Resources for Teaching Science

This site provides a multitude of lesson plans for many different grade levels of science. Teacher notes, student copies, and examples are all given in the lesson guidelines. I have used Arkive in the past for projects and have found it very helpful. I imagine using these lessons as supplemental activities for the lessons I teach in biology.

This website has videos that hit on the main points of many different science lessons. These videos are not long and even have a short quiz at the end. My cooperating teacher used these at the end of her lessons because the students looked forward to watching a movie. Some of these videos are free, but to view all of them you must have an account.

This app allows students to overview the cell as a whole, as well as the individual structures and their functions. I selected this resource because it can act as an interactive diagram and quiz on the cell. Having just created a lesson over the cell, I thought this would be a great tool if the class had iPads.

This website is a fantastic resource to use to get the conservation status for ANY plant or animal on planet earth. Type in the common name for any animal and it will be cross-referenced to its scientific name and linked to its status. Other links include articles and sites providing information on that animal.

I really like this webpage because it shows what is going on in the world today, and because there are so many species that are endangered, threatened, etc. it can be a real eye opener for students. It may be a big motivator for students to ask why. This is a good supplement when studying biomes or the effects of human interaction in an ecology class.

This is a great lesson on various visual illusions used to engage and intrigue students, all raising the question "Why is this an illusion?" With interest piqued, students are engaged to answer this question about the T-illusion, proposing hypotheses to explain what makes it an illusion, then designing simple experiments to test those hypotheses. This is extended to a look at natural illusions, and how science effectively reveals their reality.

Exceptional website with multiple resources for teaching various lessons on evolution...30+ links to individual pages with everything from PPT presentations, handouts, assessment tools, photos, and lab projects. May be the most complete place for a teacher to go to get everything he/she needs when putting together a lesson.

This is a great place to find science classroom ideas. All you need to do is search for elementary science and lots of boards come up where people have "pinned" ideas for the classroom. Be prepared to spend hours on this website because it is very addicting. I would definitely use this for unique ideas in my classroom.

This is a great website for science lesson plans. I really like how it gives you all of the worksheets you need to use during the lesson. It also shows you different links that are related to the lesson that might be good to supplement your lesson with. There is also plenty of teacher resources such as articles, tips, themes, and printables. I would use this for lesson plan ideas along with supplemental materials.

This is a website for the Magic House in St. Louis. It gives all of the information to plan a school field trip. It even breaks it out according to age group (grade level). This is a great resource for teachers looking for a field trip idea! The website has tons of information that any elementary educator would find very useful.

This is a link to the Magic House website. I chose this because I thought it was be a really fun and educational field trip for students. There are so many things to explore at the Magic House. A field trip to the Magic House would fit in with the sound and vibration standard I have because there is a Classic Tour for elementary grades that explores sound.

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.

This is a technology-based tool in which students can build a DNA molecule. Based on your rate of construction it calculates how long you would have to work in order to successfully transcribe the DNA in one human cell (my rate was 50 years day and night). Underneath this graphic tool there is also a large amount of material on the structure of DNA. I selected this resource because it is a great interactive tool for students to use, and I think it will help them in conceptualizing DNA related material. This tool can be used to help students understand and appreciate how rapidly and accurately DNA processes, such as transcription, occur within a cell. 

I love the fact that this tool will help students understand how rapidly this process really works. It is mind boggling that these things happen and we aren't even conscious of it. Having students perform activities like this opens their eyes to the wonders of the human body, and to some may even motivate them to ask more questions!

This page follows the textbook, Modern Biology, providing PowerPoint presentations, review sheets, and activities. I selected this resource because this is the text that is used in the class I am observing. This page has helped me create my own presentations and has given me ideas when creating lessons to go along with the topics the class is covering.

Sophia is a free social teaching and learning network in which teachers are able to post their own tutorials and short quizzes over a certain concept. The reason why I selected this resource is because it gives a multitude of different ways in which students can learn a single concept; including, demos, lessons, videos, etc. This resource is valuable for a science teacher because many different ideas from this website can be utilized to ensure that you are teaching concepts in enough ways to address all types of learning in your classroom. I will use this resource to come up with ideas for my own classroom. Not only this but you can accumulate "quiz points" on the website from different concepts, so I could use these points and incorporate them into some type of assessment or extra credit opportunity in my classroom. 

Grade level- K-5 This is a great website that has alot of games for kids. I believe it would be good for grades K-5. It covers many topics about science including bugs, animals, ozone, and ways to go green. I think this resource would be a great resource to use in the classroom to incorporate computers. It is also a good way to get kids out of the regular classroom and lecture. Many children learn very well from the computer. This resource is also a great resource for teachers, because it has many printables and and videos that can be incorporated into the classroom.

This website contains a video about food chains and food webs. It explains what producers, consumers, scavengers, decomposers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, etc. are. It is very kid friendly because of the colors and easy accessibility. I like this website because it is interactive for young students. I would use this as a resource in my classroom to introduce the topic of food chains because it is a fun video the students will enjoy.

This website has activities, videos, and games directly related to food chains. I would use this site for resources and ideas for activities. I would also use it for the videos to show the students to better understand the concept of food chains.

Search engine to student appropriate websites and reading lists on a variety of topics

Bullfrog Films produces environmental and social justice films. This one, Chasing Water, is an 18 minute tour down the Colorado River, and addresses the issue of water use. It's length and recency make it a good starter for discussions related to water conservation at the high school level. Preview of film is free, and lasts about 2 and a half minutes

Visual depicting geological time. Good visual for a review or to pinpoint a particular period of time under study withing historical perspective.