Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Participate in a virtual dissection of a fetal pig. Use this amazing site to learn anatomical terms, planes of view, and complete systems. Each section opens in a new window. Terminology is used in such a way for complete understanding of the meaning of the term. Look for the yellow words that can be clicked for further information. Take quizzes to check knowledge by dragging the words into the appropriate spaces. NOTE: the site does not run properly in Firefox. Try Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari. It uses Shockwave.

tag(s): human body (93)

Confused about the counter claims about climate change and global warming? This unique website uses skepticism about the skeptics of climate change. Before you discount this site, check out its use of science in skeptics claims and announcements. Use this site to find pure science in understanding the headlines, comments, and claims found in media. Be sure to check under the arguments and resources tabs of this site. This site does include some minor advertisements.

tag(s): climate (84), climate change (99), environment (252)

Color, Vision and Art examines both scientific and artistic interpretations of color. This is one of many interdisciplinary exhibits found on WebExhibits online museum. This particular showcase makes the connection between the birth of Modern art and the scientific revolution of the 19th century. Articles include historic investigations into the psychological effect of color upon the emotions, the anatomy of the human eye, color vision theory, and the brain's perception of color. The site also provides fascinating information about oil and egg tempera painting and how each achieves the illusion of light and space. They examine not only Western Art of the 19th, 20th and 21st century, but also African Art.

tag(s): art history (103), colors (64), human body (93), newton (21), psychology (65)

Peruse this community database of shared bird sounds from the entire world. Listen from the collection of approximately 67,000 calls and songs from 7147 birds. Listen to the sounds that account for 67.4 percent of all the bird species on the Earth! These sounds are recorded mostly by professionals and site users classify and identify the sounds and songs to create a marvelous collection of the world's first musicians. Play the sounds on the site or download for free as they are creative common licensed. Perusing the archive, it's hard not to be impressed by the myriads of sounds, whether beautiful or grating, that birds can produce. And, while they might not be eligible to win any Grammys, at least you can download them for free from the Internet without having to worry about anti-piracy laws. Be sure to read the comments before sharing this site with students, as some may not be appropriate. At this time of this review, all were fine.

tag(s): birds (46)

View great videos about Biology on this free science video sharing site. (Some of the videos are provided by YouTube.) Click the Categories tab to view a wide variety of topics from Anatomy to Virology. Find great video lectures under the Lectures tab. Be sure to check out the other tabs for great resources such as Animations, Seminars, Tutorials, and Laboratories (Virtual.) Note that ads run along the side of this site and it is best to provide a link directly to the content.

tag(s): cells (82), evolution (89), human body (93)

The New York Science Teacher Movie Sheet page offers fast help for turning good movies into academic endeavors. How many times do we find a regular movie that we would like to use for science class but do not have the time to create a good guide or question sheet for it? This is a good solution. Movie sheets, all submitted by teachers, are searchable by subject content and a few are searchable by series. The guides are printable, and they make a great "in-a-pinch" solution.

tag(s): movies (54), worksheets (69)

This site while meant to be commercial, offers a lot of detailed information on water purification, desalinization, and descriptions of how different water clarification processes work. Avoid the products page and this is a great resource for environmental science students doing units on water. On the left side navigation bar, there are tools that can also be used by students. The periodic table and large amount of scientific calculator tools could be very helpful in any math or science class.

tag(s): environment (252), water (102)

This is an extensive collection of ready to go, teacher-made SMART Notebook activities. This collection covers all grade levels and subject areas. Click Elementary, Middle School, Jr. High, or High School to find the many (MANY) resources). The topics vary greatly and the quantity is impressive. You must have Smart Board software installed on your computer to open these files. Some files will work using the SMART Notebook Express online viewer available here. (Download the notebook file from Longwood's collection to your desktop and then upload to SMART Notebook Express site.)

Create your own motivational posters easily and simply. Choose a random picture (one from Flickr or Facebook) or use one already on your computer. Choose colors and other options as well as the type of text to be used. Enter your text and preview the result. Once complete, save to Flickr, your computer, or print. Remember you can use a saved image in PowerPoint shows and on a class wiki, as well as blogs and other sites.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): collages (17), images (263), photography (130), posters (43)

View this video series to understand how ACS prizes affect people and our society. Bring the technological advances to light with each of these fascinating science discoveries. New feature videos appear on the page such as "Exploring Life on Mars," "Taming the Red Tides," and others. Learn about food poisoning caused by algae, eco-green transportation, creating smaller computer chips, and more! Check back for more videos to be added monthly. Preview articles about upcoming videos can be seen on the page as well. Subscribe to iTunes or YouTube to automatically receive new videos as they are added to the site. Feel free to embed links to the Prized Science videos on your blog, wiki, or site.

tag(s): pollution (52), space (222)

Create online sticky type bulletin boards to view from any online device using lino. Click to try it first without even joining. The "Give it a shot!" button has a "How to" canvas has stickies explaining how to use lino. Join and create your own canvases to share stickies, reminders, files, and more. Change sticky colors from the menu in the upper right hand corner or use the easy editing tools that appear when the sticky is selected. Use the icons at the bottom of each sticky note to "peel them off," share, edit, and more. Create a group from your lino page to share and collaborate on canvases. You can also share canvases publicly so anyone with the URL can participate. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly.

tag(s): bulletin boards (15), collaboration (93), collages (17), creative fluency (5), creativity (86), DAT device agnostic tool (147), gamification (83), note taking (36)

This site is all about teeth! There are quizzes, infographics, terms, definitions, and more. This site includes interactive quizzes for elementary, middle, and high school students. Some examples of topics include: Dentist Office, Cavity Prevention, Types of Teeth, Parts of the Mouth, Tongue Anatomy, Facial Anatomy, and others. All of the quizzes include options to learn more about the terms and definitions before taking the quiz.

tag(s): dental health (14)

Find a variety of science resources on this great site. Explore the Tricks, Conundrums, Demos, Lesson Plans, and Videos about Science. Many of the resources include an Adobe PDF file that can be downloaded.

tag(s): experiments (55)

This website offers a variety of biology teaching resources and lesson plans. Learn about senses, breathing, heart rate, plants, natural selection, DNA, criminology, genetics, osmosis, and much more! The lessons all include students' handouts and teacher information for preparing the experiments and lessons. Most handouts are available in Word or PDF. There are varying difficulties and intensities of the laboratory activities offered here. Lessons can always be adapted to make them easier for younger grade levels or amp them up for later grade levels.

tag(s): experiments (55)

Up the Creek is an informative, cartooned look at biodiversity. While the cartoon is made in and for New Zealand, the concepts and ideas are still good for teaching biodiversity anywhere. In fact, since this is in a slightly different setting than the United States, it is interesting to see that the environmental protection practices tend to be the same. There are some native, Maori words and unfamiliar terms for North American kids, however they can easily be understood through context clues or having students research them from the computer.

tag(s): biodiversity (36), diversity (40), environment (252)

Looking to excite your students about space and its possibilities for life? Want to push them to think beyond their own imaginations? Try having them listen to a radio program from SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). For the skeptics, the site is partially sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology division. However, this is not about teaching students that there is life or "aliens" out there, but rather to open their minds to some possibility thinking. Don't miss the "Archives" link where you find mind countless topics of interest.

tag(s): brain (56), cells (82), geology (62)

CO2 Science offers journal reviews on environmental topics, an online environmentally minded journal, and under the education tab some excellent laboratory ideas. There are videos, weekly blog entries, an educational center, and more. This is a great teacher and high school student resource.

tag(s): carbon (17), climate (84), environment (252)

This do-it-yourself activity from the wonderful folks at Scientic American' Science Buddies is a neat way to have students think about how a thermometer works. Many times we just expect that they understand these things, just like using a calculator, there is a process to understanding how a thermometer works. This activity has students create their own thermometer with everyday, reusable materials.

tag(s): temperature (35)

Finding it difficult to "show" your health or biology students how different parts of their cells, bodies, or even toothpaste work? Try this part of the Vimeo site. It has animations of different cellular and molecular processes. The animations are not only factual but they are beautiful as well. Videos are shareable and can be embedded onto websites. The clips are spectacular for entry level biology students to visualize molecular and cellular processes, but the detail and intricacy of the clips makes them extremely suitable for advanced placement biology students.

tag(s): medicine (57)

This site, created in the United Kingdom, offers many timelines with a simple click to launch an amazing 3-dimensional page. Timelines are organized by subject matter and include samplings from literature, sociology, history, everyday life, science, technology, explorers, medicine, and more. With another click, you can zoom from one century to another. Start in the 1210s and work your way through the years. View the context of history using visual artifacts from DaVinci's contemporaries to shopping in the 1890s. Connect historical events or technological accomplishments by seeing them alongside simultaneous events, precursors, or results. An additional option allows you to save favorite timelines and/or events. Although the main timeline requires flash which is no longer supported, the century timelines remain viewable and provide valuable information.

tag(s): europe (84), literature (222), politics (118)