Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

NASA's official website is a rich educational resource for teachers, offering a vast collection of space-related content, lesson plans, videos, and interactive activities. Educators can access STEM-focused classroom materials, student challenges, and real-time NASA mission updates to engage students in space exploration and scientific discovery. The site includes sections on astronomy, engineering, Earth science, and robotics, with resources tailored for different grade levels. Teachers can also find virtual field trips, citizen science projects, and career insights to inspire students interested in space and technology. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If your district blocks YouTube, then they may not be viewable.

tag(s): moon (73), planets (113), solar system (110), space (222), stars (71), STEM (297)

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) website is a valuable resource for teachers seeking reliable, science-based information on geography, geology, natural hazards, ecosystems, water resources, and climate change. It provides interactive maps, real-time data, lesson plans, videos, and research articles that help students explore earthquakes, volcanoes, and landforms. The site also offers educational resources aligned with STEM learning, making it an excellent tool for engaging students in earth and environmental sciences through real-world data and scientific inquiry.

tag(s): climate change (99), earthquakes (46), ecosystems (83), geology (62), landforms (39), map skills (63), maps (220), natural disasters (18), STEM (297), volcanoes (55)

Creating effective and engaging blended learning lessons requires time and professional knowledge. The Blended Learning Planner uses AI to increase productivity by providing ideas and learning activities based on your input. Start by following the steps to create a class, then add the lesson topic, length of class time, and the blended learning components to include. Use the request changes and Beans, the chatbox, to request modifications and additions to the completed plan.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), blended learning (37), flipped learning (9), Teacher Utilities (198)

Create learning games with the AI-based Learning Game Generator for any topic or grade level. Begin by adding vital information, including grade level, learning outcome or objective, and the game's length. The Game Generator provides a document with instructions for playing the game, any required materials, and setup instructions. Use the provided tools to request changes to create a game that works for your classroom. Copy or download the document using the Manage Content Dropbox options when satisfied.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), assessment (147), Formative Assessment (74), game based learning (205), gamification (83), Teacher Utilities (198)

Planning lessons that provide engaging activities and meet curriculum standards can be challenging. The Plan My Lesson Tool uses AI to match both objectives in just a few seconds. After selecting start, complete the form by adding grade level or band, subject, and learning outcome and selecting to generate the result. After creating the document, use additional features to edit and adjust the activity to fit your needs. You can also choose sections of the document to request changes by chatting with Beans, this site's chatbot. Find options to download or export the finished document by visiting the Manage Content dropbox at the top of the page. You do need to create a free account to access this feature.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), professional development (385), Teacher Utilities (198)

WorldCat is a global library catalog that allows teachers to search for books, articles, and other educational resources available in libraries worldwide. By entering a title, author, or keyword, educators can locate materials in nearby libraries, access digital resources, and discover new teaching materials. WorldCat is beneficial for finding hard-to-access texts, historical documents, and academic research. Teachers can use it to expand their classroom library, recommend reading materials to students, or enhance lesson plans with diverse sources.

tag(s): authors (107), book lists (167), digital reading (17), Research (87), resources (84), Teacher Utilities (198)

Yourway offers a suite of AI-generated tools for educators. Choose from many generators to create lesson plans, assessments, and classroom activities. After selecting a generator, follow the prompt to access a form to add information such as grade level, topic or learning objective, and other directions. After the tool generates a response, you can request changes, edit the information manually, or save the document. Choose the Manage Document dropdown box to copy the document to your clipboard, save it as a PDF file, export it to Google Docs, or download your activity as a Microsoft .docx file. As you create activities, they are saved in the My Content area to revisit and reuse as needed.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), assessment (147), cross cultural understanding (173), differentiation (84), rubrics (37), social and emotional learning (102), Teacher Utilities (198), vocabulary (238)

Cooling and Heating is a resource that contains activities in which students will learn about AC and heaters and the best ways to use them. In the Pay Me game, students use fake money to understand the dollar cost of their energy habits. In the Make Your Own Ice Air Conditioner activity, students will create an air conditioner with a bowl of ice and a simple fan. The lessons align with the NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards). Resources are available to post on Google Classroom, and the link can be shared with students. In addition, the resources are available in Spanish.

tag(s): careers (156), STEM (297)

PBS Learning Media's Agriculture collection features various resources, including videos, audio, documents, lesson plans, and collections for grades kindergarten through 12. There are over nine hundred resources available to search. Videos are available on going green, genetically modified food, the food chain, regenerative agriculture, and many more. Lesson plans include organic v, non-organic farming, the food chain, global oneness project, and more. Lesson plans contain a summary, time allotted, learning objectives, preparation, procedure, and standards. Filters are available to sort by grade level, subject, resource type, length of video/audio, language, accessibility, and additional features. You can share everything in the collection via Google Classroom, a link to students, and social sharing. Members can build on the lessons once they log into the site.

tag(s): agriculture (49), careers (156), ecology (103), food chains (19)

PBS Kids Design Squad features four activities: Design, Build, Watch, and Games. In the Design section, you can draw scenes of the outdoors, fashion, sports, food, animals, and more. In the Building section, you can create buildings, machines, toys, and vehicles. The Watch section features videos on learning with the Design Squad, do-it-yourself, and clips. The fidget games from the Games section include learning about electricity, farm life, natural disasters, and floods.

tag(s): crafts (64), design (79), engineering (129), game based learning (205), machines (17), musical instruments (52)

The Getty Museum's Arts and Science: A Curriculum for K-12 teachers focuses on the science of art production and conservation and the scientific skills of investigation and experimentation; it supports student proficiency in science and visual art. On the right side, "For the Classroom" links directly to lesson plans, image banks, timeline, glossary, print and web resources, and standard charts. The featured lesson topics are titled: Insect Anatomy and the Scientist as Illustrator, Capturing Light: The Science of Photography, and Fighting Corrosion to Save an Ancient Greek Bronze. Each lesson has a time allotted, overview, objectives, materials, steps, assessment, and extensions. Each lesson is divided into beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels. The lessons are aligned with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.

tag(s): insects (69), photography (130)

Visit the items shared in this group by BookWidget users to find and use several different SDG-related activities. After registering for a BookWidgets account, you can use all the items for free. Resources include an invention timeline, quizzes, flashcards, and more. Click on any link to view the resource. Share activities using one of the options to share items with students, including links to send activities to Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams.

tag(s): climate change (99), cross cultural understanding (173), energy (133), flash cards (44), nutrition (140), sustainability (50), timelines (56), women (151)

Farm Food 360 showcases virtual tours of various aspects of farm life and food. The tours include eggs, sheep, mushrooms, veal, chickens, beef, turkeys, pigs, milk, and many more. The different Farms connect to videos, quick facts, lesson plans, and related resources. You must create an account to access the lesson plans and related resources.

tag(s): agriculture (49), animals (295), nutrition (140), virtual field trips (128)

NASA At Home: Virtual Tours and Apps explores the solar system and beyond by uncovering worlds, stars, and cosmic mysteries near and far with their robust fleet of space and ground-based missions. There are three sections of videos: The International Space Station, the Solar System, and NASA. Videos on the International Space Station include training the astronauts, exploring NASA's deep space network, payload Operations Integration Center, and Hubble Space Telescope. Solar System videos are on Perseverance and the Moon. NASA virtual tour videos showcase Goddard Space Flight Center and Wallops Flight Facility.

tag(s): planets (113), solar system (110), space (222), virtual field trips (128)

Johnson Virtual Tours are free 3-D tours inside the Johnson Space Center. Tours include the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility, Christopher C. Kraft Mission Control Center, Flight Control Room-1 (FCR-1), Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL), Ellington Field, and Lunar Sample Curation Laboratory. Questions and answers (Q&A) are also available to answer questions on Mission Control and Living in Space. When you are on the tour, you can watch videos, learn information, and see photographs.

tag(s): space (222), virtual field trips (128)

NASA's Glenn Virtual Tours are free 3-D tours inside the Glenn Research Facility. Tours include the Supersonic Wind Tunnel, Low Speed Wind Tunnel, Electric Propulsion and Power Laboratory, In-Space Propulsion Facility, Icing Research Tunnel, Ballistic Impact Lab, Flight Research Building, Propulsion Systems Laboratory, Simulated Lunar Operations Lab, Space Environments Complex, and Zero-Gravity Facility. When you are on the tour, you can watch videos, learn information, and see photographs.

tag(s): aeronautics (11), virtual field trips (128)

Great Lakes Now offers free five-minute virtual field trips to coastal wetlands, algae, and Lake Sturgeon. The website states that the videos are for grades 6-8 but could be shared with other grades if they cover the topics in the curriculum.

tag(s): habitats (92), virtual field trips (128)

The YouTube Kids platform provides teachers a safe, engaging tool to incorporate kid-friendly video content into the classroom. The site offers a simplified and safer experience for children exploring videos, with customizable parental controls and personalized student profiles. There is also a free app available. Teachers can tailor content to specific age groups (4 and under, 5-8, or 9-12), ensuring that videos align with students' developmental levels. The platform also allows educators to share relevant content directly with students, manage screen time, and block inappropriate videos when necessary. With its smaller, curated content library and protections like automated filters and human reviews, YouTube Kids offers a secure way to enrich lessons with videos while fostering responsible media consumption habits in students.
This site includes advertising.

tag(s): enrichment (13), internet safety (114), personalized learning (10), playlists (8), video (266)

NASA's Visual Universe website, part of Google's Arts & Culture Experiments, offers an interactive and visually stunning exploration of NASA's extensive media archive. This platform uses artificial intelligence designed to process large amounts of data, identify patterns, and group related content to analyze and organize over 150,000 NASA images, videos, and audio files into clusters of related content. Images of Mars rovers, audio from Apollo missions, and videos of spacewalks are organized into groups, making exploration more engaging. Teachers can guide students through activities such as exploring the visual history of space exploration, discovering thematic connections, and discussing the role of art and technology in science communication. The site is an excellent resource for integrating STEM with visual literacy and inspiring curiosity about space and innovation.

tag(s): artificial intelligence (177), space (222), STEM (297), visual literacy (3)

PBS Kids Work it Out Wombats contains games, videos, activities, and podcasts. One game featured, titled Road Repair, is an interactive game in which you repair a road with shapes. The other game, Story Emporium, allows you to create a story to read. The story asks you to select a who, what, and where. The Toy Maker enables the creation of a toy. The site also features the Wombats video series, printable activities, and podcasts. The podcasts run about eleven minutes long and include topics like campout playdates, detective playdates, snout party playdates, and cloud ship playdates. English and Spanish are available for both the games and activities.

tag(s): game based learning (205), interactive stories (22), podcasts (108), video (266)