My Water Supply
http://www.mywatersupply.org/
The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum offers several online exhibits for kids, including the My Water Supply Web site geared towards students grade 6 through 12. The site's goal is to document drinking water sources throughout the world through individual stories and photographs by having kids investigate and submit information about their water resources. As the students investigate their areas' water resources, it is hoped that they gain a deeper understanding of the water's importance and then will work towards water protection. Students can also view water supply information submitted by others in the growing database to compare and contrast others' experiences. And, although the number of actual submittals is not yet extensive, as more classrooms contribute more students will learn the important lessons the site is trying to share. [JAB]
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Energy Tutorial
http://www.nfcrc.uci.edu/EnergyTutorial/
The University of California at Irvine's National Fuel Cell Research Center maintains the Energy Tutorial Web site. This well designed online tutorial takes students through more than twenty subject areas, including energy, fossil fuels, solar energy, biomass and waste, energy conversion, fuel cells, environmental impacts, and much more. Each topic includes non-technical text, photographs, graphs, and other interesting graphics, as well as a short quiz and additional links on the topic. The easily navigable tutorial could be adapted for nearly any grade level making it an excellent addition to any environmentally-related curriculum. [JAB]
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ARM Education Center: Lesson Plans
http://www.arm.gov/docs/education/tlessons.html
The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program is described as an important part of the US Department of Energy's strategy to understand global climate change. The ARM Education and Outreach Program offers the Lesson Plans Web site that strives to create basic science lessons related to weather and climate for K-12. Educators will find lessons on outgassing, air density and temperature, air pressure, winds, making clouds, the effect of solar radiation on land and sea, coastal erosion, acid rain, and many more -- each with a complete description of methods and materials needed. Other resources that can be found on the site include an extensive atmospheric science glossary, a learn how to graph activity, specific lessons that utilize ARM's Program data, quizzes, and related links. [JAB]
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Fun Science Gallery
http://www.funsci.com/texts/index_en.htm
The Fun Science Gallery Web site "promotes laboratory activities such as performing scientific experiments or building instruments. It makes an effort to supply the information and methods to create fully functional instruments and to carry out genuine research activities to which people might become dedicated for the rest of their lives." Educators will find a wide array of lessons and articles with titles such as: From Lenses to Optical Instruments, A Sidereal Indicator, A Stereoscopic Microscope, Experiments in Electrochemistry, The Necklace of Democritus, A One-Dollar Compound Microscope, and many others. The unique and original offerings of the site represent a top-notch resource that is best suited for high school students but could be easily adapted to younger and older students alike. [JAB]
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The Faces of Science: African Americans in the Sciences
http://www.princeton.edu/~mcbrown/display/faces.html
A wonderful collection of biographies and information on the many contributions of African American scientists are available at this site. Fields of work highlighted include biochemistry, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, genetics, meteorology, geology, oceanography, and several other sciences. Continually updated, the site offers many new contributions since its last review, including special highlighted areas for woman and for the first African Americans who earned doctoral degrees in their field. Each biography includes a photograph (if available) and a brief description of the person's life and work. This important site, which would be a good addition to K-8 curriculums, may help to inspire students to work towards realizing their dreams as well as giving students a look at the bigger picture of the world of science. [JAB]
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GEMS Teacher's Guides: Online Activities page [Flash]
http://www.lhsgems.org/gemsguidesact.html
Provided by Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California-Berkeley, the goal of the GEMS Web site is to provide hours of family fun while developing inquiry skills and building positive attitudes toward science and learning. Although a majority of the products and activates on the site must be ordered, several are provided free of charge on the GEMS Teacher's Guides: Online Activities page. These quality products include Star Clock and Alien Juice bar activities, among others. The Juice bar activity, for example, lets students learn about acids and bases and the pH scale through an interactive and colorful online game. [JAB]
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Thomas S. Warren Museum of Fluorescence: About Fluorescence
http://www.sterlinghill.org/warren/aboutfluorescence.htm
The Warren Museum "was founded in 1999 to better share the wonders of fluorescence with the public and to serve as an educational facility for teachers." The interesting site provides a thorough description of what fluorescence and phosphorescence is, the various types of fluorescence, their uses, and much more. The Specimen Photos link offers more than a dozen examples of naturally occurring fluorescence materials such as fluorite and calcite along with brief descriptions. Visitors are also are given specific information on how to best use the site for educational purposes, making it a great and unique resource for teachers searching for something new to share with their students. [JAB]
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The Science Museum of Minnesota: Thinking Fountain
http://www.sci.mus.mn.us/sln/tf/top.html
The Science Museum of Minnesota offers the extensive Welcome to the Thinking Fountain educational Web site. The many science activities provided on the site include: Bubbles, chromatography, density, friction, inventions, optics, light, recycling, and more. Visitors to the site can browse the activities alphabetically or by theme cluster, or can click on the interactive graphic on the main page. This site does a good job of providing quality lessons for science students in various grade levels; lessons that, besides being fun to complete, also help explain some of the more confusing science topics students confront. [JAB]
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