Science resources

[Jane in NC]

Hi everyone.

Over the years I have made use of many web based and real world science resources. By creating this thread and a tag, we can organize things that have been useful to our students in the hope that others will benefit.

Biology web pages that have been useful to us:

The Biology Project (http://www.biology.arizona.edu/)

The Biology Corner (http://www.biologycorner.com/)

When my son did AP Bio, I found it useful to read the AP Bio teachers ListServ.

Texas A&M maintains a good website (http://www3.science.tamu.edu/cmse/activities/index.asp) with low-cost physics activities.

This (http://geography.cst.cmich.edu/Franc1M/Animations/animation_list_posted.htm) is a wonderful Earth Science site with many animations.

I think that it is important for students to stay current in what is happening now in science. Ways to do this include reading magazines like Discover (http://discovermagazine.com/) and Seed (http://seedmagazine.com/). ChemMatters (http://portal.acs.org/portal/acs/corg/content?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=PP_TRANSITIONMAIN&node_id=1090&use_sec=false&sec_url_var=region1&__uuid=996ac115-5a8e-4467-ad2f-d5204c7c67f6) is a fun and inexpensive resource to help students see the relevance of chemistry in their daily lives.

NPR's weekly program Science Friday (http://www.sciencefriday.com/) is a way to stay current with science in the news. It is science-lite, but items from many disciplines are discussed for all to understand. Also, check out the weekly video on the website. They are often very cool.

NOVA (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/) on PBS can be quite interesting. They are starting to put some of the programs online. Even if you are not interested in watching the show, there are often some terrific student activities in the teacher's guides connected to the programs.

The Annenberg Foundation (http://www.learner.org/index.html) streams video over the web. There are some good science programs available to those who register. (Free.) The other day I mentioned Academic Earth (http://academicearth.org/) for free online lectures. Hippocampus (http://www.hippocampus.org/) remains a favorite with many posters.

Of course this is the tip of the iceberg. Please add your favorite non-textbook resources to make this a valuable list of ancillary material.

Jane

[ksva]

Also, could we include things like satellite shots of everything under the sun - storms, planets, fires, galaxies, geography, etc.? Our 25yos is constantly asking for these kind of things and we don't have the net at home. He usually asks dh or a sib to look them up when we go to the library. It would be wonderful to have sites we could access without searching for an hours, if anyone happens to know any. Thanks.

[elegantlion]

The Jason Project (http://www.jason.org/public/home.aspx) is one I have looked at several times. It's designed for 5th-8th but can be adjusted.

[Blue Hen]

And I just left MIT OpenWare Physics course lectures. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm

Carole

[Michelle in AL]

Just wanted to thank everyone. The links look wonderful!

[Joan in Geneva]

Jane you should add that lecture link you posted before. This is a great idea and I wish that somehow these boards were organized by subject.

[Jane in NC]

Jane you should add that lecture link you posted before. This is a great idea and I wish that somehow these boards were organized by subject.

That was Academic Earth (http://academicearth.org/)--and the link is included.

Joan, I find that the search function is not always sufficient to help me on this board, particularly if I cannot remember a website name or the poster. The tag feature is relatively new here. I think that it would be great if we all remembered to use it.

[Colleen in NS]

Jane you should add that lecture link you posted before. This is a great idea and I wish that somehow these boards were organized by subject.


Joan, I find that the search function is not always sufficient to help me on this board, particularly if I cannot remember a website name or the poster. The tag feature is relatively new here. I think that it would be great if we all remembered to use it.

I recently discovered the file folder feature, too. I can search by tags or by general terms or poster, then subscribe to a thread I find, and file it in my own made up folders. I've got mine organized by subject.

[Michelle in MO]

Jane, as usual your resources for science are wonderful! I love the fact that you're making tags for these threads; I'm starting to do the same for other threads that come up frequently, such as Omnibus, etc. It's so easy to look for the tag and bring up all kinds of relevant discussions.

Thank you for taking the time to post all of those links! :)

[Joan in Geneva]

That was Academic Earth (http://academicearth.org/)--and the link is included.

Ooops - I was reading too fast. Sorry.

[Joan in Geneva]

I wasn't quite sure how things got tagged at first, then realized that whoever wanted to could tag something.

Now what if there was a little pop up window when anyone starts a new thread, first with the different subject choices. Once the person had chosen something like math, then another box would replace that one with a choice of the different possibilities, geometry, etc. Then they would be allowed to start their thread. That would get everything sorted right from the beginning. People could later add other tags if other discussions got added in.

[Nan in Mass]

-Stokes Nature Guides
-Newcomb's Wildflower Guide
-NOAA (we did a tracking hurricanes project and we love looking at their various maps and charts of data, like bouy data)
-NASA has internet sites that are fun
-Google Earth
-Science News (weekly magazine which summarizes articles from various science publications)
-Nature (magazine, one of those science publications above)
-National Geographic (less in-depth articles that make a nice overview)
-Audubon Society (various projects and programs and publications, a great resource if you actually want to ask a scientist something in person, we certified one of their vernal pools)
-Creepy Crawlers and the Scientific Method (the first few pages have a good description of how to set up an experiment and be a scientist)
-MODG Natural History Syllabus
-Hewitt's Conceptual Physics
-Pets

Who was it who had a list of youtube videos and other resources? We should add a link to that post.

-Nan

[MamaT]

Some links I have found:

For Human Anatomy: http://www.innerbody.com/

For Physics, but has other courses: http://www.hippocampus.org/

Yale University and MIT offers free courses:

hthttp://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/hs/home/home/index.htm)
http://oyc.yale.edu/about

[Tina]

http://periodicvideos.com/# the periodic table of videos

[Joan in Geneva]

and there are some parts of the site that are in French and Spanish...

Wolfram Demonstrations (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/topics.html#5)

On the models, there is a little button in the top right corner which says watch web preview where you can see it animated...

[Kareni]

I thought others might be interested in this Charlotte Mason inspired/WTM plan for high school science. It's on the Farm School blog.

Tentative high school science plans (http://farmschool.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/tentative-high-school-science-plan/)

Regards,
Kareni

[AllSmiles]

I found a biology site to share:

Biology Junction (http://www.biologyjunction.com/curriculm_map.htm)

[Joan in Geneva]

if you need another way of explaining physics concepts...

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/

and physics labs that go with Conceptual Physics by Hewitt (these have student lab sheet and teacher notes that are free to download)

http://www.arborsci.com/Labs/CP_Labs_Selection_2.aspx

[Jane in NC]

if you need another way of explaining physics concepts...

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/

and physics labs that go with Conceptual Physics by Hewitt (these have student lab sheet and teacher notes that are free to download)

http://www.arborsci.com/Labs/CP_Labs_Selection_2.aspx

Cool! Thanks for posting, Joan.

[tex-mex]

Great info! THANKS!!!