Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

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)

Several familiar "games" are offered with an animal twist: Penguin Quest, Zoodoku, Super Trivia, Crossword, Bedazzled, and Matching. This site, created by Minnesota Zoo, also has links for teachers under "Education."

tag(s): animals (295), logic (161), puzzles (149)

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)

Snow School is a program run by educators across the country that enables students to attend actual classes with hands-on learning to find out about living creatures under the snow. The site contains links to programs run in 48 states and can be used to sign up individual classrooms to participate in their area. Even if your class doesn't participate, there are 2 important sections of the site that can be used in any classroom. Use the search bar to find For Teachers. This section contains links to lesson plans that allow students to explore the snow outdoors of their classroom, snow science experiments and activities, and links to other resources for teachers. Then use the search bar to find For Kids. Here kids can learn how snowshoes work, find activities to do in the snow, and links to other resources.

tag(s): density (18), snow (17)

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)

This site provides excellent practice and review with different Science topics. Be sure to click "See All Topics" which includes plants, human body, the solar system, weather, matter and more. After choosing a topic, various additional choices are offered. For example, under Force and Motion options are available to choose inertia, action and reaction, simple machines, acceleration, and gravity and inertia. Key vocabulary is presented along with a short video explanation of the topic. Don't miss the videos about each topic. In addition to the video, there is an option to test your own ability. Each topic can also be printed to use in the classroom and there is a link to related "jams."

tag(s): earth (184), ecosystems (83), inquiry (24), matter (46), motion (47), weather (160)

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)

This website provides an interesting classroom activity about surface tension and detergents. This is a great introductory site to inquiry types of activity. It is cheap and inexpensive to run, easy to clean, and has a fantastic "wow" factor for students. In the activity, food coloring is added to a small bowl of milk and liquid soap is added creating a color swirl in the milk. Students think it is magic, and what better way to launch a science class? It is excellent for teaching the scientific method, and if expanded upon can lead to concepts of variables.

tag(s): colors (64), inquiry (24), scientific method (48)

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 (221), politics (118)