science
New Science Professional Development Resources from the NSTA Learning Center
Recently, President Barack Obama launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign, a nationwide effort by public and private organizations to improve the participation and performance of America’s students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). What is your school or district doing to address this renewed focus on STEM education? Are you looking for ways to help your teachers expand their science knowledge and easily integrate STEM teaching into their classrooms?
To help you improve science education and to give your teachers the science professional development they need, netTrekker has partnered with the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) to offer seamless access to high-quality online PD resources from the NSTA Learning Center on a wide variety of science topics directly from netTrekker.
A small sample of NSTA Learning Center resources will be freely available to all netTrekker subscribers as part of your netTrekker subscription. The free resources include:
- 1 SciPack
- 1 SciGuide
- 64 Science Objects
- 132 Archived Web Seminars
- 600+ Free Journal Articles
- 179 e-book Chapters
- Click here to download a PDF with complete descriptions of these resources.
- Click here to learn how to access the free resources within netTrekker.
Schools and districts can also provide extended professional development opportunities by purchasing additional licenses to access to the complete set of more than 4,400 NSTA Learning Center online PD resources. The resources will be easily accessible, 24/7 from your netTrekker search results.
Click here to learn more about the complete NSTA Learning Center professional development package or ask your netTrekker Account Manager for more details.
Conservation…Easy as 1,2,Free
April 22, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. Recently we featured an article about ways to get fit, eat well, and maintain a healthy lifestyle. These same principles apply to taking care of our environment.
Huddle your family around the computer and visit the H2Ouse to travel room-by room and through the yard to learn about simple ways to conserve water in and around your home. Simple tasks like watering the lawn in the evening and recycling aluminum cans are easy and won’t cost you a penny. In fact, over time you may save a plenty!
Understanding conservation is an academic standard that falls in the elementary, middle and high school curricular content. netTrekker is filled with many great educational resources on this topic for students, teachers and families.
To add excitement to High School Physics, take students to the Teach Engineering activity, The Puck Stops Here. This challenge demonstrates how physics plays a key role in conserving energy. Students will work as a team of engineers to design a new efficient puck for the National Hockey League. Although hockey doesn’t play a major role in promoting conservation, the application of physics to intelligent designs in manufacturing of all types has a huge influence on the amount of energy used on our planet.
And don’t forget to include young children in environmental education. With early training, they have the most potential to develop life-long habits for helping us Save the Earth.
Caboose is celebrating Earth Day by offering crafts, environmental games and recycling activities specifically designed for kids.
Clean off the picnic table, round up a few children and spend some fun time with them making these great Earth Day Crafts.
Please post a comment to this blog to share any resources, projects, or ideas you, your colleagues, friends, or children have on this important issue.
I Want to Fly!
Drill down into Science topics like Physics and you would think that the resources might get a little “dull”. Not so! Check out Science > Physics > Principles of Motion > Force. Inside this area is a wonderful example of how students can be engaged by some of these complicated STEM topics. Check it out in today’s Site of the Day - I Want to Fly!
This cartoon based interactive site uses a character named Toby to introduce many physics concepts including the principles of motion and force. Toby the wizard wants to fly! Learn how three items can help him accomplish this goal. Real world information and video can be found on this site, helping to further explain the properties of flight.
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
Sammy Salmon
Get a life cycle! Check out life cycle information for all kinds of animals – it’s easy to find using a subject and keyword combined approach. Keyword: life cycle AND using the Subject Refinement Menu to drill down in the subject of Science on a path such as this one:
Science > Biology > Animals > Animal Classification > Chordates > Fish > Bony
Today’s Site of the Day, a great site about the life cycle of Pacific salmon, can be found using the combined keyword and drill down approach. Learn all about Pacific salmon from Sammy Salmon and his friends. Come along with Starfish as he follows Sammy the Salmon’s life cycle. Authors provide links to other fun sites such as a salmon story, games, information about Sammy and much more!
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
NOVA Online: Operation Heart Transplant
Congratulations Doctor! Discover the amazing and engaging Teacher’s Domain collection in netTrekker! One of our favorite resources, the virtual heart transplant, is featured in today’s Site of the Day. Each one of the resources in the Teacher’s Domain collection has wonderful background information and discussion questions to save you even more time.
Put on your surgical gloves and get ready to do a virtual surgery in the NOVA operating theater. You’ll get a set of surgical tools and instructions you need to understand the step-by-step process doctors use for this vital operation.
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
Sixty Symbols: Videos about the Symbols of Physics and Astronomy
Touch screens and Quantum Tunneling?
How do students get a handle on all the strange symbols and notations used in the areas of Astronomy and Physics? netTrekker can help with today’s Site of the Day, featuring a collection of videos explaining many of these symbols. The video refinement option under netTrekker’s Multimedia Refinement Menu can lead to you many other video resources from your keyword search results.
In this site, Astronomy and Physics experts at the University of Nottingham explain the strange symbols, letters, and “squiggles” you often see with equations or diagrams in textbooks and other materials. Enjoy lively discussions, simple demonstrations, and humorous anecdotes as these scientists share their years of experience, demonstrating scientific concepts and discussing what humans have yet to uncover in our universe. Topics include our Solar System’s planets, the speed of light, polarization, the magic square, the number pi, entropy, and Planck’s constant.
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
HubbleSite: Way Out!
Who says STEM concepts are always dry and boring? If you use netTrekker’s Refinement Menu to refine your search by Subject and Interactive Media, you can find sites like today’s Site of the Day! Can you help a cow plot a path out of the Milky Way? This space game is fun for all ages and is offered by HubbleSite. Users may pick their level of expertise and can choose from novice, pretty smart about space, or astrobrainiac levels.
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
National Science Foundation: The Science of the Olympic Winter Games
Is your classroom ready for the Winter Olympics? Take advantage of this famous and historic sporting event to help your students learn science!
Today’s Site of the Day features a 16-part video series from the partnership of NBC and the National Science Foundation, highlighting the “physics, biology, chemistry, and materials engineering behind the Olympic Winter Games.” Exciting and engaging videos give students a way to connect to different science concepts and still get to enjoy the sport!
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
Interactive Tour of the Brain
Three pounds – no, not a new fast food meal… it’s our brain!
Follow a powerful two-part interactive tour of the brain in today’s Site of the Day. The first section gives you brain basics; the second shows how the brain is affected throughout the stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Dramatic information and stunning interactive visuals help you master the biology of the brain and the damaging path of Alzheimer’s.
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
The Blobz Guide to Electric Circuits
You and your students will get a real charge out of this Site of the Day!
Learn all about electric circuits in this exciting interactive site, through games, activities, information, and quizzes. You’ll learn what makes circuits work, all about conductors and insulators, switches, changing circuits, and circuit diagrams. Learning science is fun with these hands-on activities! (This site requires an updated flash player.)
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
Genetic Science Learning Center: Click and Clone
Have you ever wished you could clone yourself to get more done? Learn more about the cloning process at the Mouse Cloning Lab in today’s Site of the Day!
This entertaining interactive animation walks you through steps to clone Mimi, a simple, brown lab mouse. The breeds, various types of tools, and specific procedures are outlined in this colorful site. You’ll answer a few questions at the end to show what you’ve learned and welcome Mimi #2, known as Mini-Mimi!
- Click here to login to netTrekker and access the Site of the Day.
Login to netTrekker before midnight (eastern) today to access the netTrekker Site of the Day and add it to your “My Portfolio” for easy future reference. After midnight, the new Site of the Day will go up and you’ll have to look for today’s site using netTrekker’s search tool. Need help with My Portfolio? Easy, handy instructions can be found here.
Not yet a netTrekker subscriber? Visit www.nettrekker.com and click on the Free Trial link at the top right of the page for 14 days of complimentary access to netTrekker.
What’s on Your Bookshelf?
What’s on Your Bookshelf?
As Danielle announced yesterday, The National Book Foundation (NBF) officially designated January as National Book Month. In celebration of this event enjoy our blog series each day this week as we celebrate literacy! Get some great ideas for pairing netTrekker’s resources with some of our staff’s favorite books to create amazing learning adventures.
If yesterday was your first day back at school and you missed the series debut with Harry Potter, please revisit Danielle’s article to find some amazing facts and learn how to host an annual Literature Bowl.
As a former elementary science teacher, I made sure that Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judith Barrett lived in my classroom book baskets in multiple copies. This beautifully crafted tall tale is not only a magnificent story, but also the perfect book to use to highlight vividly descriptive writing and illustrations to introduce a cross-curricular unit on weather.
No matter where you live, January is a great month for investigating weather. As we look back on the year in review and start fresh with new statistics, keeping a weather log allows students to predict, collect, and analyze data in a fun and meaningful way.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs leads students to investigate how weather can affect people, plants, and animals. The story is filled with weather vocabulary and even helps readers to consider safety tips for severe storms.
Since the book is geared toward the elementary reading levels, I recommend doing a keyword search under the elementary tab and then refining for readability levels 1(grades 1-3) and 2(grades 4-6).
Highlighted below are a few of the many, many netTrekker resources you may use to create a My Portfolio weather unit.
BrainPOP: Weather
Is it raining, is it snowing…is a hurricane a-blowing? Whatever the weather’s doing, you can find out why it’s doing it in this BrainPOP movie! In it, Tim and Moby explain what weather is and how different types of weather form. You’ll find out what the engine for all weather is (it has something to do with water). And if you’ve ever wondered why weathermen are always talking about cold fronts and warm fronts, wonder no longer! Grab your coat, we’re going out into the elements!
Scholastic: Weather Watch
Scholastic presents Weather Watch, where you can learn to predict the weather. Learn how to observe clouds, collect data with weather tools, investigate climate conditions, and analyze the weather. The site includes a comprehensive teacher’s guide with lesson plans, worksheets, and assessment options.
FOSSWeb: Air and Weather
This interactive activity from the University of California gets students to look at a thermometer and determine the temperature to dress the bear correctly! There are photos of things use air and ideas for other activities for teaching about air and weather.
Enjoy this great book and many marvelous weather investigations!
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