Resources for Teaching Science

This is an iPhone app that helps kids learn about plants. It examines the life cycle of a plant, different types of plants, and allows students to grow their own plant. I selected this source because it is very colorful and has good information about the plant process. It allows kids to watch videos and create their own plant. It seems like a good app for $0.99. I would use this app in my classroom to get students engaged and to review material about plants.  I could also use it as an activity for early finishers.

Looks like the price has changed to free!

This would be a good place to take a field trip to. Students can see how Excel's soda is made. It could lead into a conversation about technology and how we have to change and adapt to keep up. I love Ski and the factory is a little place in Breese, Illinois. There is no direct link to set up a field trip, but the contact information is listed on the website.

Do you know if they allow field trips? I didn't see any specific information to that effect on the site.

This is a fun little video that would be a great introduction to a fall science lesson. It talks about whether a pumpkin is a fruit of vegetable and how big the biggest pumpkin was. There is also a little quiz at the end. I like it because it is easy to understand and the pictures are bright and colorful. Also it kept the attention of my two year old so it should work in an elementary classroom.

I can see this being useful and relevant in a unit about fruits/vegetables and/or nutrition, especially if it was being taught in the fall, when pumpkins are prevalent. Good cultural connections, too.

Geocaching is a great way to get kids outside and observing the world around them. Geocaching give you a set of coordinates and your job is to find the hidden object. It is usually a small box containing small trinkets like children's toys, CDs, coins from around the world, etc. When you find the box, you take something and leave something and you can track where your items go across the globe. They are literally all over the world. They can be found in oceans, on mountains, at gas stations, in the woods, etc. It would be a great field trip to take the kids out to a local bike trail (there can be more than 15 Geocaches on 1 trail) and take some time to be outside, talk about nature and try to find something cool! As a teacher, you can even make a Geocache for your class and check out who is finding it online. My husband and I have a Geocache of our own and go out geocaching often. It helps keep you active and allows you to enjoy the outdoors. Older students can also benefit from learning about coordinates.

This bulletin board is a place where people exchange ideas on how to use Eric Carle's books in the classroom. A couple books such as "Little Cloud" and "Papa, Please Get the Moon For Me" are great for science lessons.

This site would be so much more useful if the sections were searchable or organized in some way. I found it to be a LOT of reading to find what the different ideas were for each book.

This is a cute idea to incorporate visual arts into a science lesson plans. I loved using Crayola lesson plans when I was teaching pre-school. This lesson is cute because it deals with baby animals and the students get to work on fine motor skills as well. Be sure to check out the rest of the website.

This website has some great ipad apps. I don't know if they are all free, but it looks like some of them are. There are apps for for both students and teachers. The rest of the website also has resources for teachers and it looks like a great place to find all kinds of information to use in the classroom. I like the idea of mobile apps and I use them when i can.

This website shows lesson plans for 4th grade science classes. This came from the uen.org website which several of us used for our lesson plan analysis project. I think they do a thorough job of planning their lessons and presenting appropriate demonstrations.

This is a fun computer activity for students to practice their knowledge of the periodic table. They can practice the spelling of the elements or the recognition of them. Teachers can incorporate this as part of a center activity or advise students to practice with this computer activity at home.

This website offers ideas for all age science classes in the Saint Louis area. It will help teachers to find a quick idea for a field trip and connect it to a science concept. It also would be helpful to connect the field trip to other subject areas as well. Grade Level: all Main Content Area: All Resource Type: Field Trip Cost: Varies

Astronomy facts of the day present by the Saint Louis Science Center is a great way to introduce the topic of Astronomy, as well as, to build my students knowledge of the topic. Not only does this website include facts, but it also includes occurances that happen on that specific day in the sky which students may be able to witness. This resource could be used daily during my planet and constellation lesson plans, in addition to randomly the rest of the year after the students learn about the topic.

Great resource! SO interesting.

Join the Saint Louis Astronomical Society as the host public star parties at the Science Center on the first Friday of each Month! This resource is an excellent, not-to-mention free, field trip opportunity for students to get up close and personal with our solar system. This weather permitting event is open to the public and allows the student to visually explore the stars through telescopes while also having the opportunity to ask the St. Louis Astronomical Society any questions they may have. This field trip opportunity, if not allowed to travel as a class, is a great resource to share with parents to extend their students learning process. In addition, this website includes nightly sky updates that can be shown via a projector in class, as well as, Astronomy facts of the day.The Saint Louis Science Center would prove to be a great field trip experience during my planet or constellation lessons.

Take your students on an exciting adventure to the Saint Louis Science Center Planetarium to experience hands-on and visual learning. This resource allows students to take part in a self-guided or small group exploration of not only our galaxies stars, but also its many planets. I chose this website because of it wealth of factual knowledge and easily accesible tools. This field trip could take part during a planet lesson, and/or an astronomy lesson.

This is Bill Nye the Science Guys website. I picked this website because I know of many kids who really enjoy his videos. The website contains some free videos, and you are able to shop the store for more and books. The website also contains at home demos, which are something that can be used in the classroom. I believe this could be used for almost any grade level throughout the elementary school. There are also quizzes that students can take. There is also a contact Bill section. I think it would be great to write a class letter to Bill.

This would be a great field trip for children to go on. Eckert's offers tours around the farm and children can do pumpkin picking and apple picking. Children can learn about apples or pumpkins and the growing process. Students can be taught about different material depending on the grade level. I have visited Eckert's many times throughout my life and have enjoyed it. I think children would enjoy it as well. Although, it does cost money for the tours, it is still low cost.

This website includes many science fair ideas and projects. It is appropriate for kids in grades K-12th. I believe this resource could be used in the classroom if you were to have a science fair. Students can use this website to help give them ideas. This website woudl also be helpful to teachers because some of the experiments could be done in the 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 is a fantastic site for science projects, as well as guides for teachers on topics such as how to use a microscope. This site also offers products for sale for your science classroom, but the project ideas and printables are free. It is very user friendly, broken down by age group (students k-12 are covered), and discipline (Life Science, Physics, etc.). I would use this to begin researching something I haven't taught before to look for inspiration and supplemental material.

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 website contains activities for all grade levels and covers many different topics including how new medicines are found in the ocean, climate/weather, lesson sets addressing ocean littering/pollution, make your own weather station, and more. It includes basic fact sheets or interactive projects and games for students to work on. NOAA also heads up a Teach at Sea program where kindergarden through college educators can spend a given amount of time on a boat with scientists, researchers, and the boating crew to gain new experiences about human impact on the ocean, marine life, weather, etc and bring that new knowledge back to the classroom. I have also included a link to the Teach At Sea Program below. http://teacheratsea.noaa.gov/