Group items tagged

This site was created by NASA's Planetary Science Division. Their hardworking robots explore the planets and more on the wild frontiers of our solar system. NASA keeps their websites up to date and are user friendly. I would utilize this website in conjunction with a lesson on the solar system. I would pair students up and the group would use the website to explore their planet and then they would create a travel brochure using publisher. Incorporating technology into the classroom is important and this allows me to do that.

This "app inventor app" designed by MIT allows students to harness the process of app making in an app itself. The MIT App Inventor provides six-week training courses, teacher supports, and educational challenges! I see coding, programming, etc. becoming a very large part of our education world very soon, and if it's not, it should be! Providing my students with the knowledge and experience they need to be technologically literate is one of the most useful tools I can send them into the future with! I envision this resource being used specifically as a lesson in the classroom, or a class project- or, alternatively this resource could be used as an additional activity for students to tackle when they are finished with their work (thus allowing them educational screen time.)

QR codes for each element lead to a video related to each element on the periodic table. Print out for each student to generate an interactive table for students to use with smart phones

I really like how this site gives basic information about butterflies including area, habitat, food, size, and life cycle in a fun and coloful format. It also includes links to games and activity ideas.

This site is great! It gives a very cute animated lesson about butterfly life cycles and then allows you to play games to practive what you've learned! This would be great for a kindergarten or early elementary classroom and could be done individually or on a SmartBoard as a class as well.

This is a very interactive smartboard activity that goes through different characteristics of living things (i.e. crocodiles have scales, etc), and also requires the students to sort the different living things. They have categories such as animals with fur, animals that swim, etc. This aligns very nicely with the standard 12.A.1b- Categorize living things using a variety of observable features.

In this SmartBoard activity, students get to group different living and nonliving things. It is an introduction to classification based on their physical characteristics. I would use this as an interactive class or group activity that gets everyone thinking about physical characteristics and how we can group different living and non-living things into categories. Students will have to interact with each other, and come to a consensus on what they think the answer will be. This is collaborative learning for them. 

During this activity students will complete a worksheet (that is attached on the bottom of the website) where they will gather information about each planet. I like that the information that is needed to complete the worksheet is quite extensive compared to other worksheets. This webquest could be used as a lesson one day to break up the tediousness of sitting in a desk and reading from the book. I like that it incorporates technology in the classroom by allowing students to use computers.

This resource contains an interactive map of Recycle City. The map has four areas that can be explored to discover how the residents recycle, reduce, and reuse waste in the city. I selected 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 for this course. The interactive map will go along very well with this lesson.

Great find! Thank you for posting. How, specifically, will the map "go along" with the lesson?

The map could serve as the "Exploration" part of my lesson. However, I could see this as being very time consuming. In a real classroom, it would most likely have to be an activity using up the entire science period.

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 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.

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.

The St. Louis Science Center is a great place for children of all places to explore. It has free general admission with lots of science to explore. There are also on-site science demonstrations that cost anywhere from $40 per participant to $50-250 per 100 person group. This is a great field trip that can be free for all students or one that can become more exciting with demonstrations for a fee. In my classroom I would utilize the St. Louis Science Center as a hands on resource to cover different aspects of science taught throughout the school year. This would be an end of the year field trip. Depending on funding I would use the free aspects and have my students participate in one of the demonstrations.

This site is interactive. Students click on the different planets in our solar system and learn interesting facts about each. This is an interesting activity using technology in the classroom. Students can also explore the site for even more interesting space facts. I like this website because there is so much on it for students to explore. I also feel it would be a good supplement to class discussions about space.

The Children's University of Manchester produces this page. It is absolutely fabulous! The website is interactive, teaching students about a variety of different subjects in a way that is appealing to children. The brief lesson could be used as a quick introduction to a topic, or a quick recap over a topic. The site I have linked to is about the phases of the moon. The children can see a short animated clip showing the sun with the earth and moon orbiting around it. The clip has facts throughout, and a brief quiz at the end. I would highly recommend incorporating this site into your classroom!

This resource is an interactive tool for students. The students are asked to enter their area code and to check yes or no depending on whether or not they observed that type of bug. In order to use the online source, students must first investigate the environment of the teacher's choice (ex: playground) and make note of the bugs that they have seen. Once the student's collected their data and entered it into the website, they are able to compare what types of bugs are found in the different states/regions. I chose this resource because it requires the students to observe their surroundings, record their data, and compare their data to other regions of the United States. Not only does it require the use of technology, it also requires the students to not remain stationary in the classroom setting.

Skeletons are the structures that hold our bodies together and are very important to keeping us healthy. Students can play do an online interactive activity while learning about moving and growing by sorting and labeling the bones of a human skeleton. For added difficulty, or to use this link associated with a different unit, students are also able to label the skeletons of other animals such as an insect, fish or horse. I would use this website in a lower elementary classroom for a quick, fun assessment on the bones.

This multimedia learning app teaches children about the water cycle. This app allows children to both learn about the water cycle, and test their knowledge. For each stage of the water cycle, the children learn about the process, fun facts about the stage, as well as how it can be seen in nature. Ie.: "Precipitation can be rain, snow, hail, etc." This app was the awarded the 2014 American Association of School Librarians Best Apps for Teaching & Learning in the STEM Category.

Students work in groups to write research reports and create visuals about countries, put on a culture fair, and use PowerPoint to present their information. I would put my students into groups of two. I would then walk around the room and have them draw out of a hat countries name. Whatever country they pull out they have to do research on the computer about that country and put information on a Powerpoint to share with the class. This is a great way for the students to learn how to work cooperatively, how to do research, and they will all learn about how each country is different and how they are not all like the United States.