Free For All from the U.S. Government
Various government agencies offer free programs, resources, lesson plans, and more. Here’s what’s new from the U.S. government:
Federal Aviation Administration’s Educators Corner
The Educators Corner website includes interdisciplinary activities for the K–12 classroom, fun experiments, and more. Students can learn about careers in aviation and read biographies of famous pilots.
Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Schools Chemical Cleanout Campaign (SC3) aims to ensure schools avoid hazards associated with mismanaged chemicals. SC3’s online resources can help K–12 schools develop a successful management plan for chemicals found everywhere from the maintenance closet to the chemistry lab. Download the public service announcement PDFs “You Work Hard to Keep Your Students Safe from Bullies and Drugs, But What About Chemicals?” and “Is Chemical Safety Part of the Equation?”
National Institute of General Medical Sciences Materials
The most recent issue of Findings, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)’ online magazine, focuses on evolution. It features in-depth profiles of an evolutionary geneticist and an evolutionary biologist, including a video interview and podcast; short pieces describing NIGMS-funded medical research projects; and interactive games to download for use in the high school classroom, such as Jeopardy-style evolution trivia and Who Wants to Be an Evolutionary Biologist? Browse the archives by topic to access the contents of all previous issues, which typically contain profiles of working scientists, research highlights, and a puzzle or game. Downloadable slide kits reinforce the science concepts presented in each issue.
Build Your Own Underwater Robot
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Doug Levin’s detailed manual explains how to build a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV)—in this case, an underwater robot. The manual lists ROV parts and pieces and where to find them and contains photographs of the assembly.
NASA’s Do-It-Yourself Podcast
The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Podcast activity engages students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics as they combine clips from NASA with their own materials to create an original podcast. NASA provides complete instructions, along with a set of audio and video clips, photographs, and information about space-related topics such as Newton’s laws and spacesuits. Students choose a topic, and then select related NASA clips to download, such as scenes of astronauts training for missions or experimenting in space. Using a camcorder, digital audio recorder, or computer, students can record their own audio or images and use readily available free software to combine the recordings with the NASA materials. Students are encouraged to distribute their podcasts through social networks, websites, and other means. The DIY Podcast blog notes when additional topic modules are available and offers tips and suggestions for incorporating the DIY Podcast into your classroom.
Human Genome Project Education Resources
Because the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) must assess potential health risks from any new energy resources it develops, it has long had an interest in researching the human genome. DOE worked with the National Institutes of Health on the Human Genome Project (HGP), which produced educational resources. Teachers can download publications on the basic science behind HGP, as well as K–12 curriculum modules and lesson plans, teacher guides, software, slide sets, and posters. Links lead to tutorials, videos, webcasts, teacher training and workshop opportunities, and genetics websites in Spanish.
Peace Corps Challenge
Teachers can access interdisciplinary lesson plans for grades 3–12 on topics including water contamination, malaria, sanitation and disease, and soil runoff. The Peace Corps Challenge site also describes service learning and enrichment opportunities and offers language lessons.
Everyday Mysteries
What’s the strongest muscle in the human body? How much water can a camel’s hump hold? Find the answers to these questions and more at Everyday Mysteries: Fun Science Facts From the Library of Congress (LOC). This website presents questions asked by researchers and answered by librarians from the Science Reference Services at the LOC. The archived questions and answers are sorted by topic (e.g., astronomy, technology, and zoology), and each answer includes a full explanation, a list of related websites, and suggestions for further reading, as well as references to resources found in the LOC’s collections.
Fossil Energy Study Guides and Activities
The U.S. Department of Energy has compiled a toolkit for fossil energy education. The materials include printable study guides and classroom activities emphasizing the roles played by coal, natural gas, and petroleum in everyday life and familiarizing students with the science and technologies that can help make using fossil fuels cleaner. The toolkit also contains career information for high school students.
The Psychology of Learning: How to Organize Your Teaching
Visitors to the U.S. Department of Education (ED)’s Doing What Works website will find answers to a very important question: What can teachers do to ensure their students are learning? The site’s Psychology of Learning section presents research-based instructional strategies aimed at improving students’ memory and strengthening their understanding of skills and concepts. The four strategies described are
- spacing learning over time,
- alternating solved problems with problems to be solved,
- connecting abstract ideas with concrete contexts, and
- asking higher-order questions.
In each case, the research base for the method is explored, examples of the method in practice are provided, and step-by-step instructions for implementing the method, including planning templates, are detailed.
Free for All Teachers of Science
Here are some resources and services that can help you develop your teaching strategies for next year:
Microscopy Workshop
Looking for a new way to excite students about science and get a free microscope? The College of Microscopy’s COM900 Microscopy Workshop for Middle and High School Science Teachers—June 22–26, 2009—is designed to help teachers understand and develop microscopy skills, lessons, and experiments for use in classroom instruction.
The five-day workshop includes curriculum assistance, 3.5 continuing education units or 38 professional development units, and a free Motic microscope equipped with a digital camera and software for the classroom. The total cost of the workshop is $150. Participants are also eligible to register with Concordia University Chicago and earn 3 graduate credits upon workshop completion for an additional $600.
The Point
Interactive, standards-based modules introduce high school students to the world of information technology. Students explore topics online, manipulating simulation tools as they learn the science behind the materials, devices, and processes used in the field. The Optrium, a virtual science center on The Point website, allows students to study numerous related concepts, such as wave interference, ionic bonding, and binary code.
Online Student-Made Videos
Youth Voices Open Call, a program from WGBH’s Teachers’ Domain, invited students ages 13–18 years old to make a short video based on the Frontline documentary Heat, which examines the role that businesses play in global warming. The best shorts created are posted for online viewing.
Resources for English-Language Learners
A teacher from Sacramento, California, has compiled a collection of science-related links helpful to teachers of English-language learners. Larry Ferlazzo takes a K–12 approach to his daily posts on the latest web-based teaching ideas he has come across. Many of the resources he identifies have all-student applications. His website also contains resources for other subjects.
Physics-Review Jeopardy
High school teacher Brendan Noon presents his ideas for using new technologies in the science classroom. Try his approach to reviewing physics concepts by downloading the Jeopardy PowerPoints posted for the Science of Physics and Kinematics units.
Social Networking for Green Teens
High school students interested in environmental issues can interact, share ideas, and learn about educational and career opportunities at the Planet Connect website, which presents teen-friendly links to news stories and recent research on environmental topics, how-to ideas for starting school and community environmental projects, and college profiles evaluating how environmentally conscious each school is.
STEM Transitions
This website provides access to more than 60 classroom-ready projects in agriculture; health science; information technology; manufacturing; transportation; and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The materials focus on building both academic and career-related skills in college-level classes and can easily be adapted for high school use. Student handouts and assessment tools are included.
Science Explorations and Adventures
The Exploratorium’s Paul Doherty, a recipient of NSTA’s Faraday Science Communicator Award, presents a searchable collection of favorite classroom experiments and activities, covering topics from flying tinsel to a glowing pickle. Doherty also shares a collection of scientific images.
Real World Connect
A web portal from the Cleveland Clinic allows teachers to strengthen lesson plans, students to improve research papers, and everyone to find and access the latest online information. Features include an interactive, animated heart-brain connection tutorial for children; a gallery of art created by high school students interpreting scientific research; and an x-ray library.
Video-Making for the Classroom
Animoto offers educators a cutting-edge teaching tool: the ability to create (or to have students create) short films for the classroom. Users e-mail their images and sounds to Animoto, and minutes later a customized video has been generated. The video can then be posted and embedded elsewhere or downloaded for in-class presentations. Examples of how educators have used the service are provided.
Join the Year of Science 2009
A national, year-long grassroots effort by more than 800 scientific organizations comes to Washington, DC in June 2009. Discover your inner scientist and learn more about the mysteries of our oceans and bodies of water that support life on Earth. Government agencies, nonprofits, and educational institutions are encouraged to join the celebration. A series of events in the Capital Region are designed to engage the public in “Water Planet” science, raise awareness of our water resources, explain how we depend on and impact them, and what we can do to protect them.
Thank you Dr. Goldenhersh, who has not stopped educating us even though Tightwad Daddy has graduated.
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