Symphony of Science - Scientific Knowledge and Philosophy through Music! This site is simply AWESOME!

Symphony of Science could be one of the coolest sites I have found in a while.  The site was created by John Boswell, who was heavily influenced by the Internet Legends The Greggory Brothers (Double Rainbow All The Way Across the Sky Music Video) and DJ Steve Porter (who created the awesome Rap Chop Music Video).   Symphony of Science features 11 full length music videos heavily influenced by the classic PBS Series Cosmos with Carl Sagan.  Many of the videos and the words to the songs are remixed episodes from Cosmos, Ted Talks and more.  To quote Mr. Boswell on the site: 

"The goal of the project is to bring scientific knowledge and philosophy to the public, in a novel way, through the medium of music. Science and music are two passions of mine that I aim to combine, in a way that is intended to bring a meaningful message to listeners, while simultaneously providing an enjoyable musical experience."

Did I mention this site is AWESOME?  The Music Videos are so well done and really engaging.  I shared them with an 8th Grade Science teacher of mine yesterday who was actually talking about Quantum Theory.  He immediately included the video from Symphony of Science called "Quantum World"  about Quantum Theory in his presentation for discussion today. 

Here is the Quantum Theory Video from Symphony of Science.

 

You can visit Symphony of Science at:  http://symphonyofscience.com

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Anatomy Arcade - Interactive Games and Resources About the Human Body!

Anatomy Arcade is a really neat site that has online games and interactive resources to help students learn about the anatomy of the human body.   The games themselves are divided up by body systems.  For example, you can click on games, then choose games about the skeletal system, articular system, muscle system, circulatory, respiratory, nervous, digestive, endocrine, and general. 

The games are pretty simply, including matching, jigsaws, word searches, crosswords, etc. Anatomy Arcade would be a great resource for Elementary Students just starting to learn about the Human Body Systems, or for students needing an extension to your current class curriculum. 

You can check out Anatomy Arcade at: http://www.anatomyarcade.com

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1906: The Great Quake Cover Up - Earthquake Simulator from Discovery Channel

1906: The Great Quake Cover Up is a fun interactive resource from the Discovery Channel that allows students to explore earthquakes and their effects on different structures.  Students select a type of surface to erect a building on, the type of "earthquake proofing" technology they would like to use, then subject the building to three different levels of earthquake intensity. 

This is an awesome site to extend your classroom curriculum about natural disasters and earthquakes, you could use it as a resource to have students practice predicting (What will happen if....), or as a resource for comparing and contrasting (Why did structure A outlast structure B). 

Check out 1906: The Great Quake Cover Up at:


http://dsc.discovery.com/guides/planetearth/earthquake/interactive/interactive.html

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Chemistry Games on Sheppard Software!

Sheppard Software is a great site that offers many different learning games covering a plethora of topics and subject matter.  One of my Social Studies Teaching Colleagues uses the sites States and Capitals games to help his classes study for their Geography Tests.  One of the neat sections of their site that would be a great connection to your Chemistry lessons would be their Chemistry Games Page. 

The Sheppard Software Chemistry Games Page features 8+ games covering the Elements and the Periodic Table.  These games vary in levels of difficulty that you can choose.  If you are looking for a resource to help your students study the Elements and the Periodic table, or a simply resource to extend your classroom lessons, check out the Chemistry Games page on Sheppard Software.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/Elementsgames.htm

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ThatQuiz! - Quick Practice Quizzes covering many subjects and ALL grade levels!

ThatQuiz.org is a fun little site that offers various customizable quizzes covering Math, Geography, Science, & Vocabulary.  Each quiz can be customized to set the time, the level of difficulty, whether the site offers feedback, and more. 


This site offers a great opporitunity for instructors to have their students review a large variety of subject matter for different class subjects.  This site is great for "POD" or beginning of the class activities, classroom review sessions & Games, or even an activity to work on to review for a test.

I would never recommend a site like ThatQuiz.org to be used as a sole teaching tool.  This will never replace class instruction and class practice.  However, it is a great review site, time filler, or fun website students can navigate in their spare time. 


Check out thatquiz.org

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Game for Science - A virtual gaming world built around Science!

Game for Science is a virtual world where students can create an avatar and explore various virtual islands with activities based in "health, aeronautics, genomics, environment, engineering and more."  Students can visit the Virtual World as a tourist, or sign up to edit their avatar, chat with other players, and save their progress.  Signing up is free, however, students will need an email to sign up and confirm their email. Visiting as a tourist, students do not need an email or to sign up.

I am a fan of open world online gaming cause they can teach our students many of the unwritten social rules about communicating effectively, respectfully, and efficiently online.  Plus, my students love simply seeing other students in the virtual world they can interact with.

I would only recommend Games for Science as a fun extension to your classroom Science curriculum, and at home activity your students interested in Science could interact with, or as an activity students can experience when they are finished with a classroom project (as I am using in class).

Here is a video to show you more about Game for Science



As my students finish up and prepare for their Historical Figure Presentations, I am allowing them to check out Game for Science as an alternate activity when their work is complete.

Check it out at   http://www.gameforscience.ca/

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Reduce your footprint: Ecological Footprint Quiz by Center for Sustainable Economy

Reduce your footprint: Ecological Footprint Quiz by Center for Sustainable Economy

Ecological Footprint is an awesome site that allows you to find what your ecological footprint is (or as the site describes "how much 'nature' your lifestyle requires."  It is a great site to use when you are beginning to talk about the Ecosystem/Environment and how our lifestyles can effect them!

The quiz is approximately 30 questions and some may be a bit tough to understand.  However, each question does have a link explaining what the question mean/what it is asking.  So I would recommend walking through this with your students. The site says there is a  "kid" version of the quiz located at http://www.kidsfootprint.org/ but it does not appear to be working at this time.

Live like me and we would need 6 Earths!

The best thing about this quiz is the end of it.  You get great suggestions on how to lower your footprint, which opens the door for further discussion and research.  We are doing this in my class as a challenge to help make our city "Greener."  My students have to create a presentation on what they found out about their own footprint, steps they need to take to lower it, and suggestions for the rest of the community.

Another look at how my lifestyle compares to the rest of the country!

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