Science Topics

Use science topic words to find web sites with lesson plans and activities.

Observation

1. BioInteractive virtual labs
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028271
   This web site, produced by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, contains interactive virtual laboratory exercises that demonstrate biomedical skills and procedures. Available exercises include Bacterial Identification, Cardiology, Neurophysiology, and Immunology.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
2. PathFinder science
   Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): 5 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026972
   This Internet site is a portal to all the research projects from the PathFinder Science Collaborative Research program. The program is founded on the national standards and benchmarks that call for students to better understand the process of science by actually doing science.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
3. TeachingPlastics.org
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2001 Grade(s): K - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 026941
   This Internet site, from the American Plastics Council, provides background information and printable, inquiry-based lesson plans for students in grades K-8 to better understand plastic. The lessons are divided into two curriculum programs, Hands on Plastics for grades 5-8, and a junior version of this program for grades K-4, each satisfying National Science Education Standards and designed in conjunction with National Middle Level Science Teachers Association.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
4. Tidepool math
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2003 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 029361
   This web site provides two different sets of lesson plans that integrate science and math in the context of having students examine the organisms in a tidepool environment. One set of plans is for students in grades K-8, while the other set is intended for high school students.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
5. KanGIS: K-12 GIS, Geographic Information Systems community : GIS for schools
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 025979
   This Internet site provides resources for using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the classroom. The site highlights teacher training resources and lessons for implementation of GIS in K-12 classes.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
6. eBird, North America's destination for birding on the web
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): K - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 026647
   This web site provides information about bird species, with special emphasis on their distribution and abundance. The site is maintained as a joint project between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Audubon Society.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
7. Square of life: studies in local and global environments
   Featured in ENC Focus  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): 1 - 5 Cost: Free ENC#: 026056
   This Internet site provides a collaborative online project for elementary school students to learn what living and nonliving things are found in different locations around the world. The project is performed in both the fall and spring of each school year, and registration in the form of a letter of introduction about the school and town is required for participation.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
8. Space for species
   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 2002 Grade(s): 6 - Post-Sec. Cost: Free ENC#: 025146
   This interactive World Wide Web (WWW) site allows students in grades 6-9 to track migratory animals and monitor their habitats from space satellites. Developed by the Canadian Space and Wildlife Agencies and the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing, this web-based learning site combines science and technology to help students conduct scientific inquiries.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
9. Boil, boil, toil and trouble: the international boiling point project
   Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
   Date: 1999 Grade(s): 6 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 015776
   This World Wide Web (WWW) site is designed to allow students to participate in an international inquiry to discover which factor (room temperature, elevation, volume of water, or heating device) has the greatest influence on boiling point. The site is developed and managed by the Center for Improved Engineering and Science Education (CIESE) which is located at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
   (For more details, see ENC Record.)
   
   
10. Who dunnit?
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 2000 Grade(s): 6 - 9 Cost: Free ENC#: 019798
    This Internet site features a mystery for students to solve using forensic science, the study of objects that relate to a crime. Students first complete four skill building forensic assignments and then try to solve the Case of the Barefoot Burglar based on the crime scene report.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
11. Exploring Leonardo [da Vinci]
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1997 Grade(s): 4 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 014042
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, designed for grades 4 to 8 and developed by the Museum of Science, Boston, for the Science Learning Network, provides students with a historical role model for creative scientific thinking integrated with all aspects of life. A letter to the teacher recommends a flow of the lesson that begins with the solicitation of student ideas, investigation of the Web site by the students, and the generation of additional student questions.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
12. Journey north: a global study of wildlife migration
    ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1996 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 004101
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site is host to an annual Internet based learning adventure in a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. Beginning on Groundhog's Day (February second) students relay migrational data on different animals and the arrival of spring when tulips bloom in their communities.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
13. Cool science for curious kids
    Featured in ENC Focus   ENC Digital Dozen Site  
    Date: 1998 Grade(s): K - 3 Cost: Free ENC#: 014026
    This World Wide Web (WWW) site, supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Precollege and Science Educations Program, is designed to help children in grades K to 3 appreciate the enjoyable and practical aspects of science. A letter to parents suggests that they connect the children's ideas to preexisting ideas, record scientific observations from their own experience in a variety of ways, and emphasize the scientific process instead of specific facts.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
14. Edheads activities: free online activities
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 2 - 6 Cost: Free ENC#: 027151
    This Internet site offers educational web activities that are free to teachers and students. The resource is created and maintained by a nonprofit organization whose goal is to use the Internet to help teach traditionally difficult subjects.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
15. Human genetic variation
    Date: 2002 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 028424
    This Internet site, maintained by the National Human Genome Research Institute (part of the National Institutes of Health), provides a curriculum supplement for students in grades 9-12 to learn about genetic variation and biomedical research. The supplement includes five downloadable inquiry-based activities along with a teacher guide.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
16. Genetic origins: the study of human evolution begins with your DNA
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 9 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026955
    This Internet site, maintained by the Dolan DNA Learning Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, provides two complete lessons for studying evolution through DNA fingerprinting. Lesson titles include Mitochondrial (mt) Point Mutations and Alu Insertion Polymorphism.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
17. Student activities in meteorology
    Date: 2003 Grade(s): 5 - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 027219
    This Internet site, maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), provides 10 activities for students to use real data to learn about meteorology. Each activity presents a problem to be investigated and offers background information, printable data, and worksheets with questions about the activity.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
18. Hands-on science projects: projects that help middle school age youth discover the science and mathematics in everyday
    Date: 2000 Grade(s): 6 - 9 Cost: Free ENC#: 025785
    This Internet site offers hands-on activities for middle school science teachers. The activities are designed to help students, particularly girls, develop an interest in science by making connections to the real world.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
19. Walking with woodlice
    Date: 2002 Grade(s): 4 - 8 Cost: Free ENC#: 025955
    This Internet site describes and supports a field activity in which students identify and analyze the biodiversity of woodlice, commonly known as sowbugs. This is one of 10 British Natural History Museum Interactive Online Exhibitions designed to promote active learning and scientific inquiry skills.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)
    
    
20. National Science Center (NSC): teacher tools
    Date: 2001 Grade(s): K - 12 Cost: Free ENC#: 026344
    This Internet site offers hands-on activities and resources for K-12 science and mathematics teachers. The National Science Center (NSC), in a partnership with the United States Army, developed this site to stimulate interest in mathematics and science careers and to improve technical literacy in students.
    (For more details, see ENC Record.)