Science+Ideas

=Science Ideas=

__**Overview**__
Technology has great potential in science classes. If used well, technology can facilitate investigation by students. This will lead to more in depth discussions. In some cases (e.g., videos, simulations), students may be able to learn autonomously. Technology-oriented projects enable the teacher to become more of a coach than a "sage on the stage". This opens up the door to more closely watch students learn. In turn, teachers will improve their lesson plans and possibly start to adopt Differentiated Instruction. The key is for teachers to spend their time on important activities, such as developing critical thinking questions and facilitating discussions. If you need help with thoughtful questions, check out this website (link). The National Science Digital Library is an excellent catalog of searchable online resources (link).

//See my online Delicious bookmarks for more ideas. Use tags science and biology.//

__**Sample Websites**__

 * 1) Here is an EXCELLENT document showing the leading science websites (link)
 * 2) Here is a simple website for students to drill about the human skeleton (link)
 * 3) Cornell science inquiry-based learning ideas (link)
 * 4) Websites can be excellent resources with varying degrees of detail. This website (link) has good reference material and teachers could challenge students with activities that use the additional level of detail.
 * 5) A high quality activity or project requires forethought and planning by the teacher. Technology is not necessarily required. Here is a sample activity (Biology Taboo) to help teach vocabulary and understanding (link)
 * 6) This website is a game that forces students to use what they know about motion to create simple machines (link)
 * 7) Look for websites that have complete activities: student handout, teacher background, grading rubric, etc. Here is a website that uses simulations from another website, but provides excellent teacher resources (link)
 * 8) PhET has an incredible array of simulations. The key is creating an activity that uses the simulation productively. Here are two links for sample activities on motion (link1) (link2).

__**__**Other Websites**__**__

 * [[image:http://image.wetpaint.com/image/2/uVZS2DeEw5hPWJxYRnkAKQ4385/GW214H97 width="214" height="97" align="bottom" caption="Science Ideas - King Middle School EdTech" link="@http://nsdl.org/"]] || [[image:http://image.wetpaint.com/image/1/8hTClsxZV_Qis-Zwf2eF2Q80144/GW143H178 width="143" height="178" align="bottom" caption="Science Ideas - King Middle School EdTech" link="@http://wps.aw.com/wps/media/access/Pearson_Default/756/774719/login.html"]] || [[image:http://image.wetpaint.com/image/2/P628WrwW-i1ATEbEu0p2YQ13439/GW296H56 width="296" height="56" align="bottom" caption="Science Ideas - King Middle School EdTech" link="@http://www.thephysicsfront.org/"]] ||
 * [[image:http://image.wetpaint.com/image/2/jigNIQW2bbxxnP8-9dFzdg4747/GW180H94 width="180" height="94" align="bottom" caption="Science Ideas - King Middle School EdTech" link="@http://www.physicsclassroom.com/"]] ||  ||   ||