During a power failure, or when we go outside at night, we grab a flashlight so we can find our way. What happens inside a flashlight that makes the bulb light up? Why do we need a switch to turn on a flashlight? Have you ever noticed that for the flashlight to work you must orient the batteries a certain way as you insert them into the casing? Many people do not know that a flashlight is a simple series circuit. In this hands-on activity, students build this everyday household item and design their own operating series circuit flashlights.

In addition to the purely geometric and trigonometric aspects of the task, this problem asks students to model phenomena on the surface of the earth.

Students get the inside scoop on a story when they create interview questions and answers for characters in the books they read.

Movie music and magic set the scene for this lesson in which students analyze a scene from Good Morning, Vietnam and then create a scene of their own.

Students are introduced to circuits through a teacher demonstration using a set of Christmas lights. Then students groups build simple circuits using batteries, wires and light bulbs. They examine how electricity is conducted through a light bulb using a battery as a power source. Students also observe the differences between series and parallel circuits by building each type.

This lesson introduces the concept of electricity by asking students to imagine what their life would be like without electricity. Two main forms of electricity, static and current, are introduced. Students learn that electrons can move between atoms, leaving atoms in a charged state.

Students measure the light output and temperature (as a measure of heat output) for three types of light bulbs to identify why some light bulbs are more efficient (more light with less energy) than others.

Introduce toddlers to the world of reading with Lil’ Fingers. Lil’ Fingers has big buttons and bright colors to attract a child to stories like Bears In Bed or One Little Rabbit. The site also introduces books that parents may want to add to their child’s collection or pick up at the library. There are also games and videos to entertain a growing mind.

The interactive explores the ways that poets choose line breaks in their writing. After viewing the demonstration, students are invited to experiment with line breaks themselves.

Student groups are challenged to program robots with light sensors to follow a black line. Learning both the logic and skills behind programming robots for this challenge helps students improve their understanding of how robots "think" and widens their appreciation for the complexity involved in programming LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT robots to do what appears to be a simple task. They test their ideas for approaches to solve the problem and ultimately learn a (provided) working programming solution. They think of real-world applications for line-follower robots that use sensor input. A PowerPoint® presentation and pre/post quizzes are provided.

This 16-minute video lesson shows that a projection onto a subspace is a linear transformation. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 110 of 143]

This 14-minute video lesson shows how to determine the equation for a plane in R3 using a point on the plane and a normal vector.

This 25-minute video lesson introduces the idea of an angle between two vectors.

This 27-minute video lesson provides an example using the orthogonal change-of-basis matrix to find the transformation matrix. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 128 of 143]

This 17-minute video lesson shows how to express a projection on to a line as a Matrix Vector prod. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 61 of 143]

This 15-minute video lesson shows how to find the eigenvectors and eigenspaces of a 2x2 matrix. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 136 of 143]

This 12-minute video lesson provides an introduction to the null space of a matrix and shows that the null space of a matrix is a valid subspace. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 34 of 143]

This 18-minute video lesson shows how to solve a system of linear equations by putting an augmented matrix into reduced row echelon form. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 30 of 143]

This 12-minute video lesson provides another example of solving a system of linear equations by putting an augmented matrix into reduced row echelon form. [Linear Algebra playlist: Lesson 32 of 143]