Category: Science

3 Projects to Teach 1st Grade Architecture

Many Fridays, I report on a wonderful website or project my classes and parents love. This one is teaching architecture to youngers:

Lesson Plan:

Three projects over six weeks and your students will learn about blueprints, room layout, dimensions, and more. Plus, they’ll understand how to think about a three-dimensional object and then spatially lay it out on paper. This is challenging, but fun for first graders.

Spend two weeks on each projects. Incorporate a discussion of spaces, neighborhoods, communities one week. Practice the drawing, then do the final project which students can save and print. Kids will love this unit.

  • First, draw a picture in your drawing program of the child’s home. If you don’t already have a class favorite, check this list. Many have architecture tools so show students how to find them. Have kids think about their house, walk through it. They’ll have to think in three dimensions and will soon realize they can’t draw a two-story house. In that case, allow them to pick which rooms they wish to include and concentrate on what’s in the room.
[caption id="attachment_4159" align="aligncenter" width="585"]first grade Classroom layout–through the eyes of a First Grader[/caption]

National STEM/STEAM Day Nov. 8th

National STEM Day is November 8, 2022, the unofficial holiday that celebrates science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education throughout the United States. Many add ‘art’ to the celebration for the acronym, STEAM. Here are some great ideas that remind your students of the excitement that is these core subjects:

Ten Ways to Celebrate National STEM Day with NASA

National STEM Day focuses on helping students advance in STEM fields, a priority of NASA as we continue to push the boundaries of exploration and soar into the future. In celebration of National STEM Day, we challenge you to engage and inspire the Artemis generation as we go forward to the Moon by 2024 and continue to innovate in the areas of Earth science and aeronautics. To help you join in on the festivities, here are 10 ways you can celebrate National STEM Day with us.

49 STEM Activities for Students 

On November 8th, we will celebrate National STEM Day to get kids excited about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). Together the STEM subjects represent some of the fastest-growing and most in-demand fields in the United States.

While STEM topics seem a natural fit in high schools and post-secondary curriculum, education experts are promoting a focus on STEM subjects for younger and younger children. 

12 Projects for your STEAM program

Twelve favorite STEAM projects where artistic thinking becomes the engine for unpacking solutions. 

Activities from Engineering for Kids

National STEM/STEAM Day is dedicated to all things science, technology, engineering, art, and math. STEM (and STEAM) represents some of the fastest-growing and in-demand fields in the world today and Engineering For Kids is passionate about inspiring the next generation of engineers, artists, and innovators.

Bring Weather into Your Lesson Plan with Earth Networks and WeatherSTEM

One of the hottest topics in schools and an area of greatest need is STEM resources.  Earth Networks has developed creative and compelling STEM curricula on a variety of weather topics. Any school with a weather unit or an onsite weather station will appreciate this site. I asked them to drop in and explain their education programs to the AATT community:

5 Ways to Celebrate National STEM/STEAM Day

National STEM/STEAM Day is an opportunity to focus on helping kids advance in the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and math. Creating understanding around STEM and STEAM is a big topic of conversation today. Statistics show few American students pursue expertise in STEM fields—and we have an inadequate pipeline of teachers skilled in those subjects. On the flipside of that the need for STEM oriented job skills are skyrocketing.

4 Lesson plans

This STEM bundle includes four lesson plans: Engineering and Design, The Human Body, Keyboarding and the Scientific Method, and Robotics. All incorporate technology into authentic class activities such as bridge building, note-taking, and math. Each lesson plan includes an Essential Question and Big Idea, average time required to complete, suggested appropriate grade level, suggested teacher preparation, step-by-step directions (see preview for an example), assessment strategies, pedagogic background, samples, and images (where relevant). 

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We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to place foot on the moon. Commemorate that this year with an exciting collection of websites and apps that take your students to the Moon. Here are some you’ll like:

  1. Apollo 11: Countdown to Launch via Google Earth
  2. Apollo 11 VR
  3. Google Moon–see the Moon in 3D with your Google Earth app
  4. How we are going to the Moon–video
  5. JFK Challenge — takes kids to the Apollo 11
  6. NASA Educator Guide to the Moon (for teachers)
  7. Moon Phase Simulation Viewed from Earth and Space (interactive, elementary and middle school)—and associated Lesson Plan
  8. Observing the Moon in the Sky (interactive, elementary)
  9. Moonrise to Moonset (media gallery, elementary)

More on space

In Love with Space? Here are Great Websites to Take You There

10 Space Websites That Will Launch Your Class Study

Solar System Scope

(more…)

Earth Day Classroom Activities

earth day

Every year, the world celebrates Earth Day on April 22nd, a day the United Nations recognizes as International Mother Earth Day. It is a day to remind ourselves of the importance of clean air, fresh water, and unlittered land. It’s when we can all participate in making that happen rather than accepting the trash-filled oceans, the smoggy skies, and the debris-laden land that is becoming the norm in our lives.

Despite the questionable health of our world, we have made progress. Back in 1970, when Earth Day was first celebrated, trucks spewed black smoke as they drove down the highways, toxic waste was dumped into oceans with no repercussions, and the general opinion was that the Earth took care of itself. That changed when U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Earth Day’s founder, witnessed the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara California and decided it was time for someone to do something. When he looked around for that “someone”, it turned out to be himself. He started with a “national teach-in on the environment” with a simple goal: Encourage people to recognize the importance of protecting the Earth:

“It was on that day [Earth Day] that Americans made it clear they understood and were deeply concerned over the deterioration of our environment and the mindless dissipation of our resources.”

Here are online resources (click for updates) to help you share the importance of Earth Day with your students:

  1. Books for Earth Day
  2. Breathing earth– the environment
  3. Breathing Earth YouTube Video–of CO2 use, population changes, and more
  4. Conservation Game
  5. Earth Day Reading List
  6. Eco-friendly house
  7. Ecology Games from KoiKiwi
  8. Ecotourism Simulation–for grades 4 and above
  9. National Geographic Carbon Footprint Calculator

Here are some grade-specific resources:

1st Grade

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade

Here are a few lesson plans from last year that still work well. Enjoy!

How effective is Earth Day

In the 49 years since the inception of Earth Day, there have been more than 48 major environmental “wins”. Here are some of those:

  • The U.S. Clean Air Act was passed, a comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions.
  • The U.S. Clean Water Act was passed to regulate the discharge of pollutants into U.S. waters.
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was passed.
  • The U.S. Endangered Species Act was passed to protect animal species that are disappearing.
  • The Acid Rain (what happens when normal rain becomes loaded with offensive chemicals and scalds the skin) Program obtained emission reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
  • The importance of the ozone layer to the health of the Earth is better understood.
  • The consequences of too much plastic in the Earth’s oceans is coming home to roost.

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17 Websites for Chemistry

 

Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to reinforce chemistry in MS and HS:

  1. Beaker–a digital beaker app
  2. Chemistry collection from Carnegie
  3. ChemCapers
  4. Chemistry instructional videos
  5. ChemmyBear–resources for Chemistry and AP Chemistry classes
  6. CK12 Chemistry simulations
  7. Concord Consortium–chemistry, earth science, engineering, life science, physics
  8. Crash Course: Chemistry (videos)
  9. EMD PTE — periodic table
  10. Interactive Periodic Table
  11. Molecules–Molecules is an application for viewing three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulating them using your fingers.
  12. NanoSpace Molecularium–virtual amusement park about atoms and molecules; from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
  13. Periodic Table of Elements–interactive
  14. Periodic Table videos 
  15. PhET Simulations for chemistry and physics
  16. Reactions–short videos on chemistry topics
  17. Slow Motion Chemistry — videos on chemistry

Click here for updates to this list.

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We Landed on the Moon July 20 1969

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong was the first man to place foot on the moon. Commemorate that this year with an exciting collection of websites and apps that take your students to the Moon. Here are some you’ll like:

  1. Apollo 11: Countdown to Launch via Google Earth
  2. Apollo 11 VR
  3. Google Moon–see the Moon in 3D with your Google Earth app
  4. How we are going to the Moon–video
  5. JFK Challenge — takes kids to the Apollo 11
  6. NASA Educator Guide to the Moon (for teachers)
  7. Moon Phase Simulation Viewed from Earth and Space (interactive, elementary and middle school)—and associated Lesson Plan
  8. Observing the Moon in the Sky (interactive, elementary)
  9. Moonrise to Moonset (media gallery, elementary)

More on space

In Love with Space? Here are Great Websites to Take You There

10 Space Websites That Will Launch Your Class Study

Solar System Scope


Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.