, applying math concepts to real life

This is a single page (front & back) of fill-in-the-blank notes for teaching high school students how to identify the transformations of functions by looking at the equation. The answer key is included. Please do not re-post this on-line for others, and only give paper copies of the blank version to students. (Writing things by hand vastly improves memory & recall - make them fill in the blanks themselves!) Note: After this lesson, I assign the odd numbered questions from this worksheet

Everybody loves Christmas songs, but as teachers we also prize mental stimulation. This activity has the names of many popular Christmas songs written verbosely; the goal is to figure out the original titles. This is a great activity to do on the last day before winter break. (After doing this with my students, some of them learned that they don't know as many Christmas songs as they thought they did, and others learned that they know a lot of Christmas songs but only remember them after hear

In this laboratory activity, students will use a loop of string and two tacks to draw one circle and four different ellipses. They will then measure the focal distance and major axis of each of these, and use this data to calculate the eccentricity of each ellipse (and the circle). The analysis questions lead students to discover the overall patterns and apply the knowledge learned in this activity to planetary orbits. Note: Parts of the lab refer to the ESRT. This is New York State's Earth

This worksheet gives a graph (showing the temperatures of soil and water as they heat & cool) and asks students to calculate the rates of change on various intervals. The handout is printable in black/white/grey, and the answer key is attached (answers are filled-in in color). This worksheet is suitable for an Earth Science class as an application of specific heats and rates of heating/cooling, or a Math class as practice reading graphs and calculating slopes.

This notes sheet is set up grid-style, with the ten steps on Moh's Hardness Scale. It provides the steps, chemical formulas, and pictures of applications. Students will fill in the name of the mineral at each level and the common uses/applications. Answer key is included.

In this laboratory activity, students will use foam spheres and a lamp to recreate the Earth's moon's phases. They will then draw a diagram depicting/summarizing their results. The analysis questions lead students to think about the Earth-Moon-Sun system from various perspectives, including at precise times (eclipses), and relate this back to cyclic changes. All images are created as shapes in MS Word, so their quality does not degrade when printed.

This printout gives students an opportunity to explore a (possibly) real-life situation, empirically determine the minimum number of moves required to accomplish the task, then gather the data and find a pattern to describe it. The activity is completely printable (which also gives students the opportunity to do something with their hands (cutting) and lets them practice fine motor coordination, though if you want to spice it up students could cut discs out of corrugated cardboard (

In this lab, students graph yearly sunspot data and make predictions about the future of the sunspot cycle. Additionally, there is currently an interactive here ( https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/lab/sun/research) where students can count sunspots and compare their numbers to the actual data. If you like this, PLEASE rate it (favorably?) and consider purchasing some of my other work.

In this worksheet, students review some galaxy types, how scientists determine temperature, composition, distance, & speed from starlight, the name & structure of our galaxy, the definition of a light year, and three pieces of evidence for the Big Bang.