Science Resources
For Elementary Teachers

Agricultural Fact Book
This site provides a statistical look at food consumption, farms, and rural places in America. Topics include eating out, fruit and vegetable consumption, meat consumption, refined grain v.whole grain, sweeteners, and food expenditures and prices. Learn about diversity and specialization among American farms and population changes in rural America.

Annenberg Science in Focus: Force and Motion
Explore science concepts in force and motion and come away with a deeper understanding that will help you engage your students in their own explorations. With science and education experts as your guides, learn more about gravity, friction, air resistance, magnetism, and tension through activities, discussions, and demonstrations. Extensive footage shot in real classrooms shows students learning and building on ideas as they explore the relationships among motion, force, size, mass, and speed. As you watch the students develop understanding through activities that connect science concepts to real-world phenomena, you will be asked to think about your own ideas on force and motion and compare them to what you observe.

Botany for Kids
This site offers activities for learning how leaves change color, how flowers grow, how plants fight disease and insects, why plants come in so many colors, tips for growing plants, and facts about fungi. Learn about seeds, composting, endangered plant species, fire, lichen, and plant hunters -- scientists who collect plant samples from around the world to trace a plant's evolution.

CIESE K-12 Curriculum
"The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education sponsors and designs interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. They focus on projects that utilize real time data available from the Internet, and collaborative projects that utilize the Internet's potential to reach peers and experts around the world."

Cleveland Falcon Cam
"The Cleveland FalconCam is an entertaining and educational project which follows a pair of Peregrine Falcons nesting on Cleveland's historic skyscraper, the Terminal Tower." It is part of Raptors in the City, which is "a non-profit, environmental education and technology program that follows the nesting season of the peregrine falcon - a species that escaped extinction in North America and now soars among the skyscrapers in cities across the continent."

Elementary Science Topics
This annotated database from Internet4Classrooms.com provides over 100 resource sites divided by Elementary Science Topics. Some of these topics include Animals, Plants, Simple Machines, and Weather.

Exploratorium
This is the site of San Francisco's "Museum of Science, Art, and Human Perception." The Explore and Educate areas are useful for Elementary Teachers with online activities, exhibitions, webcasts, cool sites, and hands-on activities (over 500 simple experiments).

Exploring Planets in the Classroom
This site includes more than 25 hands-on science activities in classroom-ready pages for both teachers and students. Topics include exploring Earth, the planets, geology, and space sciences.

HowStuffWorks Express
HowStuffWorks.com is a resource to inform the general public how stuff like computers, engines, cell phones, and locks works. HowStuffWorks Express is the new educational publication of HowStuffWorks. There will be five issues each year with the goal of "Making learning about science, math and technology fun through a powerful combination of cool, real-world topics, lively text, superior graphics and online interactive features." The archives are available free online and subscription for hard copies can be purchased. Each edition includes feature articles, a WebQuest, toy autopsies, online games, Sally Ride Science, and much more. Lesson plans, curriculum links, worksheets, and extension activities for many sections.

Making Energy Fun and Safe
Through interactive and engaging activities, elementary students can learn about electricity and natural gas, how to use them safely and wisely, and the importance of conserving energy. This website developed by Alliant Energy provides a fun way to help children understand the Energy Basics, how to Play It Safe even in storms produced by Mother Nature, a section on Energy and the Environment, associated Fun and Games, and a Parents and Teachers section. This is one of the more serious sites that children will want to explore thanks to the format and particular presentations.

MyPyramid.gov
This site offers an animated tour of the Agriculture Department's recommended nutrition pyramid. Explore the food groups. Assess your food intake and physical activity levels. See a sample menu of how these nutrition recommendations can be integrated into a weekly menu. Use a food tracking worksheet to improve your eating habits.

NASA Education Enterprise
NASA provides more than 24 educational websites. This site provides a starting point to reach each one of these. The For Kids, For Students, and For Educators sections provide games, stories, homework help, Internet resources, multimedia resources, learning resources, lesson plans, curriculum materials, and contacts.

NASA Quest
Whether in the area of aerospace design or training for space walks, NASA Quest is a rich resource for educators, students, and space enthusiasts who are interested in meeting and learning about NASA people and the national space program. Profiles of experts, lesson plans and activities, and videos are available.

National Biological Information Infrastructure
This site from the NBII provides educators, parents, and students of all ages with access to online resources that emphasize the teaching of biology, biodiversity, and ecology. Included are activities, lesson plans, experiments, projects, resources, and references for classroom and home use.

National Geographic for Kids
This site provides access to many interesting stories, science facts, maps, games, and interactive activities produced by the National Geographic Society.

National Science Teachers Association
The NSTA site contains resources for science teachers at all grade levels. The Your Classroom button takes you to a page that contains news, professional journal articles, discussion boards, and elementary science resources. Teacher Resources on the menu on the left-hand side of the page contain an electronic newsletter, SciLinks for specific textbook guides, and Science Websites. Another highlight is the NSTA Science Guides section with theme-based lesson plans.

Nova Teachers
This site contains companion websites for eah of the NOVA science television documentaries. There are tv schedules, web resources, and teacher's guides. There is also a matrix to search for the teacher's guides by subject.

OLogy
This site from the American Museum of Natural History allows for investigation of many topics and themes in areas of science such as archaeology, astronomy, biology, and physical science. There are projects, online activities, and opportunities to discuss ideas with experts. Important areas include What's the Big Idea, Stuff to Do, and For Educators.

Rocks and Images
This site is an introduction to rock collecting. Read about the 3 kindsof rocks -- igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic -- and the Earth processes that formed them. Find out how to start a rock collection, where to find rocks, and the equipment you'll need. This site may be temporarily down for maintenance.

San Diego Zoo
The official site of the San Diego Zoo features web cams to observe many of its animals. Other highlights include the video library and animal bytes under the learn button on the menu at the top of the page under the San Diego Zoo title.

Science Learning Network
This easy to navigate site is a partnership between six of America's leading science museums, public elementary schools, and six international science museums focusing on inquiry science education. Check Out News and Links provides lists of useful websites and the question and answer service, Science Whatzit. Teacher will find the Explore Our Resources to be most useful. There is also a link that will enable you to visit the museums of the partnership.

Science Made Simple
This site enables students to "learn science the easy, hands-on way." There are ideas for teachers to improve science education though fun science projects, simple science experiments that really work, and science articles that will answer many common questions.

The Science Management Observation Protocol
This article from NSTA's The Science Teacher features a rubric for determining how well a teacher is conducting an inquiry-based science lesson. This is a PDF file, and you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to open it.

SHARKS @ Florida Museum of Natural History
Sharks have made headlines in the news lately, but misunderstanding of the nature of sharks has overshadowed the truth about these animals. Shark attack is a potential danger that must be acknowledged by anyone that frequents marine waters, but the risks should be kept in perspective. Bees, wasps and snakes are responsible for far more deaths each year and the annual risk of death from lightning in the U.S. is 30 times greater. Separate fact from fiction here!

Switch Zoo
This site allows students to use animal parts to create new animals. There are lesson plans for elementary science and language arts. Students can name their animal, write a story about it, and print out a picture.

USGS Science Resources
This website contains selected USGS educational resources that may be useful to educators in primary school grades (Kindergarten to Grade 6). Many of these resources can be used directly in the classroom or will be useful in classroom lessons or demonstration activities preparation, or as resources for teacher education and curriculum development.

Virtual Solar System @ National Geographic
Discover the wonders of our solar system in a spectacular 3-D environment. Take a flyby tour of the sun and each planet in its orbit, observe planets and extraterrestrial weather patterns up close, and more. This site requires a free plugin download to be completely interactive. A non-3D version is also available.

The Why Files
This site provides weekly articles for students on the science behind the headlines. In addition to the main In Depth, In Brief, and In the News sections, there are Interactives and Cool Science Images located on the bottom right.

The Yuckiest Site on the Internet
This somewhat humorous site describes itself as the best place for science entertainment. There are educational materials and games on various topics including the human body, worms, and bugs. Teacher's guides are aligned to national standards.