Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

Here's a collection of science lesson plans covering disciplines from geology to earth science, chemistry, and general science. Each includes complete procedures, standards references, and discussion. Some of these lessons use video clips as an integral component, so teachers will want to plan accordingly.

Here's a science project that actually works. This site includes complete instructions for building a pinhole camera that students can use to take "real" pictures that can be surprisingly good. The required materials are easy to find, and this one can be both fun and educational.

Take an interactive 3-D tour of the solar system or the International Space Station, investigate the latest images from Mars, or use amazing images of auroras, galaxies, meteor showers, and other phenomena to enrich an astronomy unit. Click the Collection tab on the top menu bar to find more. This highly animated site explores a wealth of space-related topics from the past, present, and future. Games and quizzes for fun and learning are also provided.

Brain Games is a site that allows you to train your brain in fun and easy ways. In as little as 10 minutes a day you can train your brain to improve memory and attention. What a great life skill tool to share with students! Some examples of activities include attention games to help with focus, memory games to help with recall, problem solving games to help with logical reasoning, flexibility games to help with verbal fluency, and numerous others.

Create online sticky type bulletin boards to view from any online device using lino. Click to try it first without even joining. The "Give it a shot!" button has a "How to" canvas has stickies explaining how to use lino. Join and create your own canvases to share stickies, reminders, files, and more. Change sticky colors from the menu in the upper right hand corner or use the easy editing tools that appear when the sticky is selected. Use the icons at the bottom of each sticky note to "peel them off," share, edit, and more. Create a group from your lino page to share and collaborate on canvases. You can also share canvases publicly so anyone with the URL can participate. This is a device-agnostic tool, available on the web but also available for free as both an Android and iOS app. Use it from any device or move between several devices and still access your work. App and web versions vary slightly.

View and dissect an owl pellet online! Owl pellets offer interesting information about owls, predator/prey relationships, and health of ecosystems. Use these resources to learn background information about owl pellets as a virtual dissection or along with conventional pellet dissections. Identify the bones in the pellet; learn how they are made, and read interesting information about the owls. View information about dissecting real owl pellets and read related information. This site requires Flash. You can get it from the TeachersFirst Toolbox page.

Looking for a way to present topics such as: lasers, orbits or tidal forces? Through hands-on, interactive games and animations, this site tackles subjects that are often considered too advanced for elementary students and presents them simply and concisely.A la carte style menu lets you pick and choose subject areas that relate to your classroom. You can even download a Spaceplace podcast. A Spanish version of the full site is available.

Cornell's Ornithology lab has created one of the most comprehensive bird species sites on the web. While parts of the site require a subscription, this online bird guide remains an effective, well illustrated online guide to bird spotting, habitats, and identification. Teachers will find many uses for the site as a reference tool, and as a resource for studying habitats and migration patterns

This site is filled with kid-friendly text and engaging interactive activities that introduce "ologies" and investigate topics including marine biology, astronomy, archeology, earth science, and more. Each topic section includes background information, virtual experiments and tours, and suggestions for in-class experiments.

Having trouble finding the nutritional value of fast food from your favorite restaurants? Choose from a growing list of restaurants to search a favorite menu item and view its Calories, fat, and carbohydrates. Click on these terms to reorder the list from highest to lowest. Click on a category of food, such as desserts, salads, or breakfast to view menu items from all restaurants in that category. Use your iPhone to obtain mobile information. Sign up for RSS feeds to be notified of added information to the site.

Looking for a quiz tool that is better than all the rest? Quizizz is a free tool. It works on any device: web browser, iOS, Android and Chrome apps. You can access hundreds of ready-made learning quizzes or create your own. Join as a teacher, pick a quiz, and use the code for a virtual room to give to your students. Alternatively, you can create your own quiz on Quizizz, even importing questions from excel/CSV files with just a click of a button. Students use the code to enter and submit a nickname, code name, or numerical name (students do not have to register). Quizizz now has to be marked as trusted by an administrator to be able to use it with your Google Classroom account, even if you have been using it. With Google Classroom, students can join by signing in with their Google Account with just one click. Even better, if you assign a Quizizz through Google Classroom, all your data gets updated in your Classroom dashboard. You will get notifications when students complete assignments and their responses and grades show. Teachers can choose to make their quizzes public or private. Embed images with your questions. Check or uncheck the settings, including music. You can even duplicate an existing quiz to save into My Quizizz. A created Quizizz can have randomized or non-randomized questions.

Don't miss the memes that are displayed when students answer a question; these are sure to be a hit with students. You can also customize your Quizizz by creating your own Memes. Use images of the school mascot, students' pets, or favorite game characters to create a set of ten or more memes. Click the My Memes from the top menu, then the plus symbol. You are now ready to start. Be sure to Click "Start Game" after students have entered the code. Send the game link to students (or other teachers to use with their classes) by email, website, or social media. Set time limits of 30 seconds to 5 minutes for students to answer each question. This allows more time for more complex questions. Students earn points for speed and accuracy. Unlike other sites, both teacher and students can see the questions, answers, and the leaderboard throughout the quiz. Most other tools require the teacher to project the answers and leaderboard on a whiteboard. The leaderboard can be turned OFF in this tool as well. And, what is the best part of this tool? Two separate classes can play together using this tool. Quizizz works on any web-enabled device, including smartphones and tablets, and has an iOS app.

You can now email student reports to parents (even send the student reports to multiple/all parents at once), the main navigation bar has moved from the top to the left, and there is a search bar that you can access on all pages, and now you can search both your quizzes and your reports. Quizizz is now available in Spanish and will soon be adding other languages. Don't miss their new Jungle theme with music, backgrounds, and GIFs... oh my!

EZSchool is an educational portal that contains EZ worksheets, interactives, online study tools, and tutorials. Although this site is "busy" with clutter from some related advertisements, it is easy to navigate by grade level, subject, or more specific topics such as grammar, writing, and vocabulary for English, or word problems, geometry, and algebra for math, biology and chemistry for science, as well as Spanish, Japanese, and Hindi language activities. There are also SAT/PSAT practice questions with detailed answers. All materials are free to use, print, and distribute for use in the classroom or at home. The website is frequently updated with new activities. Weekly updates to the site are offered on the home page.
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This one's far better than first appearances might indicate. Click one of the many links to see surprisingly detailed, documented images of earth and the moon, complete with full data on location and time. Many of the images include zoom capabilities and other nifty features.

Find digital images that are available for use without violating copyright. This search tool finds images licensed for use under Creative Commons licensing. While most major search engines have advanced features that allow you to filter out content by copyright privileges, the CC search website makes it easy and convenient. Be sure to READ the information about verifying licensing. The results provide extensive options that can be legally (and ethically) used in wikis, blogs, reports, and more, as long as you provide the attribution information. What a fabulous tool for students to use for interactive or traditional projects!

Use this very simple site to create a test that's accessible on the Internet. Create an automatically graded test easily and for free! You can even include audio and video if you have an HTML embed code. Registration is not required to use or to take the created tests. Simply click "Create a test," enter the test name, and create a password. Note: Be sure to remember the password somewhere because it is not possible to recover it. Read the directions on the Test Control Panel to adjust settings, add questions, and publish the test. Bookmark the URL of the finished test you make so you can find it later. After publishing, copy and paste the URL of the test into a wiki, blog, or site, for student access. View reports when students are done with the test.

Here's a collection of pointers for students interested in keeping arthropods as pets - either at home or in the classroom. Not sure what to feed that Praying Mantis? The answers are here. There's even a special article on the details of keeping these critters in the classroom. Bookmark this one; it will come in handy one day.

For the fans of Presidential gadgets, Air Force One is the ultimate. Here's a site that really does explain how the president's jet functions and what it looks like on the inside. Warch the video to learn about Air Force One - the plane of the president. The video resides on YouTube.