We actually watched some of the Science of the Summer Olympics during the London games, but I didn’t realize at the time that it was part of a whole series. So, check out NBC Learn’s free resources to find videos on the science of all kinds of sports, plus video series on Chemistry, Climate Change, […]
There are a gazillion games out there to learn addition or multiplication facts. There are very few, however, to learn about the quadratic formula. If you’re looking for some games to help your student practice math skills like fractions, prime factorization, angles, factoring polynomials, percentages and other math concepts under-served by the other math games […]
Here’s a fun activity if you’re studying space flight. Kerbal Space Program is a downloadable PC game where players create their own space program. Given a collection of parts, players must build a functional ship capable of taking their crew of Kerbals into space and bring them back alive. There is a free demo version […]
Frontiers for Young Minds is a scientific journal on neuroscience with kid editors. It’s a pretty cool idea. Scientists write cool articles about neuroscience and kids edit them. You can read about the scientists and the kid editors, or you can get involved and be an editor. Great for upper elementary through high school […]
Kids Think Design is a great little site to start looking at design careers. It covers 10 different design careers from Fashion Design to Architecture. Each one has information about the career, examples and design project and links to other sites. It’s a great place to start if your kid is interested in design. Great […]
GCF Learn Free is a site put together by Goodwill Industries of Eastern NC. It covers basic math and reading, along with technology and job skills. It by no means covers everything, but it does contain over 250 videos and 750 lessons. If you are looking for some games or videos to help reinforce some basic […]
Tackling high school math? Math TV is a great source for help. It has videos of teachers explaining all kinds of math problems, step by step. So if you need some more worked examples and more explanation on any topic from fractions to derivatives, this is a good place to look. It would be a […]
If you liked the British Museum’s Ancient Egypt site, I have great news for you. I knew there were other sites in this series, and I finally had time to find them all. So here they are: Ancient Greece Ancient China Ancient India Ancient Egypt Ancient Mesopotamia Each of these sites has interactive content, games […]
I love tying art projects into what we are studying. None of us around here are very good at drawing, so I always look for crafty project that don’t rely on drawing talent. I’m adding Artisan des Arts up there with Art Projects for Kids as a go-to place to find projects. This Canadian art […]
Finally – some help with vocabulary! Word Dynamo offers thousands of lists of vocabulary words in English, Spanish and Latin at all grade levels. For each list, you can do a match game, work a crossword, use flashcards or hear the word spoken and match it with its definition. There are even lists to help […]
Yay! More math help! Math Snacks has animations, mini games, interactive tools and learning guides to help with math concepts for grades 3-8. Topics include ratios, number lines, basic operations, scale, units and more. This is a great resource to help your child grasp a concept that they may be struggling with. They don’t cover […]
Virtual Labs is a site put together to help train students in basic lab techniques. There are six labs, mostly covering topics related to food safety. It’s not a lot, but if you’re looking for an interactive animation on how to use a microscope or on topics like pH and acidity, they’ve got you covered. […]
In case you haven’t figured it out yet, we are big fans of PBS’s NOVA show, especially the NOVA Science Now series. When we were watching one of their shows on technology a few months ago, we found out about the amazing story of Fold It. I’d try to explain it to you in this […]
BrainRush is a great way to lean anything that requires some memorization, from the times tables to parts of speech to dates of the American Revolution. Each game is set up to practice a skill until it is mastered, quickly and efficiently. There are hundreds of games on all kinds of topics and if you […]
Don’t let the title fool you. Science of Soil is all about math and it’s use in science. Put together to help undergraduates catch up on some concepts they might have missed, the animations and interactives cover dimensions, graphs and scale. They are very cleverly done, and each one includes an interactive experiment, videos and […]
I was very pleased to run across this little educational site from a large corporation that my husband used to work for. Seed has great experiment ideas and some really nice little animations on earth science, space, energy, health and even math puzzles. Look under the Science tab at the top to find the content. […]
OMGOMGOMG! I love this. I really hate how we teach so little about other countries. Sure, we study Ancient Egypt and the political systems of the ancient Greeks and Romans, but we learn almost nothing about the rest of the world after 1776. And we spend huge amounts of time studying our own modern history […]
One thing I love about homeschooling is the ability to integrate real life skills into your school day. I’m not talking about being a “good communicator” or experience “working in groups”. I’m talking about know how to manage your money, how to change a tire or how to cook a good meal. For most of […]
What a great resource! I wish I had found this when we were studying the periodic table last year. Periodic Table of Videos has a video about EVERY element in the periodic table. Even those ones you can’t pronounce and have never heard of! This is a great addition to any study of chemistry. […]
You just have to love everything about The Smithsonian, the magazine, the museums, the website. And here’s another to add to the list – Scientists @ The Smithsonian. The site has videos and profiles of over 20 scientists – from ant farmer to dinosaur hunter. If you have kids who are interested in science, […]
OK, this one may be for more of a niche audience. But if you have kids who love military history, History Animated needs to be in your tool bag. It offers animations of the major battles from the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and WWII. The animations are not exactly what you would call […]
I have been a big fan of Science Friday on NPR for years. Somehow, I missed the fact that they have a fantastic website until just recently. The site has podcasts, videos and some really cool lesson plans. With the menu down the left, you can search for stories by topic. You could also use […]
NASA Education has lesson plans, videos, interactives, design contests and a lot more. Search by grade level for content for K-12. Anything you need to know about space is here. Great for all ages and free.
If you’re studying anything to do with the Oceans or Weather, NOAA Education Resources has some great material. Find out more about hurricanes, volcanoes, marine life, the tides and a lot more. Each section has videos, multimedia, activities and real world data. Great for all ages and free.
Another Math site to get excited about! Real World Math uses Google Earth to teach, well, real world math. Lesson plans are done in Google Earth, where you can measure distances or add media or models to the earth’s surface. There is some learning curve here if you haven’t used Google Earth before, but it’s worth […]
Engage is the outcome of a consortium of universities and government agencies who want kids to be more involved in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities. These games have been developed to encourage kids in PreK-3rd grade to develop STEM skills. These games are engaging, entertaining and educational. I’m not saying they’re going to […]
Here’s another cool game to add to your arsenal with Urgent Evoke. Quandry is an online game where kids 8-14 lead a new human colony on a distant planet. Difficult decisions must be made. Students must filter opinion from facts and make ethical decisions that could impact the planet, the colonists and themselves. There are […]
The folks at NASA have put together a great website to help kids learn about Global Climate Change. Climate Kids has videos, games, articles and teaching resources on topics like climate, energy, oceans and weather. There are lots of great activities to try here. This site alone would provide all the material you would need […]
Math Live has animated explanations for a variety of math subjects, mainly in the range of grades 4-7. Each animation goes into a detailed discussion of the subject and provides some interactive practice. Each topic also has a downloadable practice sheet, teacher notes and an assessment. It’s a great way to introduce a new math […]
Studying energy? Energyville is a cool little game to help students learn about the trade-offs between cost, environmental impact and security when choosing sources of energy. Kids can play with the mix of sources to power a city and see how their choices affect cost and the environment. They can also learn more about each […]
I know, I gush about a lot of these sites – but, OMG, this is sooooo cool! Get the Math has videos of people in different fields (cool ones, like game design, fashion design, music and basketball) talking about how they use math in their jobs. The videos are each about five minutes long. After […]
If you are looking for a meaningful way to include more Nature in your homeschool, take a look at Project Noah. I just love ideas like crowd-sourced research and citizen scientists – these are opportunities for you and your kids to do real research that will be used by scientists in their studies. In Project […]
NatGeo has a wealth of information over several websites. If you’re looking for good educational content to add to a science or geography lesson, the National Geographic Education website is probably the easiest place to find it. Search for videos by subject and grade, download coloring pages, find a map of any place from any […]
This unassuming little site has some of the best lesson and unit plans I’ve seen for engineering. Teach Engineering‘s curricular units have lesson plans, activities and links to online resources that add up to great interactive and hands-on learning. Just take a look at the Asteroid Impact lesson or Moon Colony (can you tell I’m […]
If you just can’t bring yourself to pay the money for the Discovery Education Streaming, or if you just want to try it for a few months, take a look at Cosmeo. It is a pared-down version of Discover Streaming. It still has 30,000 videos and 150,000 reference articles, along with pictures, math tutorials and […]
BBC’s Bitesize site has a whole British plethora of learning material. Here’s a little key to help you navigate: KS1 – ages 5-7 KS2 – ages 7-11 KS3 – ages 11-14 GCSE – ages 14-16 TGAU – only if you speak Welsh Standard Grade and Intermediate 2 – High School in Scotland Otherwise, just browse […]
I’m veering a little from my usual format of just posting resources to let you know which ones we’re using this year. I have a 6th grader and an 8th grader. We have always done our history and science together. This year we are smack in the middle school zone, which is great. Next year, […]
I used this today with my boys and it was great! We’re studying Space Flight this week and we’ve been watching When We Left Earth (an excellent documentary series on the US Space Program). Today was the episode where Buzz and Neil land on the moon. We Choose the Moon is a simulation of the […]
I love it when Science and Art come together and give each other a big hug. The MicroObservatory is a great example of this. Using their telescopes, students can take pictures of objects in space. Pictures are emailed within 48 hours. Then, using their free, downloadable software, students can enhance their images. You can also […]
I am loving this idea! It’s hard to teach those abstract Computer Science ideas – binary numbers, algorithms, procedures. And actually using a computer, where all these processes are invisible, doesn’t help. Well, now there’s Computer Science Unplugged, where students learn about computer science concepts while NOT on a computer. Using post-it notes, string, crayons, […]
Bootstrap is an awesome free, online curriculum that teaches game design through Algebra. Here’s your chance to answer that question “When am I ever going to use this?” AND give your kid some real-world skills in programming. Bootstrap has two classes with about 10 lessons each (about 20-25 hours of instruction per class). There are […]
How did I miss this? Probably because I hadn’t thought to look for Art History at Khan Academy. I guess we’re all going to have to expand our view of KA – it’s more than just math. SmartHistory is a multimedia web book about Art and History. It covers ancient cultures through the modern day. […]
Braining Camp is a great supplement to your Middle School Math curriculum. It has interactive animated lessons covering algebra, measurement, geometry, numbers, probability and problem solving. The animations and virtual manipulatives are cleverly done to help students understand the problems. Assessment and progress tracking are included. Pricing is very reasonable at $10 for 2 months, […]
LearnZillion is another site like Learning.com that allows you to set up classes and assign curriculum, etc. But, like Learning.com, its hidden jewel is the online content it offers. Sign up for free as a teacher and then you can decide if you want to use all the class management tools. Or, you can […]
The National Gallery of Art’s NGAKids site is a playground of online interactive art activities. Make a collage, a still life, a Rousseau-esque jungle scene, abstract art. It’s all here. Another great feature is the Adventures in Art. These are kid-friendly interactive studies of some of the most famous pieces in the Gallery. This […]
Read Write Think has some of the best online interactive tools for writing that I have seen. Story maps, graphic organizers, and poetry tools among many, many others. They also have mobile apps, lesson plans, printouts, and an “on this day” in literary history. Covers K-12 and totally free.
Wonderopolis is a great informal learning site. Each day, a new topic or question is discussed. Questions like “What are hors d’oeuvres?” , “Why are there revolving doors?”, “Why can’t all medicines be swallowed?”. Each topic has a link to find out more, usually with a video, always with an explanation. This would be a […]
Illuminations, from the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, give you lesson plans and interactive activities for grades K-12. Their interactive content consists of some games and some interactive practice. Lesson plans are available for K-12 and include many hands-on activities. For all grades and free.
MapMaker Interactive is an interactive world map provided by National Geographic. You can overlay ocean currents, active volcanoes, population density, CO2 emissions and about a million other things. You can zoom in to a specific region or country and even draw, place markers and label things. This would be a great tool for a geography […]
Just when you thought PBS’s NOVA couldn’t get any cooler – they come out with labs! NOVA Labs offers three labs (Sun, Energy and Cloud) with more on the way. Each lab is an interactive research program using real data and asking real questions. There are videos to give you the background information that you […]