Resources for Teaching Science

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.

I think this would be a good place to take students when talking about and exploring nature. Students could learn about different ecosystems and how animals live in nature. The watershed has several hands on activities for the students as well as scavenger hunts.

This website provides a hand on activity for students. They will all grow their own sunflowers, under different conditions. This website gives you all the different variables. It also provides extensions to the project. I found this website to be useful when talking about the life of plants and what they need to grow.

Video discussing an unstoppable force vs. and immovable object

This link actually goes to a video of a list of suggested other science sites online. Needs to be updated to direct the user to the appropriate link.

Another pre class video to get the classes intrest going in physics. The video is a clip from the T.V. show The Big Bang Theory that may help the younger students pay attention.

I would recommend starting the video at about 1:15 "What is Physics?" Also re-named the resources to be descriptive and added a tag for grades 9-12, for which I think this is actually more appropriate.

An interactive physics website that students can use for example problems and real life situations.

No matter how old you get everyone is always excited when you get to watch a Bill Nye video in class. This video concentrates on condensation. It provides an engaging introduction to the topic and also shows students that you can do the seemingly impossible (making a cloud in a jar) with science!

In this SmartBoard activity, students get to group different living and nonliving things. It is an introduction to classification based on their physical characteristics. I would use this as an interactive class or group activity that gets everyone thinking about physical characteristics and how we can group different living and non-living things into categories. Students will have to interact with each other, and come to a consensus on what they think the answer will be. This is collaborative learning for them. 

This page is not for student use, it is simply ideas for field trips dealing with weather. I personally like the visiting a new station one. It is practical application

This is a very interactive smartboard activity that goes through different characteristics of living things (i.e. crocodiles have scales, etc), and also requires the students to sort the different living things. They have categories such as animals with fur, animals that swim, etc. This aligns very nicely with the standard 12.A.1b- Categorize living things using a variety of observable features.

According to the description, students are to match what animals live in various habitats. We can go over this a little bit of habitats according to the different physical characteristics that each animal has. It would be a fun activity that incorporates technology that we could do as a class. The only downfall is that I think you have to be a member to the abcteach in order to get this awesome smartboard activity, which will cost some money.

This website opens into a word document that has a TON of different lesson plans for K-1 grade level. The two lesson plans that I really liked were the Adventures in the Rain Forest, and What's the Point of That? The Adventures in the Rain Forrest talked about how living things are dependent on one another, and where they are at in relationship to their environment (the rain forest). The class will embark on a mini pretend field trip to a rain forest where they will discuss where certain things in a rain forest are located, and why it is important. This relates to the standard 12.B.1a really well! The other lesson plan that I really liked in this huge list was the one that was called, "What's the point?" In this lesson plan, the students learn different characteristics of living things and why it is important that they have them. (i.e. the importance of birds having feathers, etc.) I really like this lesson because students will really get a grasp on how all living things are different in a lot of ways, but the reasons behind why they are different. I'm all about celebrating our differences!

I know this is the wikipedia article for physics but it has a lot of good information on the history and need for physics. I could use this article as a starting point for any information I wanted or needed to know and if I find something that doesn't sound right I could double check it with one of the other websites I have saved.

I can see this website being useful for coming up with new ideas for physics excercises especially if the students are nnot understanding the information the way I first say the material. I can also use this website to correspond with other teachers about how they use material and lessons in their classroom.

This website could be used as a personal cheat sheet for me if the students ask me a question that I dont know the answer to right there. It can also be used for the students because it has all of the basic formulas the students will need.

Seems pretty advanced for middle school.

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 page is interactive. The students can learn more about the weather topics they would like to know more about. It is user friendly and colorful.

This website is a quiz for k-1. Although it is a quiz, it is fun and has pictures so the students would not even realize that it is a quiz. I would have to read it to the kids because they would not be able to yet, but I do believe I would use this for them. I would not take a grade on it; I would do it to make sure they were on track.

Would you use these online resources as a whole class, at individual stations or...?

This is a video that could be used in a 5th grade science class, during an astronomy lesson.  This video is a great visual to show students the actual size of our solar system and the relation of the planets.  This video is well edited with music that is not too distracting like the other videos that I found.  This video could be use during almost any lesson talking about the solar system or galaxies.

This is a link to the field trip page on James S. McDonnell Planetarium's website. The planetarium is connected to the Science Center in St. Louis.  They offer planetarium shows followed by a Q&A that would be great for a 4th or 5th grade class to experience.