Group items tagged

The St. Louis Zoo provides 8 lesson plans on conservation, populations and ecosystems, and characteristics of living organisms. I have used one in the past and adapted it to fit a higher grade level than listed. I selected this resource because I love connecting material to the zoo. It is valuable that students know that zoos are not only for people to go look at animals, but they are put in place to help repopulate endangered species as well. These resources can be used as is or adapted to fit other classroom needs.

This is a video that could be used in a 5th grade science class, during an astronomy lesson.  This video is a great visual to show students the actual size of our solar system and the relation of the planets.  This video is well edited with music that is not too distracting like the other videos that I found.  This video could be use during almost any lesson talking about the solar system or galaxies.

Grade level- K-5 This is a great website that has alot of games for kids. I believe it would be good for grades K-5. It covers many topics about science including bugs, animals, ozone, and ways to go green. I think this resource would be a great resource to use in the classroom to incorporate computers. It is also a good way to get kids out of the regular classroom and lecture. Many children learn very well from the computer. This resource is also a great resource for teachers, because it has many printables and and videos that can be incorporated into the classroom.

Mainly classroom supplemental materials for sale, but all are produced by ABC and Disney, so quality of materials is terrific. Materials available for all grade levels. If you dig around the site, there are free science demos by Bill Nye the Science Guy.

Second grade teacher blog...scroll to September 10 and there is and entry for Common Core Science Incorporated. There is a nice overview of integrating science with other subjects.

This was a fourth grade physical science experiment that can be used when studying electricity. Although it is not completely free it uses minimal household items so the cost is very low. The students are able to see what goes on inside a battery by completing a circuit. I would use this in my classroom because the students become actively involved in learning and it is something new and "shocking" for them to discover.

Grade level probably more like 4-8 than K-5

This would be my last step in a recycling lesson, or, "Recycle Week." I would have my children create recycling slogans to post around the school and create rules/conditions for the competition. The goal would be to have a competition between each grade and class to see who can gather the most recyclable materials in four weeks. There will be a class winner in each grade that will be rewarded with an ice cream party, pizza party, extended recess, etc., to be decided with the class.

This dairy farm is located in Trenton, IL and would be an excellent learning experience for children. You can set up a tour with the dairy by calling the number listed on the website. I envision taking this field trip during a unit on the food groups. It could also be used as a single, more specific, lesson about the process of creating yogurt, cheese, and milk. Students would also have the opportunity to taste a free sample of the yogurt after the tour. I can remember going on a field trip similar to this one when I was in the second or third grade. I would probably also use it for that grade level. It does not say the cost of the tour on the website but I was told that it is inexpensive.

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 site provides a multitude of lesson plans for many different grade levels of science. Teacher notes, student copies, and examples are all given in the lesson guidelines. I have used Arkive in the past for projects and have found it very helpful. I imagine using these lessons as supplemental activities for the lessons I teach in biology.

The St. Louis Science Center often provides preview days for educators to come check out the new exhibit featured. This preview allowed the educator to see the exhibit and the movie along with receiving some resources on how to lead the students through the exhibit. I think it is important that teachers be able to view exhibits and have a lesson ready before taking their students on a trip. I think that any teacher would benefit from such a workshop even though the material offered would be suitable for grades 3-8.

This is a video I found on YouTube featuring an experiment that shows how light can be "bent" using water and reflection. I selected it because it goes well with the Next Generation Science Standard that I was given (1-PS4-3). I feel that it lends itself well to explaining to students the reflective properties of light, and I would use the video along with my own version of the activity to explain this. I tagged both K-3 as well as 4-8, though I feel that the activity could be used at any grade level. The video itself uses more advanced language and vocabulary, but I feel that by using grade-appropriate terminology, it could be useful for younger students as well.

This site has activiites and lesson plan supplements, including interactive games that students can play. There are kid-friendly articles, in English and Spanish, and also a resource library for teachers. This website is free and the activities are geared toward grades 4-8. I would definitely look here for fun extras to supplement my lesson plans.

This is an activity for the first day or as an introduction to the scientific method or to just allow students to work in groups so that you can get to know them better. I usually do all instructions verbally and don't require any written documents for turning in. __________________________ This is a cute activity to use for smaller aged students to introduce them to the scientific method with little prep work from the instructor. All the teacher needs is gummy worms, life savors, paper clips, and plastic cups. Sam (the worm) is stuck on a boat (the cup) and the life jacket (life savor) is under the cup. The students will use paper clips to retrieve the life jacket and put it on Sam to save him. While doing this, students will work with a partner to explore ways to save Sam. I would use the link below as it goes along with the lesson and gives questions for the students to answer and record during their exploration to save Sam. The worksheet can be tailored to match the appropriate age group conducting the experiment. https://docs.google.com/document/d/15ahlJ9CSEB31IPgJOFO2LW62K5PoxbN6hosNneO2tRc/edit?hl=en_US I think this would be a fun activity that would allow the instructor to see how the students work together and who is taking the lead role. At the same time, the students are being introduced to creating an hypothesis, recording their observations, and coming to conclusions. I would probably use questions from the above link for higher grades such as 2nd - 5th. If I did this activity with K and 1st grade, I probably would just discuss vocabulary terms as well as their thoughts and observations during group discussion versus having them document on paper.

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 website provides several resources for teachers. There are several science experiment lesson plans along with supplemental materials. There is also a JustAsk section that addresses classroom issues such as bullying.

This site has a lot of neat experiments where you can choose the grade level and content. For my unit plan I would select "Earth and Space Science" in order to get ideas on different activities and experiments to do in class with my students. I picked this site because the activities are ones where the students could use their creativity to come up with something unique. For instance, they could make a homemade planetarium, make a spaceship using old CD's, or even make a solar system of students. I would use this site in the classroom to get ideas on how to get the students out of their seats, but yet keep them interested. The activities from this site are ones that the students would definately enjoy.

This website contains activities for all grade levels and covers many different topics including how new medicines are found in the ocean, climate/weather, lesson sets addressing ocean littering/pollution, make your own weather station, and more. It includes basic fact sheets or interactive projects and games for students to work on. NOAA also heads up a Teach at Sea program where kindergarden through college educators can spend a given amount of time on a boat with scientists, researchers, and the boating crew to gain new experiences about human impact on the ocean, marine life, weather, etc and bring that new knowledge back to the classroom. I have also included a link to the Teach At Sea Program below. http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/

Because observation, prediction, and communication are all very important science skills, this project works perfectly to help students improve in all of those areas! As a teacher, I would use this activity to tie in with telling time and with our Solar System unit. This project would ideally be used in a third grade class and be a good hands on project. I thought that it would be fun to keep a classroom sun dial outside so we could keep a chart about how accurate it worked or even use it as some kind of experiment. I think it's a very unique lesson and project. It's something that you wouldn't see every day in a Science class with that age group.

Remove "science" tag and add something more specific, like "earth science." To keep words together, use " " around the word. For example, remove the tags "sun" and "dial" and add one that is "sun dial". Grade level tags should be k-2, 3-5, 6-8, and/or 9-12 to be consistent among all the resources.

This is the webpage for Mrs. Sharp's 4th Grade classroom at Friendsville Elementary School. This activity is similar to a field trip because the students get to leave the classroom and investigate, but they do not actually leave the school grounds. The students get to go outside and walk around their school to find signs of erosion. They will keep a notebook with them to record their findings. I chose this activity because it is a fun interactive way for students to learn. They get to get out of their seats and learn through a hands on activity. I would use this activity to wrap up the erosion unit and to show students that erosion is everywhere. We would end the activity by coming back into the classroom and discussing the findings.

This is a great website that has tons of free lesson plans, videos, and quizzes. It covers a wide range of topics including, life science, physical science, the human body, and space. It includes content for grades K-12. It even includes interactive diagrams for students to complete. I think this resource could be used in the classroom in multiple ways. The activities could be used for instruction or reinforcement.

Very easy to search, by grade level or content area. The lessons I found were good foundations for particular content, but needed some sparking up, especially in terms of an engaging introduction.