Links, Labs, & Lessons for Science Teachers

Hot Links on Science home page has student links
Visit the pages of other science teachers   D. Fodeman in Boston - h.s. biological
A list of schools & teachers maintained by SargentWelch. The Georgia site is fantastically rich.
Science and Technology Links. These are thoroughly-described links that should interest most teachers and students.

Physical Science

Physical Science Activity Manual What I'd hoped to find on the web! Useful and detailed lessons from the Center for Excellence for Science and Math Education at Univ. of Tennessee at Martin
Light Ray Diagrams great optics tutorial - convex lens ray diagrams
Electronics virtual lab
Boiling Point Project Maryland
About Temperature
Physics Education Resources
Science Ed McGill Univ.

Space & Earth Science

AstroWeb: Astronomical Internet Resources

A Selected List of Web Sites for Instructors of Introductory Astronomy Courses  

Galileo Probe NASA
NASA K-12 Internet: Live from the Hubble Space Telescope

Life Science

Medical Searches
BIOLAB Homepage, ver. 1.1, J.E. Armstrong, 23 August 1995

General Resources

Great page of the future for science journals
The Armchair ScientistFun and thoughtful
National Science Foundation has resources tucked away on its many pages.
Exploratorium in San Francisco The oldest science center
Science centers worldwide
A list of Science museums by Yanoff
Ask Dr. Neutrino Send in questions about science
Discovery Channel Online version
LBNL ELSI Home Page Ethics in Science - Labs for Middle Schools
The Explorer  Organized voluminous references to science ed resources.
SargeantWelch Home Page. Catalog, their resources, some non-commercial.

Special Events

ThinkQuest Internet Contest for students
Some Comic Links
The On-line Books Page
Writing Resources and Writing Labs on the Net

Labs

Especially good labs for use in Physical Science
  1. Thermocline lab - Aim bunsen burner at surface of water in beaker for say 10 min. Then use thermometer to measure temp at different depths. Graph the thermocline! Exp to find best time of heating and size of beaker.

Documents

Resource documents to come

Handouts

Handouts to come

A Useful Course Organization

Communication to parents

Parents are our best allies and friends. They want what we want; i.e. what is best for their children.
We need to accentuate that commonality, and shun any devisive tendencies. Sometimes teachers are encouraged to have minimal contacts with parents. This is a serious detriment to the best possible upbring of our students. We must work together, teachers and parents, with the same touchstone in front of us: What is the best for their child?
Sometimes parents feel excluded and that fosters a need to feel influence; this can express itself as a confrontational style or a micro-managing outlook. They should not be excluded. They should not feel excluded.

 Welcome them into the classroom.
Share the work with them.
Make preemptive calls.
Call for good work.
Encourage them to come to school events to meet you.

 Trust can and should happen. We can then both work with the child and this may save education.

 

Student Notification

I give grades 4 times a quarter. This is about once every two weeks. It takes time but has the advantages of: no student lost without early and proper notification; interim grades calculated easily - 25 minutes; quarter grades calculated and marked in an hour; late work must be closed out every two weeks; student knows grade continually; parent knows grade frequently. It fosters the working together of the triad of teacher-student-parent.

 

Assignment sheet


Assignments are listed with points and letter grades earned; a turned-in check box is included.

Point Sheet


On the reverse side of the assigment sheet is the paper that students take home for signature - called the Point Sheet.

Grade sheet


In my grade book I keep a page for each class for each two week period. Four sheets make up the quarter. I can flip back for quick reference.

Seating Chart -writeable

One useful method is to cut a post-it down to about a 3/4" square; write one students name on it; do this for the entire class; then press them on a blank chart where the students are assigned; then, put the chart into a vinyl page sleeve.

 
Advantages: Students can be moved around quickly An overhead marker can be used to mark on the chart;

Marks are later transfered to the gradebook; a damp towel readies the chart for its next use.

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