OCEAN TRACKS
Ocean Tracks is an Australian website on which students can view the tracks of marine animals in an online 3-D environment. The “tracks” show students where in the world tagged animals are swimming or have swum. Ocean Tracks uses the Unity browser plug-in to provide animations of the underwater views of tracked animals. Students can see bluefin tuna, swordfish, sharks and many other fish in three dimensions.
OIL AND EVERYDAY LIFE
PROJECT NOAH
Share Wildlife Experiences
Project Noah is a global collaboration tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. The Project Noah Missions for the Classroom section includes dozens of challenging and meaningful investigations that touch on nearly every key concept in the life sciences, from adaptation and natural selection to conservation and biodiversity. Browse through the growing list of ongoing missions and find one that inspires you, or create a place-based custom mission for your classroom that gives your students the chance to experience science firsthand by examining the natural world that’s right outside the window. Also find teacher-created, teacher-tested resources that can help you get started using Project Noah in your classroom.
Project Noah is a global collaboration tool to explore and document wildlife and a platform to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. The Project Noah Missions for the Classroom section includes dozens of challenging and meaningful investigations that touch on nearly every key concept in the life sciences, from adaptation and natural selection to conservation and biodiversity. Browse through the growing list of ongoing missions and find one that inspires you, or create a place-based custom mission for your classroom that gives your students the chance to experience science firsthand by examining the natural world that’s right outside the window. Also find teacher-created, teacher-tested resources that can help you get started using Project Noah in your classroom.
Trace Space Back to You
NASA @ Home and City is a virtual tour of NASA-related science that is everywhere we look. Students visiting NASA @ Home and City can rotate buildings and take a look inside to discover everyday items, the development of which has been influenced by space exploration. Each item within a building has a narrated explanation of how that item was influenced by NASA technology. For example, students can take a look inside the bathroom of a house to learn how technology used at NASA has had an impact on the development of cosmetics and toothpaste.
SUN SMART U
This curriculum and website help educate middle school students about the importance of skin cancer prevention and give them the tools they need to protect themselves from the Sun.
PROJECT BUDBURST
Project BudBurst is a network of people across the United States who monitor plants as the seasons change. It is a national field campaign designed to engage the public in the collection of important ecological data based on the timing of leafing, flowering, and fruiting of plants (plant phenophases).
2041 Journey to Antarctica Curriculum
This “cool” curriculum presents lessons that introduce Antarctica and help students understand the need to preserve this environment.
UNCLE PERCY'S ADVENTURES IN SPACE
This animated series from Arizona’s Lowell Observatory introduces students ages 4–8 to the wonders of the solar system. In each episode, students explore a space topic
EARTHGAUGE
Earth Gauge’s website for students in grades 5–8 presents facts, games, and activities to help them understand how weather influences the environment.
NATURAL INQUIRER SCIENTIST CARDS
These scientist cards highlight the men and women working at the USDA Forest Service.
SAVE THE SONGBIRDS
These classroom kits will help educate students about the plight of songbirds and inspire your classroom to create a songbird habitat in your schoolyard.
GET BACK OUTSIDE
his educational resource guide from the David Suzuki Foundation presents more than 20 lessonsand activities to inspire students to connect to nature.
NASA IMAGE GALLERY
Cool and copyright free.
YUCKY SCIENCE
The Yuckiest Site on the Internet, hosted by Discovery Kids, is ... well ... just plain yucky! With Wendell, a worm reporter, as their guide, students learn about “gross” body parts, explore the “dirty” world of worms and take a “slimy” quiz. If they want to get “messy,” the Yucky site will give them the opportunity!
FUTURE OF SCIENCE AND TECH
The Science Museum in London has launched Futurecade, an online suite of games that allows students to explore the impact of science and technology on their everyday lives. Futurecade’s four games—Bacto-Lab, Robo-Lobster, Cloud Control and Space Junker—are based on scientific research happening today. Use them as a stimulus to engage students in a fun, interactive way and get them thinking about how technology might impact their future. The games aren’t intended to teach the science; rather they’re designed to provoke questions around the science so that you can use them in the classroom to generate discussion. Download the free teacher briefing notes for lesson ideas and tips for using the games in the classroom. Also download the free background science notes to become familiar with the science portrayed in the games and help develop classroom discussions around the wider issues.
NOVA
PBS’s NOVA Education website houses a collection of NOVA resources for bringing science, technology and engineering to life in educational settings. This free digital library (tied to teaching standards) includes video, audio segments, interactives and much more. For example, in one interactive, students assemble a virtual DNA fingerprint and use it to identify the culprit in a hypothetical crime. In another interactive, they learn about properties of materials such as toughness, hardness, malleability and flexibility and then play a game to identify ten mystery materials using videos and clue cards. And in still another, they learn about eight of the latest solar technologies and then investigate how these technologies can provide environmentally friendly solutions.
CHALK TALK
Chalk Talk is an animated series of short videos that acts as a video glossary to define specific scientific terms or concepts in a fun, easy-to-understand way. In each episode, students learn what the science concept is, why researchers study it and how it might be applied. The content of each episode is appropriate for all age groups, although some concepts may be high school–level science.
CIRCUS PHYSICS
The Big Apple Circus’s jugglers, clowns and high-flying acrobats provide an entertaining and engaging way to introduce basic physics concepts to high school students. Circus Physics is a series of eight short videos, each of which feature footage from the PBS Circus series and interviews with the performers to illustrate the laws of physics at work. For deeper exploration, each video has a corresponding Study Guide for students and an Activity Guide for teachers, as well as raw video clips of performances that can be used for analysis in the classroom.
SCIENCE MAGAZINE VIDEO PORTAL
Science magazine’s VideoLab offers dozens of videos across a variety of topics in science. For example, one video shows baboons performing a reading experiment. Another video focuses on jumping spiders. And still another explains why the Sun’s outer atmosphere is much hotter than its surface. Each of the videos is connected to an article that students can read online, or you can print for classroom distribution.
PLANTING SEEDS OF LEARNING
Planting Science is a learning and research resource, bringing together students, plant scientists and teachers from across the nation. Students engage in hands-on plant investigations, working with peers and scientist mentors to build collaborations and to improve their understanding of science. The program is cost-free to schools and teachers.
SCIENCE 360
Keep up with news in science
THE WHY FILES
The Why Files is a resource designed for students to learn about the science of stories in the news. The Why Files doesn’t cover every news story; its focus is only the stories that have clear connections to science concepts. For example, one of the stories on the front page of The Why Files at the end of February was about wastewater. The story explains, in text and images, how, after being treated at a sewage plant, wastewater is increasingly used for irrigation, industrial purposes, restoring groundwater—and after further purification, for drinking! Most of the material on The Why Files is geared toward an elementary and middle school audience. The Teachers/Classroom section includes a collection of free classroom activities based on popular Why Files articles.
WOMEN IN SCIENCE
STEM Stories is a collection of short videos and personal stories that showcase women’s careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The site, aimed at girls in grades 4–8, challenges stereotypes about women in STEM and provides role models for young girls interested in pursuing a career in STEM. The site is based on work supported by the NSF National Science Digital Library program