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Slime is big right now in elementary schools. It can be made either in school or at home and is not labor intensive at all. This could be a great phenomena opener to a lesson as it is fun, cool, and simple. Allowing children to get their hands on things is often a great stress reliever and with good classroom management, I believe would benefit the students.

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This website has a list of some of the most influential scientists in history and brief summaries of what they have accomplished. It's super important as a science teacher to ensure students can envision themselves achieving high goals and maybe a quick research activity on scientists could inspire students while also practicing key elements of language like reading.

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DK Learning: Make every lesson your best yet

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DK’s uniquely visual approach engages students, enhancing their learning experience

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This idea was mentioned in class and it really stuck with me. We all know that green time for students is so important for both their learning and mental health. By having a green space like a garden at school, students can both learn from it, and relax in it in a much more healthy way than by being stuck in a classroom. When we went outside briefly in our class, we felt such relief. For students, I can only imagine it's harder to be locked inside all day.

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This website is not only pertaining to science, but important for all teachers. Parents and families should be included in the classroom as much as possible to foster communication and a learning experience outside of the school. This website includes a list of useful hints and tricks to get parents to partake in some of the daily events in a classroom, or to just be educated about what their students are learning.

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This is the first article in the "Creating the Classroom of Your Dreams" series. This series will uncover a multitude of concepts for teachers to implement that will create a well-functioning, parent-inclusive classroom.

As teachers, we are sometimes eager to do everything ourselves. No one can blame you; you know how you like things to run and how to get it done. However, this can come with the unwarranted feeling of no one being there to help. While you may feel locked alone in a room full of students, your parents are feeling left out on a major portion of their child's life. Since we all know education is not a one person job - it's time to get those parents involved!

Consider these ten ideas to get parents more involved and "unlock" that classroom door:

1. Have a "helper bag" in your room prepared with directions and materials for the activities parents will be pulling students for. Once they know the routine, they can walk in, grab the bag, and get to work without interrupting a lesson!

2. Send materials home to be cut out or put together. Due to schedules, some parents can't make it in during normal school hours but still want to contribute and be part of their child's class. Make sure they have all the materials needed and a clear deadline with plenty of time to get it done.

3. Take a survey of parents' cultural identity, job experience, holidays celebrated, etc. and ask them to come in and speak to the class. A craft could come with it if they are really creative!

4. Ask parents to be a secret reader where they can read their favorite childhood book to the class. You could even have them write down a few clues so the students have to guess who will be coming in to read (the child of the parent will really get a kick out of this)!

5. Join in on a class art project. Let your parents come up with an idea or prepare an art project! Or have them come in and assist in the class project if they prefer.

6. Help host a class party. Parents could donate materials or snacks, work a station you've prepared, or come with their own craft or activity.

7. Support a Classroom Giving Tree. Decorate a board outside of the classroom of a bare tree. When you need a supply, write it on a paper leaf and staple it to the tree. Parents can take the leaf and purchase the item for the classrooms if they are able to.

8. Observe the classroom. Let them sign up and spend some time in the room observing. This can give them a better understanding of your routine and expectations, as well as have a better idea of what their child is coming home and talking about.

9. Contribute time as a recess helper. Help organize group games, teach a new game, or just monitor the fun!

10. Attend field trips. Whether it's to a park around the corner or a bus ride away, extra adults are always helpful and needed on these special trips outside of the classroom!

With any group, volunteers can vary year to year. A great way to get a head start on volunteers is to send a survey home at the beginning of the year with a list of your ideas to find out the parents' comfort levels and availability. Getting parents involved can sometimes feel overwhelming and scary, so start out by trying only an idea or two. Before you know it, having this open door policy will help your relationship with your parents and make the classroom feel more like a community.
Megan Bruen is a mother of three and a kindergarten teacher at Creative Montessori Academy in Southgate, MI. She has been teaching for the last nine years at a variety of grade levels but loves being with the little ones. "Everything is so fresh and new to them which gives me a blank canvas to work with. It also gives me an opportunity to help the parents have a great first experience with their children in school. The best thing I like about being in the classroom is watching the students learn and grow from the beginning of the school year to the end!"

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10 Simple Ways to Get Parents Involved in the Classroom - Choice Schools Associates

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This is the first article in the "Creating the Classroom of Your Dreams" series. This series will uncover a multitude of concepts for teachers to implement that will create a well-functioning, parent-inclusive classroom. As teachers, we are sometimes eager to do everything ourselves.

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This comes from one of my favorite activities to do when I was in elementary school. Hatching monarch butterflies was a great lesson because it was prolonged over time and very low maintenance. Other learning goals could be achieved as students watched the caterpillars develop each day. I got so much joy from doing this myself and would love to incorporate it into the classroom.

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This is a ted talk for teacher reference. It is an inspirational story of how a man grew up learning about science and about responsibility, how it has affected him today, how it has affected his teaching, and what successes he has seen from giving children freedom.

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Cesar Harada: How I teach kids to love science | TED Talk

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At the Harbour School in Hong Kong, TED Senior Fellow Cesar Harada teaches citizen science and invention to the next generation of environmentalists. He’s moved his classroom into an industrial mega-space where imaginative kids work with wood, metal, chemistry, biology, optics and, occasionally, power tools to create solutions to the threats facing the world’s oceans. There, he instills a universal lesson that his own parents taught him at a young age: “You can make a mess, but you have to clean up after yourself.”

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This book is a very detailed and accurate representation of how recycling works, why it' important, and what will happen if we don't. Having used this book for a literacy unit plan, I think it's a great resource for kids to read.

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"Science never solves a problem without creating ten more." - George Bernard Shaw

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Just a little something cheesy to throw on the board to make students laugh when they come in each day.

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Much like the program Boston Public Schools has, this website has a list of hands on science kits that can be sent to a school. Some are great just to spark ideas as a teacher, but some others are actually doable and would be a great tool to have in a classroom.

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Free science lesson plans designed to engage students through hands-on experiments and activities. Chemistry, life sciences, physics, engineering and more, for elementary, middle and high school teachers.

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This website is full of all types of science topics useful for both teachers and children. I used it when creating my lesson plans for the final project and it helped me immensely. It has resources on the topic for teachers, fun and interactive games for children, and guidelines as to how in depth each topic should go!

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Habitat (Science Trek: Idaho Public Television)

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Every animal has a place to live and a job to do. We call where they live their habitat. Their niche is how they fit in with all the other creatures and plants in that place. There are lots of different habitat types on Earth: lakes, streams, forests, deserts, or even a drop of water.

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Although this isn't necessarily a resource, science notebooks are a great way to help keep student thoughts organized and in one place. These notebooks are great to stay in the classroom so the teacher can analyze student work at the end of special activities or simply to monitor student effort and progress. I liked doing them in our science classroom and would love to implement them in a classroom of my own.

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Although this web page has multiple lesson plans on it for low elementary grades, the lesson I really liked were the scores baked in the solar oven. In science we have been discussing how phenomena can be a great lead into a lesson and this one is super creative. Getting students to bake stores with the power of the sun is exciting, yummy, and is a great transition into learning about heating and cooling of materials and the sun's influence.

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Sun Science Experiments & Book Suggestions - Lessons for Little Ones by Tina O'Block

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The end of the school year signals the beginning of summer for many students. This is the perfect time of year to teach about the sun and have some "fun in the sun" performing learning activities outdoors! These hands-on activities are perfect for keeping young students engaged and learning those last few days/weeks of school.

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Especially in the city, it can be hard to discuss certain characteristics of nature when surrounded by concrete. For the Boston area, I chose to include a field trip to the Charles River Esplanade. While this is still considered the city, there are many grassy and even aquatic areas that students could observe and collect data from as a phenomena intro to a lesson. An activity similar to this was implemented at Mission Grammar and was a huge success as the children searched for insects!

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Class pets require a daring teacher to take on the responsibility of pet parent in a classroom full of children. However, class pets are a great way for kids to connect with animals and a great segway into many life science standards. Class pets can range in variety and depending on their type, can travel home with students over vacation with parent approval! This is a fun and interactive way to get kids excited about learning.

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This website includes a list of kids friendly dissections ranging from cow eyeballs to frog bodies. This mad not be appropriate for the younger elementary grades, but depending on the task at hand would be fun to play around with and discover all the features the website has to offer.

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F un Challenge your brain with these exciting games and activities. &gt; More T he Lab No need for goggles and lab coats-experiment virtually at the sites listed here.. &gt; More Brain Awareness Week Each March, we celebrate a week of celebrating the brain. Find out what e

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Fun facts kind of play into the phenomena-hook concept where a fun fact is displayed and makes students wonder why and how that happens. This website is full of fun child appropriate facts that are organized into categories to make finding certain topics easy.

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Fun Science Facts for Kids - Interesting Earth, Amazing Chemistry, Cool, Funny, Crazy

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Science is a fascinating subject with many amazing things to learn and discover. Thankfully you've got a lot of time to research, the average human only sleeps for about 35% of the day compared to 80% for armadillos and sloths, now that's lazy!

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This website contains games to uplift science topics that are typically challenging for early middle school students. No student is going to complain about playing games for a fun, once-in-awhile activity and these are the perfect ones to do so.

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Sometimes visualizing new concepts for children can be difficult. The website listed below has activities and videos based off of tricky new science topics that might challenge students. The interactive qualities of this website provide in depth explorations that could be difficult with 2D pictures on paper.

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By converting our sims to HTML5, we make them seamlessly available across platforms and devices. Whether you have laptops, iPads, chromebooks, or BYOD, your favorite PhET sims are always right at your fingertips.Become part of our mission today, and transform the learning experiences of students everywhere!

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Students interested in science non-fiction should always have access to it. Many students find the depths of the ocean fascinating and this is a great tool. It is also a great tool for younger students to begin practicing with wide varieties of texts such as this one. It has been proven that students exposed to expository texts at a younger age tend to be stronger readers than those who have not.

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Students love activities that allow them to be hands-on and actively engage in what they are learning in. This experiment in early classrooms is a classic, but for a reason. Seeing things blow up then discovering why will always be a fun activity for children and teachers alike.

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Students should always be able to relate to the curriculum in their school days. This may be a bit of a stretch, but asking students to find themselves on a map, and continue with a science lesson about where students live could be a very motivating, fun, and educational activity about biomes for example!

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Memes are always an entertaining little piece to throw up on a board every once in a while. This one isn't too difficult and could be for even younger ages with some vocabulary instruction first.

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Although this source was used in class, I couldn't help but use it because it so wonderfully explains to teachers and students alike why science is such a fluid process. The visuals to this piece as well are extremely strong and concise.

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Sometimes students need to be rewarded with fun tasks like educational games. Allowing them to play these is an incentive, and they're still learning. Brain Pop is a wonderful source for a wide array of subjects but in the context of science it is superb, and fun!

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Some inspirational TED talks by children in STEM. Showing these may help motivate students and help encourage them to try the impossible. Seeing someone like themselves so successful could help students consider them in that place one day.

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Time for something awesome!

It's often the case that the best way to teach students is to have students teach other instead! When it comes to describing a scientist to kids, inevitably they think they have to be old (and sadly male too) whereas the reality is that people from all walks of life can be a scientist with the right support. So, why not flip this thinking on its head and show students recordings of TED talks where kids are the creators of ideas? The following presentations were done by students no older than 15 years old... nothing like some role models you age to look up to 🙂

So with all this all in mind, let's firstly meet Thomas Suarez in the TEDxManhattanBeach talk below who at 12 years old has taught himself to code iPhone apps such as 'Bustin Jieber' and is now helping other kids to learn code.

Want some variety in the presentation that you show to your class? No problem! Check out this TEDxWomen2011 talk by teenagers Lauren Hodge, Shree Bose and Naomi Shah who were all 2011 Google Science Fair winners and describe their scientific projects into asthma, resistance to chemotherapy in ovarian cancer patients and the degradation of nutrients that occurs whilst grilling chicken.

Next up, maybe your student might like to check out the work of the then 13-year-old Richard Turere at TED@Nairobi in 2013, where he describes a solar powered device he created to help protect livestock from lion attacks. Nothing like solving a pressing problem for your own community;

Inspiring students can create solutions that can save lives worldwide. Check out 15-year-old Jack Andraka presenting his work on creating an inexpensive test for pancreatic cancer.

When it comes to TED talks, these students are really stars. However, in some ways, this could put kids off in thinking that perhaps these kids are somehow more 'special' than them. So, knowing that this is possible, why not show them a simple story about Grade 6 primary students from St Stephen's school in WA who created a simple buckle that could help a young child using Makers Empire.... inspiration for their next 3D printing project?

When it comes down to it, science can be for anyone... you just need the tools and some guidance to get going. Check out this talk via TEDGlobal where neuroscientist Beau Lotto and student Amy O'Toole talk about the work that 25 students did on bees which resulted in the first submission of a scientific article into a peer-reviewed journal by 10-year-olds.

So, how can your students get involved in STEM beyond the classroom? Perhaps your students might be interested in learning about citizen science projects happening in your area - you never know, your whole school could get behind a project!

Citizen science projects for kids

You can find out more about citizen science opportunities & entrepreneurial thinking on the FizzicsEd podcast, where we chat with NSW Manager for Inspiring Australia Jackie Randles.

So, what are you going to challenge your class to do? We'd love to know the result!

Happy teaching,
Ben Newsome.

Want some free science experiments?

NEW Primary science teaching book!
"Be Amazing! How to teach science, the way primary kids love"
Want more ideas for teaching science?

Subscribe to the FizzicsEd Podcast!

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Inspiring TEDTalks by kids... STEM in action! | Fizzics Education

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Time for something awesome! It's often the case that the best way to teach students is to have students teach other instead! When it comes to describing a scientist to kids, inevitably they think they have to be old (and sadly male too) whereas the reality is that people from all walks of life can be a scientist with the right support.

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"The scientist is not the person who gives the right answers; he is one who asks the right questions"
- Claude Levi Strauss

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Although I don't, and will likely never have the funds to visit the Smithsonian Museums with my students, their website has a plethora of links, videos, and teaching tools to help promote science in classrooms. Their communication line is always open and with serious science inquiries around teaching, I could always reach out for an expert opinion if need be.

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Smithsonian Science Education Academies for Teachers

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This website I found has interesting and quality videos that may be sophisticated for children, but are great for teachers in great need of inspiration. Sometimes developing lesson plans I run out of cool subjects to grab students. Watching one of these videos always sparks questions I have about the natural world that I can then delve into with my students for fun and interactive lessons.

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The official website for NOVA. NOVA is the most-watched prime time science series on American television, reaching an average of five million viewers weekly.

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This idea comes from my own love of science and where I experienced it most in my childhood. I remember a time when everyone I knew had National Geographic subscriptions and would come all of the new editions. This seemingly simple resource got kids excited about science and all the cool things kids could learn. Motivation is key and these always boosted that for me.

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These videos are all extremely short (one minute) and include various topics for children that focus on basic science principles such as what is science, how do we conduct it, etc.

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Science and stories about our awesome planet!
Our staff: Lizah van der Aart, Sarah Berman, Cameron Duke, Arcadi Garcia, David Goldenberg, Melissa Hayes, Alex Reich, Henry Reich, Peter Reich, Ever Salazar, Leonardo Souza, Kate Yoshida and Jasper Palfree. MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

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Teachers pay teachers is always a great resource for any topic or subject. In this aspect, even if you don't want to pay for the visuals, it provides great ideas for science bulletins and posters for around the room.

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Science Bulletin Board Ideas Teaching Resources | Teachers Pay Teachers

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Browse science bulletin board ideas resources on Teachers Pay Teachers, a marketplace trusted by millions of teachers for original educational resources.

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The Boston Public Schools website is full of tools and suggestions to other sources itself! Not only is it a great avenue for other things, but it also provides an in depth look into the science frameworks for Massachusetts.

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The recent science standards include a focus on 8 science practices. These ten professional development modules provide support in learning about all 8 science practices, as well as learning how to...

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Seeing the Whole Through Social Studies: Tarry Lindquist

This textbook was used in a social studies methods course. It emphasized the importance of teaching key topics such as reading, writing, and math while incorporating science and social studies themes. By teaching through these lenses I feel it gives the teacher a creative opportunity to broaden the scope through which she teaches certain subjects.

It also is a useful resources as it includes a plethora of creative and engaging informal assessments that can be customizable for any grade and subject level.

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Boston Children's Museum is filled with science wonders. This is a great place to go to inspire students and for the resources put out by the museum itself, it's for kids for a reason!

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Boston Children's Museum offers children with special needs the opportunity to enjoy the Museum in an uncrowded environment with few other visitors. Please join us for a exploration and fun. Pre-registration is required.

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Think Like a Scientist: GoNoodle

Videos such as the one shown are great ways of making learning a fun, engaging, and active process. Students typically retain information when it's linked to music or a song in some way. The video below explains the scientific method and the steps involved, but there are tons of videos online that are various topic related and can be beneficial

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The Scientific Method | Songs For Kids | Sing Along | GoNoodle

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This is a great tool for teachers. The website lays out standards for each grade level, key elements to the factors that should be in each lesson, and student handouts to aid learning (such as videos, graphic organizers, and vocal support). Sometimes we don't have the time or energy to raw lesson plans from scratch so these are great to build off of.

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K-LS1-1: Plant and Animal Needs K-ESS2-1: Weather Patterns K-ESS2-2: Environmental Change K-ESS3-1: Environmental Relationships K-ESS3-2: Forecasting Severe Weather K-ESS3-3: Environmental Solutions K-PS2-1: Pushes, Pulls, and Motion K-PS2-2: Motion Design Solution K-PS3-1: Sunlight Warms the Earth K-PS3-2: Shade Structure Design

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Great visuals for kids to look at to collect quick facts from as they are appealing and well thought out on a multitude of subjects

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The NSTA Next Generation Science Standards Hub offers information, resources, news, professional learning opportunities, and expert advice in understanding and implementing the Next Generation Science Standards - NGSS

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"Questions are more important than answers... If I were a fairy godmother, my gift to every child would be curiosity" - Jeanne Bendick

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This website is full of fun phenomena hooks to get kids interested in a topic and ask why things happen