Resources for Teaching Science

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.

Go on an exploration of what we're made of and how we work with this Human Body app, from Tinybop. This app will help students explore the body. I think that using this app in the classroom students will get a better understanding of the human body then just a picture. They will have an interactive experience of exploring the human body. It also shows what different aspects of your body can do, such as seeing sound waves with the ear. I think that the new technology will help students learn more efficiently.

This little demonstration is so simple and cheap! All you need is a clear glass, water, and a pencil or straw. Place the pencil in the water. Does it look like it may be broken? I would do this at the beginning of a lesson that is covering light. With having a discussion about the topic and the students having a visual in their head, it should help them remember the topics discussed.

In this lesson, students learn about the varying sizes of ocean waves, what causes the variation, and where to find giant waves. Students will learn the parts of a wave, and discuss wave height, wavelength, and wave period. They will experiment with creating waves on the National Geographic Wave Simulator and discuss how geography affects waves. I like this lesson because it gives students rural country areas (areas without oceans) insight into our oceans. This lesson could be paired with a lesson about ocean currents or temperatures (and temp. change). In addition to using the on-line program, I would bring in a giant aquarium with toy boats to show what happens with waves.

This is an activity to demonstrate the life cycle of a butterfly using pasta! The materials are very simple and the activity will help the students by having a visual aid. The students can get a little creative and you could even try to hatch butterflies to go along with the activity. How fun would that be?!

This resource has many ideas on the study of the ocean. The content is spread out from kindergarten all the way to eight grade with exploring the sea by different types of activities and experiments. One of the activities goes with our sensory ability to feel different sea objects and guess what they are. This would be a good activity to talk about the scientific reasoning. (Kinda like the first day of class activity.) In regards to studying the ocean, their are many topics that will be discussed and learned through the lessons on this topic.

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 multiple lesson plans that are combined to make a unit all about the Sun. Within this unit, many different experiments and activities are combined to make students understand the sun and all of its jobs. One great activity I really enjoyed was the shadow sun. Students would draw shadows of partners at different times during the day. The students would then discuss the activity and hopefully understand the movement of the sun from the different shadows. Along with this activity many more are included to help the overall lesson of the sun become instilled in the students.

There are many ways to integrate art into your Science lesson plans and here is a great lesson. This is a lesson on balanced ecosystems that brings in art in a fun and educational way. This video shows a lesson that would be great to use in the classroom when discussing the ecosystem. A teacher can incorporate art into the science curriculum. When schools do not have enough time for fine arts, they can add them to other subject matters.

A chemistry unit with many lessons that are related to projects. The students are able to explore different explorations in six ways. This helps students become more engaged in the lessons on learning about the fundamentals of chemistry. Using these activities will help students in the future since they will know the beginning aspects of chemistry.

This lesson/activity introduces students to interesting new topics such as the ecosystem, the Artic peninsula, and the food chain. All of these topics come together through the discussion of animals from the Arctic sea and how they live and thrive based off of each other. First the general animal life of the Arctic sea is discussed, then a broken down description of each animal in that particular food chain is provided. The students are able to cut out and color these pictures, and make their own mobiles to help them remember the food chain in the ecosystem. I chose this lesson/activity because I think it had a good mixture of knowledge and activity which allows the students to learn without even realizing it. Animals eating each other tend to be exciting to younger students, and by explaining these topics they will be able to understand wildlife a bit better. This is a great source to use during an ecosystem unit, that will make the class interested in learning the new material and excited about the project at the end.

In this inquisitive and hands-on lesson the students get to learn about heredity visually. Mini "creatures" are made out of craft supplies of different colors, and on the first day students observe and take note of their characteristics. Upon opening the creatures (plastic eggs) up the students find seeds/babies. The next morning when class begins the students go to their creatures and notice the seeds have turned into mini monsters and resemble their parents in many ways. Day three even digs into survival characteristics. I love this lesson, and personally think it would be fun for many different ages. Heredity is often confusing for young students, and by giving them a visual representation that they can see and feel the class can become engaged. I like how this lesson can be easily spread over a three day period, and it would help enhance the heredity/genetics unit as a whole. I would go to the activity at the beginning of each period and let the children explore the new changes as an intro into science for the day.

I loved this 3 day lesson/unit on heredity. This lesson breaks down a complicated concept by using different colored easter eggs and google eyes to create a "species." Students notice similarities and differences over three generations of the species and are introduced to the idea of "traits." What I loved most about this source was that it linked this lesson to three different STEM standards. This way, students are having fun with science and you are still assessing them on the correct skills! -After reading some of the comments on the post, people did bring up the fact that some students could be adopted and not look like the rest of their family. If this is the case for one of my students, I would use that as an opportunity to talk about what makes us all different and special, and how that student is going to pass on a special set of traits.

This is a fun and creative way to get students thinking about size and shape. This lesson could also be used for osmosis. Students could use different liquids to soak the gummies in overnight and make measurements and predictions about size and shape in a journal. It would be fun to do this lesson, because at the end you get to eat gummy bears!

The purpose of the lesson is for students to understand and sequence the life cycle of a frog, beginning with the frogspawn and ending with the frog. The website also says that this lesson is designed for kindergartners. The students will make observations of a tadpole and then read the story, Life Cycle of a Frog by Angela Royston. The students will then complete a graphic organizer of the story. I like that this lesson requires the students to determine important information in the story and then complete a graphic organizer using that information.

This site provides a source to apply for a field trip for the students to enhance their knowledge in nutrition. They will learn in the classroom the basics about nutrition and eating with a wide variety of colors. Once they gain that knowledge, they can explore the 25 acre UCSC Farm and their organic and seasonal food. I like this option because it is a way to learn outside of the classroom. They can also learn to eat a variety of colors, so it could be connected to an art lesson and being able to make paint with food.

During a field trip to the Field Museum of Science a class/grade of students can experience many new scientific experiences all in one day! Most exciting is the world-famous fossil known as "Sue"; the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Sue measures 42 feet long from snout to tail and 13 feet tall at the hip. She boasts 58 dagger-like teeth and cuts a fine figure as the Museum's most popular backdrop for visitor photos. We would never be able to experience a real activity such as this inside of a classroom, and the hundreds of ancient and new scientific wonders will have the students enthused to learn more about science. I chose this museum as a field trip that I would love to experience because it has a huge variety of scientific adventures for everyone to enjoy. The main attraction of a giant dinosaur fossil is a great real life encounter to show the children just how huge these prehistoric beings were. This would be a great wrap up experience to a unit on prehistoric earth or fossils in general, and would be fun and educational for all students and teachers involved!

This is a good activity to do in the winter when students spend a lot of time indoors. It shows how easily viruses like the common cold can be passed. The activity involves students having glitter on their hands and touching different objects. This shows how germs can easily spread. I like that this is an interactive activity that shows how germs can spread better than I could explaining it. The students must also record their observations. It will be messy though because the glitter will be all over.

This WebQuest teaches the states of matter through the use of research, activities, music, and games. The site allows chances to go back and forth between tasks, and is very user friendly and easy to navigate. The students will examine solids, liquids, and gasses in an interactive and fun way that will keep them focused. I like this webquest because it allows the students to learn about the states of matter in multiple different ways. This gives each student a chance to excel at some part of the program, and makes it fun for everyone. I enjoy how many different pieces there is to the site, and it has tons of useful information that is shown in an interactive way. The students also get the chance to use technology independently and are able to do some research. I would introduce this web quest after an introduction day to the stages of matter, and have the class work on a few tasks each day to keep them motivated and wanting to keep going.

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.

Garden Classes represent our signature field trip experiences for school groups visiting the Garden! Each program begins with an introductory program in the Jordan Education Wing. Trained instructors engage students with storytelling, group-participation activities and inquiry-based hands-on experiences. All activities are standards-based and age-appropriate, and each student will pot a plant of their own to bring home! I would combine the "Heaps of Seeds" class with my garden in a glove lesson plan. Upon return to the classroom, the students could write about the differences in the growing environment at the Botanical Garden and in their Glove Garden.