Group items tagged

This website gives you the ingredients and amounts of different liquids and materials to poor into a clear cylinder to determine the different densities of materials. In their lab groups, the students will determine the order that the materials will layer in the cylinder before the materials are actually poured in. I selected this resource because it provides a way do demonstrate density in the classroom and it explains the reason for why each material settles differently. I would use this experiment as a way to introduce volume and density to my middle school students.

This resource contains an insect activity that must be downloaded. Once downloaded, the PDF includes a chart with two columns (insect, not an insect). There is also a page of 14 animals that can be colored, cut, and pasted into the two columns. This resource also contains a follow up worksheet about insects. I selected this resource because I feel like it is an engaging activity for the lower elementary grades. I can see myself using this as a science center activity some day in my future classroom.

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 is a game that requires students to identify simple machines around the house and compound machines in the shed. Once students select one of the objects, they are given two multiple choice questions about the use of the tool and then what type of simple machine is being used. Then the students are given a visual aid explaining the job of that simple or compound machine. I chose this interactive website because it gives students real life application as it shows everyday uses for simple machines. I would use this in the classroom during a lesson on simple machines so that the students would benefit more from connecting the simple machines to previous experiences.

Simple Machines is a science game for students in grades 2 - 6 to identify simple machines around the house, and simple machines that make up compound machines in the tool shed. This is a very interactive activity. I chose this because it is informative and interactive as well as a free resource. I love that there is a free teacher's guide available and the national standards are listed so that you can see where this activity falls in the standards. I think this would be a great tool to use throughout the chapter or lesson on simple and compound machines. This will help reinforce the concept.

This is a video of a song that shows the basic parts of a plant and how a plant grows to the tune of "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes." This song would be really fun for kindergartners or first graders. I selected it because I want to infuse music and movement into the curriculum whenever possible, and I think this resource does both. This would be great for musical and bodily-kinesthetic learners. I could integrate art as well by having students create little props for use during the song. All of this could happen at the same time as they are learning about plants.  

This resource contains a multiple day lesson plan for a third grade class. The lesson is about composting. It involves instruction by use of a Power Point, an outdoor exploration, and even an assessment. 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 in this course. Although this standard is for fifth graders, I believe this resource will still be useful. In order to make the resource at a fifth grade level only a few things need to be tweaked. The lesson plan in this resource could serve as an outline for the lesson plan I will be creating in this course.

This is the St. Louis Zoo's website. It contains all the events it holds along with information about some of the animals. I chose this website as a source for a field trip. It is a good place to take students to because it is fun, but they are also learning about animals. I would take my students to the zoo after the lesson on food chains. They would have knowledge about what animals eat in terms of other animals. I would have them create their own food chains on the animals they saw at the zoo.

This is a resource for a field trip to the St. Louis Zoo. I selected this resource because it fit right in to my standard, 2-LS4-1 because the students will be able to make observations about the plants and animals that they see at the zoo as well as make observations about the types of habitats that the animals are in. I would use this resource to take my students on a field trip to the zoo to show them all of the different types of animals and most of the different types of plants.

This website has 5 different experiments that students can do with plants. The experiments test the effects of light, water, food, talking to the plants, and soil content on the growth of plants. I selected this source because I think the experiments are good and will help students understand the best conditions of plants. It will help them understand that there are other components besides light and water that go into the growth of a plant. I would use this resource during a plant unit, likely in 3rd or 4th grade. This would be an ongoing project that could integrate measurement in math, graphing (with and without use of technology), and art (by drawing observations).  

I love this one! I really like plant experiments becuase these days, kids don't really get to appreicate and witness actual plant growth. I would any of these as ideas to use in my classroom.

This is a music video about the sun. It talks about the many characteristics of the sun, like how hot the sun is or how far away from us it is. I selected this video because it was very informative, it had an inviting art style, and the song was really catchy. I personally found the song to sound just like things kids listen to today like the "Everything is Awesome" song from the Lego Movie. I think this video is going to show up a lot in my future classroom. I think it will engage the students as well as spark some interests in Astronomy.

The website is a great resource for any elementary school teacher. It is broken down into sections such as organization, search engines, games, activities, etc. While I obviously didn't look at all 100, the ones I did look at seemed like they had great potential. The organization section seemed especially promising because I struggle with keeping things organized. It has websites similar to diigo to provide you with more ideas and inspiration. I think this will be a great starting point for any new lesson that I decide to try. Picking any of the 100 sites is sure to bring up something helpful. It includes free audiobooks, body maps, worksheets, electronic field-trips, etc.

I found several of the links to be faulty--leading to old sites no longer functioning, or to sites that looked questionable. However, I did also find Climate Zone, which allows you to use a clickable map to select a region of the world, and then a country, for which the site then provides latitude, longitude, and climate information about the location. This would be a good resource for students researching regions of the world or biomes.

The Saint Louis Zoo provides a number of school programs, tours, and lessons for all age groups that deal with the themes of ecology, classification, conservation, and adaptation. There are even overnight programs dealing with these subjects, as well as outreach programs. Each theme has "sub-themes" that become more in depth and involved depending on the grade level of the students. (Diigo would not let me bookmark this link to the School Programs Table: http://www.stlzoo.org/files/7013/1350/2181/ProgramsandTours10.pdf). Costs vary depending on what program you wish to go on. I selected this resource because the Saint Louis Zoo is an excellent educational tool that is located so close to the area, and I feel that it should be utilized. This is valuable to me because I plan on using the Saint Louis Zoo as a field trip location and learning tool for my students. Knowing that there are scheduled programs that are challenging enough for my high school students is an excellent opportunity that I plan to use in the future. 

The Zoo Education Department offers programs designed to help students of all ages and abilities learn through experience, involvement and discovery. Programs may include live animals, biofacts, activities, demonstrations and/or discussions. If your class participates often in our programs, you may see the same animal(s) more than once. This is a great opportunity to get involved in St. Louis with the zoo. Teachers can find ways to use their classroom lessons and progress them with a field trip to the zoo.

This field trip opportunity would go great after a science lesson on renewable and nonrenewable resources/ a rain forest activity. Students would walk through the zoo focusing on different climates each animal lives in, what each animal eats, etc. The zoo provides class education programs that will meet the needs ( to their best ability) to provide animals that live in the specific area you are covering. "Programs may include live animals, bio facts, activities, demonstrations and/or discussions" (St. Louis Zoo). The zoo programs also provides four different areas of focus: adaptations, classification, conservation, and ecology.

Inspired by content from the upcoming PBS series EARTH A New Wild , the Ecosystem Explorer is a collection of videos, games, and infographics designed to take students deep into the ecosystems of three thrilling animals: vultures, wolves, and sharks.

Remove "science" tag and leave the biology one, which is more specific. Use an additional tag to designate what kind of resource this is: activity, lesson, video, field trip, etc.

Inspired by content from the upcoming PBS series EARTH A New Wild , the Ecosystem Explorer is a collection of videos, games, and infographics designed to take students deep into the ecosystems of three thrilling animals: vultures, wolves, and sharks. This is such a wonderful interactive site, which allows students to explore three different animals in their world: the vulture, wolf, and shark. I selected this resource because after navigating through myself I thought how beneficial and intriguing students would see it as well. The site gives facts about why these particular animals are essential to the environment, it also provide pictures of these creatures and games. This resource could be used when students are learning about animals and how essential they are to our environment, and what habitat and how these creatures live. I enjoyed this site and think that it could be a great tool for a future classroom.

Students will Learn and understand the term habitat. Discover that forests, deserts, wetlands, and grasslands are unique and separate habitats. Identify animals that live in four different environments. _______________________________________________________________________________________ In this lesson, students are learning about four different habitats: forests, deserts, wetlands, and grasslands. Students learn about the different environments of each habitat, as well as the different animals that live in each habitat. To show their understanding, students will create a drawing of the habitat they would most like to visit, including the different animals and plants that live there. I selected this resource because I think it's important for students to understand that there are many different habitats around the world. Students (as well as adults) often forget that there is a world outside of where they live, and I think it's important for students to learn about and understand these other habitats. Also, many students are interested in animals, and incorporating animals into this lesson will make it easier for the students to be engaged. I would follow the lesson the way it is written, and incorporate what we learn into a discussion about the type of environment we live in. Students would be able to compare where we live to other kinds of habitats. To add to this lesson, I would have each corner of the room decorated with a different kind of habitat (ex: forest corner: trees, monkeys, etc). Each student would make their own drawing, and go to their desired corner to share with their group first and then share their drawing to the whole class.

Looks good!

This resource contains a song about weather. It is a video that asks if the weather is sunny, rainy, cloudy, or snowy. I selected this resource because I could see myself using the video every morning as a teacher. I would use it to gather my class to discuss the weather and the calendar. I wouldn't necessarily play the entire video every day, but the first 35 seconds covers plenty of information.

This online activity will be done at the end of our science lesson on different environments. This game requires that students place the different animals, plants, and objects that would best survive in each given environment. Based on what the students have learned about different environments, they will be able to correctly place each object given. I selected this resource because animals and their environments is a huge content area in first grade. This online game will be available for students to play during centers. Whoever is at computer centers that day will be able to play this game. Having such a fun interactive game will allow them to be very engaged, but still learning at the same time.

This is a resource video for Middle School Science Teachers that displays simple demonstrations to help instruct on chemical or physical reactions, surface tension, life science, and waves. I would use this video to help utilize creative and engaging lesson starters. I selected this resource because it has multiple ideas to spice up the classroom for both the students and teacher.

This zoo passport activity will not only be worked on in the classroom, but also during our fieldtrip to the zoo. Students will assemble their passports during class time, and I will assist them. While at the zoo, students will mark off what animals they see, and add any other animals by drawing them on the blank pages at the back of the book. I selected this resource because zoo fieldtrips are very popular in first grade, which is the grade I would like to teach. I think it is a great way to make the zoo fieldtrip even more exciting by having them search for certain animals. This is valuable to me because there is a free downloadable printable that I will use instead of having to create my own.

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 activity allows the students to get a better understanding of the water cycle while creating a fun art project. Students will color the printable water cycle stages and then paste them on the cloud template in order. The finished projects can be hung from the ceiling to display your class's work and make your classroom cute and colorful! Because the project is 3-D, it can be spun around which shows that the water cycle is constant and repeats itself. This activity will be done at the end of our water cycle unit in science. It will be one of the many activities done to make sure students understand the process of the cycle. I selected this resource because it is an exciting way to order the stages of the water cycle. Instead of just putting different pieces of paper in order, students can color, cut, and paste their stages on a giant cloud. The free downloadable printable also makes it valuable to me.

This is a game for the students or the class as a whole to do. It has many different options of food chains. I like this game because it is different each time you do it. It also has pictures and words. It then shows you what eats what after you get it correct.

This biology resource is an interactive tool for students to use while learning about the food chain. In the game, the student will be given pictures of 3-5 animals or plants to drag into boxes. The order of placement in the boxes is based on how high that plant or animal is in the food chain. This resource is a great way for students to be tested about different types of animals. There is a different mixture of animals and plants with each step so there is always a new selection of animals or plants to rank. This is the type of resource I can use after teaching the students about the food chain in order to assess their level of understanding.