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This site gives you a great lesson plan idea on teaching students about nutrition and what is really in all the food they eat. This is both a science and math lesson because after the students find out how much fat, sugar, etc. is in most of their favorite foods, the concept of energy is brought up to show the students what they need to do to burn all the calories off.

The Saint Louis Zoo provides a number of school programs, tours, and lessons for all age groups that deal with the themes of ecology, classification, conservation, and adaptation. There are even overnight programs dealing with these subjects, as well as outreach programs. Each theme has "sub-themes" that become more in depth and involved depending on the grade level of the students. (Diigo would not let me bookmark this link to the School Programs Table: http://www.stlzoo.org/files/7013/1350/2181/ProgramsandTours10.pdf). Costs vary depending on what program you wish to go on. I selected this resource because the Saint Louis Zoo is an excellent educational tool that is located so close to the area, and I feel that it should be utilized. This is valuable to me because I plan on using the Saint Louis Zoo as a field trip location and learning tool for my students. Knowing that there are scheduled programs that are challenging enough for my high school students is an excellent opportunity that I plan to use in the future. 

The Zoo Education Department offers programs designed to help students of all ages and abilities learn through experience, involvement and discovery. Programs may include live animals, biofacts, activities, demonstrations and/or discussions. If your class participates often in our programs, you may see the same animal(s) more than once. This is a great opportunity to get involved in St. Louis with the zoo. Teachers can find ways to use their classroom lessons and progress them with a field trip to the zoo.

This field trip opportunity would go great after a science lesson on renewable and nonrenewable resources/ a rain forest activity. Students would walk through the zoo focusing on different climates each animal lives in, what each animal eats, etc. The zoo provides class education programs that will meet the needs ( to their best ability) to provide animals that live in the specific area you are covering. "Programs may include live animals, bio facts, activities, demonstrations and/or discussions" (St. Louis Zoo). The zoo programs also provides four different areas of focus: adaptations, classification, conservation, and ecology.

This resource is a recycling activity and learning guide for educators and students. The guide was created by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. It contains recycling and waste facts about Wisconsin and also lessons based on protecting the Earth's resources and environment. I chose this resource because it fits the standard to- obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. The guide provides information for the fifth graders to learn how Wisconsin uses science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment. I could also use a lesson from this guide as an outline for my lesson in the course.

This guide contains a TON of information on a variety of environmental topics.

This lesson shows the process of the water cycle. Water is placed in a small cup in the corner of a plastic zip lock bag. With a marker, show the stages of a water cycle in a circular direction. Place the bag on the window so that the sun causes the water to heat, thus starting the water cycle. I thought this would be a good activity to lead into a lesson on water accumulation, condensation, precipitation and evaporation. If a teacher was fortunate enough to live close to a local newscast, they could have a meteorologist come to talk to the class one day during the lesson on the water cycle.

Composting is the oldest form of recycling. It provides an opportunity for students to observe the decomposition process and energy cycle at work; produces a valuable soil supplement; and reduces the amount of organic material requiring a landfill or incineration. This is a neat hands on lesson that can last up to the whole year! The students get to understand the process of composting and will learn that there we can use other methods of eliminating our trash. My favorite part is that they get to physically see what is happening in the soil. I would start this activity towards the beginning of the year. The students can volunteer to bring in items from the materials list to help feel involved in the prep. I would have the students keep a journal about the chances they see when we check on the compost bin.

This lesson allows students to investigate which way is best to clean up oil and researching how oil spills affect the environment. The students will try three different ways to remove oil from a tub of water, then they will determine which way is the most effective. Afterwards, the students will present their findings to the class. I like that this lesson is engaging and it can easily be related to real world oil spills. I would tell my students that they were a team that was hired to find out how to get rid of the oil after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This way the students feel that they are doing something realistic.

This is a PDF of a science lesson that includes lessons on sound , light., and energy. It includes objectives and instructions for the students. I think this is a great example of a lesson that will be great for students in class to learn about energy and how it is produced. I would use this site as a resource for teaching mu students about energy.

This site was originally published as a book to provide resources for new Chemistry teachers. It describes lab experiments that the author has done with classes. It seems very useful because it goes beyond describing the experiments by explaining common problems students have and how to anticipate or resolve them. Other helpful information includes: estimated time, equipment needed, safety concerns, special clean up information, answer keys, and where these labs fit into the curriculum. While the link and all the information provided are free, the labs do require supplies. For some of the labs, the author discussed cost and how to save money when purchasing supplies. Overall, this resource seems very valuable, especially for new teachers. Even though we have the content background, anticipating mistakes and dealing with problems comes from experience.

While this isn't necessarily students making a new or improved tool, it does have them discussing the changes that technology and communication has gone through during time. It discusses what different ways you can communicate with people, like computers and phones, that you know, but also preaches safety of communicating with people that you cannot psychically see to the students.

This could be a wrap up activity on space, where you allow students to create their own rockets using straws and a rocket cut out image. Students can cut out the rockets and tape them together, trying to figure out the best placements for it, and also figure out where the rocket needs to fit on the straw, for a perfect take off. This would allow everyone to make observations and gather information (K-2 ETS 1-1) from one another to decide what is the perfect way to make the best rocket launch.

This is another example, kind of like the other Simple Machines lesson that I posted earlier, where you get the kids involved in making their own simple machines. While the other lesson only allowed them to use their bodies to make replicas of the simple machines, this allows them to use different materials from around the classroom the create their machines.

This lesson actually contains quite a few good activities and gives a good chance to give lesson segments a try. It gives students a great chance to realize how powerful the sun actually is and how using solar panels can fix situations like flooding and the way that water is flowing. There is also fun options that involve melting crayons and sunscreen to show the impact that the sun has on our earth.

This could be a lesson that would revolve around a field trip to a local ice skating rink. During our visit, we could discuss what the temperature of the ice is and what would happen if the temperature, wind chill included, was changed. We could discuss what temperatures are safe to skate on and what would happen if the rink wasn't frozen enough. Overall, this would allow them to critically think about what the right temperature should be for the ice when they skate. While I listed this as a free lesson, it might cost money to go to the rink.

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.

This is an awesome lesson plan that can connect most students to something that they enjoy watching on TV and playing with - robots! This lesson allows children to understand the basics of robots and how they work, but also give them the chance to make their own robots. In giving them a chance to build their own robots, they would have to ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. (K-2-ETS1-1) I would use this whole lesson plan as a fun way to understand what team work actually is and engineering at a younger level.

This resource contains a lesson plan for a fifth grade class. The lesson teaches about the affects people can have on water around them. It involves a five minute video, a hands-on activity, and even a song. I selected this particular resource because it fits the standard to-obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. I really liked the way the lesson plan was written to engage students. I could possibly incorporate this resource, or parts of it, into the lesson plan that I will be writing in this course.

This is a lesson on the properties of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is structured much like a lesson plan that we learned about in EDU 309, and as such, is easily broken down into individual parts. The lesson itself provides introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum, UV beads, prisms, and diffraction gratings, and also explains the origins of rainbows. I selected this resource because it provides a clear example of the use of the Next Generation Science Standards (despite its origins in California) as well as a valuable way for elementary students to look at the world around them in a different way. It also provides reading and mathematics connections. I would use this resource as a guidepost to structure my own lesson about light waves and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Excellent first post! you've got the hang of Diigo!

This website is based in Texas but is a group of individuals that will come into your classroom and teach the students about the need for plants and animals. I selected this website because I feel that younger students love to hear an expert on a subject come in and talk about it. I would use this resource at the beginning of my lesson segment on plant and animal biodiversity to get the students engaged and excited to learn.

This resource is a lesson segment that can be used to introduce biodiversity and also teach the students what biodiversity is. I selected this resource because it will give me an idea on what to teach my 2nd grade classroom when it comes to biodiversity. I would use this resource as a tool to help me in making my lesson plans for my lesson segment on biodiversity.

This lesson provides information on Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. This lesson explains what a scientist does and how Benjamin Franklin's inventions derived from need. This lesson includes a fun matching game, similar to Memory, of Benjamin Franklin's inventions and explanations of why they were invented.