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Great resource if you have students needing makeup or home-bound. Virtual Chemistry Experiments are a collection of interative web-based chemistry tutorials. The tutorials employ Physlets and Chemistry Applets to simulate experiments or depict molecular and atomic structure. The guiding concept is to involve the read in making observations and acquiring data, and then using this information to draw conclusions and infer chemical principles.

I find these are best as additional to traditional lab experiences or, as I posted earlier, I use these for the students that can't be at school for usual labs. Understanding limitations of their own lab technique and evaluation of errors does not occur with simulations. Similar to difference between multiple choice assessment and free response.

I agree with Anna, virtual experiments wouldn't be my first choice in methodology for lab experiments, but there are somethings that you just, can't do in the classroom. Whether it is from limited resources, limited class time, or simply the experiment is too dangerous for the classroom, virtual experiments are a good alternative. I had a chemistry professor in my undergrad who was making a dvd textbook with lectures and experiments and there was a lot of cool experiments on the dvd that he would have never been able to do during his lectures.

10 of the best apps for education As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become included in curriculum, here are several education apps you might enjoy As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become more integrated in classrooms, educators and students are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process.

Ipads and Ipods are becoming a huge part of education. Unfortunately there are a limited amount of devices in my school, but whenever I can get them, my students love playing and creating on IOS devices. At the EdTech conference this year, they discussed BYOD (bring your own devices). I thought this was an interesting way to keep students up to date without stressing the schools budget.

there is also a pdf version, but the diigolet will not highlight pdfs so I bookmarked the html page.

there is also a pdf version, but the diigolet will not highlight pdfs so I bookmarked the html page.

I don't have too many go to sites yet (I hope that improves in the near future) but I did run across this compilation of youtube videos related to science that I think will be helpful in the future. Given some of them are way too basic to use, but there used to be really cool look inside the cell type stuff. The original site shut down so I had to find where someone else posted the links on their blog so my apologizes if you can not access it at this time.

Hey Eric- Thanks for posting this website- I was looking through the videos and happen to come across some that I think might be useful for me when I start teaching very soon!

This site provides lessons on a wide array of earth science topics that kids can access at home which includes interactive videos, games, activities and lessons. It also provides great resources for teachers that can help foster creative lessons with the content. The website is a little confusing at first because each link (topic) will redirect you to another website (i.e. National Geographic) but it exposes you to different approaches to teaching the content.

Wow! There is a lot of information on this link directly related to Earth Science. I am currently going through each link and writing down notes to help me with some of my future lectures. Thanks so much for the link that brings it all together so that I don't have to have a search overload for some of these great resources!

This site provides educational movies for K-3 students. Homework Help, leveled quizzes, games and activities for kids. Exceptional resource for teachers and homeschools. I use this site very often.

After I wrote the comment, I saw the brainpop.com site and was impressed with it none the less.

I like Brainpop for starting conversation in my AP classes.

Innovation to me is the enhancement of education using customized tools. Recently, there has been great buzz about promoting SMART technologies- a collaborative leaning software that accommodates a variety of learning styles- promoting varied instruction. The SMART notebook collaborative learning software is the world's leading lesson creation software that opens options for interactive lessons that support student-centered learning. Of the vast technologies within this field I seemed to find SMART boards as a very innovative tool for classroom instruction. A SMART board is basically an interactive white board that allows teachers to project a website or image from the laptop to the white board. These SMART boards are capable of storing and saving lessons as well as turning simple lessons into more interactive and customized ones geared to enhance student learning. I think this application is more useful in disciplines such as Science because science changes all the time and has the ability to be much "active" using the web- this is not to say that it cannot be useful in the other disciples however.

One of the newest and greatest innovations continues to be video games. In the past, educational games have never quite met expectations, but with grants and contests such as this one, hopefully the games improve and students can learn something while playing video games.

This looks like a great tool for kids today- especially considering how attached some kids are to games. Children need to know how they get sick and what is going on inside of them when they are sick. One concern I have is that the game may be giving the message that all bacteria are bad and will make them sick. This is a common misconception that has led to the over use of antibiotics and hand sanitizer. Children should be taught that although some bacteria are pathogens, most are not, and they actually help other animals (ie. Humans) carry out every day functions. Bacteria ≠ Pathogen.

About four years ago, I went to a facility planners conference and they said the most improperly used space in the school is the library. It should not be filled with stacks of books, but it should look more like a media center where you have gaming centers, areas for public wi-fi access and a small section for books, but it would not be the dominant feature of the media center. It would also not close with the school, but be an area that would be open to the general public after hours. We will probably not build another school in Spotsylvania in the next decade, but it will be interesting to see if divisions will be starting to convert what we currently see as a library into something else.

A brief 10-minute video describing the importance of STEM education and its implications. Posted by Chesterfield County Public Schools (ccpsva). 19 Dec 2008

I completely agree with Tristan, it is always awesome to see stuff that we talk about in our coursework being implemented in the field. I feel like sometimes important topics to me are forgotten when we translate them into teaching in the classroom, but this proves me wrong. And makes me feel great about the future of STEM education.

I had never heard of "STEM" until a Chesterifield CPS principal mentioned it. I had to stop her and ask what "STEM" was, which, as a scientist, was very embarrassing. I think it is great that CCPS has embraced the synergistic effect of STEM subjects functioning together. Awesome!

Eight minute video that defines and explains implications of STEM. Created & Posted by nwpaworkforce. 9 Feb 2011

I think this is a good video that students can relate too. Nice find!

Anna - this is something that I think teachers should show their students, even if there is no STEM curriculum in effect. I love how the students described something very practical- like playing video games- to show how each of the four disciplines are intertwined.

PBS Kids has activities that do a good job of linking engineering to science, math, and technology. The website has many characters which my students identify with. Many of the activities and concepts, that are covered, are for younger students, but some are for the upper grades.

Great website- it is very "children" oriented due to the nice colors, drawings and simplicity. I love it for the content that is accessible by young learners but I appreciate it even more because it has very innovative classroom activity suggestions (as well as lesson plans) for teachers. Even more importantly, there have a listing for family activities for each subject, which I think is great because learning can be even more meaningful when it is done outside of the classroom.

It looks like UVA has a rather large K-12 Engineering Outreach. Reading through the material it looks like the only stuff available outside of the adjacent counties is through virtual or their teaching kits. Either way it could be pretty cool. And maybe with enough persistence, you could get an outreach to your school from some of the undergrads at UVA.

There is also the project I worked on at the School of Ed: http://www.maketolearn.org/explore/

Segments that particularly jumped out: - "there are three main components of teachers' knowledge: content, pedagogy, and technology. Equally important to the model are the interactions between and among these bodies of knowledge, represented as PCK, TCK (technological content knowledge), TPK (technological pedagogicalknowledge), and TPACK." -"Many approaches to teachers' professional development offer a one-size-fits-all approach to technology integration when, in fact, teachers operate in diverse contexts of teaching and learning." -"three key components of teacher knowledge: understanding of content, understanding of teaching, and understanding of technology. The complexity of technology integration comes from an appreciation of the rich connections of knowledge among these three components and the complex ways in which these are applied in multifaceted and dynamic classroom contexts."

This video is long, but it breaks down all parts of TPACK and provides examples. This video stresses the importance of using the TPACK model to solve "wicked" problems. The presenter also discusses the importance of creativity in this process. There are many great examples provided in the video. My favorite example was about the third grade teacher who used technology to enhance students understanding of maps. The class took a trip to DC and used cameras and mapping software to record their journey. The main points of the video are: teaching with technology is a wicked problem, wicked problems require creative solutions, and that teachers are the designers of the Total PACKage, and that solutions need to be novel, effective, and whole,

I have shared this with my technology integrated group, since we has cited TPACK as the basis for our school's program. This video does a beautiful job of conveying this information and I hope we use this to assist our staff as we struggle to implement technology uses for learning. I particularly like the acknowledgment of the difficult nature of this. The humorous nature of the presentation along with depth of scholarly foundation contained is excellent!

My view: The increasing necessity for STEM education Print Font [+] [-] 11 Comments » By Sidharth Oberoi For the Deseret News Published: Thursday, Feb. 20 2014 12:00 a.m. MST Share71 Share52 Tweet4 0 0 A closer look at U.S. unemployment statistics shows that even with unemployment still at historically high levels, large numbers of jobs are going unfilled. Most of these jobs have one very important thing in common - the need for STEM education. Shutterstock Enlarge photo» Summary A closer look at U.S. unemployment statistics shows that even with unemployment still at historically high levels, large numbers of jobs are going unfilled. Most of these jobs have one very important thing in common - the need for STEM education. There is a distinct educational disconnect that we need to resolve today. 1 The real word application of science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, is increasingly important in the workforce while science and technology are becoming less emphasized in today's classrooms. The ability for students to gain access to the critical skills these subjects offer is critically important as the future workforce is projected to be dominated by those possessing technology and science skills over the next several decades.

This is a wonderful resource. Many teachers are always searching for resources and ideas for the SMART Board.

I constantly use smart exchange! It is wonderful and there are tons of free templates for review games, etc. too!

I liked this so much, I even looked up Geometry resources. Shirley