Instructables Offers Tons of Educational Do-it-yourself Projects to Use in Class with Students

September 27, 2015
Instructables is an educational website and mobile app where you can have access to a treasure trove of instructional videos and how-to guides covering a wide variety of topics from science experiments to amazing inventions. If you need some new ideas for your next classroom maker project, Instructables offers a library of over 100k of do-it-yourself projects created and shared by members of the community which amount to 2 million members.  Additionally, you and your students can create your own projects and upload them to the site and share your ideas with other teachers.

Instructables has a special section for teachers where you can browse for projects created by other teachers and which you can use with your students in class. ‘Instructables supports teachers by providing free pro memberships and awesome project ideas for your classroom. It provides plug and play hands-on projects to let you supplement your curriculum with the best projects that other teachers have to offer. You don't need to be a traditional classroom teacher to participate, either. If you are an after-school teacher, a scouting leader, a librarian who runs programs, or anyone whose job is explicitly educational, you are invited to participate.’

Instructables is also available for iPad, Windows and Android. Watch the video below to learn more about Instructables.

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A Great Interactive Periodic Table for Science and Physics Teachers

August 10, 2015
Chemio is an excellent app that provides students with the most necessary chemical references in one neat interactive periodic table. Chemio is free today and only for a limited period (its regular price is $1,99). Besides the interactive periodic table, Chemio also provides a solubility table, molar mass calculator and the 3D widget for designing electron configuration of atom.

Using Chemio, students will be able to easily access basic information about any chemical element by a single tap. They can learn about the element’s density, its atomic mass, molar volume, electron configuration and many more. Being an interactive chemical reference, Chemio provides a set of useful instruments which allows students to perform quick searches and calculations.

Watch the video below to learn more about Chemio

Courtesy of Apps Gone Free

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3 New Resources for Science Teachers

June 27, 2015
Here are three more resources for science teachers and students. These resources are featured here for the first time. The first one in the list,  Mystery Science, is particularly helpful for elementary teachers seeking science lesson plans and activities to use with students in class. The rest are iPad apps students can use to enhance their science learning in different aspects that include: vocabulary, games, quizzes, hands-on activities and many more.

1-  Mystery Science

Mystery Science is a cool website that provides elementary teachers with with a variety of lessons to inspire kids to love science. Each lesson starts with a short video, followed by comprehension questions and a hands-on activity.

2- DIY Human Body

‘Includes over a dozen easy to use, hands-on activities to learn about the human body and your health. Each activity includes step-by-step instructions that have been tested by educators, kids, and families. The activity materials are widely available and inexpensive—you probably have many of them in your home.’

3- Science Facts

‘Carefully worded, straightforward questions make this a great tool for English language learners (ELL/ESL) acquiring basic science vocabulary, as well as young English-speaking readers. Our specially designed quiz engine not only shows you the correct answer when you make a mistake, it randomly selects and occasionally repeats questions, just to make sure you're paying attention.’

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World Library of Science- A Very Good Resource for Science Teachers

May 7, 2015
World Library of Science is a very good resource for teachers, students and science enthusiasts. The library offers a wide variety of science resources in the form of eBooks, articles, videos, and audio. “The content of the World Library of Science is meant to inspire more learning and curiosity, and help train students and teachers alike, both in the content and cultural impacts of scientific discovery.”

World Library of Science is the fruit of a partnership between UNESCO and Macmillan Science and Education.This project has as a purpose providing equal access to high quality science resources to a global community of learners and teacher. Teachers  section in World Library of Science is a place where teachers can create an engaging  virtual space or classroom for their students.You can use this space to share course materials, initiate discussions, and post announcements for students.

The Library section is another interesting section in this website. It provides access to the following materials:

Topic Rooms:
These are ” central locations for collections of articles, eBooks and groups on a broad topic area”.

eBooks
 “Nature Education eBooks provide intuitive introductions to a range of science subjects, for science students, early career scientists, and science enthusiasts of all ages. Browse all eBooks, each marked by learning level: basic or intermediate.”

Spotlight
“Spotlights are focused explorations of key topics in science: current issues in the news, emerging lab techniques, thought leader perspectives, governmental policy, and a range of other subjects. Spotlights provide an entry point into the rich and dynamic world of science.”

Multimedia
It features an archive of video and audio interviews and animations.

Courtesy of Edukwest

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Awesome Interactive Simulations for Learning Math and Science

April 19, 2015
PhET is a very good platform that offers free interactive simulations to help  students develop a an informed understanding of a variety of phenomena covering science, physics and math.  These simulations come to life via the use of graphics, interactive controls, sliders and radio buttons. Students can easily manipulate its intuitive interface and even get animated feedback and responses as they navigate their way through simulations.

All of the simulations provided by PhET are free to use and can be easily  integrated in your classroom instruction. To be able to access them you need to make sure your browser runs Flash and Java because all of these interactive simulations are written in Java and Flash.

Watch this video to learn more about PhET interactive simulations.

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Two Great Resources for Science Teachers

March 10, 2015
Below are two interesting science websites we learned about from Graphite. Both teachers and students can use them to access a wide variety of science resources including: project ideas in different areas of science, interactives, games, activities, lessons and many more.

1- The Lawrence Hall of Science

The Lawrence Hall of Science provides a rich library of interactives covering different scientific phenomena. Students can use them in hands-on  activities to design, test, and discover amazing things about science. The resources in this website are arranged into different categories including: After School Kids Science (contains science activities specifically designed for kids in grades 3 and 5); Check out Science (You and your budding scientist read a nonfiction book from  Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading curriculum, then follow the instructions on the included activity card), Explore the World (interactives to help you virtually discover the world) and many more.

2- Science Buddies

Science Buddies is another great website for science teachers. It “ empowers K-12 students, parents, and teachers to quickly and easily find free project ideas and help in all areas of science from physics to food science and music to microbiology. Whether your goal is to find a fun science activity for your kids or win the international science fair, Science Buddies puts comprehensive, scientist-authored tools, tips, and techniques at your fingertips.”

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7 Terrific Chrome Apps for Science Teachers

February 19, 2015
Today we spent sometime in Chrome web store sifting through the different educational extensions they have there and we ended up with the list below. These are some very good tools for Science teachers to use with their students to teach them about different scientific phenomena.We used user-reviews and download number  as selective criteria for out list. Have a look and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy

1- 3D Solar System

This is a 3D solar system simulation application, which gives you the approximate location of the planets in the solar system at different time, and some information about each one of them.

2- Anatomy 3d

Anatomy 3D provides you with a bunch of interactive tools to use to dissect, explore and learn about the human body in 3D. The tool is also available for Android and iOS users.

3- Anatomy Games

This extension offers users a variety of anatomy games and atlases to help them learn about human anatomy

4- Planetarium

Planetarium is a beautiful interactive sky map that students can use to explore the stars and learn about planets. The tool shows over 1500 stars with a magnitude of up to “+5”.

5- Useful Periodic Table

This is a periodic table of the elements that has all the elements and most of their respective properties collected and stored in one easy to use and simple to find location.  Contained within this periodic table is a unit converter that will convert some of the scientific dimensions.  Also, containing links to wikipedia for further literature on that element that you wish to know.  Great for students because of the elements quiz contained within.

6- BioDigital Human

The BioDigital Human is a 3D platform that simplifies the understanding of anatomy, disease and treatments. Explore the body in 3D!

7- Anatomy Skills : Bones

Learn all of the major bones in the human body using three different modes: Learn, Game and Quiz. The app covers all of the major bones in the body from the phalanges to the femurs. Carefully selected graphics make the features easy to identify.

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