Fun and meaningful lessons, and best of all FREE! Not yet on video like the 128 Member Lessons, but still great lessons.
*Earth’s Driven Plates-Use at the beginning of your unit on plate tectonics, and this will pay dividends for a long time.
The Dynamic Earth- articles about gems,minerals, rocks, mining, earth movements, volcanoes, and more
Stellarium- an excellent planetarium for your computer (and it’s free)
Astronomy Picture Of The Day- the natural beauty of our universe combines well with our natural curiosity of it
Keeping An Eye On Space Rocks- Overview of asteroids, comets, and meteors, with special attention to the impact hazard to Earth.
Solar System to Scale- where I go when I make one of these
SkyMaps- a free 2-page monthly guide to the night sky
Virtual Water- helps us realize how much water is needed to produce different goods and services
*CLICK HERE* for 38 more original Earth & Space lessons with FREE PowerPoint or Student Handout
*Potential Kinetic Mechanical- use this graphic organizer to end any confusion about those 3 terms.
Matter Flowchart-Studying matter and all its cousins -substances, mixtures, solutions, suspensions? They’re all here in this insanely over-done puzzle. …that’s what makes it so irresistible.
Chembalancer- takes the confusion out of balancing chemical equations
David’s Whizzy Periodic Table- saves you lots of wasted time trying to describe what atoms look like
*CLICK HERE* for 45 more original Physical Science lessons with FREE PowerPoint or Student Handout
Exactly How Many?-Give groups of students a container of rice and tell them they have 20 minutes to tell you exactly how many grains they have. Flexible enough you can use on many occasions, but I used this to help my students understand why we can’t say for sure how many cells we have.
*Cells, Molecules, and Atoms-Most student are fairly certain of what the order of these should be sizewise, but this reassures them and shows how they connect with each other.
DNAi- an excellent resource for DNA information for you and your students
Lynx Eats the Hare- students explore the interaction between predators and prey; specifically growth populations
Butterfly Genetics- students create unique butterflies, then watch as some genes pass on to offspring while others don’t
*CLICK HERE* for 19 more original Life Science lessons with FREE PowerPoint or Student Handout
The Happy Scientist- one of my top go-to sites for demonstrations and ideas on just about any topic
PhET- a wealth of interactive simulations that my students have benefitted greatly from
Science Matters- tons of simple demos that actually work; sign up to receive updates by email (I do)
Microscope Activities- a few simple microscope ideas to introduce your students to ‘scopes and the micro-world we rarely see
*CLICK HERE* for 16 more original General Science lessons with FREE PowerPoint or Student Handout
*These are Graphic Organizers, where students begin with a blank sheet of paper, then after some folding, cutting, coloring, drawing, and writing, end up with a nice summary of the content. Best way to present is to be making one along with students so they see you modeling it; reduces questions/mistakes to almost zero.
Question? Comment? Broken link to report? I’m listening . (I’d love to hear how the lesson went!)