Teacher Resources
On the World Wide Web there are literally thousands of science teaching resources. From lesson plans, worksheets, teaching strategies, educational games, projects, interactive activities and simulations. Below is a list of resources I have found particularly helpful in my travels through energy and science teaching.
Co-operative group work: There are many different ways to group students for working together. It takes time and patience for both teachers and students to get the balance right. Here are some helpful resources.
*Concept to Classroom: Workshop cooperative and collaborative learning by Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004).
*Felder, R. and Bent, R. (1996). Navigating the bumpy road to student centred instruction.
*Felder, R. and Bent, R. (2001) Effective strategies for cooperative learning.
*Cohen, E. (1994) Designing Group work: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom.
*Strategies for getting started with cooperative learning by Spencerj51.
*Cooperative Learning by the Southwest Consortium for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Teaching (1994).
Music: Integrating music can be highly effective in the classroom by helping students to; remember learning experiences and information develop their musical intelligence and improve attention, attitude and the classroom atmosphere. Here are some helpful resources.
*Music and Learning Integrating Music in the classroom by Chris Boyd Brewer (1995).
*Kids Know It, a free children’s learning network with educational songs.
*Have some fun songs for kids.
*Using music in the science classroom by Caroline Molyneux (2007).
Think Pair and Share Timing: It is important to state the time allowed for each activity and stick to it. This not only helps students to keep on task, it also means that the whole activity can be done in one lesson. Therefore conclusion can be reached. Depending on the complexity of the task and group of students, the time for each activity can be variable. A helpful way to keep track of time is to set an egg timer or the countdown display on the interactive whiteboard. Here are some helpful resources.
*Instructional strategies online.
*The Bransholme Networked Learning Community.
*Classroom management
Experiment Rules: A classroom and especially a science classroom must be a safe environment for students to learn. To ensure this, experiment and safety rules need to be established and adhered to in the classroom. Here are some helpful resources.
*Lesson Plans Inc Classroom management Strategies.
*A CSIRO document that contains science safety rules, procedures and activities.
*Science News for Kids, a general science safety checklist.
Self Esteem: In Activity Sheet 1, students are intentionally not asked to weigh themselves for the calculation of work. Many students have body image issues and teachers need to be aware of the damage to self-esteem that this can bring. Students need to be encouraged to develop a positive sense of identity, irrespective of their body shape, size, weight or physical appearance. Here are some helpful resources.
*Women’s Health Queensland student factsheet body image.
*The importance of self-esteem and the implications for teachers, from Flinders University.
*Australian cartoonist Kaz Cooke looks at way to promote positive body image for adolescence.
Group Work Assessment: It is often very difficult to access group work. Here are some helpful resources.
*Hooper-Harris, G. (2006). Collaborative work in middle school: No hitchhiking in my class.
*Evaluation tools, by Samaritan House.
*Teachers Planet rubric for teachers.
*Wolsey, T. (2010) Creating a classroom rubric: guidelines for designing an assessment rubric.
On the World Wide Web there are literally thousands of science teaching resources. From lesson plans, worksheets, teaching strategies, educational games, projects, interactive activities and simulations. Below is a list of resources I have found particularly helpful in my travels through energy and science teaching.
Co-operative group work: There are many different ways to group students for working together. It takes time and patience for both teachers and students to get the balance right. Here are some helpful resources.
*Concept to Classroom: Workshop cooperative and collaborative learning by Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004).
*Felder, R. and Bent, R. (1996). Navigating the bumpy road to student centred instruction.
*Felder, R. and Bent, R. (2001) Effective strategies for cooperative learning.
*Cohen, E. (1994) Designing Group work: Strategies for the Heterogeneous Classroom.
*Strategies for getting started with cooperative learning by Spencerj51.
*Cooperative Learning by the Southwest Consortium for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Teaching (1994).
Music: Integrating music can be highly effective in the classroom by helping students to; remember learning experiences and information develop their musical intelligence and improve attention, attitude and the classroom atmosphere. Here are some helpful resources.
*Music and Learning Integrating Music in the classroom by Chris Boyd Brewer (1995).
*Kids Know It, a free children’s learning network with educational songs.
*Have some fun songs for kids.
*Using music in the science classroom by Caroline Molyneux (2007).
Think Pair and Share Timing: It is important to state the time allowed for each activity and stick to it. This not only helps students to keep on task, it also means that the whole activity can be done in one lesson. Therefore conclusion can be reached. Depending on the complexity of the task and group of students, the time for each activity can be variable. A helpful way to keep track of time is to set an egg timer or the countdown display on the interactive whiteboard. Here are some helpful resources.
*Instructional strategies online.
*The Bransholme Networked Learning Community.
*Classroom management
Experiment Rules: A classroom and especially a science classroom must be a safe environment for students to learn. To ensure this, experiment and safety rules need to be established and adhered to in the classroom. Here are some helpful resources.
*Lesson Plans Inc Classroom management Strategies.
*A CSIRO document that contains science safety rules, procedures and activities.
*Science News for Kids, a general science safety checklist.
Self Esteem: In Activity Sheet 1, students are intentionally not asked to weigh themselves for the calculation of work. Many students have body image issues and teachers need to be aware of the damage to self-esteem that this can bring. Students need to be encouraged to develop a positive sense of identity, irrespective of their body shape, size, weight or physical appearance. Here are some helpful resources.
*Women’s Health Queensland student factsheet body image.
*The importance of self-esteem and the implications for teachers, from Flinders University.
*Australian cartoonist Kaz Cooke looks at way to promote positive body image for adolescence.
Group Work Assessment: It is often very difficult to access group work. Here are some helpful resources.
*Hooper-Harris, G. (2006). Collaborative work in middle school: No hitchhiking in my class.
*Evaluation tools, by Samaritan House.
*Teachers Planet rubric for teachers.
*Wolsey, T. (2010) Creating a classroom rubric: guidelines for designing an assessment rubric.
Image: Paul at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Meaningful Extension: Extending students meaningfully is not often easy. Here are some helpful resources.
*Energy kids puzzle page.
*Science online energy.
*European Energy Commission Energy games on the web.
*Mr Murray’s Science Site work and energy.
*The Secret Life of Energy.
*National Energy Education Development Program.
Making Posters in PowerPoint: PowerPoint is a great choice for making posters. It is easily available on most computers. Students may already be familiar with using it and it does do a good job. Here are some helpful resources.
*American Association of Cereal Chemists.
*Making your digital poster using PowerPoint MICR130
*Poster presentations using PowerPoint 2007 by the Queens University Belfast.
Internet Use Policy: It is important to check with your school and education department on the relevant policies and guidelines for internet use. Here are some helpful resources from the Western Australian Department of Education.
*The Policy for Students Online by the Department of Education Western Australia.
*Safe surfing strategies.
*Effective search strategies.
*Search tools for young users.
*Student responsibility and acceptable use policy.
Phet Project: provides free interactive research based science simulations and support material of physical phenomena by the University of Colorado.
*Phet website.
*How to run simulations.
*Troubleshooting.
*Using simulations in the class room.
*Teaching physics using Phet simulations.
Cyber Hunts:(sometimes called scavenger hunts or treasure hunts) are a list of questions and active links to specific web sites that students can use to access information available on the web. This format helps students to focus their search for information and prevents time wasted searching all over the web. Here are some helpful resources.
*How to plan an internet scavenger hunt.
*Rapides Parish guide to internet scavenger hunts.
*Mrs O House internet scavenger hunt activities.
*Scavenger Hunt for kids.
*Energy kids puzzle page.
*Science online energy.
*European Energy Commission Energy games on the web.
*Mr Murray’s Science Site work and energy.
*The Secret Life of Energy.
*National Energy Education Development Program.
Making Posters in PowerPoint: PowerPoint is a great choice for making posters. It is easily available on most computers. Students may already be familiar with using it and it does do a good job. Here are some helpful resources.
*American Association of Cereal Chemists.
*Making your digital poster using PowerPoint MICR130
*Poster presentations using PowerPoint 2007 by the Queens University Belfast.
Internet Use Policy: It is important to check with your school and education department on the relevant policies and guidelines for internet use. Here are some helpful resources from the Western Australian Department of Education.
*The Policy for Students Online by the Department of Education Western Australia.
*Safe surfing strategies.
*Effective search strategies.
*Search tools for young users.
*Student responsibility and acceptable use policy.
Phet Project: provides free interactive research based science simulations and support material of physical phenomena by the University of Colorado.
*Phet website.
*How to run simulations.
*Troubleshooting.
*Using simulations in the class room.
*Teaching physics using Phet simulations.
Cyber Hunts:(sometimes called scavenger hunts or treasure hunts) are a list of questions and active links to specific web sites that students can use to access information available on the web. This format helps students to focus their search for information and prevents time wasted searching all over the web. Here are some helpful resources.
*How to plan an internet scavenger hunt.
*Rapides Parish guide to internet scavenger hunts.
*Mrs O House internet scavenger hunt activities.
*Scavenger Hunt for kids.
Image: Paul at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
