PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation - great STEM resources and lessons

PBS KIDS' Design Squad Nation is an Emmy Award winning program with STEM related videos, activities, games and an interactive community. There is also a Parents and Educators section with lesson plans, curriculum guides, and more. 

There are some great new features to it, including a Solar System unit with games, activities, and lesson resources about our solar system, a roller coaster project where students compete to build the best roller coaster out of poster board, and a variety of other resources. 

Topics include science, flying, hobbies, sports, and much more. 

This is a great, free resource for educators, parents and students and well worth the time to explore it. 

The Physics Front - teaching resources for Physics

The Physics Front is a free site that contains teaching resources on Physics and Physical Science. The resources are searchable and are arranged by level: K-8 Physical Science, Physics First, Conceptual Physics, Algebra Based, and AP / Calculus. Resources are then organized by topic.

It's part of the ComPADRE education community resources.

There are lesson plans, links to other resources, technology, links, and other resources to help educators when teaching Physics or Physical Science. It's another great resource to add to your collection.






Related:

MyPhysicsLab - Free Physics Simulations

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science

Physion - free Physics Simulation Software

Great Physics Resources for Students and Teachers

comPADRE - free resources for Physics and Astronomy students and teachers

comPADRE is a great resource for Physics and Astronomy teachers and students. It is a network and collection of free online resources for students and teachers. The collections are organized by Students, Teachers, and Faculty (higher ed). Resources include tutorial sites, games, research, career information, online magazine, teacher lesson resources, and much more.

Here are three collections for teachers, along with two other recommended ones.

There are also community resources where you can connect, collaborate, and share resources and tips with others. One of the resources they have in their collection is one of my favorite for Physics Students - the Physics Classroom. There are many other great resources here too.

If you teach, or take, Physics or Astronomy, or know someone who does, this is a great resource to use and share.


Related:

Great Physics Resources for Students and Teachers

Lesson Planet - search for lesson plans for teachers

Lesson Planet is a site that describes itself as "The Search Engine for Teachers." It provides teacher-reviewed online resources, including more than 400,000 online lesson plans, worksheets, presentations, and videos. Our collection of free, original lesson planning articles, updated daily, provides tips and techniques for teaching a variety of topics.

Here's what the Science Lesson Plans start page looks like:

Take a look and find some lesson ideas for your classroom. Teacher Resources Discover lessons, worksheets, videos, and presentations by grade, subject, and more.

Science Niblets - The Science Behind Everyday Topics

Science Niblets is a cool site I learned about from my PLN on Twitter today that explores the science of everyday topics.

The site has articles that describe and explain scientific topics including natural phenomena, biology, technology, physics, and more all related to things we experience in our daily lives.

The articles are geared towards the general public and are short and easy to understand. They provide a great way for students to learn more about science topics and can be useful for beginning learners, ESL/ELL, and even for advanced science students to learn something new. You can search the site by topic too.

You can also ask science questions on the site and they will post an answer, as well as reader answers. There is even a section on teaching reading using science. There are also recommendations and reviews of science books and educational toys.

I'm going to use it as a starting point for some of my lessons, as well as ideas for relating topics to everyday life.

Take a look and share it with your students and colleagues.


Related:

Head Rush - fun science show from Discovery with great website
STEM Resource for Educators - lots of great science, technology, engineering and math resources

Happy EMS Week - thank an EMS provider this week

Next week is National EMS Week (May 20th - May 26th). This year's theme from the American College of Emergency Physicians is EMS: More than a Job. A calling.

In my other life I am an EMS-Instructor and Paramedic. I have been involved in EMS since 1988 in college. I have not been able to work on the road for the past few years due to a severe back injury, but I still feel a part of EMS as an instructor. I responded to New York City after 9-11 to help out and I spent 15 years serving the city I teach in as a paramedic. I was also a volunteer paramedic and the Lt. of Training for my town's EMS service.

Take this week to thank and EMS provider in your town. The First Responders, EMT's and Paramedics are everyday heroes who are often overlooked by the media and public. Firefighters and Police Officers are usually in the news, but EMS providers, whether volunteer, commercial, hospital based, or municipal, are working everyday, helping people everyday, at the expense of their time, health, and family. EMS providers experience high incidences of knee and back injuries and spend countless hours maintaining their skills. They provide an invaluable, life-saving service, while dealing with drunks, combative patients, rude patients and family, for low pay and minimal respect.

Teach your students about EMS. What it is, how to call 911, and when to use 911. 

Here are some resources on EMS Week and EMS.
http://www.emsweekideas.org/home 

http://www.ems.gov/ 

http://www.ems.gov/emssystem/whatisems.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_medical_services


Say "thank you" to one this week to show your appreciation. If you have ever been helped by EMS, share your story in the comments below.

To all my brothers and sisters in EMS - Stay safe out there.

Here is a list of EMS providers who sacrificed their life on 9-11. I went to the memorial service for them in October 2001 and it was a sobering experience. There were EMS providers from around the world there, paying their respects to those that lost their lives. That day, along with responding to NYC for 9-11, are experiences I will never forget.

The Mini-Page Archive - great resource for education

Many of us remember the Mini-Page - the educational, fun-to-read insert in many newspapers. There is an online archive of the Mini-Page from 1969-2007. The Mini-Page was a four-page weekly feature that covered a different topic each week with puzzles, articles, pictures, and more. It is great for younger students, but can be used for all ages.

The site allows you to search by date, title, topics, people, places and keyword. Each issue is excellent with lots of great resources, activities, and more. The older editions are still useful and you could even make a class project where students pick an old issue and see what has changed about that topic since then.

Check it out!

Copyright notice:

This archive is intended for use by teachers, students, children, parents, home schoolers and the general public for nonprofit educational research/teaching/scholarship purposes only. In other words, teachers can use it in their classroom.

Simple and easy, but great, Physics Demo's for the classroom

Wired has an article that includes some great, easy, simple Physics demos, with descriptions and videos, that can be used by any teacher to demonstrate some Physics concepts. While the demo's are simple, they really show the concept well and can get students more engaged in the topic.

Demo topics include inertia and momentum, light and color, center of mass and friction, acceleration, fluids, circular motion and more. Each demo has a description, the concept behind it, and how to do it.

Wired is also a great site to follow, with technology, science, gadgets, and more among the topics it covers.




Related:

Great Physics Resources for Students and Teachers
Awesome Livebinder of Physics Resources

PowerPoint Palooza - over 220 PowerPoints on History/Social Studies

PowerPoint Palooza is a site that has over 220 PowerPoint presentations from teachers and students on History and Social Studies topics, that you can download and edit and use in your classroom (just give credit to the original creator).

This is a great resource for teachers and students to find some presentations on different topics in history. While I don't advocate teaches do lots of lecture, they can be used effectively in a classroom.

The Science Muse - free resources for teaching science

The Science Muse is a great site for finding science resources to use in class. The resources are organized by grade (K-5 and 6-8), topic (Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science), searchable, lesson of the day, and much more.

There are lesson ideas and resources, lesson plans from other teachers, and much more.

This is a great resource if you teach science in any way in your classroom.

My GCSE Science - science resources for teachers and students

My GCSE Science is a site that has video lessons and resources on Biology, Chemistry and Physics. They were developed for a specific curriculum and program, but can be used by anyone for these topics.

The videos are good and there are notes pages that go with them. The notes pages have images from the video along with space to write your own notes. The video listing has the length of the video also.

They are organized by subject and topic and the videos are hosted on YouTube.

This is good for students to use for review, missed work, and help, and for teachers to use in class or for absent students.

Here's some of the Chemistry and Physics videos. Click on the video or "Learn" to get to the video. "Notes" brings you to the PDF notes for the video.

Notes page example:

Lessonopoly - free lesson resources, connect with other teachers

Lessonopoly is a great, free educational resource cite created to help teachers, with input from teachers. The site has lesson plans and lesson resources from around the web and from teachers, education news, a social media component where you can connect with other educators, and a classroom planner to help you organize your lessons and the materials you use from Lessonopoly. You do have to create a free account to use the planner,

I had previously featured a great resource from Lessonopoly, the Science of NFL Football, and have been going through the site more since then and found some great lesson resources.

This is a great resource to find some great lesson plans and lesson resources for your classes.



Related:

10 Essential Educational Resources for Teachers - my list

BetterLesson - free K-12 lesson plans, materials and resources

Learnboost-online gradebook and lesson planner - announces lesson plan sharing

Teacher Planet - lots of great lesson resources for teachers

25 Free Resources from Discovery Education - including lots of lesson plans and lesson resources. 

Mr. Energy visits my classes and shares some great info

Mr. Energy, aka Gerard Katz, is a former physics teacher who has over 32 years of experience in energy education. He does all kinds of school energy education programs around the country and visited my class last week.

He had contacted me because he was going to be at another school in my district and wanted to come and talk to my physics students. He presented to two of my classes and the students loved him. He's dynamic, energetic, entertaining and highly educational and informative. He even sings to them.

His presentations use live demonstrations, PowerPoint and lots of analogies and relates energy to things the students know. He has different programs, from 45 minutes up to full day programs. He did a great 45 minute presentation for my classes, explaining the concepts of energy, physics behind energy, energy sources, and the future of energy in our world. It is a really great presentation.

The presentation cost us nothing, as Mr. Energy gets his own funding from sources.

His website is The Great American Energy Debate. The site has more information on educational programs, funding, and contact information.

The National Foundation for Energy Education (NFEE) is committed to changing the current energy eduation scene and quadrupling the national level of energy knowledge.  To that end it has developed a unique and entertaining program grounded in science and hinges on student leadership.  The program is The Great American Energy Debate.   Student leaders conduct energy education activities either during the entire school year, or during a month, week, or day.

Awesome Livebinder of Physics Resources

I recently found this Livebinder of Physics Resources. It has resources, lesson materials and activities, links, and more, all organized by Physics units and topics.

It is well organized with some great resources including video clips from the Mythbusters and other fun resources, simulations, and virtual labs.

It is a great resource for teachers or students, especially for a beginning teacher looking for some help getting their lessons organized and finding resources.

Related:

Livebinders - organize materials in online binders

Great Physics Resources for Students and Teachers

Science Scene - collection of resources for physical science and environmental

ScienceScene is a site with some great resources for Physical Science and Environment Science classes.

There are links, useful software to use in the class, news, virtual museums, references and much more.

It is a good place to go for some great ideas to use in these classes.

Pearltree - Ben's Guide to US Government - great resource for K12

Pearltrees is a great, free site I wrote about in January that lets you organize web content in a visual pattern. There is a Chrome browser extension that makes it easy to add sites to your tree. Trees can be shared and even worked on collaboratively.

A member of my PLN (sorry, can't remember who now and I forgot to make a note of it) just shared a great Pearltree: "Ben's Guide to the U.S. Government for Kids."

The resources are sorted by grades: K-2, 3-5, 6-8, 9-12 and there is a page about Ben and a Parent and Educator section. Each section has information, links and resources about the US Government. This is a great resource for anyone teaching, or learning, about the US Government and how it works. 

Here's the main page for 9-12:

This is a great example of how a tool like Pearltrees can be used to create educational resources for students (or even have students create them as a project)