Resources: Science and Math
Science
SUPER
SCIENCE WEBSITES
The Web offers thousands of sites on every imaginable scientific
subject. The sites in this Education World article represent some
of the most recent additions to online science education -- and
a few of the author's all-time favorites.
Science
and Mathematics Initiative for Learning Enhancement (SMILE)
The SMILE program is designed to enhance the elementary and high
school learning of Science and Mathematics through the use of
the phenomenological approach. Between 1986 and 1997 each summer
session participant was asked to create and publish a single concept
lesson plan. These lesson plans include the materials needed,
a suggested strategy and expected outcomes. There are currently
almost 900 of these lesson plans available (see subject indices
below). In addition, starting in 1997 the participants in the
academic year program have been asked to present a brief single
concept lesson or idea.
RUBISTAR
While many teachers want to use rubrics or are experimenting with
writing rubrics, they can be quite time-consuming to develop.
RubiStar is a tool to help the teacher who wants to use rubrics
but does not have the time to develop them from scratch. RubiStar
provides generic rubrics that can simply be printed and used for
many typical projects and research assignments. The unique thing
about RubiStar, however, is that it provides these generic rubrics
in a format that can be customized. The teacher can change almost
all suggested text in the rubric to make it fit their own project.
Ask
Eric
This collection contains more than 2000 unique lesson plans which
have been written and submitted to AskERIC by teachers from all
over the United States and the world. Contributions from individuals
are essential to the collection; it is how it grows!
Web Elements
periodic table
Chemical
Elements.com
An interactive periodic table of the elements
General
Science Lesson Plan Links
The Catalyst
This site has been developed specifically for the secondary education/high
school level teacher, as a resource for finding relevant information
for use in the teaching of chemistry. Moreover, students and other
visitors interested in the topic of chemistry will find The Catalyst
to be a valuable web resource for finding the information or answers
they are seeking, and are encouraged to take advantage of this
site as well. This site is updated frequently, so stop by often.
Thank you for visiting!
Access
Excellence @ the National Health Museum
Access Excellence, launched in 1993, is a national educational
program that provides high school biology and life science teachers
access to their colleagues, scientists, and critical sources of
new scientific information via the World Wide Web. The program
was originally developed and launched by Genentech Inc., a leading
biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and
markets human pharmaceuticals for significant unmet medical needs.
The
Climate Timeline Information Tool describes weather and
climate events that occur on different timescales -- minutes to
millenia.
The
Paleomap Project has images and animations of continental
positions at different times in Earth's history.
The Museum
of Paleontology at the University of California Berkeley
is the most amazing site for paleontology, taxonomy, and evolution.
The
Microbial World has great pictures and descriptions of
a variety of
microbes and microbial phenomena:
http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/bto/microbes/microbes.htm
Brainpop.com
This is a great site for short animated movies on a variety of
topics. Very useful for introducing or reinforcing key concepts.
BigChalk.com
Our teacher resources include easy-to-use tools for preparing
lessons, comprehensive sources for professional research and online
courses for professional development-all developed to help teacher
motivate and inspire students.
Curriculum
Links
This resource page at the Kenton KY school district website is
elegant in its simplicity. Follow the content-area link to a new
page, and then click on the link for middle grades resources.
All pre-screened by your colleagues in Kentucky!
Mytinygarden.com
[Macromedia Flash Player]
Gardens have fascinated mankind since the construction of the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, if not before. They have been the
source of inspiration and reflection for persons ranging from
Monet to Michael Pollan, author of Second Nature. Drawing on his
own small patch of land, Jay Dykes has created this delightful
tribute to his own small garden, with an emphasis on its insect
life. At the site, visitors can elect to start at one of three
sections: Fly, Walk, or Crawl. Within each section, visitors will
find an array of arresting photos of snails, honeybees, wasps,
and butterflies, to name but a few. A nice touch is added to the
Web site by the presence of a tiny ladybug that makes its way
across the screen throughout the site. Most of the photographs
also feature a magnifying glass, which allows visitors to examine
the intricate features of these small creatures. The accompanying
descriptions of the photographs and their subjects are creatively
fashioned, and include several anecdotes about Mr. Dyke's experiences
with these backyard denizens. Anyone with the most remote interest
in garden-dwelling insects should find this site interesting.
Lewis
and Clark as Naturalists [.pdf, Flash, Quick Time]
In late May of 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark sent forth
from St. Charles, Missouri with a directive from President Thomas
Jefferson. One of their charges was to collect and record information
about the plants and animals they found along their journey westward.
Anticipating the bicentennial of their departure, the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History has created this fine Web site that
allows visitors to travel with Lewis and Clark as they moved across
the Great Plains and into the Pacific Northwest, examining the
plants and animals they encountered. Regrettably, very few of
the actual specimens collected by the explorers are intact, so
the Smithsonian has drawn on its own massive collections to stand
in as surrogates for the original specimens. Visitors can browse
the collection by species, state in which each specimen was collected,
or by date each specimen was collected. Each specimen contains
information about where it was found and comments from the explorers
about each specimen. The interactive map allows viewers to move
along the trail of Lewis and Clark and click on each place where
specimens were collected to obtain a detailed description of the
locality and the object. Finally, there are a number of lesson
plans designed to be used in conjunction with the Web site.
About.com
This website has an enormous collection of materials relating
to k-12 teaching including lesson plans, links and tips for all
disciplines and age levels. It is a very useful site for new teachers,
seasoned teachers, and even home school. Get tips on how to prepare
for your first day and classroom management strategies, find fun
games for students, and discover even more of those web sites
that make your job just a little bit easier! It is a bottomless
pit of information.
Jason Project
Santa Barbara, CA - Put on your virtual SCUBA gear and join a
scientific expedition team investigating California's Channel
Islands, a unique region known as the Galapagos of North America.
Web surfers can swim below the kelp forest canopy, detect El Nino
events and track 100 years of ocean exploration.
New England
Coalition, Inc.
Renewable Energy Education Program
Contact Mark Skinder (802) 257-0330
Have a Renewable Energy Field Trip Come to Your School! For Science
Teachers grades 3-8
THE GREAT NEW ENGLAND ENERGY SHOW
An interactive travelling renewable energy exhibit that provides
the following:
· A lesson on Energy and Impacts
· Demonstrations of Renewable Energy Models
· The Energy Van Challenge Project on Global Warming
· Or Renewable Energy Educational materials and references
for ongoing activities with students.
Renewable Energy Models Include: solar ovens, hot water heaters,
and a heat (stirling) engine, electro-magnetic generators powered
by humans, and wind, and photo voltaics powering a model car,
bicycle, a model solar home and more The Energy Van Includes:
Complete solar electric, solar hot water and wind energy systems.
The van's diesel engine runs on a renewable fuel called biodiesel,
made from vegetable oil, which greatly reduces pollutants and
greenhouse gases.
The Energy Van will provide renewable energy for classroom demonstrations
whether the sun is out or not. Fee for one full day is $250 plus
$1.50 per mile from Greenfield, MA Partial day arrangements are
negotiable. Also available to power stages and events.
The
APSnet Education Center
The APSnet Education Center is a new (and still growing) website
that presents information on plant health and plant diseases.
It is sponsored by the American Phytopathological Society, is
completely free, and includes peer-reviewed publications with
many photographs and other resources. There is material for introductory
and advanced plant pathology (including disease lessons, labs,
topics, and an illustrated glossary). There is also a K-12 section
designed for teachers that includes monthly "News and Views,"
labs and classroom activities (background information, lesson
plans, class handouts), online mentors, resource catalog, and
a bulletin board for questions and discussions. Free email updates
will be sent periodically to those who wish to receive announcements
of new materials (no more than one/month). The "What's New?"
link provides this same information. We now offer an inexpensive
($15.00) cd-rom of these materials for teachers who prefer to
work offline. Ordering information is at the website.
The
Secret Life of the Brain [Flash, RealPlayer, Shockwave]
This Web site is the online companion to a five-part series
about the human brain from PBS. With loads of fantastic interactive
features, this site makes learning about the brain both fun and
educational.
Butterfly
Lab [QuickTime]
Designed for students in grades 7-12, Butterfly Lab offers online
activities and materials covering butterfly anatomy, life cycle,
behavior, and related topics. Detailed information is accompanied
by colorful diagrams and photographs. Also offers three offline
activities involving butterfly anatomy, movement, identification,
handling, and more.
Science
and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
The new Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
has been printed and distributed. Two copies have been sent to
principals and superintendents, and larger quantities have been
mailed to every school in the Commonwealth.
Bugscope
A project of the University of Illinois's Beckman Institute for
Advanced Science and Technology, enables students around the country
to capture insect specimens, send them to the university, and,
through the Internet, view them under the university's $600,000
environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM).
TOP OF PAGE
Mathematics
MATH TOOLS
"MathTools" (part of The Math Forum developed by NSF's
National
Science Digital Library) offers hundreds of lesson plans and
learning activities for teachers and students from Pre-K through
calculus. At this page, you can quickly explore the lessons
and downloadable software tools by grade level, topic (number
theory, integers, etc.) and more. You can also join discussion
forums and submit your own ideas and materials. The site is
still under development, but there are many great resources
already available.
Illuminations
NCTM's Illuminations is now a partnership between NCTM
and MarcoPolo, a sure sign of quality. You'll find lesson plans,
interactive math tools, math investigations and inquiry on practice,
and you can view all the resources by grade bands.
HELP WITH
ALGEBRA!
The PurpleMath website offers "plain and simple, practical
and pithy"
lessons that can help 7th and 8th graders figure out algebra.
The
lessons range from the preliminaries (absolute value, negative
numbers, etc.) to intermediate and advanced algebra that can
challenge high-flying math students.
About.com
This website has an enormous collection of materials relating
to k-12 teaching including lesson plans, links and tips for all
disciplines and age levels. It is a very useful site for new teachers,
seasoned teachers, and even home school. Get tips on how to prepare
for your first day and classroom management strategies, find fun
games for students, and discover even more of those web sites
that make your job just a little bit easier! It is a bottomless
pit of information.
Math
Games & Activities For Middle Schoolers
Use these "Math Explorer" activities in classrooms,
after-school, or youth group programs. Developed by San Francisco's
Exploratorium, these fun games, tricks, and activities provide
teachers, youth group leaders, and parents with fun ways to explore
mathematics. If you like what you find at this sample page, you
may want to order the book, which we've seen. It's full of great
material, all developed based on work supported by the National
Science Foundation.
MathNerds
A discovery-style, volunteer-based, free service providing help
in mathematics to students, teachers, parents and industry. The
project grew out of two ideas, which we believe are both of interest
to educators in mathematics.MathNerds provides FREE, discovery-based,
mathematical guidance (does not supply answers to homework, take
home tests and the like; rather, they provide hints, suggestions,
and references to help) via an international, volunteer network
of mathematicians.
Mathematics
Curriculum Framework
The Massachusetts Department of Education's Office of Mathematics,
Science, and Technology/Engineering is pleased to announce the
release of the new Interactive Version of the Mathematics Curriculum
Framework. This interactive version has been enhanced with additional
problems and activities. In addition, all of the activities, problems,
and definitions are linked directly to each learning standard,
enabling teachers to focus on a particular standard or on a subject
area. These will be continually updated and expanded as we create
new examples and annually add the newly released MCAS items.
Eisenhower National
Clearinghouse (ENC)
"We want your opinion!" declares a pop-up survey on topics like
assessment, equity, and curriculum. The ENC site identifies effective
curriculum resources; creates high-quality professional development
materials; and offers information to benefit teachers, students,
and families interested in K-12 math and science teaching and
learning. Go to this site to find descriptions of hundreds of
math-related Web sites, details and links about TIMMS (the international
math test), math history, lesson plans, and professional development
resources.
National
Library of Virtual Manipulatives for Interactive Mathematics
"Hands on" gets virtual at this site, which collects uniquely
interactive, Web-based manipulative or concept tutorials aimed
at K-8 math learners. With the aid of JAVA applets, students can
visualize such concepts as the Pythagorean Theorem, tessellation,
base 10, or comparing fractions. This site has received an award
from the National Science Foundation.
Harcourt
Multimedia Math Glossary
Use this site to help students in elementary and middle school
visualize challenging math ideas. Illustrations and animations
of concepts such as sums, ordinal numbers, and telling time are
available for young students, while items such as alternate interior
angles and congruency are depicted for older students. The descriptions
are categorized by grade level.
Mega
Math
"Mathematics is lively and exciting; it is a field more akin to
art and poetry than many people think," say the Mega Math authors
at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. This said, they go on to
provide activities and explanations for some high-level mathematical
concepts. What is infinity plus 1? Why does a map never need to
contain more than four colors? How does a minimum dominating set
help people figure out where to put airports and subway stations?
Figure
This!
"Mark McGuire's 70th home run ball sold for $3 million in
1999. If Babe Ruth's 60th home run ball was worth $3,000 in 1927,
and doubles its value every seven years, which would be worth
more today?" This site features real-world math questions designed
to motivate middle school students to learn higher-level math
operations involving angles, volumes, number patterns, etc. By
using high-interest everyday subjects for the activities, students
become aware of how useful math is outside the classroom.
Math Archives
This University of Tennessee site offers a host of math-related
links, teaching materials, and shareware for teachers and students
at all levels of math. Here are just two appealing sources of
info: Project NExT and POPMathematics.
