Resources for Teaching Science

This website includes several different lesson plans on recycling. The one that I enjoyed the most is teaching them how long trash lasts, discusses decomposing along with other things. The lesson plan includes what subject areas are included in the lesson, a brief description, grades, objectives, keywords, materials, along with many other key components. It is a very good lesson for teachers to use as a guideline.

While this is interesting information, the activity focuses on a lot of guessing without linking to prior experience or involving students in finding out for themselves. You say "guideline" as a use, and I would suggest it be only that, perhaps related to a unit on food chains that involves the concept of decomposition. Students could design their own experiment to observe the decomposition of different objects over time.

This is a cool moon demo to show the moon is always the same size. I want to try it on a night where there is a harvest moon and then on a night when the moon looks like an average night.

This is a lesson plan for a pre kindergarten classroom learning about recycling. They are not only learning about recycling, they are also learning social skills. Since they are working in groups and then they speak to the class as a whole. I like this website because there are many other lesson plans as well, and they are easy for teachers as well.

I'm going to argue with the categorization of this as Pre-K, even though that is what the website itself says. 3 & 4 year-olds do not know the reasoning behind recyclable/non-recyclable items. Older students could research this or design tests to find out about decomposition, etc.

In this activity/lesson students cross off or color bingo squares in response to questions about their traits. By doing so, students will create an inventory of their own traits and compare traits within the class to determine which are the least and most common. I would use this in upper grade level as a beginning activity in genetics. I believe this activity would be fun for students while still being informative and encouraging inquiry and group discussion.

I think we all remember this being our favorite science lesson ever as a kid. In this lesson, the teacher will explain to students about freezing point depressions and exothermic reactions. Of course, in the way of making homemade ice cream. I loved this as a student before and I will definitely use it in my future classroom.

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 is a lesson plan involving the causes of pollution. This lesson talks about the negative effects pollution has on our lives, things that cause pollution, and ways to help make our Earth a cleaner place. The students are allowed to be creative and find their own ways to stop pollution and become active. I would use this in my future classroom because it allows all of my students to be involved in helping the world we live in.

This was a fourth grade physical science experiment that can be used when studying electricity. Although it is not completely free it uses minimal household items so the cost is very low. The students are able to see what goes on inside a battery by completing a circuit. I would use this in my classroom because the students become actively involved in learning and it is something new and "shocking" for them to discover.

Grade level probably more like 4-8 than K-5

This is another 23 minute by Bill Nye that informs children all about the different aspects of the atmosphere. I would show this to my future class when we were learning about the atmosphere and air systems. Bill Nye is always informative and fun so the students love watching him.

This is a 23 minute video by Bill Nye about the Earth's crust and the different features on it, mainly volcanoes. This is a fun and interactive video and I would use it in my future classroom because the students are entertained while learning!

This is a website to show children ways that they can help the earth by recycling. There are 5 main ways that are offered, and clicking on "Kids for Saving Earth" takes you to another website. This is interactive and very child friendly. I think both of these are good and helpful for both the teacher and the student.

The five ways aren't really so much all about recycling as different ways of conserving materials. For example, using cloth napkins doesn't result in recycling, but in reducing what is consumed. I see this as more of a resource for adults or older children than a website for kids. The "Kids for Saving Earth" is a bit more kid-friendly.

This website includes 9 lesson plans on how to conserve water. It includes objectives, resources, and the bulk of the lesson. This could be used when discussing reducing with students. I can see myself using this website in the future to help teach the concept to my students.

I like this website because it provides information on other weather instruments and who invented them. I will use this information in planning my lesson about lightning and Benjamin Franklin's invention of the lightning rod.

I will use this information for planning my lesson on lightning and Benjamin Franklin's invention of the lightning rod. This web page on The Franklin Institute's webpage explains Benjamin Franklin's fascination of weather, particularly lightning, and why he invented the lightning rod. This website also provides other information about Benjamin Franklin that I may find helpful in planning my lesson.

I think this would be a fun activity to do on one of the first days of class. It is a list of questions that students can look up online and find the answers too. They are fun questions that the students will want to look up and know the answers too. It will get the students involved and excited about the class and maybe get them asking some questions about animals of their own.

This is a lesson where the students get to make observation about snails. The students are given a live snail and told to name characteristics and at the end they get to race the snails. I think this activity is a good way to introduce make observations. This is a very simply and directed lesson. The teacher is given specific question so the students know what they are looking for. I think this resource will be fun for students and it will help them develop the skills needed to make good observations about other animals.

This resource is game the students can play that helps them identify the food chain and what animals hunt others. I think this resource would be used as a good extra activity for if the students finish an activity early. This is a great introduction to the food chain to let the students guess and explore what they already know. They could journal after about what they found and if they were wrong or if they were right and characteristics about the animals.

This game shows different living organisms that can be in the food chain and can be a fun way to add upon your lesson concerning food chains.

In this activity, students are shown a picture of wildlife and are asked to click on eight living things. Students can click on animals or plants. I chose this activity because younger students could use this as a starting point when learning about wildlife. I envision this being used in the lower grades as a beginning activity.

This lesson provides information on Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. This lesson explains what a scientist does and how Benjamin Franklin's inventions derived from need. This lesson includes a fun matching game, similar to Memory, of Benjamin Franklin's inventions and explanations of why they were invented.

This short video gives a brief description of the solar system. Although it doesn't go into great detail, it is a great starting point to get the students interested on the subject and excited to learn more about solar system. One thing that I really like about this video is the fact that is doesn't say anything about Pluto. Many of the other videos that I watched still included information about Pluto.

This is a video of a "weather rap" that reviews weather for kids by asking a question and pausing for students to come up with the answer. The answer then pops up on the screen so students know if they were correct or not. I would use this in my classroom as a review before a test for a fun way to help the students remember.