What would you ask an Astronaut?

WonderWorks is hosting an “Ask An Astronaut” online event, where retired NASA astronaut Dr. Don Thomas will answer questions that have been submitted by the public. Teachers and students are encouraged to submit their questions now, and Dr. Thomas will answer as many as he can in a video interview that will be shared on social media on October 2, 2021 at 10 a.m. EST.

All these questions and many more will be answered when Dr. Thomas hosts the Q&A session that will be posted on WonderWorks’ social media. Teachers are encouraged to have students submit questions and watch the event. To submit a question for Dr. Don Thomas, visit the site: https://www.wonderworksonline.com/survey/.

GeoInquiries - standards-based inquiry activities for teaching map-based content

GeoInquiries is a website from Ersi. It has a number of activities for Earth Science and Environmental Science, among others. The nice thing about these activities is that they are usually around 15 minutes long so they can easily be used as time fillers or bell ringers. GeoInquiries are composed of three parts: a PDF teacher guide, an interactive webmap, and an optional student worksheet. Each lesson follows the 5 E guidelines and is mapped to the NGSS.

PhET meets PowerPoint

I've talked about PhET before, so you know that I love it! In case you don't know what it is, it's a website that has simulations that you can use in your physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and mathematics classroom. Many of them are available as part of PhET's free PowerPoint Add-in.

While at first I found this add-in I didn't think much of it. I didn't see the value in it when you can just go to the website. While this is true, the great thing about this add in is that you can use the simulations just like you were on the website but you don't need to leave your PowerPoint presentation.

56 of the PhET simulations are available to insert into PowerPoint presentations through the use of the add-in . With the Add-in installed you can browse the available simulations and insert them into your slides. The simulations work in your slide just as they do on the PhET website.  A note about the add-in; if you are in a Microsoft school your Microsoft admin may have turned off the ability to use add-in or may have to approve them.  So if you are having trouble finding the add in, please reach out to your tech admin. 

Short videos on the science topics you teach

I have always liked showing videos as part of my science classes, but I don't want to spend a whole period showing a video.  Plus, we know that the kids won't pay attention to a video that long anyway.  Check123 is a great site for finding short videos.  All areas are represented, but of course we all care about the science section. ;-)

The videos are all less than 4 minutes long.  You can do a search for what you are looking for and even narrow down the results based on the length of the video you are looking for.  For the most part these videos are hosted on YouTube, so if this is blocked in your school it won't work.  (On a side note, if it's blocked in your school you should really talk to the powers that be because it's a valuable teaching tool!)

What's one of your go to site for find videos for your classroom?

USGS Water Science School - Website for water education for students and adults

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has recently revised its web-based water-science education tool, The USGS Water Science School, where students can learn all about water, from what it is, to where and how much there is, to the most in-depth discussions of the natural water cycle anywhere. 

The Water Science School offers several main topic areas: 

• Water Basics
• Water Properties
• Natural Water Cycle (Posters and information in over 60 languages!)
• Surface Water
• Groundwater
• Water Quality
• Water Use
• Activity Center
• Photo Galleries
• Water Q&A
• Teacher Resources
• Water Dictionary

If you have questions or comments, please contact:

Tara Gross, tgross@usgs.gov or Howard Perlman, hperlman@usgs.gov

Free Online Textbooks

“I can’t find my textbook!” “I don’t remember getting a textbook.” Does this sound familiar to you? That is what I kept hearing at the end of every year. Then I would have to go through a big hassle of collecting money from student to repurchase the outdated textbooks that I had. I hated having to worry about students losing textbooks or that I was always replacing textbooks that I didn’t even want that included too much information or not enough information. Enter FlexBooks. FlexBooks are online textbooks from a company called CK12. I instantly liked them for many reasons, but the two big ones were that I could customize the book and that it could be posted on my website and downloaded by the students. This video does a great job of explaining how they work. While not every subject has a FlexBook they have a large list of books that include math and science books for elementary, middle and high school along with some other areas such as Writing, Astronomy, History and Engineering.

So, this sounds good you say, but how can I really use it in my classroom? I picked out a textbook that I wanted to use and then went through it to delete the things that don’t apply to my curriculum. I also added in some information that wasn’t there that I wanted to make sure my students had in their book. You can also include links to worksheets (CK12 has a workbook that goes along with most of their textbooks). Once it’s created you can save it as a PDF and post it on a web page or e-mail it to students. Even better, students can put the PDF on their computers, phones, Kindles, IPads, Nooks or other eReader. If you don’t want to customize your book you can find select FlexBooks already in Kindle or Nook/IPad/Android format.

Am I convincing you yet? Maybe you want to make sure you have a teacher’s edition to refer to or a book or worksheets or labs. Well, you got it! The workbooks that are available can also be customized so can you make them fit your classroom. I usually post them on my website and the students can have access to them all the time (no more “I lost it.”)

Looking for more? CK12 has a more interactive way of presenting information that allows you pull short concepts along with chapters into an online interactive “book” Many of the concepts include video clips and interactive quizzes.

Do you use textbooks in your classroom? 

crossposted on my Technology Blog - The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

Websites for the Earth Science Classroom

If you have computers in your classroom or access to a computer cart I'm sure that you are always looking for new websites to use with the kids (I know that I am). Here are some sites for you to try out.

Earthquake Monitor - this is a website that allows you to monitor where earthquakes are occurring and what magnitude each is

Visible Geology - this website allows you to visualize various geologic formations such as folding and tilting as well as topographic features. Some of this site might be a bit advanced for middle school students but it's worth a look.

3D Solar System - this site allows you to visit each of the planets and at each planet, you'll find a list of facts and a short blurb about the planet, there is also a narration that can go along with each if you think that will be helpful

If the Moon Were Only 1 Pixel? - this a cool site that shows the scale of the universe from the perspective of the moon being one pixel large

NASA--Planets - this site would be great to use in a science/literacy activity. It's a reading about what makes a planet a planet and could provide a good start for a discussion.

Nasa--Climate Change - this site provides a lot of information about climate change and would be good for students who are doing a research project.

Are you a K-12 teacher teaching topics in Earth and Space Science this school year? Do you use media in your classroom? Oregon State University seeking K-12 teachers who will be teaching any of the following topics in Earth, Space or Physical Science in their science instruction in the 2018-2019 school year: Weather and climate (K-12)  Space Science, specifically solar system (K-12) and Kepler’s Laws (9-12)  Earth’s Systems, specifically land and water features, earthquakes, and volcanoes (K-8)  Waves: Light (K-2) ​  ​​Participating teachers will help them gain insights into how these online resources translate to classroom instruction. Teachers who participate in this effort will simply report back to these after they use these resources during the 2018-2019 school year through online questionnaires and focus groups, and in doing so would help them understand whether the resources were helpful in teaching and effective for student engagement and learning. Being a teacher research participant would be accompanied with a formal Certificate of Participation and a small thank you gift. For the past few years, WGBH (Boston’s PBS), in collaboration with NASA*, has been developing educational resources for K-12 teachers that address topics in Earth, Space, and Physical Science and are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards. These digital media resources are free and available on PBS LearningMedia. If you believe you will use these resources and are interested in participating in the study, please follow the link below to find more information and the application for participation.

More information

The making of a volcano

I love Live Science and I recently came across an animation they made of the making of Mount Etna and how it shaped the ground around it.  This would be great to show in class and the accompanying article can be made into a literacy activity.

You can check out the animation and read the article here.

Free Online Lab Safety Course

If you are in a school like I was in you, you know that you are not being provided with the lab safety training that is required.  I did some research to find something and I came across the Flinn Online Laboratory Safety Course.  There are two courses: one for middle school and one for high school.  I took both of them (even though there is a lot of overlap) and learned so much!

You might be thinking, "I'm not a Chemistry teacher so this doesn't really apply to me!"  I have found that non-chemistry teachers almost need this more because they have less experience with chemicals and don't always deal with them safely when they do use them.

I'm sure there are no school schools who have perfect lab safety procedures and everyone can learn something from this course.  I also think it's a good refresher for teachers.  I don't recall being taught lab safety techniques when I was in college (either in my science class or my science methods classes).  Hopefully things have changed, but in case they haven't this is a must watch for all science teacher.

Comment below with what training you have had on lab safety.  I'm interested to hear what happen in other schools. 

Teacher Advisor Opportunity! Assist WGBH with a digital media science education project

Teacher Advisor Opportunity! Assist WGBH with a digital media science education project Applications are due February 8, 2017 WGBH, America's premier producer of science content for public media, is on a five-year mission to develop media-rich digital learning resources that will increase students' engagement with science phenomena and practices in the classroom. In collaboration with NASA, WGBH's The Bringing the Universe to America's Classrooms* initiative will distribute resources and professional development experiences that have the potential to impact millions of students and teachers nationally. Because teacher voices are a critical part of our design and production efforts, we developed a teacher advisor program. This is an opportunity for K-12 educators to become teacher advisors in the design and implementation of digital media tools for STEM classrooms. Produced by WGBH, these resources will feature WGBH and NASA content, and will be distributed free of charge through the PBS LearningMedia™ platform. We're looking for 50 teacher advisors across the grades to help us in Year 2 of this mission. If you will be a full-time educator in the 2017-18 school year and expect to teach Earth science topics of weather, land and water (K-5) or weather and climate and geoscience processes (6-12), we invite you to complete this application. The application deadline is February 8, 2017 at 11:59pm EDT. Applicants will be notified of selection by March 2, 2017.    Please be sure to see our information site for further details. Questions? Contact carolyn_jacobs@wgbh.org. Thank you! *This activity is funded by NASA under cooperative agreement award No. NNX16AD71A.  Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

14 Free Space Posters from NASA - Visions from the Future

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory website has created 14 different space posters that you can use in your classroom. Each one is available for you to download as either a small PDF file or a high quality TIFF file. The different posters cover topics such as specific planets, moons and space expeditions. In addition, each poster has a short description of the poster and give you some background information on the context. 

From the JPL website. "A creative team of visual strategists at JPL, known as "The Studio," created the poster series, which is titled "Visions of the Future." Nine artists, designers, and illustrators were involved in designing the 14 posters, which are the result of many brainstorming sessions with JPL scientists, engineers, and expert communicators. Each poster went through a number of concepts and revisions, and each was made better with feedback from the JPL experts." You can learn more about each poster's author and concept on their about page.

Do you hang posters around your classroom? What are some of your favorites?

Augmented Reality in the Science Classroom

This weekend I made a presentation about Augmented Reality in the science classroom.  Everyone seemed to really be excited about using these apps in their classroom.  I've posted my presentation below that you can benefit from it as well!  Most of these apps are available for both Android and Apple.

For those of you who aren't familiar with augmented reality, it's a way to superimpose a computer generated image onto a real world experience.  I know this doesn't explain it very well, so I suggest you download one of the apps and try it out.  Here is a quick video demonstrating one of my favorite apps Anatomy 4D.





This post also appears on my other blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher.

Shelf Life - videos from AMNH

Shelf Life is a new monthly video series from the American Museum of Natural History.  The AMNH is sharing its vast resources with everyone, and you don't even have to go to New York to see them.  Most of the videos are on rarely-seen items from their collection.

"Dive deep inside the Museum's collection to discover the past, present, and future of its approximately 33 million artifacts and specimens in this new series with original monthly videos." - AMNH

Right now there are 3 episodes out, with a new one being posted each month.  Episode One is entitled 33 Million Things and gives you a glimpse at all AMNH has to offer.  Episode Two, Turtles and Taxonomy, talks about the science of classification.  Six Ways to Prepare a Coelacanth is the third episode.  This one focuses on prehistoric fish.  Episodes to come include: Skull of the Olinguito and How to Time Travel to a Star.

This post is cross posted on my technology blog, The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

How to Create a More Effective Lab Safety Program - Webinar

The Laboratory Safety Institute (LSI) was founded to provide safety training for secondary school science teachers. 

LSI is hosting a webinar entitled "How to Create a More Effective Lab Safety Program."  It will be held on Febrarary 10th from 7-8pm EST.  To register go to: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3731515229433160961

MSDS to SDS

Have you heard that OSHA is moving away from Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) to Safety Data Sheets (SDS)?  Lab Out Loud, the NSTA podcast, had a great podcast about it.  On the page there are also several other resources.  Another great resource comes from Flinn Scientific.  They have a great site that provides free online safety training.  On the site there is a link to the GHS training.  This will go over the important information about the transition.

By December 2013 school were supposed to provide training to all teachers and staff about the transition.  Just in case your school didn't, the Flinn training only takes 20 minutes and provide you with a Certificate of Completion for your records.

Sample NGSS assessment tasks

Achieve, the company involved in developing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), has released some sample assessment tasks.  You can see several middle and high school tasks.  They are aaligned with both the NGSS and Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS).  Whether or not your state has adopted the NGSS, I think it's a good idea to take a look at them.  The NGSS has a great way of approaching science that some teachers aren't used to.  If you aren't, or even if you are, familiar with this method be sure to check out these assessment tasks.

Project Based Instruction using ArcGIS Online

Introducing the Free, Self-Paced, Open, Online Course:

Developing Project Based Instructional Units Utilizing ArcGIS Online

https://sites.google.com/site/eyepodadvancedonline/

The purpose of this 5-part, self-paced course is to guide teachers to develop project based instructional units in which students analyze spatial data. Having students examine data, and patterns, and make claims using spatial data as evidence promotes learning within content areas and complements research on how students learn.

Technical Skills

•Build experience with ArcGIS online as a tool for creating and analyzing spatial data

• Discover the power of using spatial data to communicate ideas

•Gather and prepare spatial data for teaching and learning

Instructional Skills

• Learn about how students learn

• Develop lessons using a project based instructional framework

• Manage student-centered learning

• Create lessons that require students to analyze spatial data and practice 21st century skills

Assessment Skills

•Design an appropriate assessment of student learning and conceptual understanding that requires students to utilize spatial data to communicate ideas

•Align assessments with learning goals

• Examine student work to guide development of quality assessments that measure student learning

Cost: FREE                 

Dates: OPEN/SELF-PACED

No registration necessary

Participants said:

“Thank you for the great resources. I intend to use these as I design PBLs for the upcoming year over the next month.”

“I have been bringing GIS into my district at a pace dictated by my level of expertise. This course has done much to allows (sic) me to have more impact in my learning community”

“All components of this course were useful to me. Each provided a solid upgrading of my skills in GIS and they all added to what I am bringing to my district as it upgrades its own approach to STEM and its associated learning

projects.”

Developed as part of the Examining Your Environment through the Power of Data (EYEPOD) Project funded by the National Science Foundation's Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program. Award DRL #0929846.         

PowToon - Free subscription for a year!

I have mentioned PowToon before, but in case you missed it PowToon is a way to create short animated videos.  It's a really simple way to introduce things to your students or at a presentation.  Well PowToon has been generous enough to give away a free upgrade to their premium version plus accounts for all of your students.  All you have to do is go to their site and either create an account or sign in with your existing account.  The code to use is: ToonUp5M.
This won't last for long, so hurry up and sign up today!

This post also appears of my Technology Blog - The Tech Savvy Science Teacher

EarthViewer App - take a look into Earth's past

I came across this app called EarthViewer.  It's a free app for Android and iOS and as soon as I found out about it I downloaded it on my class's ipad.  This app helps to answer questions such as: "What did Earth look like 250 million years ago? Or 1 billion years ago? Or 4.5 billion years ago? What was the climate like in the deep past?"

EarthViewer is an interactive tool for exploring the science of Earth's deep history. From molten mass to snowball earth, EarthViewer lets you see continents grow and shift as you scroll through billions of years. Additional layers let you and your students explore changes in atmospheric composition, temperature, biodiversity, day length, and solar luminosity over deep time.

What cool apps have you used in your class?

This post originally appeared in my technology blog The Tech Savvy Science Teacher.