Group items tagged

Like Project Noah, this citizen science project aims to involve people from all over in the process of gathering data. Focusing on the fireflies (in New England or elsewhere), this might be a little harder to work on in class - due to the hours, the timing of the school year, or location. It is a great example of partnerships - two colleges and a museum partnering together with the public for learning. Personally, I would probably visit the "Open Call" section with MS students and work on analyzing the data they have collected. You can use the Many Eyes site to make visualizations and maps based on their information from the past years. If you are in IBMYP, consider looking at this issue through negative side of Human Ingenuity - how does the bug spray we use to keep away mosquitos and other insects affect species that do not harm us?

Get a 3D perspective on human muscles,bones, and organs. Challenge your senses or map your brain. There's even an interactive on the changes the body goes through during puberty. Overall, good for middle school students to explore anatomy in depth (poor pun intended).

"SMILE's learning activities, tools, and services are available to all but are designed especially for those who teach school-aged children in non-classroom settings (like museums, zoos, aquaria, and afterschool or outdoor education programs). SMILE is dedicated to bringing the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) activities developed by informal science organizations around the country to the wider informal educator community, while encouraging that community to both use and contribute to SMILE's growing collection."

Example of an interdisciplinary project and digital collaboration - with some fun science content. To participate in the current project with your elementary or middle school class, investigate Bugscope at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/.

Easy to coordinate with use of student's own mobile devices or a classrooms set of iPod touches. Make your students aware of the organisms around them. Show students how to participate in research through collaboration. Works on android and iPhone platforms. Great connection of science to a theme like "Community and Service." I would use with elementary level students.

Simulations of scientific processes for middle and high school level content. Topics include semi-conductors and cellular respiration. Students can submit their assignments or print them out after they have completed working through a module. The website also provides options for teachers and students to create their own simulations. Free, open source tool.

A map tool that allows students to look at the world in terms of different species, locations , and ecosystems. The site also features interactives students can use to discover more about certain areas and species, like gorillas. Videos, podcasts, and photos enrich the site. Teachers looking for data sets to use with older students may appreciate the information the WWF makes public (http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/data/item1872.html).

Exceptionally interesting and creative ways to look at music. Four interactive experiments with sound, one set of videos showing the process of others experimenting, and a very interesting module called "Take the Beat Back" that looks at the origins of different instruments as well as the scientific explanations of the sounds they produce.

Candy, pickles, eggs, seasoning, bread, meat all explained through activities, virtual tours, scientific explanations and cultural context. Very engaging, and VERY interdisciplinary. Great for elementary!

"Class Blogmeister" allows classrooms to set up their own blogs that students and teachers can contribute to. This seems to be most appropriate for early elementary. "Citation Machine" is a reasonable option for students who want to have their citations formulated for them on the basis of the information they give, but most kids will probably end up with a more popular site like EasyBib for this purpose. "The Education Podcast Network" has a variety of subject specific recordings for teachers and students. Personally, the section I have used the most is the "Library of Links." Many of the links lead to sites with data, especially under the science section. Accessing the material with students gives them an opportunity to understand that information is available and that there are different ways to present findings about data. Great for projects! Upper Elementary and up.

A variety of resources for science - space, plate tectonics, global energy budget, winds and currents, climate, biogeochemical cycles, the atmosphere. Animations, pictures, and resource links.

With so much data available via the internet, an important skill students must learn is how to make meaning of that information. Many Eyes gives middle school+ students an opportunity to experiment with comparing values, tracking value over time, looking at the relationship between the parts and the whole. Data can also be interpreted as text or with maps. Creates polished looking infographics that would be great visual aids for science experiments or oral presentations. Good resource for teachers and administrators, too!

Oceans, Nature, 3D Buildings

Use stock photos, video, and music or upload your own. Your images are coordinated with music to make a video that is great to insert in everything from websites to presentations. I used one as preview for a play to show all the behind-the-scenes work the students did. Free videos up to 30 seconds - or pay to have full length videos. Students can use Animoto to create their own videos- great for music class - but can be an interesting tool for anything from vocabulary to science. The one below is actually a mock-up I made showing waht a vocabulary exercise might look like.

Intended for HS and College chemistry students. Older students will be able to work through virtual labs or solve a murder mystery in a game. The interactive periodic table would be useful for MS students who are becoming familiar with the elements. There are also many links to hands on activities for younger students. Many partnerships and sponsorships with private institutes and journals help to ensure the highest quality of content. The Chemical Collective site is gathering information on teacher use of and student response to the use of virtual labs.

Learn more about wildlife conservation. Choose a field trip with the interactive map - you can choose according to region. The website includes a feature that allows students to submit their questions to a field researcher.

JASON connects students with scientists. This link leads to curriculum developed for 5th -8th grades. There are units for geology, energy, weather, and ecology. All of these units are framed as "missions" in which students engage with research articles, hands-on lab activities, videos, games, and multimedia resources.

Information, animations, and interactives help students understand cells, heredity and DNA. An amazing amount of information presented beautifully. Teachers could begin to explore the more basic concepts in MS, but this would make a great resource for HS. Teachers should check out the new companion site Teach. Genetics, which includes a list of lessons and resources (http://teach.genetics.utah.edu/content/).

Work with GPS can be great because it gets students out in the "real-world." Lessons may focus on animal habits, different earth science features, or the built environment humans have created. Mapping is a great skill to use and develop along with these projects. Most people are familiar with GPS systems in cars, but many mobile phones have this capability as well. There are also special devices dedicated to GPS tracking. This site can help you to explore the possibilities for learning with GPS.