Tag: simple machines

BBC Science Clips

Kelly Tenkely6 Comments on BBC Science Clips3451 views

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What it is: The BBC has excellent educational games, activities, and resources.  The BBC Science Clips are a collection of science related activities and games for students who are 5 to 11 years old.  Students can grow virtual plants, experiment with pushes and pulls, hearing and sound, forces and movement, electricity, rocks and soils, simple machines, light, solids and liquids, friction, habitats, life cycles, changing states of matter, reversible and irreversible changes, forces, and much more.  The site is organized well, by age group, and has several activities at each level.  

How to integrate BBC Science Clips into the classroom: BBC Science Clips has a little of everything science.  It is sure to have some great interactives that correspond to your science curriculum.  Each of the interactives is high quality and lets students experiment with new concepts that they are learning.  The activities are short enough to be used as a science center on classroom computers where a few students complete the interactive as part of a rotation.  The activities can also be used for whole class demonstration and experimentation using an interactive whiteboard or projector connected computer.  If you use the interactives with the whole class, have the scientists who are observing take down some observational notes in a special science journal.  Often, real life experiments can be too quick moving for young students to write or draw observations as they are happening.  This site lets them work on those observational skills at their own pace.  This is also great for those experiments that may take too long to observe in a classroom setting.  Each activity includes a short online quiz that students can go through to check understanding.  The quiz can be read independently or students can click on the speakers to have the quiz read to them.  This is a great feature for struggling or non-independent readers.   A “what’s next” button at the bottom of each activity encourages students to keep exploring.  Students can self level by choosing an activity that is a little easier, harder, or the same.

Tips: Check out the resources for teachers page.  Here you will find online and offline lesson plans related to the activities, an accompanying worksheet, activity and quiz.

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

Goldburger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines

Kelly Tenkely7 Comments on Goldburger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines8978 views

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What it is: I am always finding fun activities on PBS kids site, today I ran across Goldburger to Go!  Rube Goldberg designed machines that made simple, every day, tasks into complicated activities with the help of his contraptions (think Wallace and Gromit).  The students task is to design a machine that will help serve lunch.  The machine isn’t working properly and students must discover which pieces of the machine need a little tweaking.  As students complete the machine, they can test it out and get hints and clues about could be keeping the machine from working.  

How to integrate Goldberger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines into the classroom: Students are fascinated with machines that work together to perform tasks.  Goldburger to Go is a fun way to challenge your students to think about cause and effect and to consider how all the working parts operate together.  The puzzle game is a good way to get your students thinking about and discussing different types of energy.  Use this website with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard and discuss the types of energy as they occur.  Walk your students through the scientific process as they hypothesize what is going to happen and experiment with adjusting the machine accordingly.  The website also lends itself nicely to studying different kinds of simple machines.  The built in hints help guide stumped students in their thinking.  Goldburger to Go would make a fun center activity or even to play individually in a computer lab setting.  This is one of those thinking games that my students could spend hours playing.

Tips: Students can create and build their own real-life Goldberg machines with fun activities and suggestions found here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Goldburger to Go: Rube Goldberg Machines in your classroom.

Science

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Science2015 views

What it is: Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science is the online student addition of the textbooks. Students is grades kindergarten through six can click on the book that matches their grade level. Here students can watch video clips, play vocabulary games, take animated summary quizzes, read e-journals, and more.

How to integrate Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science into the classroom: Even if your school does not use the Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science textbooks, this site is a wonderful supplement to any science curriculum. The fun interactive environment is sure to be a hit with students. The vocabulary review games would be fun to play as a whole class with the projector (split students into teams) or individually. You might also offer this site to students for homework help or for test review at home.

Tips: Click on the OSE button at the bottom of the screen for the Online Student edition of the text box. Below the OSE button are login names and passwords for various grade levels.

P lease leave a comment and share how you are using Macmillan-McGraw Hill Science in your classroom.

Ed Heads

Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment on Ed Heads2430 views

 

 

 

What it is: Ed Heads has various interactive science activities including Simple Machines where students learn about simple and compound machines (lever, pulley, wedge, screw, inclined plane, wheel, axle, and gear); Ed Heads Weather activities where students learn how to report and predict weather; Ed Head Compound Machine where students learn how forces and simple machines work together; and Ed Heads Virtual Knee Surgery.

How to integrate Ed Heads into your science curriculum: Use these interactive activities as a lab in your science class. Ed Heads will create unique, education web experiences that make hard to teach concepts understandable using the interactivity of the Internet.

Tips: Use the Ed Heads teacher guides and lesson plans to enhance your science curriculum.