2009 Geospace Science Websites for Teachers



2009 Geospace Science Websites for Teachers

Scientific Method

Felisha



this website just has to songs for teaching the method, words and a link to listen to it

Amy



This website if more of a teacher resource, but it intrigued me. I thought the best way to describe it was to quote it "Scientific and engineering articles published by Elementary School students in I wonder (1992-2000). I Wonder: The Journal for Elementary School Scientists is published by the Heron Network (Madison, WI) to promote scientific discourse among elementary students. I Wonder is unique in providing a forum for elementary students that is analogous to print journals in the scientific community. Our analysis of articles published in I Wonder offers an overview of the journal as a tool for promoting authentic inquiry and an examination of scientific and engineering projects published by these students. This analysis of I Wonder articles provides an opportunity to see how students are responding to inquiry instruction. Science education reform efforts in the United States stress the need for students at all levels to conduct and report scientific inquiry (AAAS, 1993; NRC, 1996). Typically, this reporting takes the form of a student or small group of students explaining their inquiry project in front of their classmates or writing a lab report for their teachers. There are few mechanisms for students to communicate their investigations of science beyond the walls of their classrooms. "

Rachelle



This site is a great tool for teachers to utilize when presenting the scientific method to their class. For teachers, this site provides lesson plans that can be used to teach the scientific method to students in grades three through twelve. These lesson plans are well developed and are an excellent tool available to teachers. For students, the site has activities and puzzles that aid in their development of what the scientific method is. Students can use these puzzles to facilitate memorization of key terms pertinent to understanding the scientific method. The site also has videos that can aid in a better overall understanding of the scientific method and that could be utilized as a tool to wrap up a lesson on the scientific method.

Felisha



this is a website aimed at teachers. it helps teachers walk through how to get a student to find a question they are interested in looking at. This website is based mostly on question and how to create them.

Yvonne N



Great site from Cornell University. The curriculum is geared towards middle/high school, but can easily be adapted to upper grade school - especially the “ginger bread house design competition”. I think the environmental inquiry site can also be simplified - there is no reason why elementary school kids cannot be involved in real scientific research.

Lorene



This web page gives a nice breakdown of each step of the Scientific Inquiry. This site then gives a detailed help with each step. This is a great guide for the student that is doing an experiment. This web page is designed for students putting together science fair projects and is loaded with information on what type of science questions are asked.



This site is a great tool for teachers to utilize when presenting the scientific method to their class. For teachers, this site provides lesson plans that can be used to teach the scientific method to students in grades three through twelve. These lesson plans are well developed and are an excellent tool available to teachers. For students, the site has activities and puzzles that aid in their development of what the scientific method is. Students can use these puzzles to facilitate memorization of key terms pertinent to understanding the scientific method. The site also has videos that can aid in a better overall understanding of the scientific method and that could be utilized as a tool to wrap up a lesson on the scientific method.

Leigh



this is a good intro to the scientific method. easy to grasp - with a quiz at the end of lesson.

Amanda Tollefsen



This website offers Elementary teachers a song that they can teach to their students about the scientific method. This would be a great song for younger children to learn even though there are a lot of words. Younger students are really good at relating a song to something they learned, so they can always think back to the song to remember what the scientific method is.

Yolanda



This site has lots of information for teachers including videos, lesson plans and activities they feature one new topic every week. You can access the OPB program as well.

Chris



So, lets see, I found a site that gives a bunch of examples of the scientific method, I think it would be a great resource for a teacher, not because you're going to use it in your classroom as it is, but because it has info that you could use to build lesson plans around. Good stuff.

Melissa



This sight is a learning outreach project of NC State University. The provide activities, training and materials for teachers. They have six sights located in North Carolina but they offer conferences and workshops to all teachers across the US. Their website offers a link to Inquiry Activities. If you click on this link, you will get a list of types of activities and what grade level they are appropriate for. There are activities for elementary level that are inquiry based. Also, this sight has many useful links to other science activity sights.

Katy



This website gives elementary teachers a lot of useful information revolving around scientific inquiry and the inquiry process as a whole. Not only does it contain links to numerous scientific activities and lesson plans, but it also goes into great detail on the steps a teacher must take when working through the inquiry process with students. It gives insight on how to raise questions, what kinds of questions to ask and how to reflect with students.

Jamie



I chose this website because, even though it is not as interactive as other sites, it still allows the students viewing it to quiz themselves on the knowledge they have learned through out reading the information given with in the website. It relates the steps necessary to read the entire article as a tour and makes the children believe they are taking a tour through the website rather than reading a boring article. It is easy to follow and understand. I like how it is simple yet very informative.

Clarice



This site doesn't really teach Scientific Method, but it offers materials to help teach it. In addition to printable handouts of word searches and crosswords on the terms of scientific method it has a poem and a rap. If anything, this page is worth it for the rap. Kids love songs and poems that help them learn. I still remember ones from when I was a kid.

Courtney



I found this website to be very interesting because it really helps you understand and set-up the dynamics of a science fair for your students. The website gives details and schedules on how to set-up and design a successful science fair, which I believe a science fair should definitely be a part of an elementary science curriculum. I looked through the links to the ways to introduce the idea of a science fair and on how to get each student involved and they really seemed to be consistent and appropriate for an educator. I also like how when I searched for websites on the scientific method and inquiry, this website states that a science fair is a great way to get elementary students thinking on that level.

Max



Anova Science Education is a K-12 inquiry-based learning program focused on the RIP (Research Investigation Process, that is.) They offer a book that promises to help educators"motivate young minds to think and learn through scientific inquiry." Their website provides free science lessons teaching the scientific method in a hands on way.

Amy



This is a terrific, kid friendly website that explains what the scientific method is in a simple, straightforward format. It begins with "Learning about the scientific method is almost like saying that you are learning how to learn. You see, the scientific method is the way scientists learn and study the world around them." It goes on from there, explaining that just about everything starts with a question. Then, "Scientists have a huge urge to answer questions and discover new things." You must always offer evidence to support your statements is given as a necessary rule to heed. ~ Fun, informative website that explains the scientific method well.

Yvonne K



This website does a nice job in giving a framework to introducing scientific inquiry. It also has a section on the scientific method and data collection. The website host is the Southwest Center for Education and The Natural Environment and is geared towards inquiry into ecology. It has a wonderful glossary that helps teachers and students alike in understanding the terminology used by scientists.

Yvonne K



This website is hosted by the National Institutes of Health. It is a teacher's guide to understand the process of Scientific Inquiry. It helps teachers understand some of the misconceptions that occur with scientific inquiry. It has an interesting section regarding hand-on activities and the difference between students engaged for the fun and those engaged in the learning process. A very illuminating article.

Natalie



I found this website on the Scientific method to be great. This would be an excellent resource not only for teachers, but for kids learning about the method. And the information he has on there, worksheets etc. are all free so even better. They had some great ideas for activities to do. So, as a teacher you could come to this site and get some ideas on how to teach and incorporate fun ideas to the classroom as well. Also plain and simple they have what the scientific method is, teachers could come to this site and explain in easy terms what it is all about. Lastly, as a teacher it would be good to know where the scientific method all started. This website also has a section of the history of the method and I think that would also be great to teach the kids. So they know why they are learning it and why it is important!

Jedidah



This website looks like a great resource for ideas about science fair stuff, which can solidify the Scientific Method into kids' minds. This has information about how to do science fair projects, and also stuff for the teachers, like scoring rubrics, and a cool poster that you can download about the Scientific Method.

Felisha



Scientific method rap



the website says that its for middle-high school but i think it can be edited for elementary school children. its an experiment with M&M's most of the websites i found are just experiments using the scientific method

Kristen



I chose this site because it would be great for any student needing to do a science project. It clearly lays out all the steps of the scientific process as well as given so many awesome science experiment ideas. I so could have used a site like this when I was in 5th grade.

Clair



this is the site for scientific method specifically

Change, Scale, Space, Time, and Mathematics

Barb



Nice website for students (and teachers) interested in powers of 10. Click on the next power and see the new scale.

Courtney



This website is great! It has great resources for teachers and students. The video on the homepage is a great example of the Powers of Ten and would be great for the students to see to get the concept of the Powers of Ten. I thought that the section that has lots of activities for students to participate in and also can be a great tool for teachers to use in getting inspiration for curriculum and activities. The Optics timeline is a great tool for teachers and students to gain a better and more organized understanding of the history of optics and how the Powers of Ten came to be.

Yvonne N.



Description: I found a cool website about math (literally). Since math is an integral part of science, I think this website is very appropriate for any science class. This site offers online games and activities, as well as ideas for math games teachers can do with students without using computers. I like the penny triangle game that helps kids to sharpen their spatial skills. Many science concepts can only be understood with a background in certain math principles.

Astronomy

Melissa



This is a section of the ARES is all about astromaterials. There are lesson plans, activities and other resources. Click on the “Rocks from Space” link and you will get a pdf with information about obtaining meteorite samples for classroom use. I went looking for a way to get samples to use in a classroom after doing my presentation on asteroids. My activity about identifying was fun but difficult to identify characteristics from a computer screen. NASA allows teachers to borrow meteorite samples for use in the classroom. You have to contact your “local” NASA center which for Oregon is in California. I also learned that you can contact this California center and even request an astronaut to visit your classroom! How neat!

Leigh



this site is really accessible- nothing over the top. Just the facts.

Amy



I love this website. It's fairly "simple," looks like it's geared towards elementary ages, but it's got great information given in an easy to read and understand format. It even has a "Teacher's corner" - with a lot of great resources, free work sheets (that are really good,) games, and free astronomy wallpaper. Some of the items you can click on and go to are Solar System, Deep Space, Space Exploration, How big is Space? Observation, Why teach Astronomy? etc. There is a section on The Asteroid Belt, Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud, with a moving picture/video of an asteroid flying through space. A quote on this site that I love is "If a teacher can get a student to daydream about the material being taught they are a successful teacher."

Lisa



This spin off from the NASA website has got a lot of cool information that can be used in an elementary classroom. It has hands on activities the kids can do, it has information for the teacher, and it has online activities that the kids can do when they get computer time. The whole site can be read/seen in Spanish, too!

Kim



Yet another great website for astronomy. This website offers tons of other website for students and teachers to use that are all about astronomy. Alot of the websites give teachers hints and ideas of how to teach a lesson to your students, or cool projects to do. The website has info on all of astronomy or you could narrow your lesson down to one planet what ever you'd like.

Yvonne K

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I really like the website Kids Astronomy for an interactive site for kids and teachers alike. There are nice resources available for teachers, but the best parts are the games that kids can play to test their knowledge about astronomy and to reinforce the materials on the website. There is even a section on space jokes!The layout is kinda simple and a little awkward, but the material is helpful.

Libby



This is an excellent website for teachers and students. It is comprehensive with interactive tools, lesson plans, and easy-to-understand factual information.The interactive tools are fun and interesting for all ages, and cover a wide range of topics including black holes, galaxies, comets and asteroids, light and color spectrum, gravity, space history, and math explorations in statistics and sampling. The tools and information is organized in various ways to make it easy to find something specific or just browse. It also includes a lovely selection of Hubble telescope pictures, and activities for understanding how the telescope works. Amazing Space is a very friendly and useful website.

Amanda Tollefsen



This website contain ten different science activities that are designed to do at home with your family. They are simple and fun, and everyone is able to get involved. These would also be able to be used in the classroom as fun inquiry activities. There is one about the sun that you build a structure that measures the movement of the sun.

Katy



This website offers elementary teachers a wide variety of space and astronomy lesson plans. For example, if ever doing a lesson on stars, a 4th or 5th grade teacher might click on the "A Star is Born" link and find a fabulous activitywhich involves student's researching a star and then creating a poster on that star; a poster which would include pictures and information about the star's earlier and later stages of development.

Chris



You asked for WONDERFUL and i'm not sure if this one counts. It has a crap ton of google ads but lots of cool flash animation, I specifically liked the animation of the solar system here:



the size and scale are not perfect, and everything moves at the same speed around the sun, so, yeah, it isn't perfect, but it is a cool way to look at it. There are some games, and it is a busy site, I could see kids enjoying it.

Jamie



I chose this website because it not only teaches students about space and its different galaxies, but it keeps the kids updated on specific events that have and still are taking place in space. I think it’s incredibly informative and I like that it includes a missions calender, so that way the students can see when the next mission will take place. The website isn’t too hands-on in regards to games, but it is very color and each page definitely catches the eye. I like how it covers a whole range of astronomy topics but does so in regards to NASA in specific.

Rachelle



This site is a great tool for both teachers and students. For students there are numerous categories to explore including: Space shuttles, the planet Mars, future space ships, and telescopes. The site also has a gallery available to students with numerous pictures to aid in their understanding of various astronomical concepts. (PS they're cool for teachers too) The photos available are divided in grids that allow you to zoom in and focus on a particular aspect of that photo. There are also a number of different activities available for younger students such as coloring, puzzles, jokes and experiments. The site also has very cool movies available such as First Man on the Moon and Space Shuttle Launch, among many others. For teachers, the site offers worksheets, contests available for students and a learning center. The learning center has activities and assignments available for teachers to aid in the development of the lesson plans utilized to teach astronomy.

Courtney



This website provides many lesson plans and ideas for teachers in presenting and discussing the Electromagnetc Spectrum. It is sponsered my NASA and the Goddard Space Flight Center so it seemed to have good and reliable information. I really like the short to long wavelength frequency that is shown on the homepage and I think that it could be very beneficial for students to see when learning about the spectrum to be able to visualize the wavelengths.

Meriba Asencio



This is a great websites if you want to do projects or reports as a class on astronomers. This website also has information on other topics in science and on other subject areas. It’s great for teaches because it gives you a quick reference and can be used to jumpstart an idea for a lesson.

Meriba Asencio



This website is great because it breaks down topics in astronomy by asking questions. Following the questions is great descriptions with videos and pictures that help you see the ideas and concepts more clearly.

Natalie



I thought this was a great website for kids to explore the world of astronomy. Kids can explore the different topics on the solar system, deep space, space exploration, how big the universe is and space travel. Great topics that really hit kids interests. This website really appeals to kids and their exploration. On this website I thought it was great how they had an astronomy dictionary. They can go to this part and words or terms they don?t understand or want to learn more about, they can do just that. I thought that was great. Teachers would be able to do different lessons based off the terms from this dictionary as well as the different topics that I listed early. They also have great astronomy games that teachers could play with the kids or give as homework for fun!

Courtney



I loved this website!!!! It has tons of information and resources for teachers and students. My favorite (which is the direct link above) is the interactive universe section (I spent almost 20 minutes looking on this part). It allows you to see pictures of each of the different planets, galaxies, comets and the sun in our universe and read many different facts about it, and the music is wonderful. Very cool! I recommend everyone to check it out!

Courtney



This website is great for showing the Doppler Effect in many different ways. It allows for interaction with the suimulation by decreasing or increasing the speed and change to be linear, circuluar or to bounce. It also allows for interaction in the fusion in the sun and the Big Bang and other cool simulations.

Nafisa



This is a website which I often go to to get a brief information about a certain topic such as Astronomy. They have a few specific questions and answers where anyone with the same questions can find the answers there. There isn't a lot of information on it, but they have interesting photographs and little animations and sometimes there would be a sound clip for the topic. I would recommend this website for other elementary teachers as this website is very child friendly.

Felisha



This is a site where you get to explore mars.this web site/ exploration is completely controlled by the student. when the student places their mouse over an object on the web siteit will explain it. EXP. if the mouse is over the dirt it describes the composition.

Kristen



This site is great because it offers interactive visual demonstrations such as sunrises and sunsets, great information and pictures on topics such as constellations and the relative size of the planets, as well as some great lesson plans to accompany the information.

Yvonne K.



One of my favorite websites for the week is the CARE website. It is a resource website for integrating arts into other subjects lessons. The following link is for a lesson plan integrating the spectrum of light with drawing. I think it is important to integrate subjects as much as possible, both as a way to connect students with subjects that might intimidate them and to help create ways to apply knowledge in one area to another. This sounded like a fun lesson.

Yolanda



Quick lesson plan on spheres of the Earth. There is background information on all the subject areas and you have access to lesson plans, scroll down and click on Science Sample Lessons. Then on Lesson 2: Spheres of the Earth

Daphne



This is the website for that short video I showed in my power point. They have lots of great lessons and tools for teaching younger students about space!!

Yvonne N



Description: This is a wonderful site. It is packed with curriculum, activities teacher resources, photos, and more. Everything can be downloaded for FREE! Even though this site is geared to middle/high school, most activities can be adapted for the elementary kidlets.

Jamie



I specifically chose the website – “Astronomy for kids Online” because I found it very informative and easy to navigate. I like how there are different topics that you can click on and that it covers a wide range of space related topics, including – constellations, galaxies, black holes, and even telescopes. I found it incredibly easy to understand. I also enjoy how the side column had a link to “astronomy gift ideas”. The website isn’t the most creative in regards to color themes or pictures, but I like how each topic you click on is not only informative, but hands on as well. I think applying the topic to every day life really helps in teaching students new ideas.

Clair



The Space Place is a great, NASA based site that has games, animation, facts, and projects dealing with space and related subjects. The site is geared toward kids so it is well organized and user friendly. The part of the site that is coolest for teachers are the "projects" and "cool subjects" portions. "Projects" has many hands on activities that illustrate scientific ideas related to space. Most of these projects can easily be done in the classroom. The "Cool subjects" portion is similar to projects in that it has many activities. The difference is that they are organized by subject and have some facts listed with the activity. The site also has a page where kids can get in touch with their local science communities and find ways to get engaged. Space Place is available in English and Spanish.

Jedidah



This site has several lesson plan ideas and worksheets. I thought this was a helpful website because of the lesson plan ideas and worksheets that a teacher can adapt to use in their classroom.

Daphne



This is another great site for teachers and students that is teaches about our Solar System and space. It has puzzles, games, lesson plans and great information about a lot of subjects. !!!

Max



The Bad Astronomy Blog is an awesome resource for breaking news in the world of astronomy. This website is the "go to" place to find out about upcoming eclipses and meteor showers. It is also the first to report on new astronomy developments, pictures and news. The name "Bad" Astronomy probably refers to the to the blog's audience and creator as being armchair astronomers. This is to say that they are less of a scholarly journal and more of a casual/accessible resource. It appeals to a wide range of reader, and if a story isn't fascinating/ understandable to the public, it probably won't be included. This is exactly what students need: passion, amazement and something that grabs their curiosity/imagination. Here are a couple examples of rad stories I found on the website:

• A perfectly timed photo show something hidden in front of the sun:

• 10 Things You Don't Know About the Sun:

Lorene



This page is set up to be appealing to elementary age children. This page has the solar system in movement. Each planet can be selected and a page full of information will come up. There are songs that can be selected. Under observation you can find a map of the constellations. There is also a game on finding constellations in the sky.

Earth/Moon

Courtney



This website is sponsored by the United States National Park Service and discusses the Crater of the Moon site located in Arco, ID. I think that this would be interesting for students because it can give them a chance to look at a crater and see the national park and feel a close connection to it since it is only a few states away. An activity that would be fun would be to have the students read over the website and create an itinerary of a field trip if they were to go there as a class. This would help the students focus on the important details of learning about a crater and express what they would be interested in seeing and viewing. This activity would also be great for future teachers to complete for planning ideas and practice.

Lorene



Google moon has many different views, mapping, and information about the moon. A person can move about the moon and can zoom in or out to get a better view of the different craters. Google map also has astronauts that when clicked on them information of the name of the mission, date launched, date landed on the moon, landing sight, date returned to Earth and more. There is a choice to look at a map of the moon that gives the different elevation of the landscaping. There are charts that give information. Anyone can now visit the moon.

Climate

Yolanda

Climate website

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This website provides cool short video clips of extreme weather. The main site follows feel free to browse it is good.

Kim



This site offers a lot of information about how certain things are affecting our climate. It talks about global warming, melting ice caps, changes in our climate, and how climate change is effecting living things such as plants and animals. Another interesting article I found was about what we eat and how if is effecting our climate. This site offers interesting fact and good detail. Teachers could use this information to create a lesson plan, or to just get greater knowledge of climate and incorporate it into a lesson they already have.This site also offers a lot of other science related information and links.

Katy



This website is great for elementary educators because it serves as a wonderful resource to children who are having difficulty understanding climate change. On the web page you will find a test that can be used to test students climate change knowledge (which could be used as a pre-test in the classroom), and a climate change word search and crossword puzzle (which both would be great to assign as homework at the end of a climate change lesson).

Clarice



This a very informational page on climate and weather directed at younger students. It covers many terms such as climate, weather, greenhouse, and global warming. It includes an approach that many other sites overlook- weather history. It explains how we can read the weather from the past and other ways of determining the weather. This site includes a variety of ways how we can help the climate, games and testing of knowledge, and other helpful links.

Felisha



this web site has lots of games like recycling and clean-up, an web postying where children can talk to other children about global warming and what they are doing to help reduce reuse and recycle. it reaches all over Japan, UKit is alsoin multiple languages. it has interactive sites, a page listing good books to use. other students stories about what they did to help with the reduction of global warming.

Lisa



This website has a plethora of information on climate! If you go to the tab, Resources, which can be found on the top of the homepage, and then click on, Educational Links, it provides links that students and teachers can use. Under, Sites for Kids, there is a link to an online magazine called, EEK! – Environmental Education for Kids! While this link isn’t necessarily about climate, the online magazine looks so cool!

Yolanda



Here you can find lots of fun- facts- to- know- and tell. Kids usually love small facts they can remember and be able to tell others. These facts may be appropriate for 4th graders and up.

Natalie



This is a great website on climate for kids and teachers. Teachers could use this website as a guide on how you want your lesson on climate to go. Some important concepts this website explains is: what climate is, greenhouse effect, how and why climate changes. As a teacher you could really use this site for many ideas on how to teach about climate. For starters there is a link that talks about what you can do to help global warming so kids can get involved and you can teach how kids could get involved in a productive way.

Leigh



This is the EPA site for kids- covering climate/weather and global warming/climate change. Covers climate history- has links and games too.

Jamie Stephenson



Out of all the websites I have searched so far, this website is by far my favorite. It is the most hands-on and is jam-packed with tons of easy to understand information on climate. The kids are able to do the reading and then quiz themselves on the knowledge they have learned, through playing a number of different games available through the website. The kids can test their knowledge through playing games such as: hangman, crossword puzzles, checkers, and word search. Not all of the games test the students’ knowledge, but I like how the website incorporated fun activities to keep the kids on the page, rather than switching to a different website. The entire website is very colorful and fun to read. I liked it a lot! (

Clair



The EPA kids club is a cool site for kids to explore different asspects of our environment including; animals and insects, air, water, plants, and climate. Each of these environmental pieces has a link where kids can go to learn the who, what, when, where, and why of that piece.There is also a science and a game room. The part of the site for teachers is, which is its own link under the kid section. Here teachers can find great information to use when teaching as well as fun science activities having to do with the environment, including climate. The site also has an area dedicated to available grants for environmental education.

Meriba Asencio



This is a neat interactive website for studnets, parents and teachers. It has great games that can reinforce the learning and concepts of lessons. It also covers many areas not just climate. It is diverse enough to use with kindergarten through sixth grade.

Chris



Specifically climate change. I really enjoyed this site, it is the kids page from the EPA and it does a great job of teaching lessons, then providing little tests. It was pretty fun. My only gripe with the site is that it is framed by a white girl teaching a non-white boy all the important things in life. But at least it wasn't a white boy with all the knowledge.

Meriba Asencio



This is a great website to use for biomes for teachers. It can help to focus your lesson planes on certain biomes and the animals that live in that biome. The website also has really detailed description of the biomes and it gives great pictures to help you connect the biome names with the biome area.

Natalie



I found this great website for kids when they want to learn more about the climate and what climate is. This website is very kid oriented. It talks about what climate is, what it does, how it is changing, global warning ect. For teachers, I think it would help to get some ideas off of here on how to teach climate to your kids. For instance, what is climate? link has it set up in comics geared towards kids so they can understand what climate is in there terms. This would in how you would present this lesson while making it fun. Has great pictures and illustrations as well which would be great to bring in the classroom. Overall, this is a great tool for teachers to use because it has multiple tools you can use in your classroom to teach on climate.

Kristen



This site is great for teaching kids about climate change because it has simple descriptions of complex ideas such as the greenhouse effect and barometric pressure. I loved the animation and easy-to-understand visual demonstrations, as well as fun, interactive games teaching kids how they can reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

Nafisa



This is a website substituting for the previous one since both for the first and the second websites are the same. It is so child friendly and fun. There are games and activities that the child can play with and learning and assessing the information that they have learnt. There are different questions on the left hand side of the navigation which the child can click on to get to the answer. The children will learn about Climate and Weather in depth and it's easy navigation website.

Rachelle



This site is a really interesting and fun tool that discusses our ozone and how it is developed. It also explores the consequences of depleting the ozone with pollutants and the negative health consequences that we may encounter as a result of both ozone depletion and inhaling polluted air. The site has simulations that allow you to build your own ozone, control the size of a city and observe the buildup of CO in that city as it grows, and watch the effects of pollution on our lungs. There are also lesson plan and experiment ideas that teachers can use in their classroom andideas that students can use to better their environment.

Yvonne K

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The website I liked for climate was the EPA's website on climate change designed for kids. It also has a link for teachers and administrators resources. But of course the kids page is way cooler! It could be used in the classroom as a presentation to work through and it also has games to test knowledge. It puts climate into a context of empowerment for kids to make a difference in their community.

Natalie



This was another great resource for elementary teachers. This is not only a fun website to look around and learn from but you can use many of the ideas and information in your classroom. If I was teaching a lesson on Hurricanes this website would give me great ideas on teaching this topic. I used this website for my lesson plan on climate. Not only would be this be great for teachers but kids would love this site as well I think because it is interactive and easy to understand with lots of pictures. I will defiantly be using this website in my career.

Oceans

Yvonne N.

Topic: Oceans - Marine Mammals

Website:

Description: I really like this site. It has great curriculum, as well as information to help the teacher prepare to teach the students about marine mammals. I especially like the blubber vs. buoyancy curriculum. This inquiry based curriculum helps kids to discover how a whale’s flesh, blubber, and bones assist the whale in having buoyancy.

Leigh



This is a journal of Geophysical Research - this lesson focusing on oceans.

Amy



The Franklin Institute produces this website, called "Undersea and Oversee" This website is a really fantastic resource. It begins by defining and telling about what oceans are, and what they do. It chronicles a class in Pennsylvania that accepted the challenge to oversee the ocean. It offers web resources and answers questions (in detail) like Why is the Ocean Salty? Here is a really interesting fact that I learned when I clicked on Why is the Ocean Salty? "If the salt in the sea could be removed and spread evenly over the Earth's land surface it would form a layer more than 500 feet thick, about the height of a 40-story office building." There is a big section on seaweed that tells you more than you probably ever wanted to know about all different kinds and types of seaweed. Good resource!

Kim



This website suck because it sends you to link after link to finally get something oyu want, but once you do its pretty fun. When teaching about the oceans you have multiple options. I never even realized how many cool things there are to teach about the ocean. This site give you lots of info on just about any kind of ocean teaching you want to do. They even give lesson plans that are cool and great.

Katy



This website acts as a great resource to elementary teachers when looking for ways to introduce the topic of the ocean to students. Not only does it provide great online lesson plans and activities (I found one involving the exploration of oil seeps - which was very cool!) but it also provides access to information regarding what should be considered "best practices" in ocean education.

Felisha



This web sitehas multiple art ideas, interactive links, photography and experiments. it is broken down in to sharks/whale/dolphin, fish and other creatures, general oceans, and ocean pollution

Amanda



This website contains little activities and information pages with cute little pictures. Sometimes you have to really look for the activities but I think the information and pictures make up for it. Not really inquiry based activities either but its a good reference page. (oceans)

Libby



This is a wonderful resource for teachers to find lesson plans on the ocean and climate. The page has been organized by topic: Climate, Oceans, and Life, with subtopics like Systems and Interactions, Human Interactions, Process and Change, Energy, and others. It is an excellent comprehensive overviewwith dozens of lesson plansrelating to climate, oceans, and several other related topics. Each topic has a practical lesson plan that could be easily put together and used in the classroom. This is a great collection of lesson plans that can be utilized in the classroom. There are a lot of wonderful ideas here.

Lorene



has great videos that can be watched. There are many different articles listed teaching about many different things that have to do with the ocean. Checking out the photo gallery is a great way to explore the ocean.

Lorene



This page is put together by Museum of Science located in Boston, MA. There are great pages that give simple information about the oceans that young learners could understand. There is a page that can be copied and cut into cards teaching about Predator and Prey ( ).

Planet Earth/Geology

Courtney



This website is really cool because it has an interactive map of the world where all different craters are located. Each little balloon indicates a crater site, gives the name of the place, the diameter of the crater and allows you to click on it and zoom in to see the crater. I think this would be a fun activity for students to research craters and write facts about each one.

Jamie



I especially enjoyed this website not only because of its easy to navigate homepage, but because it is teacher friendly as well. The website offers a variety of games in which the students can play to learn more about the ecosystem. It is definitely, among all websites i have found as of yet, my favorite - by far! Very fun and easy to follow.

Jamie



Awesome website!!!!!!! I found the games offered through out the site to be very informative, where as a lot of the other websites I found on this topic to be irrelevant and unnecessary. It is extremely easy to navigate and fun to use.

Katy



This website is great for elementary educators because it offers a variety of lesson plans revolving around geology (a subject that is VERY exciting to children). For example, I found a very cool lesson plan on this website where the students actually create their very own paper model of a Cirque and glacial valley (which is very cool because it gives students a chance to see the effects of glacial melting without seeing their models melt before their very eyes!)

Clarice



This site is very helpful for teachersin the area of fossils. It includes free downloadable materials, coloring pages, puzzles, and LESSON PLANS!!! It covers a lot of material from what fossils are to how they are formed to specific types. It even includes the clock of eras

Amy



I don't know if this is the kind of website that you had in mind, but it's "different" and I like it. :) (Probably also because I'm a book lover) It's a website that features books on different topics, and this one's topic is geology. (Looks like this is something you can subscribe to for $12.00) Some of the books featured on this website are: "Everybody needs a Rock," "Earthquakes," and "The Mud Flat Olympics." The thing that really caught my eye on this website was the second paragraph: "As with any theme, it's important to allow the kids as many choices as possible as often as possible. We want committed learners here actively pursuing information. Whenever a subtopic or subject is broached that interests someone, encourage him or her to go with it, taking it in directions that are of personal interest. Keep your own mind on the goal - you're not trying to make geologists of them all. You're exposing them to some general knowledge and showing them how to find further information, organize what they have learned and figure out an interesting way to present it to others." It sounds like what we are learning to do, in this class, to me. ! At the bottom of the page is a list "Related Areas on the Internet" of 8 good "geology" links. I think this website is a good teacher resource.

Courtney



I found this website while searching for different rock activities and thought that it was very cool and had a lot of great information for educators who are faced with the problem of just getting a pile of rocks.

Lorene



This web page leads to many different pages that explain different parts of Geology. This covers the different layers that make up the Earth. The site explains the different classifications of rocks. The web page covers the different land forms. There is a page that describes geological time. All the terms are simple for young readers to understand.

Yvonne N



This site is the “mother-load” geology site. It has links to a myriad of other geology sites. Each link is preceded by a brief description and which grade it is geared toward. Caves, rocks, tectonic plates, volcanoes, mountains, soils, and much more are all covered. There are even sections with links for teacher curriculum and activities for kids.

Natalie



well I loved this geology website! Again its great for kids and teachers. Kids because its a very interactive website that gets kids excited about geology. And teachers because there are many ideas/activities that you could do with your class. For instance, there is a rock cycle game that you could play as a class! That is also very informative. I loved the section earth inside out. So much to learn there. This website would be a great introductory because it has so much great information on many different topics. Also my favorite part, they had songs on there! Which is so fun because you can play these songs with your kids, have them learn them while at the same time they are learning!

Yolanda



in this website you’ll find pictures, games, and videos of the different volcanoes including the ring of fire. A good resource for teachers.

Leigh



this is the official kids portal to the U.S. government. The site has a huge list of links to great geology sites- like- this link to the Smithsonian- on the Dynamic Earth (covers it all):

Kristen



I love this websites as it provides rich, descriptive information on a variety of climate subjects, such as the biosphere, atmosphere, and cycles. In addition, it has wonderful activities for kids, such as quizzes, panoramas, live cameras from around the world and cool wallpapers.

Rachelle



This site is an amazing educational tool for teachers and students alike. The site has an array of information ranging from the definition of a fossil to geological time. The site also provides teachers with lesson plans for young students and activities that students can complete to reinforce the lesson presented during class. To help engage students, the site also provides numerous fun facts about fossils and fossil coloring pages.

Yolanda



This website contains really cool pictures and information for teachers who want know and teach about the big flood, scablands, and other geological interesting things. “The Devil's Postpile. The Old Man of the Mountain. These and other geological formations look so astounding that simple, more scientific names just won't do. Yet many of the world's most unique and awe-inspiring wonders were forged by common geological processes. In this quiz, test your hunches about the earthly forces that made eight supernatural-looking structures.”—Susan K. Lewis

Amanda Tollefsen



This website is a game that if you had enough computers for everyone in the classroom every class should play it. It helps students learn how to characterize rocks and what types of things they should look at when trying to figure out what kind of rock it is. It is only 10 questions long and once you answer those questions it goes on to the next section with information and diagrams.

Chris



Great site! MiniMeGeology! essentially, it is a store where you can buy rocks and rock sets, magnifying glasses and scratch sheets to test your rocks but they also have a fun little blog which is how I found em, ask a Geologist, its pretty neat. The blog answers lots of interesting geology questions and is very informative. There is a section of printable worksheets, wordfinds and all that. lots of cool info

Katy



This website could act as a great resource for elementary school teachers when looking for classroom activities and lesson plans revolving around the topic of plate tectonics and other popular earth science topics. One of my favorite lesson plans on this site is titled "Towel Geology" where students are introduced to a wide range of geologic principles and processes through a demonstration using four towels.

Jamie



I like this website because it not only addresses the topic at hand but also give the kids options to click into different pages covering different topics of science. The website is very colorful. Once clicking into the dinosaur website several options come up, one being the option to play dino games. It’s very interactive and visual draws the reader in. I would definitely recommend this website.

Clair



Essentials of Geology: an introduction to planet Earth is a great website for teachers and students. The site is set up in "chapters" ranging in topics from "The Earth In Context", which looks at Earth related to the rest of the Universe, to "Global change In the Earth's System". The site is an online version of a book, but can be oredered to be read on the computer. Parts of the website do not have to be ordered including games and quizzes and animations of concepts from each chapter.

Courtney



This website immediately caught my attention! It seems very kid friendly and has a lot of activites and information that is geared toward an upper elementary level for students. You can choose different sicence categories to explore but the Earth section is wonderful! It gives kids activities, experiements, interviews, main concpets, games, quizzes and even how to make your own rock candy! It would be fairly easy for an elementary students to navigate and I could see students spending time on this website easily!

Amy



This website's front "page" has a Geologic Features and Processes Gallery, where you can view a long list of geologic processes such as Alluvium, Anticline, Basalt Columns, Black Sand, or Drag Fold and it gives you a definition of what it is. When you click on a item it takes you to another page where it explains the process or feature in great detail, and also gives you one or two pictures to look at. There are more things to click on and read about at the bottom of these pages, such as Fossils, Glaciers and Ice, Landforms, Minerals, Rocks, etc. This is a great resource - lots of information.

Max



Not only does this website document "geologic processes at work in California", it provides elementary history and science lessons pertaining to the state. Browsing this site shows us how local geology can be the most relevant and best approach. Students can relate better to concepts that are happening in their back yards, and I encourage all teachers to look explore local geology before global.

Lisa



I stumbled across this website when looking for geology songs to play during my lesson plan. It has a free, online MP3 player that has more than just geology songs. Yes, they are a little cheesy, but for students who like music, it’s another way to learn about the subject. I actually think the songs are great! It also has links to other Science things, not just music.

Jedidah



I am assuming you have seen this site before, but if not, this is a great site that has stuff for teachers all about geology. It even has stuff about Minerals in Sports, which would totally interest kids! Also, you know you can really trust the info on this site, since it is from the USGS

Yvonne

Website:

This website has 3 sections: The ABC book was written by children for other children to learn about earthquakes. Although, I do think that all ages, including adults, can learn from this book. It is packed with great information. I’m sure that the children who wrote the book learned the most! A hard bound copy of the book can be purchased online for $10. The link for Parents also goes through the alphabet with information about earthquakes - what causes them, how to be prepared, what to do after, etc. The link for Teachers instructs teachers how to use this book in the classroom as well as ideas for other curriculum that could branch off of this.

Kristen



I chose this site because it provided kids with new, up to date, information of what is going on in the world of geology - with news articles, satellites images, maps, etc. Awesome for that kids that get really into it and what to know more about what's going on in the world.

Felisha



This has online activities, offline activities, resources for teaching about the different types of rocks, rock songs, just a resouce with a compilation of multiple materials, different types of rocks, research and information sites, lesson plan sites,

Yvonne N.

Topic: Latitude and Longitude



Description: This website allows the user to enter in a location anywhere in the world and find out its latitude and longitude. I would have one student look up a place on the website and then give the latitude and longitude to another student to find on the globe. It could be a fun game as they take turns finding places on the globe.

Melissa



Established in 1888, The Geological Society of America provides access to elements that are essential to the professional growth of earth scientists at all levels of expertise and from all sectors: academic, government, business, and industry.

This site has many different links and has resources for teachers including activities and lesson plan links. The one thing I find disappointing is that they charge $30 a year for K-12 teachers. One of the things this membership gives is an exchange of lesson plans from other teachers. I don’t agree with attaching a cost to sharing teaching resources. I think it is one thing to charge for professional use but not for education.

Nafisa



This is another website that I find to be pretty cool. The website go in depth about the topic Geology. There are a few chapters about this topic and they have a sound clip for it too. Each summary has a photograph for it and they have good navigation system on it too. I think this might actually be a branch site from the KidsKnowIt website. Therefore, this website and the previous one is pretty similar.

Jedidah



This site has a lot of info for elementary school teachers. Lesson plan ideas, worksheets, and activities. Also, ideas about how to use the "Pile of Rocks" and other cool ideas. I thought it was a worthwhile site to visit. Also, it has a lot of links to other sites that might help a teacher out.

Yvonne N.



Description: This is a great site for learning about, and identifying rocks & minerals. There are many activities and experiments to do, as well as photos to look at as well. There is also a teacher page with lesson ideas.

Lisa



If you haven’t already figured it out…geology is one of my favorite subjects. This site has so much information on it. Elementary teachers can use it in many ways, such as, an educational tool, current events to share with the class, or use the section specifically, “For Teachers.” When you use the resources section within the For Teachers area it links you to so many reputable websites!

Lisa



Okay, seriously, this might be the coolest thing I have ever seen! You can look at the amazing geology of our National Parks in 3-D photos. For at least 10 years now I have always had at least one pair of 3-D glasses just in case…sometimes there is a show on t.v., a movie, or a magazine that has 3-D photos. Well, when I discovered this website I was so happy! This would just be a great way to get kids interested in geology and our national parks. You could get enough glasses for the whole class and then do a slideshow, or you could just have one pair and kids can use them when they get computer time.

Natalie



This is a great website when you are teaching about fossils. I spent awhile playing around with the site and found some really cool stuff about fossils. So, once you go to the homepage site, you click on lets say ?fossils of Kentucky?, then its organized by the type, age and region. I first clicked on type, and it brings you some of the different types with pictures and explanations of that type. How cool! Well anyway as a teacher this would be a great site because it gives you great examples and ideas to what you could teach your class about fossils. You can teach about the age of fossils how old they are or you can teach the students about where you would find some of these fossils.

Another great part about this website is the section of the geologic process/time scale. (is)

There is talks about the different process in great detail which would help a teacher really understand the different processes and give an idea on how to teach to her students. This section talks about basic method,goals and making it relevant to the students. Teachers can also incorporate climate change when talking about the process because that has to do with how it affected past organisms as well as organisms changing the physical world.

Clarice



This site is a fun for younger elementary. It has five short and easy to understand chapters about geology:

Chapter One - Examining The Soil

Chapter Two - Earth, Rocks, And Landforms

Chapter Three - The Earth Inside Out

Chapter Four - An Introduction To Erosion

Chapter Five - Erosion By Water Process

There's a fun game about classifying rocks, but my favorite part is the learning songs. There is a good list of songs that help teach and remember facts. I thought that the song "Our Earth Inside Out" was super catchy and am still humming it. lol.

Leigh



The USGS is awesome. This site has topo maps and charts and graphs- you can check out science topics by state....

They have educational resources for primary, secondary and undergraduate students.

There are teacher's guides and ideas for school yard activities. REALLY COOL STUFF.

General Science and General Teaching

Meridian



This website is a little weird, but is has a lot of forums for communication and I think that this will be key for first year teachers as well as continuing teachers to keep improving their abilities. It has forums on teaching support, classroom management, behavior issues, as well as content specific links.

Lisa



I liked this site because it had many different categories and many different links to other sites. Some of the other sites weren’t all that great, but most of them had something a student or teacher could use. It includes many things that can be done online, but also lesson plans that teachers can use in the classroom. Many of the lesson plans I looked at were hands on…they looked pretty good.

Kristen



Awesome animations explaining everything that is geology...the doppler effect, red shift, hot spot volcanoes, basic plate boundaries - and all with concise descriptions of what is taking place. This site is awesome.

Clarice



This is my favorite web page as a teaching resource. The lesson plans are really well writ out and comprehensive. I found many of my lesson plans on this site, and ideas for lesson plans. One of my other favorite aspects of this site is that you can make worksheets online such as crossword puzzles and word searches. You simply provide the words you want to use and the layout and it creates the worksheets for free. I was recommended this site by another teacher and definitely recommend that others check it out.

Yvonne N.



Description: Great attention getting activities and projects to begin a unit with, or these could be a complete unit for small children. Chemistry, environment, biology, math, physics, etc. are represented. This site is a good one to get you started at developing a particular science unit. The activities are all very fun and interesting - would definitely appeal to kids.Developed for teachers and parents in the UK.

Clair



this is the site for science in general

This site has many subjects within it. If you go to the science area there are links for general areas of science such as "space" and under that link are more links for more specific areas of "space" such as "big bang". The information is in written and video form sothe kids can read about the information, hear it explained and see it illustrated.

There is a section for educators with tools and lesoon plans. There is even a link specifically for scientific inquiry.

All the lessons go through the scientific method.

Kim



I think this is a really cool website. I like it because it offers a lot of cool lesson plans for teachers. Although I could not sue this web site for much information, I think once I'm a teacher I could use some of the lessons to teach my students. Not all of the lessons are for elementary science, but they are all helpful, and some very cool.

Amy



This website just caught my eye from the get go. The format is fairly simple and straightforward, easy to maneuver around on and figure out. I was pretty impressed with the lay out, also. It’s called My Science Box, and it is set up like a box that you unpack and use the items inside. There are different “boxes,” such as Ecology, Geology, Plate Tectonics, Physiology, Genetics and Evolution and Watersheds. Each box has all these “items” inside of it: lesson plans, sub plans, teacher resources, assessments, kid tested activities, and field trips. ~ A really great resource, for teachers.

Felisha



This is a web site with a bunch of links for different science experiments. There's a link for Bill Nye the science guy. It is just a basic site with links for multiple science experiments. There are many ideas for science fair projects with step by step guides to conduct them. Many of these links have multiple project ideas. One link has over 200 project ideas. So this web site is just a nice link to have for a place to start when looking for fun experiments for children to conduct.

Katy



I think that this website is very cool because, within itself, it contains a bunch of science website links for primary school teachers/students. Not only could I, as a future educator, visit this website and obtain very valuable information on a variety of subjects, such as the animal kingdom, planets, and volcanoes, but I could also assign my students to visit the website and complete one of the educational modules.

Kristen



Great interactive, fun site where Tim and his Robot buddy Moby explain everything from plate tectonics to meiosis. Videos, games, and great graphics keeps kids interested and entertained. I loved the quick assessments at the end of the movie clips, just to check in to see if the message stuck. And Tim and Moby are very funny - each lesson is full of silly science puns.

Lisa



This website has an extensive selection of lesson plans and links to lesson plans from other websites. It has lessons that include hands-on activities and online components. When you use the search feature it provides an endless amount of links to lesson plans. While I have not looked at every lesson, the ones I have reviewed seem to be worth-while. It also provides tools that can be used as information to supplement your instruction/knowledge portion of your lessons. It can provide a teacher with information or links to sites that can provide the information a teacher needs in order to be prepared to teach the topic. Lesson plans often accompany these tools. It also provides a myriad of links to resources. Finally, it has a link for benchmarks. While these benchmarks are not specific to Oregon, they can still be helpful.

Meriba



This a good interactive website that has great ideas for projects and it gives info on subjects covered at certain grade levels. It is a good resource for and teachers and it can be really good for students as well. Parents can also us many of the activities at home. It has recipes for foods, crafts and science projects. It can also be used for trivia math or science questions.

Wendy



The Franklin Institute. They have a wonderful section for educators. Educational packets are available for printing which contain suggested hands-on activities and science information based on their permanent exhibits. Some current packets available are; Kid Science - The Island of the Elements Activity Guide, Space Command, Giant Heart, Educator’s Guide, and they even have an area dedicated to Girl Science with suggested activities just to encourage girls appreciation of science. Many of the suggested activities address the National Science Educational Standards.

Michael



The Genetic Science Learning Center is a health and science program affiliated with the University of Utah. The website and organization provides information about genetics, technology and genetic research. The website also provides education information and lesson plans for teachers K-12 as well as education to the general public. Since some genetic issues are controversial, the organization strives to provide resources that are unbiased and claim to achieve accurate information regarding the subjects of health, bio-science and genetics.

Amanda



This website contains all types of science lesson plans for Elementary classrooms. It has not only just science topics but also health. Lot of these lesson are fun little activities to do with the class such as making your own fossil with plaster o paris and also explaining the big bang theory with confetti inside of a balloon and popping it. There are many fun and cute ideas on this page.

Leigh



This is a great site supporting teachers- and has standard based resources. There are links to the various educational programing offered on PBS- for example- NOVA- and particular resource links for teachers and a "how to" in using their site for classroom instruction and activity.

Leigh



this website is a "Discovery" web site-full of lesson plan ideas-on tons of topics. the lesson plans are thorough and interesting.

Nafisa



website is great for teachers as it is Science forum where teachers may share their thoughts on certain topics, share their lesson plans, ask questions about things that they do not know, and just sharing different things about Science. I feel like it's a great site to have for teachers in case they need opinions, to look out for bad and good things about a certain laboratory class or any other topics.

Max



Awesome oceans, climate or geology website: WiredScience covers these topics with rich stories. It’s a great resource for teachers because it provides intriguing photos and solid science reporting to back them up.

Examples:

•

•

• Kansas Man Digs Up Something Crazy:

Melissa



This sight has science activities for K-8 called SAM (Science Activities Manual) listed in very clear and easy to follow lesson plans. They have also included how each lesson satisfies National Science Education Standards. You can find activities by grade level or by content topic. As I browsed through these activities, I noticed that many are inquiry based activities. These lessons also stress safety for the students. Every lesson has an activity, list of materials, what standards it covers and other ideas for follow-up instruction.

Natalie



I choose this one because it has endless amounts of information on many different topics in Science. I just played around and clicked on all the information they had with Geology. On this website you can have resources from rocks and minerals to wildfires. I thought this was a great tool to add in my tool box of teaching websites. Because when I go to teach something on climate change or natural hazards I can go to this website and not only get ideas but get some quality information. This website has a lot of to offer!

Interactive for Students:

Courtney



I think that this is a very cool website for both teachers and kids in the elementary age. Mostly this site is geared towards student use, but I think that teachers can use it to get ideas and motivate students; teachers could also incorporate this site into their curriculum and activites to get students interested and on the web to learn science; especially so they can go home and learn science! I volunteer at the Boys and Girls club and in the Learning Center, the children use this site to do activities and help them with mini-research projects and the children love this site!

Courtney



Great resource to have student challenges while learning! Different categories for the students to test in and for each correct answer, the sponser donates 10 grains of rice to a poverished country! Kids really have fun with this site!

Natalie



I found this website along the way on my own during this term and I just thought it was great! This is a great website built for kids to explore the world of Science. I really liked the part where kids can do experiments. They have step-by-step experiments that kids can do. And they look really fun! I think kids would really like this website because it is designed towards them.

Jedidah



This site is pretty cool. It has a lot of interactive games for kids to play. Some of them are super simple, and some of them are harder.

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