21st Century Explorer
This site answers questions that include: Why do we want to travel to Mars? How would your body change in space? Where would a space explorer find water and oxygen? How can we travel faster in space? Student actors (on video) and hands-on activities are featured with each answer. The site is for Grades 3-5 and available in Spanish.
Investigating the Climate System: Clouds
This activity casts students as interns in a state climatology office. Their assignment: to investigate how clouds form, how they're classified, and their role in heating and cooling the earth. This 30-page guide also helps students understand why clouds (and the study of them) are important.
FoilSim and CurveBall
FoilSim II computes the theoretical lift of a variety of airfoil shapes. The user can control the shape, size, and inclination of the airfoil and the atmospheric conditions in which the airfoil is flying. The program includes a stall model for the airfoil, a model of the Martian atmosphere, and the ability to specify a variety of fluids for lift comparisons. The program has graphical and numerical output, including an interactive probe which you can use to investigate the details of flow around
Guide to Finding a Local Specialist
This online article, from Biodiversity Counts, is a guide to finding local specialists who are knowledgeable about plants and arthropods. It includes: an overview of how local specialists can be of help; a link to the Directory of Local Specialists, a list of specialists who have agreed to work with participating schools; a list of additional organizations, with links to Web sites, that are good sources for local specialists; tips on how to find local specialists from Linda Beyt, a middle school
What's the Big Idea? Marine Biology
This fun Web article is part of OLogy, where kids can collect virtual trading cards and create projects with them. Here, they learn about marine biology. It All Started in the Ocean looks at how the world's five great oceans are linked and how scientists know that life probably started in the oceans. Mysteries of the Deep explains that scientists know less about the ocean than they do about the dark side of the Moon. There Are So Many Ways to Live in the Sea debunks the perception that the ocean
World Wind
This site features World Wind 1.3, a NASA Learning Technologies application that lets the user zoom from any satellite altitude into any place on Earth. It features 3D Engine, Blue Marble, Landsat 7, SRTM, Animated Earth, MODIS, GLOBE, Country & State Borders, Place Names, Visual Tools and Landmark Set. The user can download World Wind, reference an online manual, post to an online forum, view screen shot examples from various satellites, and read press coverage about World Wind.
Earth's Destiny
What will happen to Planet Earth in a few billion years?
The Lifestyle Project
This innovative project offers a way for students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying their own lifestyles. It is a three-week exercise for students to reduce their impact on the environment by changing the way in which they live from day to day. This website contains an article about the Lifestyle Project and all the materials needed to teach the project. Materials include a baseline quiz, worksheets, energy facts and figures, and an Excel spreadsheet for students to calculat
The Liberty Bell: From Obscurity to Icon
helps students analyze -- through maps, readings, and images -- the historical and cultural influences that shaped the symbolic meaning of the Liberty Bell.
Challenging Students/Changing Lives: Exploring the Oakland Military Institute
In this lesson, students will explore educational reform efforts in Oakland, the challenges facing Oakland Schools and the efficacy of the Oakland Military Institute.
Tinker, Tailor, Farmer, Sailor
This is a lesson in which students use primary sources to determine why Europeans settlers were drawn to particular regions of America. Among the geographic conditions they consider: access to water, arable land, natural resources, and the growing season. The lesson focuses on New England, the South, and Middle Atlantic colonies.
Microbes in Action
Root Nodulation: A Partnership in the Web of Life: In this experiment, we will examine what it takes for root nodules to form on legume plants. We will consider the symbiotic relationship resulting from root nodules by observing the growth and appearance of the plants when exposed to Rhizobium as compared to the plants, which were not exposed to the Rhizobium bacteria.
Red Tide
This Nova Scotia museum informational web page represents the Red Tide section of an online collection about poisonous plants. The page reviews several microscopic marine algae that are notoriously poisonous to humans, featuring links to images and descriptions of each. The page also discusses a typical poisoning scenario and briefly reviews the pathology and toxicology of these toxins.
The Olympic Region Harmful Algal Blooms
This is the website of the Olympic Region Harmful Algal Bloom (ORHAB) partnership, which was organized to develop collaboration and cooperation among federal, state and local management agencies, coastal Indian tribes, marine resource-based businesses, public interest groups, and academic institutions. The ORHAB partnership investigates the origins of blooms of toxic algae, monitors where and when the blooms occur, assesses the environmental conditions conducive to blooms and toxification of int
Phenological Gardens Protocol
The purpose of this resource is to observe the flowering and leaf stages of selected garden plants throughout the year. After a phenological garden is planted, students observe the growth of leaves and blooming of flowers on the plants. These plants were selected because each plant blooms at a different time in the year.
Alternative discussion formats: the talk show
The talk show is a format with which students are already familiar, and it provides the structure for a great discussion.
pH Game
The purpose of this resource is to teach students about the acidity levels of liquids and other substances around their school so they understand what pH levels tell us about the environment. Students will create mixtures of water samples, soil samples, plants and other natural materials to better understand the importance of pH levels.
Writing for the web
Why teachers need to think about how they communicate on the web.
Observing other teachers
Learning from other teachers is an important means of professional development. Here are some suggestions for observing successful teachers in your school, in other schools, and on the web.
Greeting your Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in their own language
Even a simple "Hello" or "How are you today?" can help to integrate a student into a new environment. This article offers strategies and tools for teachers wishing to learn a few words of a new language.
