Science ActivitiesScience Activities
Food and Science Lesson Plans
Chemistry Fun
Biology
Lessons from the University of Arizona
The Official String Theory Web Site (physics)
North
American Skies-(find out what is occurring in the sky)
The
Space Place
A tip on how to remember the living organism classification system-Kingdom Pylum Class Order Family Genus Species~ King Phillip Came Over For Really Great Spaghetti.
Grow bean plants in wet paper towels
instead of dirt so the students can see the bean changing and the roots forming. The
paper towel needs to stay moist. Too much water will cause them to mold. Keep
them in plastic baggies and staple them to a bulletin board.
Chris Gulotta
Tallahassee, FL
Arthropods: Spiders and
Scorpions
Materials: Internet access PowerPoint or HyperStudio software
Directions: This is an on-line webquest that contains all the resources
and activites needed for students to complete a HyperStudio or PowerPoint
presentation. Students just access the quest and follow the directions. A
Teacher and Student section is included. This webquest is located at http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/webcamp/final_projects/eastman/INDEX.HTM.
Enjoy! What child doesn't love spiders!
Janet
Eastman
Cocoa, Florida
Percentage of Water
Here's an activity that I use when we discuss the percentages of water and
land on the earth and when we discuss water content of the human body
and the foods we eat. I bring in a slice of bread, a carrot, an apple,
popped popcorn, a potato, celery, an orange and a banana. We make a
7-column chart to record our data. The column headings include food, estimated
and actual fresh weight, estimated and actual dried weight, difference
and percentage of water. We estimate, weigh, slice, dry and re-weigh
each food. Lastly, we graph the fresh and dried weights on a bar
or line graph and the students write a summary of their findings.
Golda Condron
Prineville, Oregon
"Ask an Astronomer for Kids" provides answers & photos for 200 questions about astronomy & objects in space. Topics include planets, stars, the solar system, comets, asteroids, galaxies, & the night sky. (NASA) http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/AskKids/
"Cool Cosmos" invites students into the world of infrared astronomy. Teachers & students may discover light outside the visible spectrum with these classroom activities, experiments, & lessons. The site provides ask-an-astronomer videos, an infrared astronomy timeline, & more. (NASA)< http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/
"Dropping in a Microgravity Environment" is an annual competition for teams of students to propose, design, & build a science experiment to be performed in a microgravity drop tower facility. Representatives from selected teams will attend an expenses-paid DIME Drop Days in April at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The website offers details about the competition, summaries of past competitions, & archived webcasts of team activities from previous competitions. Lesson ideas on microgravity are also provided. (NASA) http://microgravity.grc.nasa.gov/DIME.html
"Edison Invents" examines several of Edison's inventions -- the telegraph, telephone, phonograph, & electric light bulb. Students can learn about his life & how to create their own light bulb. (SI)< http://www.si.edu/lemelson/edison/
"ISS EarthKAM" offers thousands of images of Earth & guides for using them to support instruction in Earth science, space science, geography, social studies, math, & other subjects. Images can be searched by country or geographic feature (island, archipelago, peninsula, canyon, & others). Photos were taken by a digital camera mounted on the International Space Station (ISS) under the direction & control of students. (NASA) http://www.earthkam.ucsd.edu/index.shtml
"Learn About Chemicals Around Your House" answers questions about pesticides & toxic chemicals used around the house. It explains how to read labels & what to do in case of an accident. An online "home tour" invites students to identify pesticides & toxic substances in a typical kitchen, garage, laundry room, bathroom, & bedroom. (EPA) http://www.epa.gov/kidshometour/toxic.htm
"Online Science-athon" helps students discover the science in their daily lives. It is organized around four events: How Tall Am I? (grades 2-3), the Marble Roll (grades 4-8), Catching Sunshine, & the Chocolate Melt. The site makes it easy for teachers to incorporate the events into instruction, align learning with academic standards, & get students investigating their world in ways that are fun & instructive. Each event produces class data & includes questions for exploring student-generated data. (NSF) http://scithon.terc.edu/
"Polluted Runoff" provides lessons & activities for studying how runoff affects streams, how to analyze what's upstream & downstream from your community (watersheds), & how families can reduce "nonpoint source" pollution, which results from rainfall or snowmelt moving over & through the ground. (EPA) http://www.epa.gov/owow/nps/nps_edu/index.html
"Stories from Space" tells brief stories about the planets, tools used for exploring space, & "what's in space." Photos of planets, stars, telescopes, & space craft are included. (NASA)< http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_kids/stories_from_space/
"Study of Place" presents two online science units for middle-school students. Antarctic Exploration tells the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to Antarctica & how, when his ship became icebound & was crushed to pieces, he & his crew survived before being rescued two years after their journey began. Ocean Currents Exploration describes how Ben Franklin charted the Gulf Stream to help speed mail delivery from Europe to the U.S. (NSF) http://www.studyofplace.com/common/Home.cfm
"Visible Earth" is a searchable directory of images, visualizations, & animations of Earth. Topics include soils, clouds, storms, hurricanes, droughts, precipitation, vegetation, oceans, sea ice, human population, land use, erosion, fires, rocks, minerals, regions, & countries. (NASA)< http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/
First Flight Centennial
It's been described as the "12 seconds that changed the world."
The Wright Brothers forever changed human travel at Kitty Hawk, NC on December
17, 1903 with their heavier-than-air powered flight, which traveled 120 feet. We
celebrate 100 years of flight on December 17, 2003. This is the perfect time to
check out the International Technology in Education Association's (ITEA)
Innovation Curriculum Online Network (ICON).
http://icontechlit.enc.org/0,5252,,00.shtm
Find a resource by inputting your subject (aeronautics, airplane, glide, etc)
and your grade level and get back free lessons and activities for use in the
classroom.
Smithsonian Institution: Original Correspondence of Wright
Brothers
http://www.si.edu/archives/documents/wright.htm#documents
Maintained by the Smithsonian Institute are original documents written by
the Wright Brothers to officials at the Smithsonian Institution asking for
information to further their interest in flight. This page also has a link to
lesson plans on using Primary Source Documents in classes.
The Wilbur and Orville Wright Papers at the Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wrighthtml/wrighthome.html An amazing collection of Wright Brothers papers and photographs has been scanned for use in the classroom on this site. The brothers took many of the photographs as a scientific method of documenting their work.
NASA Quest: Centennial of Flight Aero Expo IV
http://questarc.nasa.gov/projects/aero/centennial/
Join NASA scientists for several web chats related to the centennial celebration
of Flight. On Wednesday, December 10, 2 one-hour webcasts will take place-"Look
back in time and relive the last 100 years of flight in this visit with the
Wright Brothers. Talk about the future of flight and what part you might play in
it." Join 300 students live from the NASA Ames Research Center Auditorium to
celebrate 100 years of manned powered flight. Wilbur and Orville made their
first flight on December 17, 1903. Read the transcript of a previous web chat
with members of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Educator's Flight Plan: US Centennial of Flight
Commission http://www.centennialofflight.gov/user/edu.htm
This site has separate parts for educators and children. After you check out the
educator's site, which has numerous links to help in planning a flight unit, go
to the "kids" site. There is information about women in flight and also many
short (3-7min.) video clips explaining the design and flying of the Wright
Brothers gliders. The explanation of the science behind flight and the
scientific process that the Brothers used in their experiments are illustrated
in the short clips. Each clip is accessible and has subtitles for hard of
hearing or deaf children.
Re-Living the Wright Way
http://wright.nasa.gov/
The Glenn Research Center maintains this site that has lesson plans, java
applets that help with simulations of the gliders' moves, and activities which
include how to build the Wright's 1902 glider. PowerPoint Presentations (some
made by students and some by NASA scientists) on a number of topics are
available for download and use in the classroom.
Aeronautics Kidspage
http://www.ueet.nasa.gov/StudentSite/
This website is designed to help children learn aeronautics. Lesson plans on the
history and propulsion of airplanes are provided.
Beginner's Guide to Aeronautics
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bga.html
Just how do airplanes fly? What keeps them in the air? All your questions will
be answered. All the background content knowledge needed to teach a unit or
lesson is here.
PlaneMath
http://www.planemath.com/
This interactive website connects mathematics to aeronautics. Each lesson
features a person with a disability that works in someway in the aeronautics
field.
