Astro-Venture is an educational, interactive, multimedia Web environment highlighting NASA careers and astrobiology research in the areas of Astronomy, Geology, Biology and Atmospheric Sciences. Students in grades 5-8 role play NASA occupations and use scientific inquiry, as they search for and design a planet with the necessary characteristics for human habitation.

This is the third of four curriculum guides focusing on astrobiology and careers. Students are confronted with the challenge of searching for and designing a planet that would be habitable to humans. Using an online, multimedia module, students make changes to the Earth-s interior and draw conclusions about which factors are necessary for human survival. Students then engage in classroom activities that explore the effects of heat and pressure on states of matter, density and movement through convection. They further explore the resulting process of plate tectonics and volcanoes and the role these play in the carbon cycle. Finally, students investigate the Earth-s magnetic field and connect their learning to the systems they explored in Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences.

Explore the interactions between various combinations of two atoms. Turn on the force arrows to see either the total force acting on the atoms or the individual attractive and repulsive forces. Try the "Adjustable Attraction" atom to see how changing the parameters affects the interaction.

A work in progress, CK-12's Chemistry Labs & Demos supports its Chemistry book covering: Matter; Atomic Structure; The Elements; Stoichiometry; Chemical Kinetics; Physical States of Matter; Thermodynamics; Nuclear and Organic Chemistry.

CK-12 Chemistry covers Matter, Atomic Structure; The Elements and Their Properties; Stoichiometry; Chemical Kinetics; Physical States of Matter; Thermodynamics; Nuclear Chemistry; and Organic Chemistry.

A work in progress, CK-12 Chemistry Teacher's Edition supports its Chemistry book covering: Matter; Atomic Structure; The Elements; Stoichiometry; Chemical Kinetics; Physical States of Matter; Thermodynamics; Nuclear and Organic Chemistry.

The resources selected for this publication will help your students understand chemistry at work, using examples that will spark their interest. A basic understanding of chemistry concepts and terminology will prepare them for more abstract studies.

In this interactive simulation adapted from University of Colorado’s Physics Education Technology project, change parameters and discover how the properties of a gas vary in relation to each other.

The students will be able to define solids and liquids from their prior knowledge. The students will be able to verbalize the differences between solids and liquids? Observe, communicate and question when things aren't what they appear to be. Is Oobleck a solid or liquid? The answer is that it is both. Have the students come up with their own answers and to communicate their findings. The students will understand the difference between a non-Newtonian fluid and a liquid or a solid.

The Online Science-athon offers elementary and middle-grade students opportunities to discover the science in their daily lives. Presented as challenges, the Science-athon asks students to investigate their world in ways that are engaging and fun, easy for teachers to incorporate into their teaching, and instructive. Students doing the Chocolate Melt decide on a container-tin can, cardboard box, plastic bucket, paper bag, or similar object-to use as a solar cooker. Then they consider how to melt a refrigerated standard-size milk chocolate chip that has been placed on the end of a toothpick inside the cooker in as short a time as possible. This includes figuring out how to reshape the container so that the heat from the sun is concentrated on the chocolate chip, deciding what colors and textures to use for lining inside surfaces and insulating the cooker, examining where to put the chocolate chip, and identifying how to point the cooker at the sun. Reviewing scientific information helps students improve the effectiveness of their cooker designs and make predictions about the ones they think will cook the most rapidly. On Chocolate Melting Day, students collect and record data to share with other students doing the challenge.

This guided inquiry lesson allows students to make explore with materials and draw conclusions if they are a solid or liquid.

This is a classroom activity in which students explore solids, liquids, and gases, and their properties. This provides hands on experience for all students.

Ever wonder where the water you're drinking came from? Where were those water molecules last? With the roll of the dice, you can simulate the journey water molecules may take as they travel within the water cycle.

Water is constantly in motion. Sometimes quickly, like in a fast-flowing river, but sometimes it moves quite slowly, as in underground aquifers. Appreciating the complexity of how water moves around, on a watershed scale, helps us understand how either dissolved contaminants, or those attached to particles, are transported throughout a watershed.

Through role-playing as a molecule of water in this game, you can gain a better understanding for the true complexity of the movement of water. Stations are set-up for each of nine different compartments of the water cycle. On each turn, a roll of the dice at each station tells you where to move next. Colored trackers record each person's unique journey through the water cycle to compare to others' journeys later on. You will identify the states of water, and when water changes states as it moves through its cycle. You will also learn where pollutants can enter the water cycle, be transported around, or be left behind.