DOCUMENT RESUME ED 448 058 SE 064 358 AUTHOR Colombo, Luann TITLE NOVA Fall 1998 Teacher's Guide. INSTITUTION WGBH-TV, Boston, MA. PUB DATE 1998-00-00 NOTE 55p. AVAILABLE FROM NOVA Teacher's Guide, WGBH, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134. E-mail: wgbh materials [email protected] PUB TYPE Guides Non-Classroom (055) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC03 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Earthquakes; Elementary Secondary Education; Geometry; Microbiology; *Science Activities; *Science Instruction; Scientific Literacy; Space Sciences; Volcanoes IDENTIFIERS El Nino (Ocean Current); Longitude; National Science Education Standards; NOVA (Television Series) ABSTRACT This teacher's guide is designed to accompany the PBS television program "NOVA." Six science activities correspond to: "Lost at (1) Sea: The Search for Longitude which researches and charts the shortest course to circumnavigate the globe; (2) "Chasing El Nino," which formulates a question and designs an experiment to evaluate the accuracy of weather folklore; "Terror in Space," which explores the concept of center of mass (3) and experiments with how altering the location of an object's center of mass can affect its motion; (4) "Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond," which investigates how geometry plays a role in perspective; (5) "Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius," which collects data and create maps to observe the relationship between volcanoes, earthquakes, and lithospheric plates; and (6) "Ice Mummies," which investigates the rate of microbial growth at different temperatures, and analyzes and interprets information in order to locate an archaeological site. All activities include a list of the National Science Education Standards addressed. (YDS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. s....r.f...5:4"4-74"41..,' ft, 4,1! 4c/4 74y/e,114 4 0 arm= 1#4 US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND Off ice of Educational Research and Improvement sr, DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION t BEE GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) " t This document has been reproduced as eived from the person or organization originating it CI Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality fir,X1',Pt ';',V,4 .1 TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES ' 4r:I '. Points of view or opinions stated in this INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent <,-,4"; official OERI position or policy nr,,45/4:, 1r; --' , Pr 1" 445 ... fit4 vik44z-. e t4.7 40-4 4P'. AS a , - - t ....." ,.f., .. , . te, .P , .,,,,4 .,,, ;..,,,.44 1' .4,, -4; ',Lt. I. 4 '''. - ' s 3 e ,. ,, .., .s..,, m?,...t.... 1 ...t,,,,, ; e4 , fir, .!..: -, .1 . i ,( ',..'-,P- . ' .; 4 , ,,,,, 4.(, ,..= 1' pi ( :TNA r , ref t, 1 1 .4 4 tts` 41 4 r tt.7 1;t1 f 7,4 4 AS BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 As an educator, you deal with the future on a daily basis. you deal with it on a first-name basis. More than that Every Lisa and Michael and Maria and Tyrone is a representative of future generations to be touched and inspired by your gift for teaching. I understand how important you are to the future. Because at Northwestern Mutual Life, the future is our business, too: every day, we're helping people make personal and financial plans that will serve them well throughout their lives. From one future-watcher to another, it is a pleasure to present think you with the fall issue of the NOVA Teacher's Guide. I you'll find this season's offerings to be rich with stimulating material for your classroom. And as proud sponsors of this award-winning educational television series, everyone here at Northwestern Mutual Life thanks you for your dedication to shaping the future. James D. Ericson President and Chief Executive Officer Northwestern mutual Ltie® The Quiet Company® e 3 Company Milwaukee, WI The Nalhwestem Mutual Life In Page 25 Years and Still Going 2 Join us in celebrating 25 years of NOVA and discover what we're changing to make it easier for you to use NOVA in the classroom. NOVA in the Classroom 3 Learn about how 25 teachers around the country are using NOVA, how you can share lesson ideas, and the next NOVA Activity NOVA/PBS Online adventure coming your way. Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude* 6 fil 'el Week of October 6 Chasing El Niiio!* 11 Week of October 13 The Day the Earth Shook* (R) Week of October 20 Terror in Space* 16 Ili ii Week of October 27 Special Effects: Titanic and Beyond* 21 , Week of November 3 Deadly Shadow of Vesuvius* 26 . Week of November 10 Flood!* (R) Week of November 17 Ice Mummies* (3-Hour Special) 30 , , Frozen in Heaven . Siberian Ice Maiden Return of the Iceman =. Week of November 24 .. . Leopards of the Night* Week of December 1 ,, , .,, Plague Fighters* (R) Week of December 8 7 ,:. Supersonic Spies* (R) e Week of December 15 , Venus Unveiled** (R) Week of December 22 The Perfect Pearl* : > Week of December 29 40 NOVA Video Catalog Lesson online at: Lesson within * one-year off-air taping nghts Because of schedule changes and space http://www.pbs.org/ this grade. ** seven-day off-air taping nghts constraints, some NOVA programs do not nova /teachers/ have lessons. (R) indicates a repeat program teachersguide.html from a previous NOVA season. A Word About the Standards Increasingly, schools are moving toward teaching with standards-based curricula NOVA exemplifies the philos- 25 Years and ophy of such teaching by illustrating Still Going the realities of SCIENCE science and sci- Dear Educators, ence process EDUCATION "4464'.74" through topical This season marks NOVA's 25th anniversary in science programming and issues To help education. As the highest-rated year-round series on the PBS prime-time you identify lineup, NOVA has defined science where NOVA and television for the United States and the its Teacher's world. Each program is watched by an average of 30 million people a month. Guide activities fit NOVA's films are seen by viewers in more than 50 countries, from Australia to into such a cur- Zimbabwe. This guide is sent to more than 80,000 teachers. riculum, we have We are grateful for everything you do added a section to help students discover the rewards of science. to each lesson detailing how its activi- Since our birth 25 years ago, NOVA has evolved to meet the ty aligns with the National Research ever-changing, rapidly-expanding needs of Council's National Science Education our viewers. Never before have our lives been so Standards (our lessons also align with intimately linked with science and technology nor has knowledge held so much many of Project 2061's Benchmarks for power. Our goal is to bolster and promote science literacy in the best Science Literacy) Additionally, where way we know how through a variety of mediums: television, NOVA appropriate, we have provided connec- Online, and print, tions to the Curriculum and Evaluation most notably the Teacher's Guide. Standards for School Mathematics We have taken the opportunity (published by the National Council of of this anniverary season to revise the NOVA Teachers of Mathematics) Teacher's Guide to help bring you and your students into next century's world Because this guide is designed to of science education. For each program, you'll find an expanded lesson that help facilitate use of NOVA programs now includes: in the classroom and is not meant to a video overview that more closely defines program content; be an entire curriculum, we provide alignment to the National lessons that allow you entry points into Science Education Standards; addressing fundamental understandings ideas for before and after watching to help you understand prior student from the standards and the flexibility knowledge, reacquaint you with the program's geographical locations, to customize each lesson to best meet and prepare students for the program's content; the needs of your students activity setup instructions for you, including a materials list and extension ideas; reproducible student activity pages to guide students through each activity; Teaching Tips explanations of each activity's outcome, with information to help you answer student questions; and When using these lessons, keep in mind the following annotated resources, including books, articles and Web sites. Explain activity concept within your To accommodate the added larger unit material, we have more than doubled the space Consider students' prior knowledge for our lesson plans. We hope that you like the changes we've made. We look and possible misconceptions about forward to bringing you NOVA for the next 25 years and beyond. the science concept you're teaching Provide students with several first- hand experiences of the science con- am& apdt. cept before introducing terminology Work with students to develop a Paula S. Apsell rubric within which their work will be NOVA Executive Producer measured J Ova I I This Week on NOVA Check Out Lesson Ideas This section features a listing In this section, you'll find of the science articles, features ideas from your colleagues and and activities on the Web site Teachers Site r lesson plans from this teacher's Previous Sites that accompany the most guide to help you integrate This section provides access recent NOVA program Bnef current and past NOVA programs by program title or subject area descriptions and grade-level -ittp://iivviv.pils erg/noa/teachers and NOVA Online Web sites into to Web content for previous designations are provided for your curnculum everything on the site NOVA programs Sign Up for Weekly Updates Would you like to know what's coming up on NOVA each week, both a on television and the Web site? Join our mailing list and find out. Each week well send you a reminder of the date and title of the following week's broadcast, and what you'll find online to help you integrate the Web into your curriculum. And we'll keep you abreast of any special programs ' or online adventures we're planning. 1 Sign up at the Web site above. 1 1 Teacher's Exchange Shop Online Activities Teacher's Guide Here you can swap ideas with The shop gives you access to Click here to go to our Sign up to receive your free other teachers about how NOVA programs available for activities designed especially teacher's guide by mail. purchase and lists other edu- you use NOVA, or sign up to for the Internet receive updates on upcoming cational products we offer. NOVA programs Participate in the Fall NOVA/PBS Online Adventure Visit Us at NOV Online Island of the Sharks http://www.pbs. o rg/nova/cocos Join noted underwater filmmakers as they dive into the waters of Find Web Sites for Each New Program the Pacific Ocean's Cocos Island to shoot an IMAX/OMNIMAX® film NOVA Online brings you new content each week on the biodiversity, ecosystem and conservation aspects of the throughout the Fall season. See each lesson in island. For one month, NOVA will update the Web site with digital this guide for details or visit our Web site at: dispatches and images. Launch date: September 23, 1998 http://www.pbs.org/nova 1 I I in is 25 Classroo s As NOVA celebrates its 25th anniversary have additional NOVA ideas and looks ahead to the next 25 years, and projects from which to the NOVA education team is kicking off choose. Each NOVA teacher will an initiative to make its classroom develop a special proJect using materials more effective. We've called NOVA resourcesincluding in- on 25 middle and high school teachers service workshops, articles about to help us reach this goal. NOVA, or multimedia lesson plans. This means you will: learn how you can be involved receive materials evaluated by in the NOVA Challenge. This Web teachers like yourself. Our nationwide eventdesigned especially for group of NOVA teachers will provide your studentswill be held during in-depth feedback on our programs, National Science and Technology teacher's guide lessons, and Web sites. Week in April:1999: Questions for Their ideasas well as those from our the challenge will be based on con- long-standing local teacher advisory tent from the 1998-99 season of boardwill help us revise'current NOVA programs and NOVA Online materials and shape new ones. sites, and will promote active view- ing-and learning of scierici:Cont LOA for iiinfa'aiiif Eines-46-ns' son NOVA Online throughout the? ' year to help prepare your students. NOVA Videos 50% Off Wiriners'Will be choseri'in a,iarideni diawing17Pilzes "vial be awar` In celebration of NOVA's 25th season, we're offering educators a special on all of our NOVA videos: 50 Look for updates about theie percent off on orders received by June 30, 1999. In addition, projects and more in upcoming teachers who fill out and send back the business reply card in this ' NOVA-Teachers' Guides and& guide will be entered into a drawing to win a free one-hour NOVA video of their choice. t, See page 40 for details. iwww.pbt.org/nova . EVEREST THE DEATH ZONE LIGHTNING! Students worked together to build and le ration Obelisk raise their 27-foot-tall Egyptian obelisk. When sixth-grade social studies 7 teacher Tim Matthews decided he wanted to teach an interdiscipli- nary unit on ancient civilizations, he used the Spring 1997 NOVA Teacher's Guide to jump-start his thinking. The guide featured lessons to accompany the four-part series "Secrets of Lost Empires," and focused on the social studies aspects of ancient civilizations and the use of simple machines to raise massive objects such as Stonehenge's trilithons or the Egyptian obelisks. Matthews worked with fellow science, mathematics and English teachers at Day Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts, to devise a plan: The teachers would intro- duce their 90 students to simple tools, Matthews created a process machines, scale and measurement, rubric to evaluate understanding of Egyptian history, and hieroglyphics math terminology, building terms during their 45-minute team period, and abilities with manipulatives; and scheduled four days a week. Become a NOVA a product rubric for students to chart their own learning. Featured Teacher In "Operation Obelisk: How Will We Raise the Obelisk?" students Matthews found out about the NOVA We'd like to hear from YOU! were asked to use any of six simple Teacher's Guide through copies passed Tell us how you're using a NOVA machines they learned about to down by a former teacher, and has now program or NOVA Online in develop a plan for raising a wood- signed up for his own free subscription. your classroom. Write up your frame 27-foot obelisk in the school "The benefit of the guide for me," ideas at: courtyard. Students were to he said, "is that it 'Makes connections http://vvww.pbs.org/nova/ include an accurate drawing of how that I might not necessarily have teachers/teacherex.html their simple machine would work, made." and well post them in our a description of how the obeliA For vow free subscription to this Lesson Ideas section. Or send would be raised, and a list of the your ideas to: semiannual guide, please send us a materials needed. note with your name, address, and the Jenny Lisle As with any new unit, some goals grades and subjects you teach to: WGBH, 125 Western Avenue were met more successfully than Boston, MA 02134 NOVA Teacher's Guide others. Matthews, who hopes to do WGBH, 125 Western Avenue If we choose to feature your . the unit again, said next time he Boston, MA 02134 would simplify the number of con- classroom in the NOVA . cepts being taught. As assessment Teacher's Guide, well 'Send you [email protected] and your students six free C*srooit NOVA videos or two c pce, of your Field Trip 1 Review latitude and longitude with students. Have students select a few locations on a map or globe and identify them by latitude and longitude. Give NOVA chronicles the seventeenth- groups of students a marker and an century journey to determine orange or grapefruit, representing the longitude. Earth. Ask them to draw and label lines of latitude and longitude on the fruit In 1714, following a maritime disaster, and locate where East meets West British Parliament offers £20,000 for (at 180° longitudesite the first reliable method of determin-- ing longitude on a ship at sea. It is known that longitude can be found by comparing a ship's local i time to the time at the port of origin. The challenge is finding a clock a chronometerthat It was commonly believed in the can keep time 1700$ that the secret to finding at sea, where temperature changes, your longitude at sea was knowing the humidity, gravity and a ship's move- time in two places: your ship's port ment affect accuracy. of origin and its current location. Ask students to explain how knowing the Early attempts are based on the time in two places can help,determine assumption that astronomy can solve longitude. the problem. Self-taught clockmaker John Harrison believes the answer lies in large mechanical clocks. Through careful observation and experimentation, he invents many adaptations to improve clock accuracy. After decades of work, he realizes pocket watches are a better choice and redirects his efforts to pursue this smaller technology. In 1764, Harrison's watch proves accu- rate in helping determine the longitude on a six-week voyage to Barbados. Portrait of John Harrison, a self-taught ctockmaker. 341 f L -A h.. plc of the international date line). Have The activity found on pages 8-9 aligns students find a way to make the lines with the following National Science Education Standards and Curricu- equiangular (for example, they might lum and Evaluation Standards for cut the orange in half and use a protrac- School Mathematics. tor to mark equiangular segments). Have students approximate where their Grades 5-8 city is on the fruit model of the Earth Science and then confirm latitude and longi- Standard G: tude using a map. History and Nature of Science I' Science as a human endeavor Science requires different abilities, /I depending on such factors as the field of study and type of inquiry. Science is very much a human endeavor, and the work of science relies on basic human e qualities, such as reasoning, insight, energy, skill and creativityas well as on scientific habits of mind, such as intellectual honesty, tolerance of ambi- dite.°24 guity, skepticism and openness to new ideas. Mathematics Standard 7: Objective Computation and Estimation To research and chart the shortest course to circumnavigate the globe. Mathematics Materials for each group Standard 13: copies of the Voyage Around the World activity sheets on pages 8-9 Measurement a, world map, globe or atlas, with a scale small tacks, pins or self-stick notes (for marking locations) a 12-inch piece of string (for measuring distances) Grades 9-12 Science Procedure Standard G: I Organize students into groups and distribute activity sheets and materials History and Nature to each group. Explain that the challenge is to research and chart a course of Science that takes them to each Checkpoint Destination on their way around the world Science as a human endeavor once. Have students review the Nautical Rules and Checkpoint Destinations Individuals and teams have contri- before beginning. (You may delete or change Checkpoint Destinations to best buted and will continue to contribute suit your students' abilities.) to the scientific enterprise. Doing science or engineering can be as sim- Have students research locations that match the Checkpoint descriptions, ple as an individual conducting field L plot these locations on a map, record the latitude and longitude for each, studies or as complex as hundreds of and plan their course from one location to the next. Then have them estimate people working on a major scientific the distance between locations, using the string and a map scale. question or technological problem When teams have completed their routes, have them exchange maps and d recording charts to compare Checkpoint locations and estimated distances. Then, as a class, come up with the shortest route possible. A As an extension, you can have students convert the estimated distances 9 from statute miles to nautical miles. 10 BEST COPY AVAILABLE