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After having a lesson on plants, this activity would be a great way for students to learn how to grow plants and also learn about the kinds of things that promote growth (warmth, sunlight, water, soil). Their activities involve learning about how seeds and plants grow and participating in a simple, in-class gardening project. I would provide plastic cups, soil, seeds, and water for each individual student and allow them to plant their own seed. This would be a great way for my students to see first hand what plants need to grow, and for them to learn how to records their observations of their plants.

After having a lesson on plants, this activity would be a great way for students to learn how to grow plants and also learn about the kinds of things that promote growth (warmth, sunlight, water, soil). Their activities involve learning about how seeds and plants grow and participating in a simple, in-class gardening project. I would provide plastic cups, soil, seeds, and water for each individual student and allow them to plant their own seed. This would be a great way for my students to see first hand what plants need to grow, and for them to learn how to records their observations of their plants.

The zoo has always been one of my favorite places to visit, and the best part is that our local St. Louis Zoo is FREE! This would be such an awesome field trip for the first grade students to get to go to. What is better than learning and seeing animals up close, and personal? Students will be able to see the different characteristics of each animal, and where they live for their habitat. They may even be able to take a tour where they can touch different animals to know what they feel like. I hope to get to go to the zoo with my future class! I know the students will love it, and will also love the self-exploration aspect of this awesome field trip.

This is an interactive 3D Brain application for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. This application allows individuals to use touch screens to navigate 29 interactive structures of the brain. It allows individuals to learn haw brain regions operate, what happens if they are damage, how it is linked to certain mental illnesses, etc. This is a valuable resource because I have heard of schools already using iPads in the classroom, so different biology based applications can be incredibly useful if this type of technology is available to you. If I had iPads available to be utilized by my class, this would be a great way for my students to really visualize and explore the brain if I was covering brain structure and function in my classroom. 

WOW! I love this because a large amount of students are very fluent in their technology. Having these types of apps available for students to use at all times is fantastic. Now even though it does cost, some students do have the option to purchase it at home. In classrooms with apple products, it can be used all the time for every student. This is going to be something of the future. It beats still images and allows students to interact as if a brain is right in front of them.

Join the Saint Louis Astronomical Society as the host public star parties at the Science Center on the first Friday of each Month! This resource is an excellent, not-to-mention free, field trip opportunity for students to get up close and personal with our solar system. This weather permitting event is open to the public and allows the student to visually explore the stars through telescopes while also having the opportunity to ask the St. Louis Astronomical Society any questions they may have. This field trip opportunity, if not allowed to travel as a class, is a great resource to share with parents to extend their students learning process. In addition, this website includes nightly sky updates that can be shown via a projector in class, as well as, Astronomy facts of the day.The Saint Louis Science Center would prove to be a great field trip experience during my planet or constellation lessons.

What a fun lesson on paleontology. In this lesson, the teacher will see that it can be cut into three class sessions. You have to make sure to have a good discussion about modelling prior to this lesson. On this page you will find the complete lesson on how to go about introducing fossils to your students. Their are awesome guiding questions and good ideas for how to display this lesson in and to the class. The activity sounds pretty cool as well. Students get to bring in everyday items or things they have at home and use them to mold into a fossil. This will start conversation between them on how each others look and how different items make different fossils.

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.

Electricity -- we depend on it every minute of every day. And yet to many of us, electricity seems a mysterious and even magical force. Before Ben Franklin did his famous and very dangerous kite flying experiment, electricity was thought to be a type of fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I think this is an excellent lesson to teach to grades 3-6. I am pleased with this lesson that it lists the lesson sequence, materials needed, and the objectives. I really like the variety that this lesson includes. It allows students to get up and move in acting out an electric circuit as well as get up close and personal with electricity and how it works with the activity. Not only does this lesson involve interactive components for students, it also provides many videos that correlate with the lesson. This lesson plan seems easy to follow with the instructional sequence and I think it would be easy to fit within the McKendree lesson plan template and add a bit of flair from the teacher candidate. I think this lesson also allows teachers to impose his or her own spin on the lesson and choose what parts to include or omit as well as what might need to be added to the lesson. A lesson like this with so much instructional variety helps to reach students that learn from hands-on activities, students who learn more visually, as well as students who learn best from discussion and instruction. I would follow the instructional sequence if I were to use this lesson in the classroom, but I would tailor it to fit my time allotment for teaching Science, thus it would be done in smaller segments. I would choose one or two videos to share with the class, but post the rest on our class website so the children could view them if the wanted to.

Make these homemade shell fossils and introduce your child to the wonders of science! This activity would be a great way to end a unit on fossil imprints. This activity would allow the students to understand how fossils can be made, even if it isn't authentic. The experiment would keep the students interested and would gain their attention. I would allow my students to find objects that have great texture, and allow them to press down in the clay to see how it looks after it hardens. Once the clay hardened, I would hang them up on the wall for my students to be able to look at them.

For this activity you would need a glove, 5 cotton balls, and 5 different types of plant seeds. Label the fingers of the gloves, wet the cotton ball but rid the excess water, place one seed and one cotton ball in the correctly labeled finger of the glove and watch the seeds grow. You can plant cotton ball and seed in garden once they sprout. I chose this because I think that kids really enjoy growing their own plants. I have worked with children and done this before and they love to check on them daily and then be able to take home and grow. I also chose this because each individual child gets their own plants and individual participation for fairly inexpensive project. As we begin a lesson on plants, we would plant our own plants to watch them grown throughout the unit. We would also be able to journal about our plants and their changes over time.

This lesson involves watching plants grow from seeds. Students use a glove and place one seed in each of the fingers and thumb. A damp cotton ball is added to hydrate the seeds as they grow. Students can watch their seeds grow into seedlings and eventually transplant elsewhere to become full grown plants. I would add some things to this lesson (such as a daily or weekly journal to document the growth of the seeds). I chose this because during an observation I saw this lesson in action! The students (grade 1) loved it and were excited to see what their seeds were doing each day and excited to know that when the seedlings were big enough, they would be planting them outside their school. It's valuable to me because I think it's important for students to understand the plant cycle and to appreciate the act of growing things (not just trees or flowers, but we can grow our food too!) I would use this lesson with different books to get the students engaged; I would use journals to monitor and make predictions about our seedlings as well.

Let one of our knowledgeable Garden Guides be your class's guide to the Garden! Garden-guided school group tours are available weekday mornings from September through December, and February through May. Choose our popular 'Discover the Missouri Botanical Garden' tour to introduce your class to the Missouri Botanical Garden, learn its history and see our featured gardens and conservatories. ________ The Botanical Garden offers many field trip opportunities for students of all ages. Field trips include tours of the gardens which include, the Sensational Seed Hunt, Plants from Top to Bottom, Tropical Rain Forest, Foodology, Asian Gardens Tour, Discover the Botanical Garden, and Green is Here for Good. Each field trip is aligned to standards which explore concepts in botany, ecology and natural science. The field trip I am concentrating on is Tropical Rain Forest. During this tour, students are able to explore the rainforest which is named the Climatron at the Botanical Gardens. The tour allows students to view waterfalls, lush lowlands, approximately 1,500 different types of plants, and tropical birds. Since we don't have access to a real rainforest (and most students never will), I think it would be a great idea to allow my students to explore the Climatron. I would take my students to visit this location at the end of our unit on rain forests to make sure they are able to understand the tropics at their fullest! Taking students at the beginning of the unit would be a great way to introduce them to the topic, however, I feel they will have a better grasp and appreciation on the subject after they have already learned about it.

Pocket Universe resembles many stargazing apps in it's layout, hi-def images of all the space you could ever want, but in addition to that Pocket Universe has animated planets and a customization tool for star maps. It's designed for browsing, but also for educational purposes, as it's ability to review astronomical news is built right in next to tours of planets. Pocket Universe, as a resource could provide hands-off student directed instruction extremely easily. This allows students to explore astronomy on their own, without the concern of incorrect or unknown material. I envision this app being cycled through as an activity for students to utilize after their work is finished, as well as possibly being the basis for small group projects- especially those that center around specific planets or astronomical events/news.

Pocket Universe resembles many stargazing apps in it's layout, hi-def images of all the space you could ever want, but in addition to that Pocket Universe has animated planets and a customization tool for star maps. It's designed for browsing, but also for educational purposes, as it's ability to review astronomical news is built right in next to tours of planets. Pocket Universe, as a resource could provide hands-off student directed instruction extremely easily. This allows students to explore astronomy on their own, without the concern of incorrect or unknown material. I envision this app being cycled through as an activity for students to utilize after their work is finished, as well as possibly being the basis for small group projects- especially those that center around specific planets or astronomical events/news.

Modern Biology Inc. supplements teaching biology laboratories. On the website they have free access to over one hundred experiments that correspond to many different concepts that are being taught in high school biology labs today. There is also the option to search by the class you are teaching for experiments. While access to their experiments is free, some of the experiments require equipment or additional materials that would more than likely need to be bought and Modern Biology, Inc. sells any piece of equipment or material that their labs mention. I selected this resource because labs are a critical part of any science classroom, and lab equipment and materials will inevitably need to be purchased. This is a good resource where all labs can be accessed and materials can be purchased in the same location. I will probably use some of the lab exercises from this website, and it is possible that I would need to purchase equipment and materials from this website as well. 

This website is interactive and gives students real life situations where Punnett Squares are useful, such as breading. Also, it shows students how to create Punnett Squares and then allows students to try it on there on. I like how this website gives students feedback right away and it is making Punnett Squares applicable to the real world. Also, I like how it asked students to answer the chance for an offspring to have a certain characteristic. I would use this resource to help teach Punnett squares. It would be a tool for me to show students that this activity is relatable outside of the class, but it would be engaging at the same time.

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.

Geocaching is a great way to get kids outside and observing the world around them. Geocaching give you a set of coordinates and your job is to find the hidden object. It is usually a small box containing small trinkets like children's toys, CDs, coins from around the world, etc. When you find the box, you take something and leave something and you can track where your items go across the globe. They are literally all over the world. They can be found in oceans, on mountains, at gas stations, in the woods, etc. It would be a great field trip to take the kids out to a local bike trail (there can be more than 15 Geocaches on 1 trail) and take some time to be outside, talk about nature and try to find something cool! As a teacher, you can even make a Geocache for your class and check out who is finding it online. My husband and I have a Geocache of our own and go out geocaching often. It helps keep you active and allows you to enjoy the outdoors. Older students can also benefit from learning about coordinates.

This resource houses a view of the perfect meteorology field-trip for students. The location is The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL. The exhibit gives loads of visuals of and scientific background for a variety of storms. The link attached is about the whole exhibit, as you click on what you would more directly want to study the website shows you how students can explore. The exhibit doesn't just cover storms, it also covers atoms and ways to harness energy. If you explore the tornado section you will get to see and manipulate a giant tornado. You also get to make your own table top tornado to explore farther. Finally they have wind tunnels you can get inside to feel the force of the wind. In the lightning section they explore charge. Not only do they get to see and hear a lightning storm inside, but they also get to experiment with magnets and levitation! There is a ton of information on fires including how some fires in nature aren't so bad. Students even get to use reactions with fire to create a fireworks display. The list of fun goes on and on! In the sunlight section solar power is discussed. Students can even watch a tsunami in a tank, and an avalanche in a disk. The exhibit is completely educational and makes many connections to the real world. I would use this to close a year in science, probably right after a unit on weather where students have studied all of the aspects of weather for at least one month. The exhibit is an awesome way for them to see what changes in weather and climate can do, and how exactly they do it. Some parts of the exhibit put a student in they eye of the storm! I had never heard of this place before but I would love to go! .

Many people think that heavier objects will fall faster than lighter ones. This experiment gives students a chance to test that theory. They can drop objects from various heights and record their results on a teacher-created worksheet. This activity would be enjoyable for the students to predict which items will fall faster than another.

This is an experiment that would give students a chance to test their theory on how fast one object will fall in comparison to the other when each object weighs a different amount. This link provides a worksheet that students can use to rank the objects in the order (from slowest to fastest) in which they think they will fall to the ground when dropped. Students will be instructed to explain their reasoning. I would encourage students to first come up with their own individual theories before collaborating with partners or groups. Then the students would have the chance to test their theories (with a partner or in a group). I will be sure to tell the students that in order for the test to be effective, each object must be dropped from the same height at the same time. After performing this experiment and recording their results, I would have students discuss and explain their thoughts and reasoning based off of the results. I like this experiment because it allows students to come up with their own theories and reasoning while collaborating and working with others. It would be interesting to hear some of the theories that the students would come up with along with their reasoning behind those theories.

This link is to the College Board's website. They set the regulations for AP classes and exams. This specific site describes the requirements for the AP Chemistry course curriculum along with what the yearly audit entails. On this site, teachers and students can also access practice tests and sample questions to prepare for the AP exam, which students must take if they want the course to count as college credit. I know schools who offer these courses are encouraging their students to take advantage of this opportunity. I will utilize this resource in the future to prepare a detailed syllabus that will allow my curriculum to meet state and national standards and help my students succeed.

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.

June 19, 2015 Anatomy 4D is an excellent iPad app for science teachers and students. It provides an interactive 4D experience of the human anatomy using augmented reality technology. Anatomy 4D offers an easy to use 3-dimensional learning environment ideal for classroom use. This is resource is awesome. It is another technology based resource. To use the technology the students will have to download it to a classroom iPad, but from there they are free to explore the many areas of the human body and do so in great detail. It can pinpoint a specific organ that the student wishes to learn about or that is being discussed in class and they will be able to view that organ while learning more facts; it also allows for the example to switch between male and female letting the student notice any differences or similarities. I personally navigated through this to see just what it was about and I could see so many opportunities to incorporate this application within the classroom. For example, it could be reinforcement to a teachers' lesson when discussing human anatomy and the functions of the main organs. I think it's a great tool that should be used within the class, especially since it is interactive after guided learning the student could explore on their own.