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Planet Quest: Alien Safari

May 10, 2011Kelly Tenkely1 Comment3316 views

What it is: Planet Quest Alien Safari is an interactive exploration adventure that encourages students to click on “life zones” around the world to find bizarre and extreme organisms that live on Earth. Students will also learn about what the extreme organisms reveal about finding life in space. As students explore they will learn about organisms that can live without sunlight, those with the highest radiation dose, those that are the most acidic, those that live the furthest underground, those with the strangest habitat and those that are the hottest. Students click on a life zone on the 3D Earth to begin a video introduction to the organism.

How to integrate Planet Quest: Alien Safari into the classroom: Planet Quest Alien Safari is going to be a popular one with your boys. My students got a kick out of “discovering” new organisms. Use Alien Safari when discussing different life forms, classifying organisms or studying space. My students wanted to do more than just explore the organisms, they wanted to write stories about them. Students wrote creative stories imagining what kind of super hero the organism would be, or making them into super villains (As I said, the boys have fun with this one!).

Ask students to make predictions about the organisms based on where they are found, what does their geographic location tell us about the organism?

Tips: The music on this site gets a little OLD (at least for me, the kids may disagree) I had the kids use headphones when they were accessing this site independently. If you are using it with the whole class and an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer, you can turn the music off in the bottom right corner.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Planet Quest: Alien Safari in your classroom!

Science Storybooks

February 18, 2010Kelly Tenkely6 Comments4333 views

What it is: Science S torybooks is a great collection of online animated picture books that help teach science in a way that is fun and engaging. There are a lot of animated books to choose from with topics such as applied sciences (electrons, light, etc.), the Universe Cycle (planets, constellations, etc.), Plate Tectonic Cycle (lavas, earthquakes, etc.), Rock Cycle (gems, dinosaurs, etc.), Water Cycle (clouds, weather, etc.), and the Life Cycle (organisms, human biology, plants, the natural environment). The books don’t just tell about science, they take students on a science journey using story. This makes the reading more accessible and student friendly than your typical science book. There are also some very entertaining science songs. I particularly enjoyed the Electricity song…but then I get a kick out of things like this (I think the kids will, too!).

How to integrate Science Storybooks into the classroom: These animated Science Storybooks are the perfect way to introduce your students to new science concepts. They will give just enough information to leave your students wanting to explore some more. The books can be read as a whole class using a projector or interactive whiteboard, or set up as a center on your classroom computers.

I have a group of fifth graders this year who are convinced that they are the cast of High School Musical, they are constantly breaking out in song (it is really something, they all join in and know the words to any song). I have a feeling that my fifth graders would really get into the songs on Storybooks, singing along karaoke style. If it helps them to learn new science concepts, I can’t think of anything better!

Science Storybooks may inspire your students to come up with their own science storybooks. Students could create science storybooks as a slide show, in Animoto, Kerpoof, Shidonni, Storybird, and a host of other sites. As part of the science fair projects, students could create a story to accompany the project that would explain the science involved. And for my fifth grade musical cast, they just may want to come up with their own science song using Myna, Audacity, or Garageband.

Tips: There are some additional science lessons and worksheets for each topic of science, you can use these in conjunction with the stories as needed.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Science Storybooks in your classroom.