Math/Science Nucleus is a non-profit in California that runs several museums and educational programs. They have a free, complete, online science curriculum for K-6. The Elementary curriculum is organized into six units of six weeks each. The cycle is repeated each year with increasing depth. Each unit comes with slide shows, story books, activities and […]
If you’re planning Earth Science this year (which I am), Exploring Earth could be your textbook. It is the interactive component to a high school textbook published by McDougal Littell. You could buy the textbook to go with it (currently going for under $5 used on Amazon), or use it with a different one. It covers […]
HippoCampus has been around for a while. I’d heard about it many times, but it just came back onto my radar. Wow. I’m going to have to go back and put more stuff in my lesson plans for next year! There’s a lot to see here: videos, simulations, interactive lessons. They cover Math, Science, Social […]
At the risk of overloading you with too much information, I give you SAS Curriculum Pathways. SAS provides interactive resources in Language Arts, Science, Math, Social Studies and Spanish for Middle School and High School. The resources range from interactive, virtual labs to investigations using primary source documentation to web research projects. Many projects require […]
If your kids are a little too old for the animated Dance Mat Typing site, try this one. Typing Club offers a free, online typing class. There is instruction with each lesson and then a practice session. The site will track your progress, or you can sign up for free as a teacher and monitor […]
If you are planning a chemistry unit this year, this is the site for you. NOVA Elements is an interactive tool from our favorite science show, NOVA ScienceNow. Last fall, when we were studying chemistry, the NOVA episode “Hunting the Elements” came out. We watched it and loved it! It’s such a great, in-depth and […]
I think I said a few posts back that History seemed to be at the trailing edge of online content. Well, I may have to take that back. The more I look (I’m planning a unit on the American Revolution for the Fall), the more I find. Here’s Mission US, a fantastic online game about […]
I like discussing current events with my kids. So once a week, they pick something from Youngzine to read about and then we discuss it while we take a walk. Youngzine is an ad-free online magazine where kids can read about world events, science, technology and the arts. There are also comics, videos and contests. […]
If you are studying Ancient Greece, you need to see this site. Winged Sandals, brought to us by the Australian Broadcasting System, is an interactive site that has animated myths, games, activities, and more. It has the coolest animation of Orpheus and Eurydice ever. We made the Grecian vase from the Make & Do section […]
The Ancient Egypt site from the British Museum could be a spine for a complete Ancient Egypt study. It lists the major topics to study (geography, pharaohs, daily life, etc.) and each topic has a Story, Explore and Challenge. There is interactive text, with lots of pictures of artifacts from the Museum. The interactive parts […]
Do you have a tween/teen who is just obsessed with games and gadgets? Have you ever thought “If I could just tap into that interest, and use it for education, my job would be soooooo much easier”? I think this every day. And now I have Educade. I thought I was all the bomb when […]
I know cheap, cheesy games when I see them, and so do my kids. And there are tons of them out there. That’s why I love finding really well-done games like Filament Games. They have about a dozen games available that range between $0.67 and $9.99 to buy. Games cover physics, chemistry, biology, thermodynamics, algebra […]
Wolf Quest is an immersive, 3D wildlife simulation game that lets players learn about wolf ecology by living the life of a wild wolf in Yellowstone National Park. Players play alone or with up to four friends in on-line multiplayer games. As a wolf, you can hunt elk, search for a mate, find a den, establish […]
History seems to be on the trailing edge of online education. Somehow, it seems harder to make history interactive than, say, science. But, fear not, there are some good resources out there. Digital History, for example, covers American History from pre-1492 to the present. There is an interactive timeline and each era has links to […]
Conservation Central is part of the website of the Smithsonian National Zoo. They offer interactive learning modules to learn more about the habitat of the Great Panda and the Black Bear. You can design a panda habitat or take a walk through the temperate forests of West Virginia. On the forest walk, you will test […]
Wise, based out of UC Berkley, provides web-based, inquiry science projects for grades 6-12. Each project is an exploration into a topic that is meant to be done over several days. There are informational slides, questions to answer and thoughts and ideas to be generated and assessed. It’s not very flashy, but the projects are […]
I try to include as much hands-on content as I can in our learning. Creative Park is a great resource for finding an art project to tie into history or science. These are paper sculptures that you download, print out on your own printer and put together. Make a paper dinosaur, a model of the […]
Cyberchase is another PBS favorite that my kids grew up watching. One good thing about PBS shows that are “retired” is that they keep these sites up with all the episodes plus games and other content. For younger kids, this will be completely fresh and new. This show did a great job of showing how […]
I can’t believe I went through science units on Chemistry and Physics before I found this site. It is truly a plethora of high-quality science stuff. Stunning is the word they use, and I agree. I can get lost in here. Seriously. Spongelab is a collection of animations, games, interactive lessons, lesson plans and pictures […]
This show never came on our local PBS station that I’m aware of, but I’m so glad I found it online. Design Squad Nation was a PBS show for upper elementary/middle schoolers about engineering. All the seasons are online along with a huge amount of other projects and lesson plans for integrating some engineering into […]
Ecology.com provides a wealth of resources in the areas of Earth Science, Ecology and Biology. The site is divided into Earth, Air, Energy, Water, Humans and Species. Each section has videos and text on a variety of topics. There is also an Ecology Kids section and a magazine/news section. Videos and other content are very high […]