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This resource describes how to make a rain gauge. This resource is valuable because it is a hands-on activity that will help students not only observe rain patterns, but will also help them to chart them. I would have my students make these in groups and we would then chart the rain fall over the course of the unit.

This is an experiment for students to make their own rain gauge. I would use this in my classroom by having each student make their own rain gauge and them placing them in their yards at home. I would try to do this during the spring and rainy season and have students record their measurements after each rain. Students would then compare their measurements with their classmates and determine where the most rain fell.

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 activity helps provide students with a simple understanding of why there are different types of soil. The students will be given a chewy chocolate chip cookie, and a regular crunchy one. They will examine each cookie and describe their characteristics and properties. Next, the students will smash the cookies with their hands to replicate the process of rocks weathering. Now that they have soil, they will compare the properties of both types of soil and form conclusions. Using a chewy chocolate chip cookie and a crunchy one represents the different minerals found in soils, and how it impacts its appearance, texture, and many other characteristics. Once the students have completed this activity, they will be able to enjoy a cookie! I selected this resource because I think it is a very straight forward way of learning about the different types of soils. Using these types of cookies really makes the concept easier to understand. This activity will not cost a lot of money, which makes it very valuable to me. We will do this activity at the end of our soil lesson in science.

This tool is a great supplement to a lesson. It gives a visual as to how an enzyme reacts in the cell as well as allows students to modify parameters to understand the effects of the change in environment. This can be used as review and accessed at home as well.

Students create a class book about aquatic life in or near local river(s). This lesson would be broken into several parts (classroom lecture followed by a trip to a local water source). I like this lesson because it gets the students out of the classroom and exploring our environment. This lesson is a great way to teach students about microscopic life forms in addition to aquatic life. I like how the lesson included journals to document findings.

This is a simple, yet, very effective way for students to understand just what is happening during moon phases. It is a very simple activity to put together that has the students sitting in a circle around the "moon" which is stationary and half is colored black. Each student, sitting at different angles draws what it is they see demonstrating the moon phases. I love this activity, it easily illustrates any misconceptions that students may have about the moon and its phases. I could see this being a very useful lesson and activity when discussing the moon, and illustrating how parts of the moon don't actually disappear. I've always thought that being able to visualize things were the best way to learn.

Learn More & Get Involved The Lower River Cam, located in Katmai National Park and Brooks Camp, Alaska, is where the Brooks River meets Naknek Lake. It is a favorite place of mothers and their young cubs, females and young adults until September when as many as 100 bears descend on the area to feast over a two month period. ______________________________________________________________________________ This is a GREAT website! This website allows viewers to observe animals in their natural habitats (my favorite are the elephants). Some of the animals include elephants, bears, sharks, penguins, and many more. These animals are found everywhere around the world, and cameras are put in their habitats (both in zoos and in the wild) so viewers can observe the way these animals act in their natural habitats. I chose this resource simply because I absolutely love it. I've heard nothing but good things about this website. My brother has used this website in his kindergarten classroom and his students really enjoyed observing the different animals. I also like how the website provides a wide range of animals, which helps peak every students' interest. This resource could be used during any science lesson about animals. If students are learning about animals and their habitats, this website would be very resourceful and would be a great visual to show the different habitats animals live in. Overall, I think this resource gets students interested in animals and can be used at any grade level to peak students' interest.

This resource is my technology source. In this resource you are able to chose air, water, or glass. Then you press the light button which allows you to send a light ray or wave through one of those. You then can see how it reflects, bends, or bounces through each one of these. I would use this resource as part of a way to summarize a lesson. This will allow students to play around with it on the computer.

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.

For this activity, ask the students what they think will happen if you heat a bar of ivory soap in the microwave. Make a graph of their predictions on the smartboard. Then heat the bar of ivory soap in the microwave for one minute. After you show the students what happened to the soap. Allow them to hold pieces of the "cloud" and make observations about texture and why they think the soap formed into a cloud. I chose this activity because this teacher also has a unit on weather connected to this activity that includes daily weather observations, non-fiction passages and writing organizers.

Who knew!? Very cool and surprising outcome. I am a little concerned that this activity might lead students away from true understanding of the formation of clouds, though. What do you think?

StudyJams is a website sponsored by Scholastic that has a plethora of math and science (not to mention free) activities. Most topics have a video or slide show to present the information as well as a test so that the student (or teacher, if formatively assessing) can see how well they have retained the information. My cooperating teacher during my second block introduced me to StudyJams. The reason I selected this resource is because I have seen this site in action and it really does engage the students. I do not see this site being as frequently visited as it was in my cooperating teacher's classroom (which was about everyday). However, I think the short videos and review tests are great ways to grab the interests of my students.

Is there a particular science topic on StudyJams you would recommend?

This fun game for elementary students shows the students how different kinds of animals or insects go through their different life cycles. It would be very good for kids who need to review how the life cycle works.

This a simple experiment that can be used for younger students to show them how sunlight refracts when it passes through water. Children are often amazed by rainbows, so why not let them make their own rainbow while learning how and why they appear.

Learn about evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection. In this activity students will discover how the water cycle works as well as how evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection are conducted. During this activity students get to control the water cycle as they learn about the important process. I believe that this activity can support students in memorizing the water cycle as well as understanding why the process is important.

10 years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Why does it seem like storms are only getting worse since then? This video provides students with a realistic hurricane that occurred in the united states and gives facts about how hurricanes are made as well as what they cause. I love the information on the characteristics of how hurricanes develop and what they do when they hit land.I believe that students can most of their information on hurricanes from this video and because it ties in a real life event, student can relate to this subject matter even more.

This resource is a field trip to Cahokia Mounds. I think that this fits with my standard, 5-ESS3-1 because it shows how the community preserves a historical landmark, and it shows how something can last for a long time if people take care of the environment.

Since Fall is right around the corner, literally, I thought this would be a cute activity to show students how the leaves change colors. With simple items you can find at the store students can participate in this hands-on activity that shows them how a trees leaves changes colors. Students can either do this activity by themselves or in groups (older grade levels) and younger students can participate alongside the teacher.

"Learn about the forces of motion and gravity with a new painting technique by exchanging the paint brush for a swinging pendulum. Engage your child with the combination of art and science for a STEAM learning activity. STEAM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math." I found this experiment/activity fun and interesting because it combines science and art. During a unit on forces of motion and gravity, you would discuss how a pendulum works. I would do this activity outside and use the washable chalklike paint they give a recipe for on the site. I would have students predict what kind of a pattern they think the paint will go in based off how the pendulum swings with no paint. Once we have done the first paint pattern, we would try to see if different patterns would occur if you pull it back further. The results are very interesting!

This is a great website for science lesson plans. I really like how it gives you all of the worksheets you need to use during the lesson. It also shows you different links that are related to the lesson that might be good to supplement your lesson with. There is also plenty of teacher resources such as articles, tips, themes, and printables. I would use this for lesson plan ideas along with supplemental materials.

This website explains what carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, and decomposers are. It is very colorful, making it kid friendly. I choose this website as a resource because it is simple for young students to understand. The information is right to the point, creating a clear understanding of the material. I would use this resource in my classroom to teach my students how animals are classified based on what they eat.