Online Activity Resources for Teachers

• The American Geophysical Union's Outreach Resources
  The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has made available presentations, lectures, classroom activities and videos from last fall's GIFT workshop in San Francisco. The workshop, cohosted by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts, is for K-12 classroom teachers. Presentations and activities at the 2011 workshop included tsunamis, clouds, climate science, Antarctic glaciers and volcanic ash.You will find links and descriptions for the all of the materials within this valuable web site.

• American Museum of Natural History Online Courses
  Registration is open for Seminars on Science from the American Museum of Natural History for anyone seeking professional development and graduate credit. Each six-week course if fully online, coming to the museum is not necessary, and they can be taken for up to 4 graduate credits each.  All couirses are led by both an experienced classroom teacher and a PhD research scientist. Courses include: Evolution; Climate Change; Earth: Inside and Out; The Solar System, Genetics, Genomics, Genethics; The Diversity of Fishes; Water: Environmental Science and more. Sign up today and get $50 off your registration cost! For more information, visit: www.amnh.org/learn.

• BirdSleuths
  BirdSleuth aims to help educators build science skills while inspiring young people to connect to local habitats, explore biodiversity, and engage in citizen science projects. Studying birds is an accessible and fun way to bring real science to students! From making observations and asking questions to collecting data and publishing results, BirdSleuth creates practicing scientists with resources that engage youth in their own investigations! For more information, please visit: www.birdsleuth.org

• BSCS Online Resource for High School Teachers of Multidisciplinary Science
  BSCS is now offering Across the Sciences (ATS), an online resource which the National Science Foundation funds. ATS is designed to aid high school teachers who are teaching outside of their fields of study. The program offers 10 multimedia units and allows teachers to work independently or in groups. ATS is available for free for a limited time through BSCS. Self-register online at online.bscs.org to access the resources. Read more about the ATS project and explore unit overviews at www.bscs.org/ats. ATS will also be available through the Nation Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN) on a rolling basis.
  
  

• Climate and Energy - Free and Vetted Online Teaching Resources 

  In order to further advance your students understanding of the climate and topics in energy science. The CLEAN (Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network) collection offers 500+peer-revieweed, online teaching resources on climate and energy for grades 6-16. These offer activities, visualizations and even videos. You will be able to search the collections based on the topic, resource type, or grade level. The CLEAN site will provide guidance on climate and energy using strategies and principles in relation to teaching different aged groups. Join the CLEAN network today and fill in on educational policies, science, and discussions with experts in the field. Weekly telecoms, conferences and workshop announcements are also in the network. With an ever more increasing emphasis on Earth systems in the NGSS standards, CLEAN resources have become even more relevant.

  Visit the link below and share with colleagues and students or even bookmark it for yourself!

  
  
  

• Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) Resources: 

  The Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) provide a digital collection of evaluated teaching materials for students in grades six to college.  The materials contain activities, visualizations, and videos on climate science, climate change, and energy concepts.  In addition to searching through the various topics, users can join the CLEAN community to participate in webinars, workshops, and discussions about climate change. 

• Climate Research Applications Online Course - Stipends Available
  Take advantage of this newly opened online graduate course in Climate Research Applications. Students will receive a $1,500 tuition stipend upon successful completion. This three-credit-hour course, offered through the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, begins August 20^th. Designed for science educators, the course uses climate-change issues to develop research questions and design a discrete, locally oriented research project aimed at potentially impacting decision-making in their community. The credits earned from this course may be taken on its own, used as transfer credits, or used towards the university's 36-credit-hour Master of Applied Science specialization in Science for Educators - a 100% online master's degree program. The course was developed through a grant from the NASA Innovations in Climate Education Program. Stipends are only available on a first-come basis. Apply now at www.unl.edu/gradstudies/prospective/steps by clicking the "Non-degree, Post-baccalaureate" option. For more information, contact Dr. Russanne Low: rlow2@unl.edu.

• Cooperative Lakes Monitoring Program (CLMP)
  The CLMP has been a vital component of Michigan's inland lakes monitoring program for over 39 years. The purpose of this program is to help volunteers monitor and document water quality as well as changes in lake quality over a period of time. You can assist the USGS' efforts to model remote sensing to secchi disk measurements. This data can be used to estimate transparenty for the lakes currently not being monitored. Visit www.micorps.net/CLMPdocuments.html to view a schedule of when satellites are making images and sample secchi depth within +7 days of the specified date.

• Design Squad - Engineering for K-12
  NASA and DESIGN SQUAD have developed an online workshop for educators and afterschool leaders to build their skills and confidence in guiding kids through engineering activities like those found in the On the Moon Educator Guide. Completing this self-guided online workshop will allow educators to gain insight and strategies for strengthening critical-thinking skills and exciting their students about using the design process to arrive at solutions. www.ecolibrary.org.
  
  
• Exciting New EcoLibrary to Help Your Students
  It is believed that good visual images engage students' interests and passions. EcoLibrary was created to give students and teachers free access to high-quality images and useful supporting information. The goal is to help students learn more about ecology, conservation biology, and environmental issues. Excellent photographs, all accompanied by detailed and scientifically accurate descriptions 360° interactive panoramas, from deserts to tropical rainforests around the world Thematically linked groups of images for K-12 teachers (such as /Mimicry and Camouflage /or /Ecosystems and Biomes/) Cross-links among items; every image in the database leads to related images.
  

• GLOBE Virtual Student Conference is Online Now 

  There are 50 extraordinary student projects in: Atmosphere, Earth as a System/ Phenology, Hydrology, Land Cover/Biology and soils. On May 6 through 31, you will have the opportunity to learn about how students use GLOBE to engage in scientific research to impact the quality of life in their communities. This is the programs largest interactive online student conference yet. These are accessible to anyone but if you already have a GLOBE website login you will be able to post comments and post questions to our student presenters.
  
  

• GLOBE - Investigate Seasonal Change in the Environment
  The GLOBE Seasons and Biomes Project guides students through an investigation of seasonal changes and biomes. Students and teachers have the opportunity to use GLOBE resources to conduct scientific inquiries in their local environments and biomes. By monitoring the seasons in their biome, students will learn how interactions within the Earth system affect their local, regional and global environment while contributing to critically needed science measurements. For more information, visit www.globe.gov/explore-science/field-campaigns/essp/seasons-and-biomes.

• Journey North
  K-12 classrooms are invited to sign up for Journey North's annual global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change. A free internet-based citizen science project, Journey North enables students in more than 23,000 schools to watch the seasons unfold. Students monitor migration patterns of monarch butterflies, hummingbirds, whooping cranes, and other animals; the blooming of plants; and changing sunlight, temperatures, and other signs of the seasons. Each study features many entry points and resources that address learning standards: reading booklets and lessons, photos and video clips, weekly migration updates, interactive maps, instructional units, and compelling migration "stories." Every Spring (approximately February 2 until June 1) the Journey North program has live inter-active programming. For more information, please visit the Journey North webpage.
  
  
• Launch and Propulsion Educators Guide for Grades 6-12
  The fifteen lesson plans in this guide help students learn about the science of rockets, principles of rocketry and the laws of motion. Student texts are included so that students may read about variables, forces and motion, and NASA's history and future. Students learn which variables affect the performance of a rocket. In the assessment, students engage in a competition wherein they apply what they have learned about rockets to build a launch vehicle that flies as high as possible.

• Master of Science in Environmental Education for K-12 Teachers:
  A professional development program for practicing teachers to earn a Master's degree while continuing to teach. Online during the academic year with summer on-site courses at Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education (WCEE) University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point http://www.uwsp.edu/natres/msnree/. For more information please contact Timothy Byers, Outreach Program Manager at tbyers@uwsp.edu

• MegaSkills Online:
  This Home and School Institute sponsored web site provides information, training, and material for teachers and parents, focusing on children's academic and character education. For more information visit: http://www.ristatepirc.org/Megaskills/index.html

• Middle School Chemistry - New Resources
  The American Chemical Society (ACS) has just released a new web resource offering activity-based lesson plans for teaching basic chemistry concepts at the middle school level. The lessons cover all the main concepts in middle school chemistry, and can be used in part or in conjunction with current curriculum. Each lesson includes animation and video so help explain concepts. Online professional development will also be available to help explain materials to teachers and how tot integrate their use in the classroom. Visit the Middle School Chemistry Web site for more details and to view content.

• Recycling Labels
  Free standardized recycling labels: This is a unique opportunity to be a part of a recycling revolution! Eco-School USA and Recycle Across America have teamed up to stop the confusion at the recycling bin with standardized recycling labels. With the financial support of Kiehl's these organizations will supply your school with up to 150 FREE standardized recycling labels. These labels make it easier to grow and expand recycling programs and they also lower confusion at recycle bins; confusion causes low capture rates. For full information, please visit: www.nwf.org/Global-Warming/School-Solutions/Eco-Schools-USA/Our-Partners/Recycle_Across_America.aspx.

• FREE Teacher Resources
  FREE makes it easier to find teaching and learning resources from the federal government. More than 1,500 federally supported teaching and learning resources are included from dozens of federal agencies. New sites are added regularly. Get new resources delivered to you several times a week by signing up for the FREE RSS. FREE is among the most popular K-12 Web sites maintained by the U.S. Department of Education because of the many great resources being offered by contributing federal agencies.

• TIMSS Lessons
  Teachers can now view the public-use lessons collected as part of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) video studies (free registration required). The videos are intended to spark discussion about teaching practices in different countries. Fifty-three full-length videos of eighth-grade mathematics and science lessons from seven countries are available. Each lesson includes English-translation subtitles, a searchable transcript, and teacher resource materials. Educators can share their comments on the site's discussion forum.

• Schoolyard Habitat Project for Grades 3-5
  Through this Schoolyard Habitat Project, students become engaged learners as they research, design, and implement a way to enhance their own school campus. This is done by creating wildlife habitat, planting native plants, or even removing weeds or invasive species from school grounds. Teachers are encouraged to participate in either summer or fall courses. A Schoolyard Habitat Project for secondary teachers will be available for the Fall course dates.

  Sign up for a series of online classes designed to walk you through the Project Based Learning (PBL) essentials. With these you can learn how to apply PBL to capstone projects and engage your students in practicing math and language arts while helping the wildlife habitat of their own school campus. Such projects are also implemented through low or no cost strategies. For more details and to register go to http://www.pblu.org/projects/schoolyard-habitat-project.

• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History - Virtual Tour 

  Ever dreamed of taking a tour of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History?  Is it too far away but you wish you could still go?  Well now you can, and you can take your students right along with you on a virtual field trip to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  The tour is a 3-D virtual, room-by-room walking tour of the whole museum, all while remaining in the classroom on a desktop computer or mobile device.  The systems that are compatible include; Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, iPhone, or Android.  This self-guided tour allows visitors to navigate room to room in a manner in which they choose, and at a pace that is comfortable to them.  But do not worry, there are maps and arrows to follow if one gets turned around.  If used on a desktop, there are camera icons that show certain areas in which a close-up view may be seen.