Resources for Teaching Science

This site gives tons of step-by-step experiments in different categories (air, animals, astronomy, chemistry, etc.) I like that they caution you on what could happen if you do a certain step wrong!!!

I found lots of dead ends when I clicked through the list...be aware of out-dated resources!

This is a great way for you to have students to work together to figure out the velocity of tornadoes and find out what goes into the forming of tornadoes. It is a fun lesson that will have the students engaged and keep them interested on learning about tornadoes.

This would be a great experience to go along with a biology lesson about reptiles. The Tye-Dyed Iguana provides an interactive reptile experience that is age specific and hands-on demonstration. What is even more convenient is that they will travel to your school! I have seen kids participate and I can vouch that they LOVE it. Students not only learn about the features and specifics of reptiles but get to hold them and touch them as well.

Who says newer is better?! This Schoolhouse Rock video is a great introductory tool for a lesson on energy. It covers the history of how energy evolved, sources of energy, and the need to conserve energy. This video will catch students attention and it has been proven that putting information to music can be extremely helpful! It can be adapted to a lesson on ways students can conserve energy or a lesson on energy sources.

This is an experiment for students to make their own snowflake. I would use this in my classroom as an extension of a weather and seasons lessons. I would try to do an experiment involving an element from every season.

This is a great experiment for students to see the process of crystallization. It's a great way to bring in the idea of crystals being formed by an arrangement of molecules in a pattern. Using household items like borax, food coloring, water, and a few other materials makes it very teacher friendly. I would use this experiment in class to expand on the movement of cold vs. hot water. I could also tie this experiment in while discussing liquids/solids, precipitation, or chemical reactions.

This is a 3rd grade lesson series that explains the water series quite well and breaks it down for the students to understand well. Activities are in the lesson to keep the students engaged and help them learn the process better.

This is a simple lesson based on getting young students involved in making observations of their surroundings. In particular, the season change from summer to fall. Students are allowed to go outside and make their own observations about how the environment has changed. I would use this with younger children, kindergarten or first grade, because it is a great start to get their senses awake and start the process of making great observations.

This resource provides outstanding animations for a variety of biology topics including; cellular respiration, mitosis and cellular organelles. These multimedia animations come with audio enhanced explanations that support students comprehension. I selected this resource for its clear illustrations of multiple biological concepts offered in a very compact and easy to follow format. These animations would augment introductory as well as follow on lessons in the topics listed.

Great animations for inclusion in lecture presentations for clarification of concepts or review.

This is a lesson plan resource that covers the explanation of simple machines and a couple activities in which students create their own simple or complex machines. The lesson plan also lists some great books and activity pieces to buy that would go great along with each of the lesson sections and also lists a few ideas for homework materials. The only ones that were working correctly were #3 to see the design of a lapbook and #5 to see simple machine coloring pages. Also note that choice #6 under Homework Ideas does cost money. I personally loved the ideas for creating simple and complex machines. It would be a chance for students to work together on creating a solution (3-5-ETS1-2). This would be a great way to breakdown the learning of simple machines into easy pieces that can be organized and taught well.

This video shows how you can relate science to other subjects, especially ones that aren't included on standardized testing. While this lesson takes place in Canada, you can easily relate it to the United States with common objects like scissors and pulleys. This really gets the kids involved because they have to use their bodies to show how simple machines work, with each child in their group acting out the different part of the simple machine. With art, they have to really think about how each machine looks from any view. This can give them chances to think about what could be wrong, even if they can't physically seem the problem.

This resource contains a video on how to make a pollution catcher. The materials needed for one catcher to be created is a paper plate, yarn/string, a hole punch, Vaseline, and a drawing utensil. I selected this resource because it fits the standard to- obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. Having each student create a pollution catcher would be a fast activity for most grade levels, especially the upper elementary grades. If I was to teach a fifth grade class, I would do this activity as means of teaching the standard mentioned above.

This could be a lesson that would revolve around a field trip to a local ice skating rink. During our visit, we could discuss what the temperature of the ice is and what would happen if the temperature, wind chill included, was changed. We could discuss what temperatures are safe to skate on and what would happen if the rink wasn't frozen enough. Overall, this would allow them to critically think about what the right temperature should be for the ice when they skate. While I listed this as a free lesson, it might cost money to go to the rink.

This is a video that NASA created about Engineers and explaining what they do. The whole point of my standard (3-5-ETS1-2) is students going through many different possibly solutions to figure out the one that works best. This video demonstrates an engineer going through the process of picking out a solution that works best for his problem out in space. It's a great way to introduce a lesson and could work as the beginnings of an activity idea for students to do in becoming "space engineers".

This technology based resource allows students to create their own sounds and vibrations using a "drum machine." The students are able to change and customize the sounds that they want, if they want a high or low tone, and whether the sound is loud or soft. I chose this resource because it is technology based and something that the students could use in the computer lab or if they have extra time during class to use the computers in the room. It also goes along with my standard 1-PS4-1. I could use this in my future classroom after teaching the students about different sounds and the vibrations that they make. It would be beneficial to have students experiment with this resource and get an understanding for the high and low tones of sounds and their vibrations.

This resource gives a lab (activity) that deal with vibrations. You need to have a large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap- a rubber band will hold the plastic wrap in place. You then place large sugar crystals on top of the plastic wrap and let students get close and talk into the bowl. The students will be able to watch the sugar crystals "jump" because of the vibrations. I chose this resource because it sounded very interesting and it makes me want to actually test it out to see if it works. I think that my students would enjoy doing this and it would help them understand that sound travels and bounces off objects creating vibrations. I would use this resource in correlation to a lesson about vibrations and sound; It would be a follow up activity for students to do.

This resource provides a lesson plan that will help students build an understanding of the concepts of sound (vibration, pitch) through participation in a variety of hands-on experiments. By observing, predicting, and analyzing results, students can actively investigate the science of sound. It says the required time is two weeks but I don't think that much time is necessary to spend on this. It has many activities for students to do that are all hands on and even includes an assessment for the students. I chose this because it fits well with my standard- 1-PS4-1: plan and conduct investigations to provide evidence that vibrating materials can make a sound and that sound can make materials vibrate. I would use this resource in my future classroom by having the students break up into groups and each group would have a different activity to complete and write down their observations.

I found this fun and easy activity on Pinterest for students to do while learning about sounds and vibrations. It would be a very cheap activity for students to create in the classroom because all they need is a Kleenex box, rubber bands, and materials to decorate their guitar with! I chose this resource because it fits into my standard 1-PS4-1 because it will show students that vibrating materials can make sound. I would use this resource after presenting a lesson to my students about vibrations and how it travels through different objects. After learning, I think that students would enjoy making this guitar because it is fun and also shows them how sound travels through objects.

This resource contains a lesson plan for a fifth grade class. The lesson teaches about the affects people can have on water around them. It involves a five minute video, a hands-on activity, and even a song. I selected this particular resource because it fits the standard to-obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment (5-ESS3-1). This standard will be the focus of my lesson in this course. I really liked the way the lesson plan was written to engage students. I could possibly incorporate this resource, or parts of it, into the lesson plan that I will be writing in this course.

The resource shows a short video clip from the Magic School Bus episode: In the Haunted House- Sound is Vibration. It talks about sound and their vibrations and also shows Mrs. Frizzle's students demonstrating vibrations on numerous instruments. I selected this video resource because it fits well with my standard 1-PS4-1: provide evidence that vibrating materials can make a sound. I enjoyed watching this short video clip so I would hope my students would enjoy this also. I would use this resource as an introduction to grasp my students attention because it introduces what a vibration is.

This is a technology resource which is a link to a youtube video. The video is a clip from a Magic School Bus episode on sound. I chose this video because it explains vibration related to sound in simple terms that students can understand. I would most likely use this video as an introduction to a lesson to grab the students' attention.

This could be a wrap up activity on space, where you allow students to create their own rockets using straws and a rocket cut out image. Students can cut out the rockets and tape them together, trying to figure out the best placements for it, and also figure out where the rocket needs to fit on the straw, for a perfect take off. This would allow everyone to make observations and gather information (K-2 ETS 1-1) from one another to decide what is the perfect way to make the best rocket launch.