The Science of Gardening - Interactives and Videos

The Science of Gardening is a superb collection of interactive graphics and videos about gardening that I learned about from Mark Dunk on Twitter. Produced by Exploratorium, Science of Gardening has three basic categories; Feed, Control, and Bloom. In each category there are multiple videos and interactive graphics for students to explore.

In the Feed category students learn about dirt, compost, and seeds. The "garden variety" interactive reveals to student the origins of some common plants like corn, squash, onions, and carrots. Students can also take a video tour of a garden and learn what it takes to create good soil.

In the Control category of Science of Gardening students learn about like hybridizing plants, biodiversity, growing plants in a greenhouse, and take a look at a giant pumpkin competition.

Finally, in the Bloom category students explore pollination, the attraction of flowers, and see that a garden can grow just about anywhere when it is cared properly cared for.

Applications for Education
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere (just a week away now) I'm sure many of us will be thinking about the blooming plants around us. Some of us may even have students planting gardens at home or at school (the alternative ed school in my district does that). The Science of Gardening could be a good resource to build a science lesson around that students can relate to outside of the classroom.

Create a Virtual Volcanic Eruption

A couple of years I posted a list of five good resources for teaching about volcanoes. Last week, through Ask a Tech Teacher, I discovered another resource to add to that list. The Discovery Channel's Volcano Explorer provides a small simulation that students can use to design a volcanic eruption. Using the Volcano Explorer students choose the magma viscosity and gas content to create a virtual volcanic eruption. When students make their selections the Volcano Explorer provides a short explanation of how those settings will affect the shape of the volcano and its eruption.

Applications for Education
Discovery's Volcano Explorer could be a nice little simulation to use in an elementary school science lesson. While students won't experience the fun mess of the baking soda and vinegar eruptions that we did as kids, the Volcano Explorer does provide some direct explanation and visuals of magma and gasses in action.

Award-Winning Science Visualizations

The National Science Foundation's International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge annually recognizes individuals and organizations who produce educational graphics. There are five award categories; videos, interactive games, informational posters and graphics, illustrations, and photography. The awards recognize outstanding visualizations that can help educate students about complex topics in science. For example, Sponge Lab's Build a Body that I wrote about last week was an award winner in 2011. Another example is found in the video embedded below.


Applications for Education
If you're looking for some informative graphics to support your science lesson plans, take a look at the past winners of the National Science Foundation's International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge.

Learn Chemistry - Videos, Lessons, and an Interactive Periodic Table

Learn Chemistry is a production of the Royal Society of Chemistry. The purpose of Learn Chemistry is provide educators with resources for teaching chemistry lessons to students of all ages. The database of instructional resources has more than 2700 entries organized according to topic, age of students, and media type.

 A couple of resources for middle school and high school lessons that stand out are the Faces of Chemistry video series and the Visual Elements Periodic Table. The Faces of Chemistry is a set of short videos that explain how chemistry is an integral part of three fairly common activities; hair coloring, farming, and car exhaust control. The Face of Chemistry videos are targeted toward students between eleven and fourteen years of age. The first video in the series is embedded below.


The Visual Elements Periodic Table is an interactive display of the Periodic Table of Elements. Click on any element in the table to reveal important information about that element. Many of the element information pages include short videos.

Applications for Education
Whether you teach elementary school, middle school, or high school students, Learn Chemistry seems to have something for everyone. Check out the Learn Chemistry Wiki to see materials developed by other teachers, share your own materials, and find partners for collaborative lessons.

Interactive Build a Body Lesson

Sponge Lab Biology recently won a National Science Foundation award for its interactive Build a Body activity. Spend a few minutes using Build a Body and it is easy to understand why it was recognized by the NSF.

In Sponge Lab Biology's Build a Body students construct a human body system-by-system. To build a body students drag and drop into place the organs and bones of a human body. Each organ and bone is accompanied by a description of the purpose of that bone or organ. The systems that students can build in the Build a Body activity are the skeletal, digestive, respiratory, nervous, excretory, and circulatory systems.

Build a Body has a case study menu in which students can read about diseases, disorders, and and other concerns that affect the human body. In each case study students are given a short description of the concern followed by a question that they should be able to answer after completing the Build a Body activity.

Applications for Education
Build a Body was designed with high school students in mind. Build a Body could be an excellent resource to pair with Biodigital Human or Healthline's Body Maps. Have students use the Body Maps and Biodigital Human to study the construction of the human body then use Build a Body to test their knowledge.

Gooru - Great Collections of Science and Math Resources

Gooru is a new service (still carrying the Alpha label) that aims to provide teachers and students with an extensive collection of videos, interactive displays, documents, diagrams, and quizzes for learning about topics in math and science.

As a Gooru member you have access to hundreds of resources according to subject areas such as chemistry, biology, ecology, algebra, calculus, and more. Within each subject area you can look for resources according to media type such as video, interactive display, slides, text, and lesson plans. When you find resources that you want to use, drag them to the resources folder within your account. Gooru also offers you the option to add resources to your folders even if you did not find them within Gooru.

Applications for Education
Gooru could be a great place for math and science teachers to locate lesson plans and other materials to use in their classrooms. Students can create Gooru accounts to find useful review materials and take practice tests on the subjects they're studying.

One Month Left to Enter The Kids' Science Challenge

Back in October I wrote about the Kids' Science Challenge. A post on Fred Delventhal's blog just reminded me about it. There is one month left for students in grades three through six to enter the Kids' Science Challenge.

The Kids' Science Challenge is a national (United States) contest for students in grades three through six. The challenge asks students to innovate and build upon on our current conceptions of how things work. There are three areas of innovation in this year's contest; reducing waste, developing meals to be eaten on Mars, and developing a toy or game that demonstrates an animal's intelligence. The contest is open until February 29, 2012.

Applications for Education
To help students start thinking about the topics in The Kids' Science Challenge, the challenge website has a series of games and videos for students. For teachers, The Kids' Science Challenge offers a page of lesson plans and hands-on activities designed to help students develop ideas related to the contest's three challenge topics.

Science Fair Project Ideas from Education.com

The second half of the school year seems to be when the most science fairs happen. If you and your students are looking for some ideas for science fair projects, Education.com offers some good ideas that you can use as-is or adapt to fit your specific situation. On the Education.com Science Fair page you can specify a grade level and a field of science to find project ideas suitable for your students.

Education.com offers a set of widgets that you can embed into your professional resources blog or website. The widgets offered link to resources developed by Education.com. I've embedded the Activities Widget below. The widget should link you to hands-on activities for teaching social studies. You can customize the widget to show content for any subject and or grade level that you like.

Education.com Activities

Social Studies Activities

Get your own widget