Food Science Lesson – What Makes Wings Spicy
Last week my post about the science of barbecue got some good traction on social media. To start this week I’ll continue the food science theme by sharing a PBS Learning Media lesson about the science of hot wings. Some Like It Hot is a PBS Learning Media lesson that features a Compact Science video […]
Propello – A New Science Teaching and Learning Platform
Propello is a new service that offers a free and customizable science learning platform. Propello provides teachers with core science curriculum that is recommended for students in grades six through eight. But because Propello allows teachers to modify materials, the curriculum could be used with younger or older students. When you sign-up for a free […]
Fun With Soda Pop – A Nice Weekend Science Experiment
SciShow Kids recently published an updated video about a “classic” science experiment. That experiment is dropping Mentos candies into a bottle of soda pop. But before doing that and explaining what happens, the video briefly explains how beverages are carbonated and why the bubbles stick to some objects better than others. If you’re looking for […]
NOAA Sea to Sky – 1000+ Resources for Science Teachers
Earlier this week I was checking my local weather forecast on NOAA.gov when I noticed a back-to-school announcement. The announcement highlighted some lesson plans and multimedia resources for teaching about things like hurricanes, changing sea levels, and climate resilience. The announcement also drew attention to an updated database of resources for teachers. That database is […]
Climate Kids Helps Kids Learn About Climate Change
NASA’s Climate Kids website has many excellent online and offline resources for teaching students about climate change. One of those resources is the Big Questions page. The Big Questions page guides students through the basic concepts and issues related to climate change. Six big questions are featured on the page. Students select a question to discover the answers […]
Unpoppable Bubbles – Another Fun Summer Science Lesson
Last week I shared a handful of resources for building solar ovens. The week before that I shared some at-home summer science lesson resources from Discovery and 3M. Today, I have another summer science lesson resource to share with you. Earlier this week SciShow Kids published a new video titled Unpoppable Bubbles. In the video […]
Science Fun in the Sun – Free Science Lesson Plan
As I write this it’s a cloudy and relatively cold June day here in Maine. The sunshine will return and with it there will be some opportunities for fun outdoor learning activities. One such activity is building a solar oven and trying to cook something like s’mores in it. 4H offers free instructions on how […]
Science Friday is a Must-bookmark for Science Teachers
Science Friday is a must-bookmark for teachers and students of science. As the name implies, every Friday a new batch of podcast segments about a wide range of science topics is released. Additionally, on Science Friday you will find interesting videos and articles about a wide array of topics in chemistry, biology, physics, space science, and […]
The Math and Science of Baseball
Tomorrow is the opening day of the 2022 Major League Baseball season. I’m excited to watch the Red Sox beat the Yankees tomorrow afternoon! If you have students who are as excited as I am about the start of the baseball season, try to capitalize on that enthusiasm with one of the following educational resources. […]
Science Research Papers Annotated With Teaching Resources
Science in the Classroom is a free resource for teachers from Science Magazine. On Science in the Classroom you will find research papers containing interactive annotations to help students understand the content of the papers. In the right hand margin of each paper you will find a section called “learning lens.” The learning lens offers […]
Dozens of Fun, Hands-on Science Lessons
Science Snacks from Exploratorium is a great collection of hands-on science lessons for elementary school, middle school, and high school students. I’ve been recommending it for years and recently revisited it to discover that more activities have been added. Science Snacks features activities that can be conducted with inexpensive and readily available materials. Each Science […]
Best of 2018 – Free Hands-on STEM Lesson Plans
This week is a vacation week for the vast majority of readers of this blog. As I do at this time every year, I’m going to republish some of the most popular post of 2018. Here’s one from February. “Hacking STEM” was one of the initiatives that Microsoft was heavily promoting at the BETT Show […]
Elementary School Rocks
K-5 GeoSource is a great resource produced by the American Geosciences Institute. On K-5 GeoSource you will find free lesson plans, science fair project ideas, links to virtual activities, and resources for professional development. The first time I looked at the site back in 2009 it had a distinct Web 1.0 feel. The site has improved of late to […]
4-H STEM Lab – A Good Place to Find Hands-on STEM Activities for K-12
The 4-H STEM Lab is a good place to find hands-on STEM activities for students of all ages. Activities in the 4-H STEM Lab are organized according to topic and grade level. The topics are alternative energy, chemistry, electricity, engineering, and physics. As is often the case with resources like this, some of the suggested activities […]
Three Good Resources for Learning About the Science of Baseball
Watching a Red Sox game or listening to one on the radio is one of my favorite things to do on a warm summer night like we’re having tonight in Maine. During the pregame show this evening the broadcasters were talking about the launch angle of some of the homeruns hit by Red Sox players […]
DIY Solar Updraft Tower – A Hands-on Elementary Science Lesson
SciShow Kids has a playlist of videos titled Super Simple Machines. The videos in that playlist feature explanations and demonstrations of simple machines that students could make in your classroom. One of those videos is Spin a Wheel With Sunlight. By watching Spin a Wheel With Sunlight students can learn how solar energy can be […]
Jungle Jeopardy – A Game About Ecosystems
Jungle Jeopardy is an online game produced by PBS Kids for students in first through fourth grade. In the game students have to construct a small ecosystem and keep it healthy for twelve days (a day refers to one round of the game). In Jungle Jeopardy students keep their ecosystems healthy by adding plants and […]
New Science Lesson Plans from Storyboard That
Disclosure: Storyboard That is an advertiser on this blog. Storyboard That is known for its excellent storyboard creation tools. In addition to continuously developing new artwork and and new tools for storyboarding, the team at Storyboard That is always developing new lesson plans that anyone can access for free. The Storyboard That lesson plan collection […]
If You Teach Science, You Need Science Netlinks
Science Netlinks offers dozens of lesson plans and online learning activities. The lessons and activities are cover a wide variety of science topics. All of the lesson plans are sorted by grade level, but you can also sort the lesson plans by science benchmark standards. A series of icons also indicates if each lesson plan has […]
Webinar Recording – Inquiry and the Fire Lab
On Monday I hosted a free webinar sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories Xplorlabs. The webinar focused on the ideas of inquiry-based learning and how they are applied to Xplorlabs’s Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence online learning experience. If you missed the webinar, you can view the recording as embedded below. Inquiry-based Learning and the Fire Lab from Richard […]
Fun, Hands-on Science Lessons
Science Snacks is a resource that I referenced in my list of ten blog post topics for your school blog. Science Snacks is a resource that provides ideas and directions for hands-on science lessons. Science Snacks features activities that can be conducted with inexpensive and readily available materials. Each Science Snack comes with a materials […]
A Large Collection of Virtual Chemistry Labs and Lessons
I didn’t plan for this to become “science week” on Free Technology for Teachers, it has just worked out that I have a backlog of good science resources to share. Chem Collective is another good science resource. Chem Collective is a project designed and maintained by Carnegie Mellon University’s chemistry department and the National Science Digital […]
10 More Videos About the Science of the Winter Olympics
On Tuesday I shared a playlist of 16 videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Those videos were created by the National Science Foundation to coincide with the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2014 the NSF released another batch of videos about the science of the Winter Olympics. Some of the things that viewers can […]
Polar Bear “Street” View Lesson Plans
Polar Bears International offers a set of extensive lesson plans designed to help students learn about polar bears and their habitat. One of those lesson plans is called Street View and Polar Bears. In Street View and Polar Bears students use Google Maps to explore the geography, geology, and ecosystem of the tundra around Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. […]
Science Friday – Audio Science Lessons
Science Friday is a weekly podcast (hosted on Sound Cloud) that features science stories spanning a wide array of topics, but most topics that are related to current news stories. As the name implies, new episodes appear on Fridays. You can listen to each episode in its entirety or you can choose to listen to […]
Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence – A Detailed Lesson in Forensic Science
Fire Forensics: Claims and Evidence is a detailed, interactive lesson in the forensics of fire investigations. The free module is part of Xplorlabs produced by UL (Underwriters Laboratories), the global safety science company responsible for the “UL listed” labels on things like extension cords, microwaves, and just about every other appliance in your house. The […]
Front Row Offers New Science Units for the New School Year
Earlier this summer I featured Front Row’s updated social studies units that complemented their existing language arts units. Over the summer Front Row expanded their offerings to include ten science units. Like all Front Row offerings within the new science units you will find multiple versions of the same article to distribute to your students. […]
CK-12 BrainFlex Can Help Kids Keep Their Math & Science Skills Sharp This Summer
For the third summer in a row the CK-12 Foundation is hosting the CK-12 Brainflex Summer Challenge. The challenge is a free program that students can use to keep their math and science skills sharp through the summer while also learning some new knowledge and gaining new skills. Students register for the program and then track […]
Articles and Lessons About Weather – From ReadWorks
ReadWorks is a great service that provides lesson plans designed around nonfiction and fiction articles. All of the articles provided by ReadWorks are labeled with a suggested grade level and a Lexile score. The ReadWorks Digital classroom service provides teachers with a free way to distribute assignments and monitor students’ progress. Learn more about ReadWorks […]
A Free Activity Book from NOAA
Discover Your World is a free activity book produced by NOAA. The book is available as to download as a complete package in one PDF or you can download it in three separate sections. The sections are titled Explore the Earth, Understand the Earth, and Protect the Earth. In total the book has 43 activities […]
Free Annotated Science Research Papers Accompanied by Teaching Resources
Science in the Classroom is a free resource for teachers from Science Magazine. On Science in the Classroom you will find research papers containing interactive annotations to help students understand the content of the papers. In the right hand margin of each paper you will find a section called “learning lens.” The learning lens offers […]
16 Educational Resources for Earth Day 2016
Earth Day 2016 is on Friday. As I’ve done in the past, I’ve compiled a list of resources for teaching about Earth Day and environmental science in general. As was featured yesterday, Discovery Education offers a nice set of resources for teaching about the world’s coral reefs and biodiversity of the oceans. Expedition Earth Day is a […]
Lots of Lessons About Winter Weather
Conditions at my house on Tuesday. A large winter storm is in the forecast for later this week in the northeastern United States. If you like snow, this is a great forecast for you. If you hate snow, the snow is still coming. I subscribe to the philosophy that you should make the most out […]