Learning some Science?!?

http://camillasenior.homestead.com/resources.html
This site is a resource for educators for hundreds on worksheets and ideas on tools to get different concepts of science across. Science is a very hard subject to just listen to text and repeat out answers. It does not give a student a good understanding of any of the concepts. Students must use physical and social learning types to really tap into what is going on in science around them to get a feel for the information. Good educators will provide them opportunity to apply what they have listened to in class and be able to reproduce it on an activity. This site has many different concepts that might be difficult for students to grasp and allows them the opportunity to show better understanding of it by applying it in a non-test fashion. The labs, like Hot air vs. Cold Air also get to the root of the content in the field of science, the scientific method.

http://www.explorelearning.com/index.cfm?method=cResource.dspView&ResourceID=414#myself#cHelp.dspMactelDetect&plugin=sw
This is a demonstration/gizmo of Laser Reflection from the site ExploreLearning. This site has many amazing animation and gizmos of challenging science concepts that are a lot easier to understand when you see it in practice. In this demonstration, students are actually allowed to use their knowledge about how lasers work and try to work out the "puzzle" to get the laser to perform as asked. By doing this, they are getting to engage in concepts of science that are around them but they actually do not know about. It allows them to see the Big Picture of Science, that it is everywhere and involved in everything we do. It will help them understand more concepts in science like how lights work and how mirrors work. It allows you, as an Educator, to really think more essential question about an overall idea then just the individual unit you share this exercise in.

http://enature.com/home/
eNature is a site that has a vast amount of animals and nature that you can explore and research. This is a great site for young kids when they are learning about the animals and environment to be able to match photos and descriptions to them. They are able to research and provide a poster, project, or presentation on an animal that they want to explore, not something they were assigned to do. Having that responsibility makes them feel so empowered that they actually look forward to doing the assignment then. It really is a great tool for visual learners to actually look at all this information and compile it into a meaningful little subject themselves. They get to do participation in the form on a discussion and it is good since as the teacher you know it all came from a credible source. This really allows children to also see that there are things in science that they do truly love, even stuff they learn in school. :)