Blood Pressure
Why do you feel dizzy if you stand up too quickly?
Themes: Biology & Medicine and Human Body
Topics: Biophysics, Fluids, and Pressure
Grades: 8-10
Bats and the Doppler Shift
What compensation for Doppler shifts do bats perform to keep their echoes within their hearing range?
Themes: Animals, Biology & Medicine, and Waves
Topics: Biophysics and Sound
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Nerve Impulses
Why are eye-foot and eye-hand reaction times different?
Themes: Biology & Medicine and Human Body
Topics: Biophysics
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
True, False, or Not Sure? Philosophy of Science in the 21st century
Whatever happened to objective reality? Why is anthropogenic climate change so hard to “prove”?
Topics: Climate, Energy, and Science Literacy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Dimensional Analysis
Unsure if your result makes sense?
Themes: Skills and Techniques
Topics: Mathematics and Science Literacy
Grades: 8-10
Scientific Notation
“The suspect is a male, age 1.73 ร 109 s, height 1.83 m, weight 7.5 ร 101 kg…”
Themes: Skills and Techniques
Topics: Mathematics and Tools
Grades: 8-10
Order of Magnitude Calculations
How can we make reasonable approximations without tedious calculations?
Themes: Skills and Techniques
Topics: Mathematics, Science Literacy, and Tools
Grades: 8-10
Significant Figures
This tyrannosaurus is 70,000,003 years old. How many significant figures should I quote?
Themes: Skills and Techniques
Topics: Mathematics and Tools
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Thermal Radiation
All bodies emit radiation. So why don’t we all shine in the dark?
Themes: Climate, Energy and Environment, and Energy use at Home
Topics: Climate and Energy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Energy Replacement
Themes: Electricity Generation, Energy and Environment, Energy use at Home, Renewable and Clean Energy, and Transportation
Topics: Conservation, Electricity, Energy, and Forces
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Heating (and Cooling) Buildings
Themes: Energy and Environment, Energy use at Home, and Non-renewable and non-clean energy
Topics: Electricity, Energy, and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Food as Energy
Themes: Animals, Human Body, and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Biophysics, Energy, and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
A Simple Approach to the Energy Cost of Flying
It takes energy to fly. How much?
Themes: Climate and Energy and Environment
Topics: Climate, Efficiency, and Energy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Price of Electricity
We are used to buying food by the kg, but how much does energy cost and how do different sources compare?
Themes: Electricity Generation, Energy and Environment, and Energy use at Home
Topics: Electricity
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Price of Natural Gas
We are used to buying food by the kg, but how much does energy cost and how do different sources compare?
Themes: Energy use at Home and Non-renewable and non-clean energy
Topics: Energy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
CO2e
What does the “e” mean?
Themes: Climate, Energy and Environment, and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Climate and Energy
Grades: 8-10
Solar Energy in a Temperate Climate
Does it pay to cover your roof with solar panels in rainy Vancouver BC?
Themes: Energy and Environment and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Energy and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Wind Power
How can we harness a substantial amount of power from the wind?
Themes: Energy and Environment and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Climate, Conservation, Energy, and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
How do LEDs compare to earlier lighting technologies?
Themes: Energy and Environment and Energy use at Home
Topics: Efficiency, Electricity, and Energy
Grades: 8-10
What do I (we) do about my (our) carbon footprint?
A very frequent question asked by students after learning about climate change is “But what can I (we) do about it?”. Here are some ideas, all of which have benefits in addition to reducing greenhouse gases, and so are worth considering even if you reject the idea of anthropogenic global warming completely.
Themes: Climate, Energy and Environment, Energy use at Home, Non-renewable and non-clean energy, Renewable and Clean Energy, and Transportation
Topics: Climate, Conservation, Energy, and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
OLD Fan Efficiency
How can we measure the efficiency of an electric fan?
Themes: Energy and Environment and Energy use at Home
Topics: Efficiency and Energy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
OLD Clean Coal
An oxymoron?
Themes: Energy and Environment and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Conservation, Energy, and sustainability
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
PRIVATE: Useful Numbers
Wondering where we got our numbers from? ย Check out this table!
Themes: Skills and Techniques
Topics: Science Literacy
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
PRIVATE: Wind Turbines – Betz Law Explained
An explanation of Betz’ Law
Themes: Electricity Generation, Energy and Environment, and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Climate, Energy, and Mechanics
Grades: 8-10
PRIVATE: Volcanoes
Will the Icelandic volcano cool us off?
Themes: Climate
Topics: Climate and Planetary Science
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10
OLD Wind Turbines
The total energy available in wind and the power that can feasibly be extracted from it will be determined using the fundamentals of kinematics. The limitations of location and machinery of wind turbines that restrict the amount of power that can be harnessed will also be examined, before comparing the impact of wind energy with various other common sources of energy.
Themes: Electricity Generation, Energy and Environment, and Renewable and Clean Energy
Topics: Climate, Energy, and Mechanics
Grades: 11-12 and 8-10