Scicence 360
Have you ever wondered about the chemistry of a cheeseburger? Well you are in luck because that is one of the subjects covered on the topical and delightful "Chemistry" section of the popular Science360 website. As it states on the site, "…everything you hear, see, taste, smell and touch involves chemistry and chemicals", and here visitors can watch videos and learn about the molecular structure of water, the science behind glass blowing, and how a curious mud-like mixture is being used to soak up oil spills and insulate homes. Currently, there are about fifteen videos on the site, and visitors can sign up via a host of social media (Twitter, Facebook, and so on), to stay abreast of new additions to the site. Teachers will find that this material can be integrated into the classroom quite easily, and everyone else will just enjoy wandering through these offerings.
To find this resource and more high-quality online resources in math and science visit Scout's sister site - AMSER, the Applied Math and Science Educational Repository at
Applied Math and Science Educational Repositary
National Lab Day
Tentatively scheduled for early May 2010
On Nov. 23, President Barack Obama announced the establishment of National Lab Day. It's a great opportunity for educators and professionals to show young girls how exciting science and math can be and provide them with female role models in critical career fields. At the National Lab Day website, teachers will be partnered with outside experts to assess current labs, update or refurbish lab equipment, conduct equipment and materials inventory, or clean and repair equipment. Or teachers can elect to have STEM professionals work with them to: implement hands-on projects, start a fundraising effort to buy needed supplies, help with science fairs, mentor a student, coordinate and host field trips, provide internship opportunities, donate materials, and assist with lesson plans. The website also has a great project ideas and help.
National Geographic: Redwoods
National Geographic's website offers a multimedia presentation about the majestic Redwood forest. The cover story includes, "The Super Trees", from the October 2009 magazine, and details under "Tune In", on when to watch the corresponding broadcast "Explorer: Climbing Redwood Giants". In addition to an online photo "Jigsaw Puzzle" of a 300-foot California redwood that visitors can time themselves putting together, there is also a great 2.5-minute "Video" of the photographer's attempt to create a composite photo of an entire redwood tree. The "Living Giants" interactive time line shows the historical moments a 2000-year-old redwood has lived through, including the reign of Genghis Khan, the signing of the Magna Carta, and the settlement at Jamestown.
We Choose the Moon
The excitement of the famous Apollo 11 mission can be relived through this extraordinary site created by AOL and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Visitors can make their way through the eleven stages of the mission, complete with audio transmissions from the flight, image galleries, additional video clips, and some realistic visualizations of the craft in flight. Using the "Mission Tracker" feature, visitors can move through the stages as they see fit, and they can also change the size of the display and toggle the sound on and off. In the lower-left hand corner, visitors can view information about the distance from earth, spacecraft weight, and the velocity of the spacecraft.
The Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago's education section of their website was originally a year-long course offered to Chicago Public School science teachers interested in exploring the relationship between science and art within a museum setting. The website includes several different scientific disciplines relating to art, including "Art and Astronomy", "Perception, Light, and Color", and "The Chemistry and Physics of Light and Color". At the top of the page links to "Lesson Plans", "Student Projects", "Self-Guides", and "Books and Media" are also available. The "Self-Guides" are "guides for museum visits", and address concepts such as color and pigment in paintings, as well as particular artists' styles. Students can even study the affects of acid rain through "The effects of acid rain on stone sculpture" lesson.
Intelligent Designs on Evolution [Real Player]
Recently, many interested parties have taken up the debate surrounding intelligent design and the teaching of evolution in public schools. While it can be hard to sort through the vast debates surrounding these issues, the good people at American Radio Works have created this thoughtful and introspective website that explores some of the issues surrounding this important topic. Under the careful direction of Mary Beth Kirchner, the documentary takes a look at some of the people involved in the debates, and features interviews with high school teachers, intelligent design theorists, and others. After listening to the documentary, visitors will also want take a look at the site’s other features, such as an interview with Professor Ted Peters (a theology professor) and a selection of additional relevant sites, such as those for the National Center for Science Education and the Institute for Creation Research.
NASA: Satellite Tracking [Real Player, pdf]
While NASA has offered a number of fine sites about their research for the general public over the years, this particular site may be one of their best. With a minimum of fuss, visitors can use several of the online tracking applications offered here to locate hundreds of satellites and other such large objects in space. A good way to start a visit to this site is by taking a look at the J-Track 2.5 section, as it offers a quick way to find out the current location of the Space Station and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Additionally, visitors can also locate weather satellites using this application. The Live 3D Java Tracking Display here allows visitors to monitor close to 700 satellites that are in motion around the earth. Finally, visitors can also use a handy application offered here that allows them to determine which satellites might be seen from their location in the night sky.
Renewable Energy Policy Project
Established in 1995, the Renewable Energy Policy Project (REPP) has spent the past decade educating the general public about renewable energies. This is accomplished by providing competent and rigorous policy analysis about the myriad of issues surrounding the viability and sustainability of such energy sources. Visitors will find a variety of resources associated with each type of renewable energy source. These resources generally include a brief description of the REPP's work in each field, along with links to some of their more recent working papers and policy briefs. For persons who hope to join the discussion about some of these timely topics, the site also maintains a number of relevant listservs, such as those dealing with bioconversion and strawbale conversion.
FORENSICS IN THE CLASSROOM
If your students enjoy TV shows like CSI, check out this website developed in partnership with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Court TV, and the National Science Teachers Association. You can download standards-based curriculum supplements in chemistry, biology and physics that involve students in forensic mysteries and puzzles. The student handouts are colorful and professionally done. Follow the "About Forensics in the Classroom" link to gather more ideas about using the six available units in the classroom.
Backyard Nature
Created by veteran naturalist Jim Conrad, Backyard Nature is an excellent resource for information about many aspects of the natural world. The website provides extensive, well-organized sections for backyard Ecology, Plants, Animals, and Fungi -- to name just a few. The site contains a section on Naming & Classifying living things, as well as information about tools for backyard naturalists such as field guides, binoculars, nature study notebooks, and an Online Phenology Database.
Plant Physiology Information Website
This extensive Plant Physiology Information Website was created by Ross E. Koning, professor of biology at Eastern Connecticut State University. Dr. Koning provides links to lecture notes, lab exercises, and other resources for a variety of his courses including Biology of Plants, Plant Physiology, Principles of Biology, and more. In addition, the site offers a diverse assortment of other resources such as an Elementary Education Energy Workshop handout, a science fair project on lettuce
Cicadas
The spring season marks the long-awaited arrival of the Magicicada Brood X periodical cicadas. The Magicicada cicadas are emerging in great numbers after spending 17 years underground. The following websites offer information about the periodical cicadas, and other cicadas as well. The first site, from the University of Michigan's Museum of Zoology, provides a variety of short information entries about periodical cicadas including photos, and song clips. Hosted by the College of Mount St. Joseph, the Cicada Watch website invites visitors to report an emergence. The Cicada Watch site also contains answers to frequently asked questions as well as teaching resources, a basic emergence timeline, and a list of periodical cicada events. The third site, Cicada Mania, was created by cicada enthusiast Dan Century to disseminate a wide assortment of cicada-related news and information. Cicada Mania links to articles, photos, related sites, and more. The fourth site, hosted by University of Connecticut, "is designed to be a center for the exchange of scientific information concerning cicadas of the world." This Cicada Central website links to reprints for scientific literature concerning cicadas, a list of cicada researchers from around the world, a list of world cicada tribes, and more. Created by cicada enthusiast Lester W. Daniels, the fifth site provides natural history information about cicadas as well as great annotated photos. The sixth site, from the University of Maryland Newsdesk, offers cicada information, recipes, photos, and even a media hotline. The final site, from Salt in the Sandbox, is a neat inquiry-based educational cicada site for children. [NL] <../2004/ls-040528-verso.php>
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]
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. Anyone with the most remote interest in garden-dwelling insects should find this site interesting.
Lewis and Clark as Naturalists [.pdf, Flash, Quick Time]
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.
The APSnet Education Center
The APSnet Education Center 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.
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 0,000 environmental scanning electron microscope (ESEM).
NOVA: Lord of the Ants [Quick Time]
This site offers a broad and engaging portrait of E.O. Wilson whose intellectual curiosity and holistic approach to examining the world continues to inspire others. His lifelong studies and fascination with ants gained him success with his work “The Ants” as it won the Pulitzer Prize in 1991. Wilson’s work and life have been recently profiled in an episode of the popular PBS program NOVA, which can now be viewed on this website. Visitors can also read an excerpt from his autobiography, play an interactive matching game with ants, and read a transcript of an interview with Wilson about the concept of "biophilia" or humans' innate tendency to focus on living things, as opposed to the inanimate.
