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Science
Active
Learning Projects in Science:
Make
a Farm - Kids Learning Activity
K - 4th Grade
Make a Farm has a barn, silo, chicken coop, fences and
other pieces to put together to make a farm. Kids plan
what animals to raise and what crops are needed to feed
both people and animals. A way for kids to learn about
where food comes from.
2nd Grade Nutrition Lesson
Plans
(We don't know why it was labeled this--did the
teacher get a grant for nutrition study?? It DOES involve
oranges, though.)
Earth Science 2nd grade
Learn about Planetary Rotation, Latitudes and Seasons.
Draw the continents on oranges with magic markers, put a
skewer through them to show the earth's axis, shine
flashlights on them to demonstrate the way the angle of
the sun causes the seasons.
GeoNet Game
3rd grade up
An interactive question and answer game played on the
net. You can choose either easy or hard questions (which
will challenge an adult) in any of six categories. The
questions are clever and well-chosen.
Leonardo's Home Page
4th grade up
Leonardo's Home Page describes the life and work of
Leonardo da Vinci, however, the majority of the site
involves looking at simple machine (as Leonardo did), and
seeing how more complex machines are made from them.
Seeds of Change Garden
Grades 3 - 8
Discusses both botanic and cultural aspects of food, with
emphasis on the differences between New World and Old
World plants. The site contains gardening information for
kids, and recipes. The recipes include some that
originated in either the New World or the Old World
before contact, and so contain only foods known in that
area at the time.
Heart: An Internet Exploration
Grades 3 - 8
If you have a sound card in a PC, listen to hearts
beating at different rates. You can see the different
stages of an unborn baby's heart as it grows, and a
picture of a beating heart.
Web Elements
David’s Whizzy Periodic Table
Web Elements starts with a periodic table of the elements, and then
give details on each element—besides the standard chemical info of
atomic weight, atomic number, symbol, etc.—appearance, biological
role, how to isolate, abundance in meteorites, etc. However,
the site has too many distracting ads, in my opinion.
David’s Whizzy Periodic Table has the electrons whizzing in their
various orbits, how much of the element $100 will buy in what form,
pictures of how the element is generally used (a lifeguard with zinc
oxide on her nose), and more. Fun.
MathMol
Grades 6 - 8
This site is a starting place for molecular modeling.
Rather dry and "textbooky", but it covers some
interesting material. Includes quizzes and models.
Seven Layer Density Column
Fill a tall glass with seven different liquids, most of which can be
found around the house, and get up to seven differently colored
layers, with the help of a bit of food coloring. This is a
great visual lesson in density and how oil and water don’t mix
(called “immiscible” when two substances will not dissolve into each
other). Density can be difficult to understand in such things
as weather, brackish water and ocean currents.
The same layered effect is the basis of a fancy alcoholic drink
known as “pousse cafe”, where grenadine and colored liqueurs are
used to produce layers of different colors.
Air Travelers
4th - 8th grade
This is a basic introduction to the basic principles of
buoyancy, properties of gases, temperature and the
technology of hot air ballooning. Experiments and
excellent graphics.
Make Your Own Weather
Station Science
Instructions on how to make your own weather station
instruments from materials found around the house. Not
only are they cheaper, but by making your own, you can
see how they work.
Volcano World Science
You get the feeling these people
really LIKE volcanoes. Several ways to make models of
volcanoes, predicting eruptions, a quiz on volcanoes, all
as part of a larger volcano site, including the most
recent volcano eruptions. This site could also be used in
conjunction with a large world map to locate volcanoes.
For a FREE program that prints world maps on a PC printer
try Mega
Maps
Where Is It?
Guess what place on earth NASA's pictures
from space show.
Build Your Own Mars
Pathfinder Spacecraft Model Science
Download a pattern to make your own model of Mars
Pathfinder
The World at Night
NASA's Observatorium Science
Can you locate the major cities of the US and Europe? At
night? From a satellite? This is a geography quiz, based
on nighttime satellite pictures.
Imagine the Science
The High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research
Center has this information on red dwarfs, white dwarfs,
dark matter, pulsars and much more!
Solar System Trading Cards
Great pictures on virtual cards that you collect by
correctly identifying pieces of the solar system. More
fun than it sounds.
How Far Is It?
Give the computer the names of two cities, and it will
calculate miles, and show you both cities on a world map
(your choice of projections)
For a FREE program that prints maps from one page to
almost six feet across on a PC printer check out Mega
Maps.
Cyber Tiger National Geographic
"Build a digital habitat for a Siberian tiger"
(in a zoo)
Submarine Mountains
Using a model of underwater mountains, students
make a representation of the mountains the way they would
be seen by sonar.
What Came First?
A highly visual activity for understanding the
sequence of evolution.
Model of Sea-Floor
Spreading
Use the part entitled "A Model of Sea-Floor
Spreading" about half way down the page.
Lots of fascinating material on important subjects;
however, the teacher (or parent) will have to figure it
out some before presenting it to the student. The first
part of the lesson unfortunately uses commercial material
not readily available, but the second part gives a good
model of vital information.
Tracking Global Climate
Change: Microfossil Record of the Planetary Heat Pump
Some excellent information and activities to
illustrate how the planetary heat pump works.
Unfortunately, to do any hands-on with the foraminifera
you need both foraminifera and a binocular microscope,
not readily available. But the first part of the site
really explains the distribution of the sun's energy
on the earth and some of its effects.
Interpreting
Paleoenvironments with Microfossils
The more complicated parts of this lesson are
simply too technical, even for most high school students.
It does, however, give some more information on how
students may be able to collect foraminifera (protozoans
about the size of a grain of sand) fossils
Dino-Facts A Unit on
Dinosaur Behavior
Good information about dinosaur fossils, and how
scientists interpret fossils to theorize about their
meaning.
Correlation and Strata
Students use index fossils to trace specific
strata that occur in both France and Montana. Students
learn that certain creatures which became fossils existed
only at specific times, and in a certain order. Only in a
few of these is there a chance of finding fossils.
Findasaurus
Not really interactive, but a fun list of (real
and imaginary) dinosaur names
Laser Activities
Make an artificial fog, and examine the laser
beam through it. Also games to play with your cat or
dog--my cat thought this was the best game ever.
Dry Ice Experiments
Sounds fun, and a little wild. Do make sure
everyone has eye protection, and that no one handles the
dry ice with bare hands.
Aeronautics
Internet Textbook
K- 8
The principles of aeronautics and some experiments to
demonstrate them.
Lady Washington
Learn how to find positions on a map, from the crew of
the Lady Washington, a traditional square-rigger sailing
ship.
Making a Chicken Mummy
This site has a LOT about mummies, including how to mummify a
chicken. Some of this site is not for the faint-hearted, which is
why kids will love it. From the deliberately created Egyptian
mummies to the bog mummies of Northern Europe, some of whom seem to
have been human sacrifice, to plaster casts of people trapped in
Pompeii by the volcano, it offers glimpses of other cultures and
their ideas about life and death.
Updated
6/1/08
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