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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 movie visually explains the how hurricanes form and their movement. The movie defines "low pressure systems" and "tropical depression" that a student would hear a meteorologist use in a forecast. This movie could be used to introduce a lesson on storm systems that occur. I chose this BrainPOP movie because it seems as though students love the visual and retain the information given from BrainPOP.

PBS's lesson on gravity is somewhat of a classic, dropping two objects of different weight from the same height. This lesson utilizes both hands-on experiments, videos, prediction, and a variety of other ways for students to stay engaged and involved in the lesson. Throughout the lesson students predict what may or may not happen to their own experiments, to those done on the moon, and comparatively between the two differing atmospheres. The resource is specifically valuable to me due to it's consistent student directed and inquiry-based nature, examples of higher order thinking questions can be found throughout the lesson. I can see this resource being used in the classroom during an introduction lesson to the concept of gravity, possibly taking place in multiple parts throughout a week or a unit.

This is a great lesson on various visual illusions used to engage and intrigue students, all raising the question "Why is this an illusion?" With interest piqued, students are engaged to answer this question about the T-illusion, proposing hypotheses to explain what makes it an illusion, then designing simple experiments to test those hypotheses. This is extended to a look at natural illusions, and how science effectively reveals their reality.

A free animated video presentation to show students how dinosaur bones become fossils. I liked this video because it really enhances the teaching of how bones eventually become fossils and will help students gain a better understanding of the long process and natural forces at work. It would be a great resource to use in conjunction with teaching students biological evolution (3-LS4).

This is a free 5-minute animated video that explains how animals adapt to changes in their environment for survival.The video also touches on the topic of natural selection by explaining that the traits suited for survival are then passed on from one generation to the next. I like this video because it's fun and would appeal to third graders but it's still teaching them the concepts that are introduced when teaching about biological evolution (3-LS4). I would show the video before delving into the variation among species and survival of the fittest topics where introduced. I think it's helpful when teaching concepts to make them relevant to the students, and this video shows how animals that the students are familiar with, such as tigers, obtained and use their camouflage.

This bird feed project requires students to create a bird feed out of recyclable objects. Instead of using things provided like the website says, I would have each child bring something to school out of their recycle bins to use on this bird feeder as a classroom conservation project.

This is an easy-to-follow, step-by-step explanation on genetics and inheritance. Each concept is briefly but succinctly explained allowing students to learn the concepts in small doses. I selected this resource because of its foundational nature and supporting graphics. This makes it suitable for learners at varying levels but particularly for early biology learners. It could be used effectively in any introductory DNA lesson.

Each of the many sections of the site includes explanation, animation, biography of a related scientist, and more. Quite in-depth and very high quality material.

DiscoveryKids.com offers many videos about sharks. The videos show sharks in and out of their natural habit and everyday life. The videos show how sharks eat and survive, how sharks look, and the different types of sharks that exist. I would combine these videos with Shark Week as a fun learning experience for the students. The videos would be used in numerous ways. I would have the students write in their science journals, take quizzes about a particular shark, draw pictures, complete a research paper, and complete other activities during that week about sharks.

This is a fun activity that will show students the process of rain. They will take a glass of water, place shaving cream on top to represent the clouds, and drop food coloring through the "clouds" to depict rain. The lesson is also partnered with a book about clouds that describes each different type of cloud. I chose this resource because it will be something the students can get excited about while also being able to watch exactly what it looks like when rain comes out of the clouds. I would use this resource when introducing photosynthesis.

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.

To show students that many kinds of organisms can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which organisms belong to which group. Classification systems are not part of nature. Instead, they are frameworks created by biologists to help them understand and describe the vast diversity of organisms and suggest relationships among living things. I would need adapt this lesson to meet a standard, but I would try to make the connection that plants and animals have similar internal and external structures to survive.

This website is for the teacher to design a lesson for students to compare and contrast different animals and their habitats. This forces students to use observation, and critical thinking.

This website provides teachers with a way to integrate bug collections into a lesson about observation, questioning, and critical thinking. Students are able to identify and find bugs around the school yard and learn at the same time.

This is an iPhone app that helps kids learn about plants. It examines the life cycle of a plant, different types of plants, and allows students to grow their own plant. I selected this source because it is very colorful and has good information about the plant process. It allows kids to watch videos and create their own plant. It seems like a good app for $0.99. I would use this app in my classroom to get students engaged and to review material about plants.  I could also use it as an activity for early finishers.

Looks like the price has changed to free!

This website is mostly for the students. They are able to play a food chain game where they have to decide which things depend on others and where they are on the food chain. This would be good for students who finish assignments early or need help understanding the food chain

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL is filled with many hands on activities for all kinds of science. Why does a tornado spin? Why does a wave break? Why does a flame burn? Why does lightning strike? Our questions about the world begin almost as soon as we're aware of it. I have been to this museum but it has been a long time. After trying to think of an interesting place to go and looking at several, this museum seems to be filled with many hands on science experiences and that is why I chose this museum. Also, for field trips, chaperons and students get into the museum for free but there are small fees for the omnimax and certain special exhibits. I also loved that there were labs you could rent, online resources, and they also include worksheets for activities they do in the museum. For the labs they also include standards on their website, including the next generation standards! Many exhibits interest me but this one on Science Storms would be great to take your students after doing a lesson on weather in science. This would give students an insight to mother nature, it's strength in an up close view. There are so many more to include though. So you could even do an end of the year field trip, or maybe an 8th grade trip and include an educational engaging experience for the children.

This hands-on activity allows students to get a better understanding of why a tree's leaves change colors. By doing this activity, we will be able to see how a leaves colors stay hidden in the leaf all year long. Students will collect leaves prior to doing this experiment, and will place them in small jars filled slightly with rubbing alcohol. Those leaves will be chopped up into tiny pieces and left in the jar which will be covered with a lid or plastic wrap. The jars will soak in water for about a half an hour. Students will then use a strip of coffee filter paper to see the colors from the leaves bleed. They will see different shades of green, orange, red, and maybe some yellow depending on the type of leaf. I chose this experiment because it allows the students to understand chromatography, chlorophyll, and different pigments found in leaves. By doing a hands-on activity, students are more engaged and anxious to find out what is going to happen. I envision this experiment being used at the end of a plant lesson in science. We would have been discussing different types of plants, trees, flowers, and why they are all different colors. There will also be many important vocabulary words that the students will need to understand, which will be present in this activity. We will conduct this experiment in small groups so that students are able to participate and see what is going on.

This resource is a web page that has an entire outline and all of the information to do a field trip at Glacier National Park in Montana. This field trip is designed for 2nd grade (in the fall or spring) and has a duration of 4 hours. The group size listed is for 45 students. This is an excellent field trip that allows students to observe plants and animals in their natural habitats, compare/contrast, and communicate findings. I felt that this field trip would match perfectly with 2-LS4-1. I would use this field trip near the end of my unit, so students could grasp the real life connections and I could somewhat assess their learning of the lessons previously taught for this specific standard. ( I did not see the cost for this field trip listed on the website, so I am led to believe it is a free field trip that Glacier National Park offers.)