On-line Resources For Activities We spend a lot of time surfing the internet looking for hands-on, fun science and math activities to share during our events. Many professional science organizations have parent and/or educator tabs. Non-profit organizations, state and federal agencies, and universities have rich resources. We encourage you to look for lesson plans and activities that encourage a sense of wonder in participants! While it is important to share specific curriculum, always look for the "Wow!" feeling one gets from discovering and exploring! To get you started, the following is a list of great resources of website that we've found to be helpful, inquiry-based, with little if any advertising content. Click here for our page with fun weblinks and activities for inquiry based math and science learning. General Science K-12 Safety in the science classroom and informal learning environments Safety in Science Classroom WatchKnowLearn.org WatchKnowLearn has indexed over 20,000 educational videos, placing them into a directory of over 3,000 categories for ages 3-18. The videos are available without any registration or fees to teachers in the classroom and to students at home 24/7. The Science Source is a science resource for teachers, families, and others interested in sharing the excitement of science and promoting science literacy. Exploratorium.org's "Tools for Teaching" has activities specifically for informal science education. Making Science Fun - the official blog of Steve Spangler has lots of activities, hints and encouragement for educators. Searchable too! TryScience.org is a project of Science Museums from all of the US who specialize in informal science education. Click on "teacher" tab. Online tutorial on "Inquiry-based Learning" from public television station Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, the PBS science education game show, has excellent activities. This is the "grown-ups" page. Cool Science, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, specializing in science projects- click on "curious kids" tab. Science for Kids, by the American Chemical Society, is an excellent resource for hands on activities, plus this site includes great information on doing science safely in schools and the community. Math K-8 National Council of Teacher's of Mathmetics (NCTM) has many resources including: Investigations by theme and problem - http://www.nctm.org/resources/content.aspx?id=9310 Figure This, for middle schoolers and families has challenges that can be modified for a family event. Also Illuminations is a rich resource for lessons as well as computer-based apps that are interactive. Searchable by grade and content strand. http://illuminations.nctm.org/ MATHWIRE - standards based math activities organized by topic for elementary school students. http://www.mathwire.com/index.html Math Enrichment website for Lexington (MA) public schools contains math activities, a list of books that combine math and literacy, and links to more math websites. The US Department of Education's Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE), teaching resources from federal agencies and the non-profits they fund, is searchable by subject. Mathematics Classroom Resources at the National Science Foundation's website are current and varied. Hands-on math activities covering enrichment topics are available here at Janine's Hands-on Math Engineering TeachEngineering.org (resources for K-12), a project of the National Science Digital Library, has lesson plans and activities that are easily sorted by topic or curriculum strand. PBS.org's Design Squad has educator and parent resources, including hands-on engineering challenges inspired by the TV show (grades 4-8) Birds and Flight EEK - Environmental Education for Kids (grades 4-8) Cornell University's Ornithology Lab has a website called "All about birds." Please let us know of any resources you know of! |