Web References for Science Teachers
Also see: Florida's New Science Standards Q&A
Click on one of these links to skip down to that section:
Florida State Science Standards & Course Descriptions
Curriculum and lesson plans
Great resources that Teachers and Kids love.
The (**) indicates great teacher sites: These are done by teachers and are mostly used as a syllabus for their classrooms. They are organized in a way that makes them easy to use and are all teacher tested.
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/ Middle School
/ High School
**Science-Class.net / K-12 / all fields of science
This site was designed initally as a resource for the students and parents & guardians of the students in my science classes. Over the years it has evolved into a teacher resource site as well. I am still an active educator, however I am no longer a classroom teacher; so this site is my small contribution to science teachers, students, and parents who might find something of use here. This site has become a hobby for me; as well as a way to keep in touch with other science teachers.
Science Notebooks / K-12
An important part of inquiry-based learning is writing and reflecting on what you have learned. This provides some great ideas and powerpoints of real scientists' notebooks.
Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education / K-12
Interdisciplinary projects that teachers throughout the world can use to enhance their curriculum through compelling use of the Internet. We 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.
**Operation Physics / grades 4-9
Operation Physics is a curriculum of 13 physics units that was developed in 1988 for the purpose of educating teachers of grades 4-9 who are teaching physical science. Information provided in this web site was edited and/or developed to teach teachers in northern Ohio from 1990 through 2005 by Richard Heckathorn. It is presently being used to teach prospective Middle School Science teachers at Baldwin Walace College, Berea, Ohio
Middle School Science / 5-8 / all science subjects
Activities and Internet sites are organized in a syllabus form. Highly recommended!
My Science Box / middle school / Earth science and life science
Lots of great hands-on activities by topic. Created and tested by teachers at the San Francisco Exploratorium. You can leave comments on the site.
**The Science Spot / middle school
Lessons and activities, science puzzles, new science starters in ppt format, technology corner. A terrific site with lots of free resources by subject area!
**Mrs Putnams Earth and Life Science Classes / middle school
Pinellis County, Florida / on her school website.
**Middle Web Pages / middle school / All fields
A list of websites and references for middle school science teachers.
ENSI: Evolution and the Nature of Science Institute / secondary school
This is my favorite site for teaching nature of science and evolution in a way that helps students avoid misconceptions about scientific theories such as evolution. Great curriculum that the kids love!
**Awesome Science Teacher Resources / high school / middle school / chemistry - biology
"This site is designed to provide high school and middle school science teachers access to the materials and resources that I have collected during my 37 years of teaching in the field. Some of the materials are of my own design, but many are those I have borrowed from others and refined for my own use."
**A Complete Timeline for Atomic Structures / high school / middle school / chemistry - biology
"Over the centuries, much advancement has been made in the field of atomic structures. Here’s a complete timeline about the biggest events in the research about atomic structures."
**MicrobeWiki / high school / middle school / chemistry - biology
"MicrobeWiki is a free wiki resource on microbes and microbiology, edited by students and monitored by microbiologists at Kenyon College. We invite you to use our MicrobeWiki to study the microbial world with us."
**Virtual Microbiology Classroom / high school / middle school / chemistry - biology
"This is the home page for supplemental material that I provide to students taking my Microbiology for Health Science (HCR 120) course. You don't need to be enrolled in this class to access the materials here. Anyone taking, teaching or interested in microbiology may find this material useful and is welcome to use it."
**New York Science Teacher / Secondary students / all fields
"Your home for science labs, demonstrations, lesson plans, activities, worksheets, notes, regents review material, educational related information & more! The goal of "New York Science Teacher" is to create a central point where all New York State (NYS) Science Teachers can come to access the vast resources created by other teachers." Check out the movie site with worksheets for science movies and you also have access to Regents test questions.
Visionlearning / middle school / high school
Website features a free, bilingual library of succinct, award-winning learning modules that integrate text, multimedia, and other resources to make learning exciting. Instructors can customize the modules with comments, links and notes by registering for our free MyClassroom system.
**PaleoMaps / high school / middles school / Earth Science
The goal of the PALEOMAP Project is to illustrate the plate tectonic development of the ocean basins and continents, as well as the changing distribution of land and sea during the past 1100 million years. In the Earth History section of this website are full-color paleogeographic maps showing the ancient mountain ranges and shorelines, active plate boundaries, and the extent of paleoclimatic belts.
**The Biology Corner / high school / middle school
"A resource site for biology and science teachers. The Lesson Plans section contains classroom activities, labs and worksheets. Feel free to change any of these to suit your own classroom needs. The Webquest section contains inquiry based projects that utilize the Internet. Internet lessons (also called miniquests) are smaller activities that use one or two science related web sites for the students to explore and answer questions about. Again, feel free to modify these activities so that they work for your class and your style of teaching. I've been making it a personal mission to locate and compile interactive science education sites."
**Dr Annette M. Parrott, Science Educator / high school / Biology
Listed by subject area / includes websites and lesson plan sites plus some excellent general resources
**Science Blue Team / high school / Biology
Inspiring use of technology / podcasts / blog and webcam. Lesson plans in syllabus form / good nature of science materials.
Scope, Sequence, and Coordination / high school
SS&C micro-units for grade 9 (901-969) and grade 10 (1001-1055) were developed in conjunction with the NSTA publication Scope, Sequence, and Coordination: A Framework for High School Science Education. By subject / downloadable in adobe format.
Access Excellence / high school / Health and Bioscience
Activities exchange, multimedia resources, Science News, Online Health Museum site
ActionBioscience.org / high school / college
Provides original peer-edited lessons, written by science educators, to specifically accompany peer-reviewed articles on our site. Each lesson contains questions related to the article, as well as a variety of student activities that promote active learning and inquiry into current issues in the biosciences. Biotechnology, Genomics, Environment, Evolution, Biodiversity and New Frontiers.
HHMI / high school / College / biomedical - genetics
High Quality Free stuff compliments of the legendary Howard Hughes! I have used some of their booklets with my middle school students but they are more High school to college level. DVD lectures including some evolution topics and interactive labs both on DVD and on line .
Teaching Real Science
You may be worried about teaching a particular unit. You want the kids to feel comfortable in your classroom so they will learn, and you want a minimum of hassle for yourself. Here are some helpful sources of information just for you!
This site was created by the University of California Museum of Paleontology with support provided by the National Science Foundation (grant no. 0096613) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (grant no. 51003439). An excellent Teacher resource for strategies for success in teaching evolution.
Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science
An online book that includes background on the legal aspects of teaching evolution, support statements from 3 major science education organizations and lessons and background on teaching nature of science and evolution using the inquiry approach. From the National Academy of Sciences reading room.
Miller and Levine Talks references / evolution and global warming
These two professors have written the best selling High School Biology Text from Prentice Hall and love to talk to Teachers! Miller is a devout catholic and an evolutionary biologist. Check out his book Finding Darwin's God. Powerpoints and other references you can use in the classroom .
Evolution resources for the public school teacher - high school - middle school
From Swarthmore college and site with recommendations on teaching evolution including curriculum reviews. For "teachers, those who accept evolution and are excited to teach it, welcome . I have collected some resources, below, in the hopes of making your lives easier."
European Society for Evolutionary Biology
Evolution Matters: A Guide to the Creationism/Evolution Controversy. This website provides information and online resources to help improve public education and understanding of evolution.
National and Statewide Support for Good Science
We all need a little help sometimes and a larger view of what is going on
in science education statewide and nationwide.
Florida Citizens for Science
The site you are currently on. We defend and promote good science, especially in the public school classroom. A good resource for what is happening on public education issues in Florida. Check out our blog for up to the minute news on education in Florida.
National Center for Science Education
The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) defends the teaching of evolution in public schools. Resources for parents, teachers, school boards, and the general public
NSTA / National Science Teachers Association
Scrape together the 60 bucks or so and Join! Then immediately sign up for a list serve and you will have at your fingertips the advice of some of the best teachers in the country. Just ask anything you like! If you are overwhelmed by the number of postings, you can subscribe to a digest or have your email service take the subject line and sort those emails into their own folder to read as you have time. You will also receive a great magazine tailored to your own subject area(s)
National Science Resources Center / k-12 / all fields
Supports and trains teachers in research based science education including inquiry based science teaching.
Florida Department of Education
Floirda State support of Standards implementation
Professional Development for Science Teachers
Don't think boring "let me out of here" mass imprisonments that will do you no earthly good. Think individualized activities that you choose because you need them that are the best quality available.
Annenberg Media Learner.org
Teacher resources and teacher professional development programming across the curriculum.
Free / High Quality online courses on science inquiry and science background by subject. Requires broadband connections to take online.
Online courses developed to enhance your science teaching, including inquiry-based instructional strategies, cooperative learning in elementary science, and more.
Also from PBS - Free online curriculum on Evolution:
Eight-session professional development course to deepen your understanding of evolution and address obstacles to teaching it.
NSTA Web Seminars
These 90-minute, live professional development experiences allow distant participants to interact with recognized experts including NSTA Press authors, and scientists, engineers, and education specialists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Science Digital Library (NSDL). Seminars are from 6:30/8 p.m., EST. These online events are grant-funded, so they are offered at no cost; however, the number of participants is limited; it's first come, first served on the day of the program. Register early to receive a username. Password and other program information will follow via e-mail.
FAST Conference (Florida Association of Science Teachers)
Beg borrow and steal to get to this conference! Write a SAC committee grant for registration and expenses. Take as many colleagues as possible, have dinner, get to know each other and do some planning on the side. Your students will benefit from all of this more than just about any other professional development you can do!
Online courses for graduate work at US universities:
Florida State has an online masters in science education designed solely for practicing teachers.
Michigan has a Master's of Earth Science Education Program.
Montana has online classes highly recommended by teachers on the NSTA list serve
Technology for Teachers
Being an Edtech, Geek and Nerd ...
Teachers Domain / k-12
The best collection I have found of multimedia for teaching - free - embedded in curriculum activities and background information - searchable by topic. Register and maintain your own site that saves sets of activities tailored to your curriculum requirements.
Maintain your own collection of favorite website links available anywhere. I share a chipmark site with some of my colleagues. We all add to the collection and share our favorites. You can organize the links into folders by subject area.
TEDS / Ideas worth spreading / Videos / Advanced middle school / high school - college
Twenty minute videos from the TEDS talks given every year by cutting edge leaders in the arts and sciences. Multimedia keeps it from being " Talking Heads " and you can find anyone from Watson on discovering DNA to EO Wilson on the Diversity of Life plus fascinating young scientists on the cutting edge. Videos can be domwnloaded and have a menu so you can just show a part of them easily.
FCAT Explorer / 4-12 / addresses all the science standards for these levels
Terrific review materials for students with interactivity on the web free to Florida students and teachers. You can easily and quickly add your students to classes and give them passwords to take home. I use this for review of sections / has a lot of vocabulary help and is very kid friendly.