Resources for Teaching Science

Kohl Children's Museum of Greater Chicago strives to be equally available to guests with any level of physical, visual, auditory, or cognitive challenge. This museum allows students to explore, design, build and test musical instruments to discover how sound is created through vibration. I selected this resource because it sounds like it would be an interesting place to visit on a field trip especially for younger students and it fits well with my standard 1-PS4-1 which talks about vibrating materials creating sounds. I would use this resource by taking a field trip here one day and having students explore the different instruments and the vibrations that they make. This field trip would occur after a unit of learning about sounds and vibrations.

This resource is a Bill Nye video which talks about biodiversity dealing with both plants and animals. The video is 22 minutes and 58 seconds long. Bill Nye investigates and discovers many different plant and animal habitats. He even connects plant and animal habitats and relates them back to one another, showing correlations. I chose this resource because I feel that Bill Nye is perfect for getting students interested and I found the video to be very entertaining, as well as informational. This video would also be a great introduction to a learning segment about observations of plants and animals to compare the diversity of life in different habitats (2-LS4). This video does not have a specific age level that it is "meant" for but I felt like it would be great for all ages k-5. You could also just show certain clips to students rather than watching the entire video.

This video shows about how all organisms interact with each other and how they affect each other. He explores different environments and ecosystems. Bill Nye introduces science in a fun way, and he has different experiments that are easy for students to do.

This resource is a youtube video that discusses the various types of plant habitats and adaptations. It is 8 minutes and 19 seconds long. The speaker in this video does have an accent which may distract the children but I feel that the information covered in this video ties in perfectly with my standard 2-LS4-1. This video talks about several plant habitats and has excellent pictures. I would use this to introduce the plant section dealing with diversity of habitats.

This is the resource I have chosen as a science field trip. After looking over some of the different choices for demonstrations I think that the "Science Goes Splat" would be the best choice for my students. It's a chance for them to help in making predictions and observations about a problem that the whole group is facing which goes along with my standard (3-5-ETS1-2) in that the students are coming up with ideas about what may happen within the constraints of the demonstration. This is also a great way for them to see an exercise in gravity that we may not be able to do in the classroom

This resource is a lesson plan that can be modified and used for either 2nd or 3rd grade about sea turtles. There are listed activities that can be used if you would like to draw out the lesson into a multiple day unit. It has three main activities dealing with this lesson which will help students understand the life cycle of sea turtles, their environments, how sea turtles differ from regular turtles, and sea turtle hatchlings. This resource deals with animal habitat diversity, which correlates to my standard 2-LS4-1. I would use one of the extensions out of this resource which would have the class create a fun facts poster after the lesson, which lists fun facts about a sea turtle's environment.

While I didn't really understand what this lesson was trying to accomplish, it did help me come up with a great idea to connect a science lesson to "The Three Little Pigs." After we read the story, my class could discuss different types of houses that they could build, from material to shape/size. This would be a great activity to think of how the pigs could have stayed safe from the Big Bad Wolf from the beginning.

This resource shows a video of a women performing a song by using test tubes filled with water to create different pitches. It demonstrates the use of sound and vibrations. It tells you all the materials that you will need, what to do, and what will happen. It also gives you ideas for further activity if you have more time in the class. I chose this resource because I did an activity similar to this in my Methods of Fine Arts class but we used mason jars instead of test tubes, which I believe would be more safe for younger students. Also, the water in each mason jar was a different color and each jar was labeled 1-8. This made it easier when we played a song with the jars. I think this activity would be very fun for students to do because I really enjoyed doing it. You don't have to necessarily follow this lesson plan; you can tweak it to how you want. I would use this resource after teaching my students about vibrations and talking about how sounds change when water levels are different. It goes along 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.

This lesson actually contains quite a few good activities and gives a good chance to give lesson segments a try. It gives students a great chance to realize how powerful the sun actually is and how using solar panels can fix situations like flooding and the way that water is flowing. There is also fun options that involve melting crayons and sunscreen to show the impact that the sun has on our earth.

This is another example, kind of like the other Simple Machines lesson that I posted earlier, where you get the kids involved in making their own simple machines. While the other lesson only allowed them to use their bodies to make replicas of the simple machines, this allows them to use different materials from around the classroom the create their machines.

While this isn't necessarily students making a new or improved tool, it does have them discussing the changes that technology and communication has gone through during time. It discusses what different ways you can communicate with people, like computers and phones, that you know, but also preaches safety of communicating with people that you cannot psychically see to the students.

This resource contains a multiple day lesson plan for a third grade class. The lesson is about composting. It involves instruction by use of a Power Point, an outdoor exploration, and even an assessment. 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. Although this standard is for fifth graders, I believe this resource will still be useful. In order to make the resource at a fifth grade level only a few things need to be tweaked. The lesson plan in this resource could serve as an outline for the lesson plan I will be creating in this course.

This resource is a recycling activity and learning guide for educators and students. The guide was created by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. It contains recycling and waste facts about Wisconsin and also lessons based on protecting the Earth's resources and environment. I chose 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. The guide provides information for the fifth graders to learn how Wisconsin uses science ideas to protect the Earth's resources and environment. I could also use a lesson from this guide as an outline for my lesson in the course.

This guide contains a TON of information on a variety of environmental topics.

This resource contains an interactive map of Recycle City. The map has four areas that can be explored to discover how the residents recycle, reduce, and reuse waste in the city. 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 for this course. The interactive map will go along very well with this lesson.

Great find! Thank you for posting. How, specifically, will the map "go along" with the lesson?

The map could serve as the "Exploration" part of my lesson. However, I could see this as being very time consuming. In a real classroom, it would most likely have to be an activity using up the entire science period.

summary, evaluation, potential use

The world is an interesting place, but it's fascinating up close. Through the lens of a microscope you can find details that you would otherwise never notice. But now you can. This instructable will show you how to build a stand for about $10 that will transform your smartphone into a powerful digital microscope.

This set of 6 videos explores the science behind the "super" powers of speed, strengths, mass, immortality, flight, and invisibility. Geared for middle and high school level students, this resource could be used as the hook to introduce physics concepts.

Also includes assessment questions!

This resource provides an excellent overview of plant biology with multimedia interfaces. It covers the origin of plants, and discusses plant parts, plant growth, how plants manufacture food, pollination, seed dispersal and adaptations. Additionally, it shows the relationship between plants and life (in general) e.g. plants as a source of oxygen, a source of food and a habitat for animals.

This resource provides a basic format for illustrating the Scientific Method. It explores the factors that affect seed germination. It emphasizes the brainstorming function and lays out an experimental design for students to follow. Students can make predictions and explain their rationale. A sample experimental design guide is included. This is a very important tool to assist students seeking to answer questions through experimentation.

This resource is an interactive tutorial that provides a very concise overview of the school science lab environment. It familiarizes students with the basic lab safety precautions. It also helps to increase awareness of the lab environment. It covers instrumentation and equipment, rules for staying safe and concludes with a brief assessment. It also provides 'comp checks' between slides. This resource is one of the most important 'lessons' for science students prior to performing lab experiments.

LAB - Pig Dissection: This is an illustrated power point presentation that guides students through the dissection of a fetal pig. It includes identification of all external and internal features and structures. A great hands on activity for biology students learning about the body systems, I selected it for its practical applications and because the pig model closely simulates the human systems. Well labeled and extremely detailed.