Community Education GUIDE
The Absolute Zero Community Education Outreach Guide is a resource for teachers
and informal educators of middle school students. Drawing from the history of the
human quest to explore the cold, this guide focuses on topics — from historical
attempts to understand the physics of heat to modern day magnetically levitating
trains — that are covered in the two-part public broadcasting special, Absolute Zero,
produced by Meridian Productions and Windfall Films.
Watching the Absolute Zero documentaries would certainly enhance any of the presentations
described in this guide, but it is by no means required. Instead, this guide offers a
road map for comprehensive presentations including hands-on demonstrations,
questions to encourage student participation, suggestions for how to lead the class,
and ways to encourage the students to continue studying the science topic at hand.
This is not intended to be a comprehensive science curriculum. However each
module does relate to the science standards for middle schools, as detailed at the
end of the guide.
The topics that are covered in the modules include:
- Thermometers
- States of Matter
- Heat and Energy
- Refrigeration
- Cold Animals
- Cryogenics
- Superconductivity
- Absolute Zero
The modules in the guide meet the content standards of the National Science Education Standards.
