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I like this website because it provides information on other weather instruments and who invented them. I will use this information in planning my lesson about lightning and Benjamin Franklin's invention of the lightning rod.

This unit on weather includes three days worth of lesson plans. Each day corresponds with a specific book about weather. One of the books it includes is "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs". Assuming most children saw the movie, I would ask questions to access what they may already know about weather and if the movie is comparable to the weather we experience. These lessons also include weather observation and opportunities to write about their observations. I chose these lessons because they include extensions, assignments, and assessments. I can see myself using this in the classroom with my students because I feel that using literature makes a lesson stronger. It draws the kids in, and enables me to ask questions to access prior knowledge.

This is a lesson plan all about DNA. The students will use a banana and extract DNA from it and observe it under a microscope. I think that this is a cool and fun, interactive way for students to obtain a better understanding of DNA.

DNA is so abstract that I think it would be better recommended for 6-12 than K-12.

In this activity, Students will try extracting DNA from a banana by following the simple instructions and can take the activity further with the use of a microscope. It is a fun, interactive way to get the students thinking about structure. I would consider incorporating this activity into my classroom because it involves very little cost (1 banana would provide enough DNA for a classroom-wide experiment). Also, the experiment is totally sanitary--you are not working with human/animal DNA, you're working with food. Finally, anytime you bring food into a classroom, healthy or not, the students are interested. It's a win-win-win-win. This is a great lesson because it can be easily modified and adapted based upon the grade level and needs of the students. I believe this lesson would provide a nice introduction of DNA to a Middle School science classroom. However, if the instructor would like to increase difficulty for an older grade, it is easy to do. The students could compare and contrast DNA from different fruits, research in-depth, etc.

This is a lesson plan that will provide students with an understanding of how light interacts with different objects. While experimenting with different objects, students will be able to see the relationships between light and the shadow that the objects casts. In addition to learning about shadows, students will be able to tell if objects are reflective, transparent, or opaque. I like this lesson plan because it breaks down the lesson into multiple days and offers ways for the students to further their connections by experimenting at home. I would use this lesson in the classroom while teaching about sources of light.

Astronomy facts of the day present by the Saint Louis Science Center is a great way to introduce the topic of Astronomy, as well as, to build my students knowledge of the topic. Not only does this website include facts, but it also includes occurances that happen on that specific day in the sky which students may be able to witness. This resource could be used daily during my planet and constellation lesson plans, in addition to randomly the rest of the year after the students learn about the topic.

Great resource! SO interesting.

This lesson plan helps teach students about pollination and the different ways that plants are pollinated by different animals. Students create flowers and try to match animals to the different flowers based on characteristics. I like this resource because it combines art and science. Kids get to make their own flowers. Also, I think it is a really creative way of talking about pollination and gets kids thinking about how bees are not the only creature that pollinates flowers. I would use this resource during a plant unit in an upper elementary classroom. I would use this resource when we are discussing pollination and the reproductive parts of a plant. I would modify it to meet the needs of my students and the constraints of my classroom.

The website includes directions for a great kinesthetic approach to teaching constellations. This project consists of star cookies which the students configure into different constellations. I selected this resource to use during my stars lesson plan. After seeing the stars in the distances I feel this project will bring the idea of constellations down to earth.

I was surprised to find this website to be written in French! It would require some calculation to convert the recipe from grams to our more standard measurements, or at least a kitchen scale. This recipe isn't essential to the star shape, though, which could be achieved with regular sugar cookie dough and a small star cutter.I do love the idea of placing the cookies in a pattern and connecting with chalk or crayon to either "create" new constellations (for which students could also write related myths or stories) or review and recreate the existing constellations under study.

STUDY JAMS! A website sponsored by Scholastic books. This page includes a 3 minute video, sing-a-long, vocabulary lesson, and quiz. In addition, this sight includes a link for a matter lesson plan and teachers guide

Love the video, which could be used as a good review, or in segments along with instruction and experiments on the individual phases of matter. Very kid-relevant and scientifically correct, including temperature and molecule movement, using the analogy of "teams" of molecules.

Electricity -- we depend on it every minute of every day. And yet to many of us, electricity seems a mysterious and even magical force. Before Ben Franklin did his famous and very dangerous kite flying experiment, electricity was thought to be a type of fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think this is an excellent lesson to teach to grades 3-6. I am pleased with this lesson that it lists the lesson sequence, materials needed, and the objectives. I really like the variety that this lesson includes. It allows students to get up and move in acting out an electric circuit as well as get up close and personal with electricity and how it works with the activity. Not only does this lesson involve interactive components for students, it also provides many videos that correlate with the lesson. This lesson plan seems easy to follow with the instructional sequence and I think it would be easy to fit within the McKendree lesson plan template and add a bit of flair from the teacher candidate. I think this lesson also allows teachers to impose his or her own spin on the lesson and choose what parts to include or omit as well as what might need to be added to the lesson. A lesson like this with so much instructional variety helps to reach students that learn from hands-on activities, students who learn more visually, as well as students who learn best from discussion and instruction. I would follow the instructional sequence if I were to use this lesson in the classroom, but I would tailor it to fit my time allotment for teaching Science, thus it would be done in smaller segments. I would choose one or two videos to share with the class, but post the rest on our class website so the children could view them if the wanted to.

This website includes lesson plans and activities to use in conjunction with Weather Channel's classroom program "Elementary Weather". Specifically, it includes weather concepts, scientific method, climate, weather terms, and the water cycle. It gives five lessons with background information, objectives, procedures, outcomes, prep time, materials, and standards. I chose this resource for a number of reasons. It's cross-curricular in at least one other area, provides handouts, has extension and modification plans, includes hands-on lessons, assessment tools, and a long-term project. I see myself using this in the classroom because there are many different directions each lesson can take. Modifications and extensions are important in our districts to meet the needs of diverse learners. I put a $ in the tags in case purchase of the videos is necessary.

This pdf file provides many different lessons on weather for many different grade levels. The pdf file assist the students in understanding the meaning behind the weather as a whole and gives great insight into what students need to do during these weather conditions. I believe that these lesson while give students great insight into how weather works as well as provide the teacher with many different ways to teach the lesson or grade level.

This place always delivers fun, education and family friendly memories. Get the annual membership and come back often! It's the biggest and best children's museum in the world. It is worth the trip and plan to spend the whole day. There is something for all ages and it is a wonderful family experience. The Children's Museum of Indianapolis provides students with hands on experiences as well as exploring and adventuring in different science subjects. During this field trip students can understand how science works by the different hands on activities. The museum provides all types of subject matters that deal with science and therefore you can plan a field trip at anytime throughout the school year, that will work with the lesson you are teaching. I believe that this field trip can be fun and exciting as well as convenient for the teacher, when it comes to the science lesson that's being taught.

This is a comprehensive lesson plan that provides many options for the introduction and activities as well as reinforcement. This lesson also provides external interactive resources. I think this is a wonderful lesson for developing a unit.

This resource shows a video of a women performing a song by using test tubes filled with water to create different pitches. It demonstrates the use of sound and vibrations. It tells you all the materials that you will need, what to do, and what will happen. It also gives you ideas for further activity if you have more time in the class. I chose this resource because I did an activity similar to this in my Methods of Fine Arts class but we used mason jars instead of test tubes, which I believe would be more safe for younger students. Also, the water in each mason jar was a different color and each jar was labeled 1-8. This made it easier when we played a song with the jars. I think this activity would be very fun for students to do because I really enjoyed doing it. You don't have to necessarily follow this lesson plan; you can tweak it to how you want. I would use this resource after teaching my students about vibrations and talking about how sounds change when water levels are different. It goes along with my standard 1-PS4-1: plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make a sound and that sound can make materials vibrate.

While some of us stand out in a crowd others tend to blend in and it's the same in the animal kingdom. This animal camouflage lesson plan explains some of the concepts and offers a fun activity to help kids understand how camouflage works. This lesson involves learning about adaptations of animals in their environment. Specifically, we would be discussing camouflage. In the activity that goes with the lesson, students would make cardboard cut-outs of animals, color them, and try to hide them around the room in areas where their camouflage would benefit them most. Students would also learn how some animals prefer to stand out in their environment as a warning to others. For extensions of this lesson, we could discuss how hunters and soldiers use man-made camouflage. I could also take the kids outside and have them find somewhere that they would blend in the best based on their clothing.

This is a lesson plan that helps teach the water cycle. It has the students acting as water droplets and moving through different stations in the room to represent them moving through the different stages in the water cycle. I like that in this lesson it gets the students out of their seats.

The Three Gorges Dam in China has been completed and is considerably larger than the Hoover Dam here in the United States. With this lesson plan students will learn how a dam is constructed, it's purpose, and the dangers associated with dams. I would add some videos to this lesson to show the students how large or small dams can be and I would show a video of a dam breaking and the damage it can cause (Johnstown, Pa - 1889).

For this activity you would need a glove, 5 cotton balls, and 5 different types of plant seeds. Label the fingers of the gloves, wet the cotton ball but rid the excess water, place one seed and one cotton ball in the correctly labeled finger of the glove and watch the seeds grow. You can plant cotton ball and seed in garden once they sprout. I chose this because I think that kids really enjoy growing their own plants. I have worked with children and done this before and they love to check on them daily and then be able to take home and grow. I also chose this because each individual child gets their own plants and individual participation for fairly inexpensive project. As we begin a lesson on plants, we would plant our own plants to watch them grown throughout the unit. We would also be able to journal about our plants and their changes over time.

This lesson involves watching plants grow from seeds. Students use a glove and place one seed in each of the fingers and thumb. A damp cotton ball is added to hydrate the seeds as they grow. Students can watch their seeds grow into seedlings and eventually transplant elsewhere to become full grown plants. I would add some things to this lesson (such as a daily or weekly journal to document the growth of the seeds). I chose this because during an observation I saw this lesson in action! The students (grade 1) loved it and were excited to see what their seeds were doing each day and excited to know that when the seedlings were big enough, they would be planting them outside their school. It's valuable to me because I think it's important for students to understand the plant cycle and to appreciate the act of growing things (not just trees or flowers, but we can grow our food too!) I would use this lesson with different books to get the students engaged; I would use journals to monitor and make predictions about our seedlings as well.

Skip Discover Education Main Navigation Skip Discover Education Main Navigation Students will: 1. Understand the relationship of the nine planets in our solar system to the sun by creating a three-dimensional representation. 2. Understand the planets' relative distance from the sun and their approximate size in relation to the Earth. I like this lesson because students need to understand our solar system and earth's relation to other planets. I would keep the completed solar system on display in the classroom to ensure students retain the material and can reference it if needed. I like how this lesson plan has adaptations and ways to extend the lesson.

This is an interactive site that provides a range of information and resources for students and teachers. The site includes videos, lesson plans, quizzes, games, projects and other resources. I chose this specific topic about animals because it can be used to teach students about the food chain. Students can interact with animals and other living things like plants and learn the process of how the food chain works.