Resources for Teaching Science

This site is a great resource for teachers planning a caterpillar/butterfly unit. It's actually two units and it breaks each unit down into parts. It also contains links to supplemental material to use during the lesson, including a slideshow, images, and student sheets.

This site is great! It gives a very cute animated lesson about butterfly life cycles and then allows you to play games to practive what you've learned! This would be great for a kindergarten or early elementary classroom and could be done individually or on a SmartBoard as a class as well.

This would be a great field trip to take at the end of the caterpillar/butterfly unit! This link goes directly to the field trip options for the Missouri Botanical Garden. I also noticed that there is a Teacher Professional Development link as well! This would be great for Science teachers!

I really like the butterfly life cycle coloring page on this site, especially for younger elementary students. The information presented about the butterfly life cycle is also very good along with the videos. I especially like the link to purchase live butterfly kits and would definitely want to do this in my classroom.

This website explains how zoologists have to make "survival plans" for the species at the zoo. In this survival plan zoologists must consider which animal breeds with what. This is because they are often concerned about keeping genetic vigor. I I would use this website to plan a field trip to the St. Louis Zoo. At the zoo students will learn about why some zoologists pick certain mates over others.

This website explains that embryos all go through different stages before being born. Often many embryos look alike until later stages. I picked this website because I thought it was interesting to see the embryos and guess which each organism was. I would use this website during computer time for material to be reinforced and for students to have fun guessing which animal is which.

This website is interactive and allows children to work together. In this activity students pair up and see what their children's eyes would look like if they had a child together. I selected this website because I thought it would reinforce some of the Punnett Squares and other genetic content covered. Also, I thought it would be fun and engaging for students to pair up and work together. I would use this resource as an activity to go along with a lesson that I taught. Students would work together to see how genetics play a role in their child.

This website contains a video about an ocean food chain. It is kid friendly and somewhat humorous. I chose this website because young students would enjoy watching this video and still gain knowledge of food chains. It only covers an ocean food chain, failing to touch on other environments. However, I would still use this in my classroom because I think young students would enjoy it. I would allow them to watch it after they finish an assignment early.

This website explains what the PTC gene is and why some people taste bitter flavors. It explains what the PTC gene is useful for in nature and how natural selection works. It also stated that PTC gene carriers were less likely to be smokers. I choose this resource to go in to depth more about why some people are carriers of this gene and other people are not. It helps explain why it is important in nature, which I thought was cool. I would use this website as tool for myself after giving my students the paper to test for this trait. Then I would explain the benefits of having this gene.

This is a website that contains information about food chains and the classifications of animals based on their eating. It also contains worksheets for the students to do. I chose this website because it contains worksheets for students to do. I would use this website as a resource in my future classroom because it contains worksheets. As a teacher I would assign my students to complete one of the worksheets as an activity during the lesson on food chains.

This is a news story about a genetic disorder caused throughout the generations of a family. Due to marrying within the family, family member's generations later have a genetic disorder. Members of this family have a blue pigment to their skin. I selected this source because I think it is important for students to see that genetics is still present in the news and world today. I would use this resource to engage students in genetic disorders. Then I would have my students do a research presentation on other types of genetic disorders.

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.

This website is interactive and explains how sexual reproduction is different than asexual reproduction. Through the use of flashcards students are able to quiz themselves over descriptions of each form or reproduction. I selected this resource as a tool for my students to help them learn the material as well as quiz themselves. This website also allowed students to hear description of each type of reproduction, do flash cards, play games, type in answers to their questions, and do an online test. I would use this website to see if my students really know the material and have it as tool for studying.

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 website is an interactive too for my students to learn about genetics. In this simulation students are given an alien and based on what side the coin lands on in the experiment, and then a particular trait is given. I selected this resource because students might find it engaging, while learning how genetics determines what traits people are given. I might use this activity after I would teach a lesson about recessive and dominant genes, but before I teach Punnett Squares.

This website explains what carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, and decomposers are. It is very colorful, making it kid friendly. I choose this website as a resource because it is simple for young students to understand. The information is right to the point, creating a clear understanding of the material. I would use this resource in my classroom to teach my students how animals are classified based on what they eat.

Interactive website to help develop kids in the subject of astronomy.

This website has several information about the solar system and space. It could be useful to both the teacher and students. For teachers, it has a lot of useful information to use while planning/presenting a lesson. For the students there are several different links to play game and learn about the solar system and space.

I picked this site because it was very fun and colorful! There were moving diagrams to show how the planets rotate around the sun as well as interactive games. There was information on the solar system as a whole as well as links to each of the planets and the planets' moons. Very educational! I would use this in my classroom as a center on the computer. I would have different centers set up around the room for the children to explore, and this would be an interactive website that would offer information to the students.

This website has lots of tools that both students and teachers can use to learn about the night sky. It has games as well as classroom activities.

This website can be used for children K-5. It is very interactive, and gives a lot of information about the solar system, different planets, etc. It is very kid-friendly in that aspect. I can definitely see myself using this website for students in my future classroom! I like how it includes a YouTube video on the main page. I would use this as an introduction to the lesson, or something similar to get my students engaged and ready to learn about astronomy! The best part of all is that this website is FREE!