Hydropower generation is introduced to students as a common purpose and benefit of constructing dams. Through an introduction to kinetic and potential energy, students come to understand how a dam creates electricity. They also learn the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy.

Students act as engineers contracted by NASA to create water filtration devices that clean visible particulates from teacher-prepared "dirty water." They learn about the worldwide need for potable water and gain appreciation for why water quality is an important issue for people on Earth as well as on the International Space Station. Working in groups, students experience the entire engineering design process, including a read-aloud book about the water cycle; a visiting water engineer presentation; their own online research about filter methods and designs; group brainstorming of designs (using ordinary household materials); filter construction and testing; redesign and retesting; lab book documentation of their notes, research, plans and results; and a summary poster presentation at a mini-engineering fair. Two design planning worksheets, a poster layout suggestion sheet and a grading rubric are provided.

Students are challenged to design a method for separating steel from aluminum based on magnetic properties as is frequently done in recycling operations. To complicate the challenge, the magnet used to separate the steel must be able to be switched off to allow for the recollection of the steel. Students must ultimately design, test, and present an effective electromagnet.

Students observe and discuss a simple balloon model of an electrostatic precipitator to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.

Students investigate decomposers and the role of decomposers in maintaining the flow of nutrients in an environment. Students also learn how engineers use decomposers to help clean up wastes in a process known as bioremediation. This lesson concludes a series of six lessons in which students use their growing understanding of various environments and the engineering design process, to design and create their own model biodome ecosystems.

Engineers design methods of removing particulate matter from industrial sources to minimize negative effects of air pollution. In this activity, students will undertake a similar engineering challenge as they design and build a filter to remove pepper from an air stream without blocking more than 50% of the air.

Posed with a paradigmatic engineering problem, students consider and explore mathematical algorithms and/or geometric concepts to devise possible solutions. The problem: How should a robotic vacuum move in order to best clean a floor of unknown shape and dimensions? They grapple with what could be a complex problem by brainstorming ideas, presenting the best idea for a solution and analyzing all presented solutions, and then are introduced to an elegant solution. Rather than elaborately calculating the most efficient route and keeping track of which tiles the robot has visited, a random number generator determines which direction the robot will take when it hits a barrier. Students are able to visually confirm how an unfamiliar programming concept (a random number generator) can make for a simple and efficient program that causes an NXT robot (that is suitably equipped) to clean a bare floor. Then students think of other uses for random numbers.

Students learn about a special branch of engineering called bioremediation, which is the use of living organisms to aid in the clean-up of pollutant spills. Students learn all about bioremediation and see examples of its importance. In the associated activity, students conduct an experiment and see bioremediation in action!

The Clearer Thinking website helps people and organizations make better decisions and think more clearly, just like its name says. It uses fun, interactive games and quizzes based on evidence to help us think more logically.

*Comprehensive personality test for learner profiles
*Tools
*Courses

Understand yourself, improve your mood, accomplish your goals, make better decisions, recognize faulty logic, understand the world!

Following the steps of the engineering design process and acting as biomedical engineers, student teams use everyday materials to design and develop devices and approaches to unclog blood vessels. Through this open-ended design project, they learn about the circulatory system, biomedical engineering, and conditions that lead to heart attacks and strokes.

A collection of short videos for teachers, parents and students on how to use the single sign on application CLEVER.

This intro video provides you with everything you need to know to get started using the Clever single sign on portal at Sun West. 

Study Guides - for almost anything you can study at school!

Literature Notes - for over 300 novels / books including Shakespeare, Catching Fire and many more! Includes summaries, character info, symbols, questions, quizzes (some), and analysis.

Test Prep - from high school to grad school (USA-based)

Climate Challenge is a single-player game about climate change, playable for free on the BBC website. It is a sandbox-style strategy game based on real climate change data, where the player can try out different approaches, learn about the issues and have fun at the same time.

In this video, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, explains what causes climate change, how it affects our planet, why we need to act promptly to mitigate its effects, and how each of us can contribute to a solution.

In which John Green teaches you about the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age was a period of global cooling that occurred from the 13th to the 19th centuries. This cooling was likely caused by a number of factors, including unusual solar activity and volcanic eruptions. The Little Ice Age greatly impacted human social orders, especially during the 17th century. When the climate changed, and weather became unpredictable, the world changed profoundly. Poor harvests led to hunger, which led to even less productivity, which even resulted in violent upheaval in a lot of places. All this from a little change in the temperature? Definitely.

This video explores the effects that climate change could have on agriculture in the coming years. The video talks about specific crops that could be impacted and how.

How does climate change? And what happens to environments and ecosystems when it does? In this episode of Crash Course Kids, Sabrina shows us the effects that climate change can have and how one small change in an ecosystem can throw everything off.

In this self-paced tutorial, educators learn about the kinds of educational experiences that prove effective in exciting students about STEM careers and identify resources that can be used to introduce students to STEM careers, especially those related to climate change science. Profiles of scientists and engineers representing diverse populations are included for use in the classroom. Multimedia educational resources including video clips and vocabulary words linked to a glossary are included. This is the eighth of ten self-paced professional development modules providing opportunities for teachers to learn about climate change through first-hand data exploration.