WJC Technology

Enough said. http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/index.html

http://www.sciencetoymaker.org/

This is a non-commercial, teacher-created site for people who like to roll up their sleeves and make science toys and projects. You won’t find slick, well-designed web pages here–more like the digital equivalent of a messy workshop. If you poke around though, you’ll find good stuff. Science toy maker is a resource for inspired kids, parents, teachers, teenagers, home schoolers, science fair participants and citizen scientists everywhere.

Investing for Kids
http://efinancedirectory.com/article_directory/Investing_for_Kids.html

What are Exchange Traded Funds? What is the difference between a spread and a bid? What do banks do with the money that you deposit and what does the FDIC have to do with it? How is coin and paper money really made? What is the difference between CDs and bonds? Features on this Web site include kid-friendly tips on avoiding identity theft, the basics of investing, how to create a budget, and how the stock market works.

The Smithsonian for Students
http://smithsonianeducation.org/students

If the movie Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian whetted your appetite to learn more about the Smithsonian Museum collection, then this site will get you even more excited about the museum’s 142 million objects, including everything from fossils to tapestries. On this site you will find profiles of our nation’s presidents, a “Walking on the Moon” Apollo 11 mission page, and some of the Smithsonian’s collections as well as tips for starting your own collection. The Secrets of the Smithsonian features behind-the-scenes secrets such as the history of the Hope Diamond and even spiders in space!

The Berenstain Bears
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/berenstainbears

This Web site features all of the Berenstain Bears books. Students can browse through short descriptions of all of them, find out more information on how to purchase them, and check out a section on new releases. In the activities section, you’ll find an interactive coloring game, a “Money Matters” presentation, coloring sheets, and more.

Classics for Kids
http://www.classicsforkids.com

Do you know students who are interested in composing their own music? Who want to know more about the different instrument families? Who need to get those musical periods down once and for all? If so, then this Web site is for them. Students can search composers by musical period, by country, or browse for a particular composer on a timeline. One link allows visitors to listen to entire movements of famous pieces by Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Mendelssohn, and more. A musical dictionary might come in handy for those cryptic musical terms. There also are games to play, including Compose Your Own Music and Rockin’ Rhythm Master.

Willard Wigan Micro Sculptures
http://www.willard-wigan.com/default.aspx

Read about this artist who creates sculptures of such small proportions that you need a microscope to see them. Each piece typically sits within the eye of a needle or on a pinhead. As a creative outlet to deal with dyslexia at school, Willard started making minute pieces of art from the age of 5. This site features a gallery of his work, including replicas of the Statue of Liberty, Tutankhamen, and Marilyn Monroe.

Take a trip with NASA.
Your students will think you’re out of this world when you share Visible Earth with them. This site is home to NASA’s catalog of images and animations of Earth from outer space. You can show kids photographs of city lights around the world, smoke trails from California fires, flooding in the Midwest, the haze of pollution over Beijing, and more.

Become Citizen Scientists.
Citizen Science projects use the general public for scientific research and data collection. You and your students can make observations in your own neighborhood, record your findings online, and compare them with other scientists around the globe. Project BudBurst encourages your students to collect data regarding climate change and the timing of plants flowering and leafing in your area. Register online and let your students feel the reward of making a difference on a grand scale.

Learn about Thomas Edison.
At Edison Invents!, kids can play an interactive matching game to learn more about Edison’s life and inventions. Then they’ll learn how to make their own light bulb, watch one of the first on-screen kisses, and listen to a recreation of Edison’s first recording on the phonograph. Electrifying!

View bugs from your playground.
Bugscope is a free project by the University of Illinois. It allows students to come up with their own experiments, view bug specimens at high magnification, and talk about what they see with real scientists in real time. After you sign up, your students find bugs and mail them to Bugscope. Later, a real scientist will magnify your bugs, discuss what’s being viewed, and answer your students’ questions during a two-hour online session.

Thanks Ms. Johnson for sharing this resource:

The Futures Channel http://www.thefutureschannel.com/ has plenty of short videos that show math and science in the real world. Many of them come with activity suggestions.

eScience Labs

Kids, you can try this at home. Kits from eScience Labs are a series of labs that contain virtually everything needed to complete an entire series of experiments — with the exception, perhaps, of an egg or a plump piece of fruit. These experiments are designed specifically for use by homeschoolers or distance learners but are great for any class. The biology kit, for example, includes high-definition images instead of expensive slides and a microscope, and still offers hands-on exercises. Registered students get the benefit of video introductions, interactive animations, and supplementary course material. New lab kits are continually in development.