How many food chains are there within this ecosystem? Let’s create some to find out! You will have 5 minutes to create as many food chains as you can with your partner. Please record your food chains on a sheet of paper as you go.

Your students are archeologists at the Jamestown Settlement.  The settlement directors (teachers) would like to include information on the new website, and the students have been asked to make a program (ie presentation) on settlers first arriving in Jamestown and their first few years there.  They must target this program to people who are not familiar with the Jamestown settlement to attract their attention and curiosity to want to see more of the settlement and get them to come visit Jamestown.  Their program’s artifact should include pictures of real artifacts, maps, etc to help explain the sequence (ie timeline) of events or tell the story of the beginning of the settlement.  They should include a brief explanation with each slide.  They will present their presentation to peers who will give feedback as potential visitors to Jamestown.

Students will determine what type of data is needed to answer a question and will use Google Sheets to find patterns. These data skills are needed in many career and academic fields. In addition, students will use input output tables in their daily lives through the use of vending machines, banking, and taking trips to new places. This Performance Task allows them to practice these skills through real-world scenerios. 

Students will create an artifact using computing systems to model the attributes and behaviors associated with a concept (e.g., day and night, animal life cycles, plant life cycles). Students are scientists (botanists, zoologists), who just found a new plant/animal in their chosen ecosystem. Their job is to introduce their new plant/animal to the scientific world! They will create a stop motion video to show their new plant/animal's life cycle.

Your task as an astronomer is to model the solar system using technology.  You and your crew are just one group that have been asked by NASA to chart the solar system in order to create a simulation model for future astronauts. After you have accomplished this, you will present your model to the Director of NASA. They have given you several requirements for the simulation. Your simulation should include a map of the solar system that shows the appropriate distance, location, size and relation to the sun amongst the eight planets. You and your team can use a variety of options to complete your simulation. These include Google Suite tools (such as Google Slides, Google Docs, Jamboard, or any equivalent tool such as Microsoft Office), Coding resources (Scratch.edu, tynker.edu) or 3D printing software (Tinkercad) to present. Your map should also include a short descriptive paragraph for each planet explaining its distance, location, size, and at least 3 facts about the planet. If creating a video, you will still want to include descriptions for the planets as well as the three facts.  Presentation to “NASA Directors” must answer the question: how does this simulation/model help future scientists?

Students will participate in multiple hands on activities with states of matter over several days.

This is an activity that can be used to introduce students to how the ASCII code is used in representing letters in coding.  Students will be given a table of the ASCII code that will be used to decode words and phases.  Then students will create a message in ASCII code and exchange with a fellow student to decyper the code.  An extension of this lesson can be to intoduce students to binary code that represent each digit int he ASCII code.

Big Data is all around us. In our phones, in our smart assistants, and everything else. This resource helps to show how big data is used in agriculture. In agriculture, big data is used to help farmers manage their farms, drive their tractors, and sell their goods. This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

Agriculture is a huge business. Understanding how agriculture makes money is the bioeconomy. While agriculture is not the only industry in the bioeconomy, it is one of the most important! This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

Biomanufacturing is uses nature as an inspiration. Some of the processes we rely on started in nature!This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

With digitization, we see biosecurity, cybersecurity, and physical security begin to overlap. This overlap started a new discipline, cyberbiosecurity. This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

Data makes the world go around! As we use more technology, more data is being created, recorded, and used. The next task is understanding what it all means!This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

Farming is not just a farmer driving a tractor anymore. Sometimes the tractor drives itself! Agriculture is very technological and part of that effort is precision agriculture. Learn about how farmers are using technology to optimize their farms. This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

As the world gets more digital, the world will need more sensors. A sensor is something that records the environment around it. Sensors can measure temperature, light, or sound among other things. Where can you find a sensor?  This resource is part of the Agricultural Cyberbiosecurity Education Resource Collection that contains resources for formal and non-formal agricultural educators working with middle school aged youth. Published as Open Educational Resources, all resources are provided in durable (pdf) and customizable (MS Word) formats. They are hosted on  GoOpenVA in a unique resource collection, Ag Cybersecurity Virginia Tech, at https://goopenva.org/curated-collections/143 and on on Virginia Tech’s stable repository, VTechWorks at https://doi.org/10.21061/cyberbiosecurity

This lesson incorporates both computer science and mathematics to analyze coding with patterns and proportional relationships. It uses the Turtle library with Python programming.

This video explores autonomous cars with a research scientist, engineer, and team lead at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI).

In this activity students will create a bracelet that represents their name in binary numbers.  This activity can be used after the teacher has discussed the binary system and how it is used in the field of computer science. 

This slideshow introduces students to counting in binary and contains a very short self-check to help gauge understanding.

This lesson is designed to engage students in a meaningful and fun coding experience. Students will experience binary code as they write their name using 0s and 1s in the binary code alphabet.

Worksheet for use after binary lesson for students to practice converting between binary and decimal numbers.  Answer key included.