TeachersFirst - Featured Sites: Week of Feb 10, 2019
Here are this week's features. Clicking the tags in the description area of each listing will present a list of other resources with this topic. | Click here to return to the Featured Sites Archive
UL Xplorlabs - Underwriters Laboratories
Grades
7 to 12
tag(s): electricity (94), energy (210), fire (28), fire safety (15), heat (17), problem solving (294), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
You and your students will benefit from this site's free materials to include in your science lab activities to teach content, problem-solving, and scientific investigation techniques. As students begin activities replace paper and pencil and use a digital graphic organizer such as one found at TUZZit, reviewed here, to organize questions and gather information. Upon completion of experiments, enhance learning and have students share their work using Printing Press, reviewed here, to create a one-page newspaper or brochure including images and text. At the end of your unit, have students use Biteable, reviewed here, to redefine their learning and create an explainer video sharing and demonstrating the results of their lab activities.You must be registered and logged in to add items to your favorites.
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K-3 STEM Foundations - Life Science - BioEd Online
Grades
K to 4tag(s): animals (319), brain (67), environment (321), habitats (110), plants (177), preK (284), senses (32), water cycle (32)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free lessons to use when teaching life science concepts in your classroom. Instead of printing worksheets for students, use a digital tool like Duck Soup, reviewed here, to scan the worksheet and create a digital activity. This tool allows students to "write" on worksheets digitally instead of using paper and pencil. Duck Soup includes features for allowing students to retry and submit work and also allows you to set a deadline for work submission. Enhance student learning by using FlipGrid, reviewed here, to create video response questions for your students. Use the questions provided with the lesson units to challenge student thinking, then ask them to respond in Flipgrid.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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SCALE Science Education - Stanford University
Grades
6 to 8tag(s): adaptations (19), biodiversity (36), cells (101), chemicals (46), climate change (71), earth (227), ecosystems (91), energy (210), genealogy (8), genetics (89), matter (62), oceans (165), solar system (122), space (230)
In the Classroom
Save yourself a little time with these free units and include them with your current teaching materials. Also, take advantage of the site's free webinar introducing the materials and how to use them in the classroom. Instead of using written journals throughout your unit, ask students to replace these by keeping online journals with Microsoft Word or Google Documents. Throughout the lessons ask students to highlight and share important information, add annotations, and add links to additional information. As you add resources for students, use Wakelet, reviewed here, to share information on your website or blog. Ask students to stretch their learning and create personal Wakelets including images from projects and their journal entries. As a final project, have students modify their learning by creating an explainer video of their activities using a video creation tool like Typito, reviewed here. Typito includes a broad range of editing tools in an easy to use format for creating video explainers.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Those Amazing Engineers - Those Amazing Professions Inc
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): careers (147), engineering (134), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
Share this site with students as part of career exploration lessons. Instead of creating a list of sites to share with students, replace the list by saving bookmarks with Symbaloo, reviewed here, to make information easy to find and access. After researching the different engineering fields ask students to modify learning and create a web page sharing a day in the life of their chosen field. Carrd, reviewed here, is a free webpage creation tool that provides many tools for professional-looking pages. Find many other resources to encourage creativity and engineering at TeachersFirst Makerspace Resources, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Space School Musical - Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology
Grades
3 to 12tag(s): moon (76), planets (133), readers theater (14), space (230), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
Appeal to your students' love of music and drama to teach key space concepts with this site. Instead of just watching the videos, enhance learning using EdPuzzle, reviewed here. Use EdPuzzle to upload the video then add questions to help student comprehension or as a starter for further exploration. Have students interested in music and theater create their own production of Space School Musical (or their original space production). Allow students who aren't interested in being featured in the production to create scenery, be authors and add additional information, or help videotape and share the finished project. Redefine learning by having other students create video explainers using a video creation tool like My Simpleshow, reviewed here. Use these explainers as part of your ongoing assessment of student learning in place of a written report.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Expii - Expii, Inc.
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): atoms (55), cells (101), charts and graphs (199), decimals (127), earth (227), electricity (94), equations (154), fractions (231), magnetism (40), molecules (46), number lines (33), number sense (95), planets (133), ratios (63), space (230), stars (70), STEM (205), sun (70), transformations (19), variables (20)
In the Classroom
Include Expii with your links for students to use at home and in class. Expii is an excellent way to provide content explanation through the voice of many different speakers, allowing the opportunity to increase student understanding. To enhance learning, ask groups of students to view lessons provided by the different contributors, then ask them to compare and contrast information by creating a concept map or Venn Diagram using Canva, reviewed here. At the end of a teaching unit, ask students to redefine what they learned using a multimedia tool like Adobe Spark in K-12, reviewed here, or Sway, reviewed here, to share their learning. Be sure to have them include their own video explanation of the content.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Science News for Students - Society for Science and the Public
Grades
4 to 8tag(s): body systems (59), brain (67), careers (147), earth (227), environment (321), evolution (103), genetics (89), human body (133), space (230), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
Include a link to Science News for Students on classroom computers to include with other non-fiction reading resources for students. Have students browse through the site to find information of interest when choosing science fair or research topics. Alter students' learning by asking them to create an infographic related to a science topic using Canva Infographic Creator, reviewed here. This very easy to use tool includes drag and drop tools for easy creation of infographics using included templates or your own design. Take student research a step further and redefine their learning by having students use ThingLink, reviewed here, to upload an image related to their science research and add annotations. Thinglink offers tools for adding text, audio, video, and more to images. Weaker readers will need a reading buddy for some of the more challenging article. Classes in lower grades will want to read the articles together. A quick check on one article using Juicy Studio's Readability test, reviewed here, provided an approximate grade level of 6.5. Check articles before assigning to elementary students. You might also want to use Word Sift, reviewed here, to quickly identify important words that appear in the text.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Twitter Chat: Infusing STEM Into Any Classroom - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): STEM (205), twitterchatarchive (58)
In the Classroom
Are you ready to infuse STEM into your classroom? Learn new STEM trends and tools for your classroom. Share this chat with your colleagues looking for sites and information about infusing STEM into the classroom. Explore the various tools that are shared.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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MySciLife - TeachersFirst
Grades
6 to 9tag(s): animals (319), critical thinking (116), descriptive writing (42), digital citizenship (68), plants (177), scientists (69), social media (32), STEM (205), volcanoes (66), writing (364)
In the Classroom
Join MySciLife to bring excitement and energy to your science classroom. As you complete activities in the platform, use a concept mapping site like MindMup, reviewed here, to replace paper/pencil version of a concept map. Alter students' learning by asking them to create and share infographics based on their research and sharing of ideas. Canva, reviewed here, is an easy to use site for creating infographics using pre-made templates or from scratch. Take student learning to a whole new level by redefining it and having them create a game-based learning activity for their peers using Symbaloo Learning Paths, reviewed here. Symbaloo Learning Paths offers many options for creating differentiated learning using video, quizzes, and more.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Curious George STEM Collection - PBS Kids
Grades
K to 6tag(s): air (144), architecture (84), careers (147), charts and graphs (199), engineering (134), measurement (179), recycling (59), rockets (18), senses (32), simple machines (35), soil (21), sorting (12), STEM (205), water (132)
In the Classroom
Take advantage of these free lessons and videos to add to your current STEM teaching resources. Ask students to blog about their experiences as a substitution for handwritten journals using a tool like Seesaw, reviewed here. This tool makes blogging easy, even for the youngest students. For augmentation of lessons take pictures of class activities, then have students annotate images using ThingLink, reviewed here. Use ThingLink for students to modify their learning by adding a voice recording of their understanding of science and math concepts learned during lessons.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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OK Go Sandbox - University of St Thomas and Dr. AnnMarie Thomas
Grades
6 to 12tag(s): gravity (51), mass (25), motion (70), sound (106), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
Delight your students with the videos and activities provided on the site to include with your current science lessons. Place students in groups to complete the challenges offered. Have students replace paper and pen and take collaborative, digital notes using Webnote, reviewed here; tell students to be sure to save the URL to share their notes and questions with you and their peers. Ask students to record their work images and video. Redefine learning and challenge students to share their final projects including the digital research notes, images, and videos using a multimedia presentation tool like Sway, reviewed here.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Math Resources for All Grades - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 12tag(s): charts and graphs (199), data (157), equations (154), geometric shapes (167), measurement (179), number lines (33), number sense (95), numbers (191), operations (119), order of operations (40), probability (135)
In the Classroom
Save this list for when teaching any math class in grades K-12. Many of the resources would work in a BYOD environment. Share these lists on your class website for students to access for additional practice.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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Roots of STEM: Books and ideas for real world problem solving in your classroom - TeachersFirst
Grades
K to 6tag(s): commoncore (89), reading lists (77), STEM (205)
In the Classroom
Start with the books as part of your reading lessons, and you have already given STEM a way to take root in your class! Incorporate STEM in accordance with Common Core reading/math or Next Gen Science standards using the many suggestions here. This article will help you begin with whole group lessons and move through the entire problem-solving process. Perhaps you will want to work together on a project with your grade level team.Add your comments below (available only to members) | Become a Member
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