Resources for Teaching Science

This resource contains tips and instructions on building a tissue paper hot air balloon. I included this reference because I personally participated in this activity while in high school. It was higher on the difficulty level, however, it was extremely rewarding. This activity would better serve younger elementary students as a demonstration rather than a hands on activity. However, I think 4-5th grade students could handle the task of constructing their very own hot air balloon.

This is a game for the students or the class as a whole to do. It has many different options of food chains. I like this game because it is different each time you do it. It also has pictures and words. It then shows you what eats what after you get it correct.

This biology resource is an interactive tool for students to use while learning about the food chain. In the game, the student will be given pictures of 3-5 animals or plants to drag into boxes. The order of placement in the boxes is based on how high that plant or animal is in the food chain. This resource is a great way for students to be tested about different types of animals. There is a different mixture of animals and plants with each step so there is always a new selection of animals or plants to rank. This is the type of resource I can use after teaching the students about the food chain in order to assess their level of understanding.

This activity is a challenge to see if students can construct a bridge built out of toothpicks. The challenge revolves around certain guidelines and at the end, the bridges are tested to see how well they are able to hold weight. This is another activity I participated in during my schooling. It taught all of the participants planning skills, craftsmanship, and also the ability to compromise. I think this is a more applicable activity than the tissue paper hot air balloon activity because it is a less tedious object to construct. I believe my future students will find this activity a welcomed challenge.

This is the information for an activity that mimics the idea of launching a rocket. Instead of an actual rocket, however, this experiment uses water and Alka-Seltzer. I think this is a great resource to have because it allows me in have a rocket launch activity with my students at a younger age than what they would typically get to do it. This experiment does not require students to glue, cut, or assemble a rocket. However, they still get the joy of watching one climb into the air. I will definitely use this activity in my future classroom, regardless of the age group. I think this activity is just one of many examples of all the cool things you can do with science. This activity is a great way to get my students interested in science and the suggested questions at the end can persuade them to search farther for questions.

"Present an activity that uses globes to show that some birds migrate east and west rather than north and south." This activity can incorporate problem solving, prediction, reasoning, and many more options.

SC.E.1.2.3 Students know that our Sun is a star and that the energy of the Sun can be captured as a source of heat and light on Earth (e.g. plants, solar panels) Students will have a basic understanding of the vocabulary words sun, solar system, star, planet, asteroid, comet, orbit, axis.

by Judie Haynes A pumpkin theme unit can be related to either Fall harvest or Halloween. These lessons are written to follow the TESOL Pre-K-12 ESL Standards: Standard 2, Goal 2. How plants grow; experiments with pumpkins Beginning, advanced beginning ESL students grades 2-6 Plant growth vocabulary; how pumpkin seeds grow into mature plants; floating and sinking; predicting and estimating. This lesson can progress through an entire chapter and the activities with growing pumpkins can help give visuals throughout the lesson.

After learning about Pangea and the different continents, this activity can help the students review and determine where the different continents once were. Using the computers to enhance learning is what this generation needs in order to remain stimulated.

This site is an interactive lab teaching about volcanoes. The students need to have a variety of outlets for learning. This is a all computer based lesson to give them a new way to learn instead of just listening to me. I would instruct them at first, but then I would let them explore this lab.

The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL is filled with many hands on activities for all kinds of science. Why does a tornado spin? Why does a wave break? Why does a flame burn? Why does lightning strike? Our questions about the world begin almost as soon as we're aware of it. I have been to this museum but it has been a long time. After trying to think of an interesting place to go and looking at several, this museum seems to be filled with many hands on science experiences and that is why I chose this museum. Also, for field trips, chaperons and students get into the museum for free but there are small fees for the omnimax and certain special exhibits. I also loved that there were labs you could rent, online resources, and they also include worksheets for activities they do in the museum. For the labs they also include standards on their website, including the next generation standards! Many exhibits interest me but this one on Science Storms would be great to take your students after doing a lesson on weather in science. This would give students an insight to mother nature, it's strength in an up close view. There are so many more to include though. So you could even do an end of the year field trip, or maybe an 8th grade trip and include an educational engaging experience for the children.

This lesson allows students to investigate which way is best to clean up oil and researching how oil spills affect the environment. The students will try three different ways to remove oil from a tub of water, then they will determine which way is the most effective. Afterwards, the students will present their findings to the class. I like that this lesson is engaging and it can easily be related to real world oil spills. I would tell my students that they were a team that was hired to find out how to get rid of the oil after the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. This way the students feel that they are doing something realistic.

For my classroom, I would want to educate my students on marine biology. I would want my students to pick a marine life animal and design a presentation about that animal. This page about Sea Otters would be an example of an option that they could do for their presentations.

The purpose of the lesson is for students to understand and sequence the life cycle of a frog, beginning with the frogspawn and ending with the frog. The website also says that this lesson is designed for kindergartners. The students will make observations of a tadpole and then read the story, Life Cycle of a Frog by Angela Royston. The students will then complete a graphic organizer of the story. I like that this lesson requires the students to determine important information in the story and then complete a graphic organizer using that information.

This site provides a source to apply for a field trip for the students to enhance their knowledge in nutrition. They will learn in the classroom the basics about nutrition and eating with a wide variety of colors. Once they gain that knowledge, they can explore the 25 acre UCSC Farm and their organic and seasonal food. I like this option because it is a way to learn outside of the classroom. They can also learn to eat a variety of colors, so it could be connected to an art lesson and being able to make paint with food.

During a field trip to the Field Museum of Science a class/grade of students can experience many new scientific experiences all in one day! Most exciting is the world-famous fossil known as "Sue"; the largest, best-preserved, and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever found. Sue measures 42 feet long from snout to tail and 13 feet tall at the hip. She boasts 58 dagger-like teeth and cuts a fine figure as the Museum's most popular backdrop for visitor photos. We would never be able to experience a real activity such as this inside of a classroom, and the hundreds of ancient and new scientific wonders will have the students enthused to learn more about science. I chose this museum as a field trip that I would love to experience because it has a huge variety of scientific adventures for everyone to enjoy. The main attraction of a giant dinosaur fossil is a great real life encounter to show the children just how huge these prehistoric beings were. This would be a great wrap up experience to a unit on prehistoric earth or fossils in general, and would be fun and educational for all students and teachers involved!

This is a good activity to do in the winter when students spend a lot of time indoors. It shows how easily viruses like the common cold can be passed. The activity involves students having glitter on their hands and touching different objects. This shows how germs can easily spread. I like that this is an interactive activity that shows how germs can spread better than I could explaining it. The students must also record their observations. It will be messy though because the glitter will be all over.

This WebQuest teaches the states of matter through the use of research, activities, music, and games. The site allows chances to go back and forth between tasks, and is very user friendly and easy to navigate. The students will examine solids, liquids, and gasses in an interactive and fun way that will keep them focused. I like this webquest because it allows the students to learn about the states of matter in multiple different ways. This gives each student a chance to excel at some part of the program, and makes it fun for everyone. I enjoy how many different pieces there is to the site, and it has tons of useful information that is shown in an interactive way. The students also get the chance to use technology independently and are able to do some research. I would introduce this web quest after an introduction day to the stages of matter, and have the class work on a few tasks each day to keep them motivated and wanting to keep going.

In Gro Flowers children learn about the important role bees play in the pollination of flowers and the production of honey. Through age-appropriate activities children will design flowers, manipulate bees in the pollination process, avoid pesticides and collect honey. I would have this app on the iPad in my room (in hopes that I have one). I chose this app because it fits perfectly with the previous lesson I posted about the importance of insects pollinating flowers. This would also be good to use before the field trip so students can visual what they need to observe. I would then use this app for centers. I would break my class down into 4 groups and have 4 different centers. I will first teach and review the lesson, then break my students down into the centers. Everyday the groups will switch so everyone has an opportunity at each center. Adding an app to my center is a great way to add technology into my teaching and what student does not love to play on an iPad.

To show students that many kinds of organisms can be sorted into groups in many ways using various features to decide which organisms belong to which group. Classification systems are not part of nature. Instead, they are frameworks created by biologists to help them understand and describe the vast diversity of organisms and suggest relationships among living things. I would need adapt this lesson to meet a standard, but I would try to make the connection that plants and animals have similar internal and external structures to survive.

This activity steps out of the normal lesson in the classroom, but I think it would keep the students entertained because of the candy that is involved. Each student would have a paper plate and would glue different pieces of candy on the plate representing the sun, each of the planets, and the asteroid belt. I really like that this activity steps out of the comfort zone that most teachers have and allows the students to do such a hands on activity that involves something that they like!

This activity allows the students to make their own mini solar systems out of different sized/shaped pieces of candy. The class can discuss the planets size, their color, and even how far away they are from each other through this activity, and using candy will make it a hard lesson to forget.You can either draw your orbits on black construction paper or a paper plate. Sun- butterscotch, Mercury- orange jujube; Venus- Nestle's sno caps; Earth- blue Skittle; Mars- red Skittle; asteroid belt- candy sprinkles; Jupiter- peppermint with red hot stuck on top; Saturn- lemon drop with twizzler wrapped around; Uranus- green Jujube; Neptune- aqua Skittle; Pluto- tart n tiny. I chose this lesson because I think it would be a great activity to help the class remember this important topic. Often times it is hard to recall which planets are next to which and so on, but by the use of candy we can build representations that are sure to stick with the. All of the small candy pieces listed are also easy to find and inexpensive! I would use this activity after learning the basics of the solar system, maybe as a review a few days before an assessment.