Make observations and use available data and simple calculations to correlate observations and data in the characterization of stars. In this activity, students can discover that the positions of stars in the sky illuminates information about the Milky Way galaxy.

Make observations and use available data and simple calculations to correlate observations and data in the characterization of stars. In this activity, the distances of bright stars are calculated and their motions, in the plane of the sky and in three dimensions are illuminated.

Detect patterns and uncover cause-and-effect relationships using the Mapping For Everyone web toolkit (http://www.esri.com/mappingforeveryone). By analyzing median age, home value, population change, household size, and other variables, you will be thinking critically and spatially while comparing differences between your neighborhood and others around the country.

This activity teaches how an ordinary ruler can measure (human reaction) time.

This activity quantifies an experience many students have had visiting a beach, or even playing in a sandbox. A summer afternoon walk, barefoot, across sand can burn one's feet. Often people take a few steps and then bury their feet in the cooler subsurface sand as they make their way across the beach. After sunset, the surface sand cools rapidly and buried feet are warmed by the deeper sand that has not cooled off yet. Stopping to rest on an empty fire ring, the beach walker notices how warm the concrete ring is long after the Sun has gone down.

It's important to check the results from an experiment. Does the result make sense? Does it follow from other facts that are known? From the standpoint of teaching High School science, checking if one's results are sensible adds an additional layer of safety that the results are correct. (From the standpoint of advancements in Science, a basic research tenet is that results must be repeatable and not just a fluke.