Using the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts website, students explore the sculptural work of 20th Century Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt to expand their understanding of geometric concepts, creatively play with mathematical ideas, and be inspired to make art of their own.

The website page provides a scaffolded approach to exploring Sol LeWitt's sculpture titled "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6." culminating in a challenge for students to build a 3-D Tinkercad model of a geometry concept of their own choosing.

This lesson is part of the Virginia K-12 Computer Science Pipeline which is partly funded through a GO Virginia grant in partnership with Chesapeake Public Schools, Loudoun County Public Schools, and the Loudoun Education Foundation. During this lesson, students will create a storyboard and pseudocode which will be used while creating a simulation using Scratch. 

In this activity, students interact with 12 models to observe emergent phenomena as molecules assemble themselves. Investigate the factors that are important to self-assembly, including shape and polarity. Try to assemble a monolayer by "pushing" the molecules to the substrate (it's not easy!). Rotate complex molecules to view their structure. Finally, create your own nanostructures by selecting molecules, adding charges to them, and observing the results of self-assembly.

Video Description:  How does NASA test ideas, like the Mars Helicopter, before they are even built? Find out more about this revolutionary helicopter and how NASA uses mathematical modeling to turn complex ideas into solvable equations that help shape future missions. Video Length:  3:20.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  Our Earth is a dynamic system with diverse subsystems that interact in complex ways.What are those subsystems and how do they interact?How are these subsystems and the global Earth system changing?What causes these changes?How does NASA monitor these changes?How can Earth system science provide societal benefit?Jessica Taylor, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Langley Research Center, and Dr. Steven Pawson, an Earth scientist from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, help answer these questions and demonstrate how mathematical modeling helps scientists in their predictions of climate, weather, and natural hazards.  Video Length:  5:02.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Video Description:  At NASA everything begins with an idea. Physical models help NASA engineers and technicians test those ideas before building full-scale versions. Learn more about the important role physical modeling, building prototypes and mathematics play in engineering solutions.  Video Length:  3:11.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

What do plants eat? This unit explores plants and how they make food.

Delve into a microscopic world working with models that show how electron waves can tunnel through certain types of barriers. Learn about the novel devices and apparatuses that have been invented using this concept. Discover how tunneling makes it possible for computers to run faster and for scientists to look more deeply into the microscopic world.

How does energy flow in and out of our atmosphere? Explore how solar and infrared radiation enters and exits the atmosphere with an interactive model. Control the amounts of carbon dioxide and clouds present in the model and learn how these factors can influence global temperature. Record results using snapshots of the model in the virtual lab notebook where you can annotate your observations.

Use a virtual scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to observe electron behavior in an atomic-scale world. Walk through the principles of this technology step-by-step. First learn how the STM works. Then try it yourself! Use a virtual STM to manipulate individual atoms by scanning for, picking up, and moving electrons. Finally, explore the advantages and disadvantages of the two modes of an STM: the constant-height mode and the constant-current mode.

Explore your own straight-line motion using a motion sensor to generate distance versus time graphs of your own motion. Learn how changes in speed and direction affect the graph, and gain an understanding of how motion can be represented on a graph.

Semiconductors are the materials that make modern electronics work. Learn about the basic properties of intrinsic and extrinsic or 'doped' semiconductors with several visualizations. Turn a silicon crystal into an insulator or a conductor, create a depletion region between semiconductors, and explore probability waves of an electron in this interactive activity.

What happens when an excited atom emits a photon? What can we deduce about that atom based on the photons it can emit? A series of interactive models allows you to examine how the energy levels the electrons of an atom occupy affect the types of photons that can be emitted. Use a digital spectrometer to record which wavelengths certain atoms will emit, and then use this knowledge to compare and identify types of atoms. Students will be abe to:

Transistors are the building blocks of modern electronic devices. Your cell phones, iPods, and computers all depend on them to operate. Thanks to today's microfabrication technology, transistors can be made very tiny and be massively produced. You are probably using billions of them while working with this activity now--as of 2006, a dual-core Intel microprocessor contains 1.7 billion transistors. The field effect transistor is the most common type of transistor. So we will focus on it in this activity.