Resources for Teaching Science

This resource allows students to interact with weather online by experimenting with meteorology tools, conduct research about weather, and create their own weather forecast. I like this tool because it's interactive and the students can have fun feeling like they control the weather.

This resource gives a thorough description how clouds are formed and gives details and pictures about the many different kinds there are. I chose this resource because it is colorful and attentive as well as using appropriate vocabulary, which makes it valuable. I envision using this resource as the basis for an online scavenger hunt where students would learn more about clouds.

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.

This is a handout that shows the food chain pyramid with pictures and words. I would give this to the students to keep and help them with studying or other worksheets. I like it because it shows the different animals in the pyramid.

This website contains an interactive game on food chains. Users are to place the animals in the correct order they would appear in the food chain. It allows you to choose between two different food chains. I chose this website because it includes this fun game, but also challenges students to understand food chains. I also think the game is engaging for students. One thing I really liked about this game is the ability to tell the user if they have chosen the correct order. I would allow my students to play this game in their own time, after they have finished their work, or during computer time.

This resource has a huge collection of early elementary science activities, projects, and labs. It also includes homework that is less pencil-and-paper based and more activity/exploratory based. Each category has different types of lessons outlined within it. Each of these lessons in meant to be 90 minutes long but they can each be changed very easily.

This site has it all! Everything that a teacher could possibly ask for when it comes to teaching space in the classroom. It includes projects, games, images, videos, lessons, and facts about the planets, and quizzes. I picked it because of the numerous amount of ideas and the various ways to teach it. This would even be a site that I could reccommend to parents as a resource for them to use at home. In the classroom, I could allow some students to explore this site on their own if they finished homework early or have free time.

A great place to start for science activities for kids (chemical change, states of matter, motion, plants, human body, etc) This site includes free activies that can be done in the classroom and then a section where the teacher can asses his or her students on their knowledge of the content. I picked this website because it has so many ideas in different aspects of science that I can always come back to this site in order to get a new idea for an activity. I can use it in the classroom to either begin or follow up a lesson with because students are always engaged with hands on activities and that is what this site mainly includes.

Short and sweet videos on science concepts by a student. Could be used to solidify a concept or as an example for a similar assignment for students to make videos on concepts from class. DNA extraction demo is so simple and would be easy for students to replicate in class.

This is a website where teachers can make online education games that go along with their lesson for free! The games are automatically created and provide interactive review for exams or quizzes. No downloads or installation required, create your school review games in the cloud and access/edit it from anywhere in the world! Use the site for unmotivated learners or to turn workbooks or flash cards into fun time. The e-learning games creates a relaxing environment which helps motivate the learner. You can even collect statistical data on who played and how they did. This was taken directly from the website because I really liked the description- I think this would be a great tool to use in the classroom.

Free elementary science activities and interactive educational science games for kids. This is a good website to use in the classroom for down time. There are many games, puzzles, and worksheets for students. I would use this in my classroom for students who finish a project early and need something to do.

Online puzzles and word finds, and a lot of printable coloring sheets. Some background information. Some are science related, some not. A LOT of ads around edges of pages, and tricky embedded links as well, which makes me leery of the idea of setting students loose on this to work independently.

This is a very good site for finding a variety of information about different subjects. There are teacher sites and parent/student sites. You can be connected to different museums, encyclopedias, etc. There are many links to holidays, and special events, science, math, etc. There is a connection to clip art sites. An excellent site for a variety of information year round. Good for teachers, parents and students.

Some of the links (specifically, "Science Teacher") go to pages of links of ads for teachers, so beware. I had better luck going through the "Teacher Web Resources" section and then clicking science. Lessons aren't that well organized though...could be time really time consuming.

This is a very good site for finding information about a variety of events and subjects in class. This is good for K -6 teachers. It is broken into several topics: Lesson Plans, Professional Development, Technology, Administrators, School Resources, Specialties, and Subject Resources. I could definitely use many of these resources in my own classroom.

The link below takes you directly to the science portion. I found some broken links, but also so great images/diagrams (e.g. the cell) that could be linked into presentations. http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/sciencemachine.shtml

This website is a video showcase -- on the Internet and TV -- of innovative and effective teaching practices in America's schools. It is fabulous. It has hundreds of high quality (made for TV type quality) videos designed to give educators information on how to conduct lessons of all disciplines. Broken down by 5 different subjects, 4 different grade groups and thousands of topics, lots here for any teacher of any discipline. Bonus--common core standards can be found in most videos!

This website is a teaching resource providing lesson plans, worksheets, and activities for upper elementary and middle school science teachers. All resources on this site are copyright protected but are free to distribute to students in the classroom. Included are links to other websites offering lesson plans, worksheets and activities. Access to literally hundreds of thousands of teaching materials. Broken down into four major categories of life, space, earth and physical sciences.

A lot of worksheets and crossword puzzles related to science content. A few lessons, but my favorite is the collection of different styles of periodic tables (black and white, color, etc.) available for downloading.

This would be a great field trip idea to the St Louis Science Center for students of all ages. The general admission is free but it is 4.00 per child to see the planetarium show. The planetarium includes the SBC Learning Center, that give visitors a glimpse of what it's like to live and work on the International Space Station. In the Crew Quarters, students can see how astronauts eat, exercise, sleep and dress in space, as well as how medical needs and the stations internal and external environments are maintained. The planetarium show features more than 9,000 stars onto an 80 foot dome and includes special effects such as eclipses, meteor showers. The show lasts roughly 25 minutes and each session is designated for certain age groups. I would love to someday take my class to this planetarium because I think it would be an amazing opportunity and a great learning experience.

This site has a ton of neat ideas about space, the sun, earth, the complete solar system, technology used, and a site for parents and teachers. This is a site that kids could get on in the classroom during free time because it is kid friendly and would keep their attention. The different activities are labeled by "Explore" which contains facts, videos, and pictures, "Do" which has activities, books, and coloring pages, and "Play" that has a vast amount of games, puzzles, and quizzes all revolving around space. I think that students would stay engaged with this site and want to keep playing. Not only would they be playing games, but also learning about space

This site from the Kennedy Space Center has a lot of children's books that all incorporate space ranging from $3.00 to $20.00. These books would be a great way to start off a lesson in order to get the students interested in the content. The books on this site are aimed for younger kids. Also, this site includes DVD's, gift ideas, toys, apparel, and even space food to buy. I think that by having a variety of space books in my classroom library would encourage the students to find out more about space. I mainly picked this site because a teacher can never have too many childrens books, and this site has several choices for reasonable prices.