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Grade Level: 2nd-4th; Type: Botany Objective: Test whether plants can grow without sunlight and water. How do plants make their own food? Plants contain a green pigment called chlorophyll, which can make food from water and energy from sunlight. But what happens when you deprive plants of water and sunlight? This would be a great classroom experiment completed by the entire class as a whole. It will show the students the real differences of a plant with or without food in the sunlight and in total darkness like a closet or cabinet. I would love to do this lesson in my classroom to demonstrate to the students what plants need to grow and survive just like we as people need certain things to grow and survive.

This is a video about tropism in plants describing the behaviors of plants as they grow. It describes how plants react to the environment and other things around them. This is my technology resource that I would use during my lesson of plant growth and behavior. It is very educational and give lots of vocabulary along with examples that would help the students picture what the words actually mean.

This is a free 5-minute animated video that explains how animals adapt to changes in their environment for survival.The video also touches on the topic of natural selection by explaining that the traits suited for survival are then passed on from one generation to the next. I like this video because it's fun and would appeal to third graders but it's still teaching them the concepts that are introduced when teaching about biological evolution (3-LS4). I would show the video before delving into the variation among species and survival of the fittest topics where introduced. I think it's helpful when teaching concepts to make them relevant to the students, and this video shows how animals that the students are familiar with, such as tigers, obtained and use their camouflage.

This lesson is designed to help students understand that vibrations are responsible for the sounds we hear. This is a lesson that I could modify to use to teach about sounds and vibrations. This lesson has a list of resources that could be used individually. I really liked the activities within the lesson. I don't think I would use this exact lesson, but it does have some great components that I could use to create my own lesson

This video is about how light bends or bounces due to objects being placed in front of it. I selected this video because Bill Nye uses a fun interesting way of teaching science with certain topics. I would use this as the lesson, and then would follow it up with a worksheet for the class

A free application to see if dinosaur fossils have been found near your home. I selected this app because I thought it would be a fun way to bring studying dinosaur fossils a little closer to home. I would use it in the classroom in conjunction with studying evolution and diversity (3-LS4).

This worksheet is a follow up worksheet for a Bill Nye video. This worksheet has questions in which the children would have to fill out during or after they have watched the video. All of these questions are taken from the video. I selected this worksheet because it is based on a science video which children would be interested in. Since this worksheet is based around a video, the children will have to pay attention to find the answers. I would use the video and worksheet to engage the children and then go into more detail throughout the lesson.

Free streaming video that shows the actual fossils from an ancient sea in the middle of Indiana. Put the mouse on highlighted sections of the rocks and a depiction of the fossil comes to life along with a brief summarization of what kind of fossil it is and how it lived. I really liked this program because it shows how different our world was millions of years ago, and the fact that the program animates whichever fossil you choose, brings the past to life. It would be a great resource to use when teaching biological evolution (3-LS4).

Free downloadable program in which students can build a dam in a virtual ecosystem and see how the animals and plants living there adapt. It shows students what happens to plants and animals when a change is introduced to their environment, some adapt and live while some die. I liked this program because students can place the dam in different places thus having different effects. I would use this program while studying biological evolution to visually demonstrate how a single change in the environment can have a drastic effect on the surrounding plant and animal life (3-LS4).

This resource gives students the opportunity to explore buildings and how objects are supported and how they stand. Students have a twenty minute lesson, and then they get to build and create supports. I think it would be a good idea to take the students around the school and show them, if there are any, supports to give them a visual of what they are learning and building.

St. Louis Science Center's reconstruction of a dig site in the Badlands, of Montana. The fossils at the "dig site" are casts made from the real fossils that can be seen on display in the Prep lab. The Prep Lab features interactive tables where real dinosaur fossils are displayed. Students are also encouraged to ask the workers and volunteers questions. There are also many other interactive exhibits at the St. Louis Science Center that deal with fossils and how they are made, and beginning March 7, there will be a special traveling dinosaur exhibit to visit. I can't think of a better place to take a field trip when teaching about biological evolution (3-LS4) than the Science Center. A large majority of their interactive displays fit right in with what the students are learning, and having the hands-on experience will only enhance the students learning and make it more meaningful. I would take the field trip somewhere in the middle of teaching the material, that way I could reference what the students have already learned in class when we're on the field trip but they would find that there is still more to learn.

Free Whiteboard ready game in which students put the various parts of a dinosaur together to create a dinosaur that really existed or students can create their own. I really liked this game because it's fun while learning for the whole class. It not only teaches students about the variety of dinosaurs but also shows the similarities and differences in their structures. This would be a useful game to play when teaching about biological evolution (3-LS4), I would introduce it after the students had learned about the wide variety of dinosaurs that roamed the earth.

This resource would be used as a lesson. It shows how putting objects in a way of light can make the light bend or go in different angles. I would use the activities in the resource to start off the lesson and ask the students to make conclusions of what they might think could happen.

This website is a great resource to check out when learning about plant and animal reproduction. It is very insightful with different kinds of other resources such as animations, pictures, activities, quizzes, and much more. I personally liked this as a teaching resource that I could use when covering plant and animal reproduction to help further the students knowledge about reproduction and help them as well as me understand it better.

This is a fun science activity that allows students to see how erosion works, and how it affects the world around them. It also has a video to go along with the lesson so that after students see how it works, they can see a huge example of it in the Grand Canyon.

This is a test which covers the basics of light bending and refraction. I selected this resource because I believe it would be a good way for students to test their knowledge about this topic. In my classroom I would use this as a way to introduce the topic.

This is an interactive game the students can play either as a center in the classroom or even at home. It shows the students how important it is for plants to grow with a certain amount of sunlight and a certain amount of water. I would use this is a K-3 setting just because it is a very simple game, but also keeps them on their toes as to when the plant needs water and sunlight as well as how long it takes for plants to grow on a weekly scale. I would use this is my classroom as a center game or a resource for them to play at home to keep their minds going in science.

This resource gives the children an opportunity to get up to the smart board and work on fun but still very educational material. I selected this resource because there is also a host of games that allow the children to showcase some different types of animals into their own animal and also make their own habitats. I would use this resource by first teaching the students what they need to know about the biodiversity of plants and animals and the different habitats and then I would have the students go to the smart board and work with the interactive activities. After this, I would have the students make and explain an animal and also habitat.

I found this while searching for field trip ideas. The author of this summary visited the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, which features many "hands-on" exhibits. He speaks mainly of the "Newton's Alley" exhibit, where he spoke of the ability to lift himself using pulleys. However, of particular note to me was the fourth paragraph, where he talked about playing the "harp with invisible strings," which was actually powered by laser technology. I selected this resource both out of a desire to find a fun and relevant field trip as well as my own healthy respect for Isaac Newton and his discoveries. I would use this as a basis for planning a field trip to the actual Maryland Science Center facility.