These are the archives of the "Important Things To Do" related to the topics you're studying this year. You can do them in order or click on any of the topics below.
If any of the links don't work, please e-mail me at dturner@haverford.org and let me know. I'll fix them. The Internet changes constantly, and I'm always updating this page.
| Seed Plants: | [Classifying Plants] [Roots, Stems, and Leaves] [Making New Plants] [Photosynthesis] [Review] |
| Vertebrates: | [Grouping Living Things] [Fish] [Amphibians] [Reptiles] [Birds] [Mammals] [Review] |
| Digestion: | [The Digestive System] [How Food Is Digested] [The Food Pyramid] [The Food Label] [Review] |
| Chemistry |
[Matter] [Measuring Matter] [Properties of Matter] [States of Matter] [Changes in Matter] [Review] |
| Physics: | [Straight Line Motion] [Collisions] [Gravity] [Putting Energy To Work] [Review] |
| Solar System: | [Earth, Moon and Sun] [The Seasons] [Eclipses] [Tides] |
| Ecosystems: | [Living and Nonliving World] [Summer Vacation] |
For a really great explanation of plant names, go to the Waddell School's explanation of Botanical and Common Names at http://waddell.ci.manchester.ct.us/g_names.html
The Sir Robert Hitcham's Primary School in England has a site called the Living Key; on it you can find out what kind of living thing you have by answering a series of questions. http://www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/key/key.htm
People who study plants are called botanists, and botanists tend to concentrate on one type of plant. Here are some examples:
Tthe New York Botanical Garden has a page titled "What Is A Bryophyte Anyway?" at http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/bryo/bryogen.html
The Smithsonian has an Algae home page at http://www.nmnh.si.edu/botany/projects/algae.
Seaweed are also algae, and there's a Seaweed Site at http://seaweed.ucg.ie/seaweed.html
The British Pteridological Society has a Fern World Wide Web page at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/bps/index.htm
A group of fourth graders did a site on Plants And Our Environment for the Thinkquest Junior competition, and its URL is http://tqjunior.advanced.org/3715 - I recommend it highly!
The Franklin Institute has a great page on Families: Classifying Plants And Animals at http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/units/life/classify/classify.html. Check out some of the links.
The Tree of Life is a little grown-up, but if you take the time to explore it, you can find out about many of the different living things we're studying. It's a Web project put together by scientists all over the world. It gives facts about many different organisms and also offers many Internet links for each kind of creature. http://tolweb.org/tree/phylogeny.html
Part 2 - Roots, Stems, and Leaves
Take a tour of a Virtual Plant Cell at http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/cell/
And go to A Guide to Deciduous Tree Knowledge at http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extpubs/plantsci/trees/f436-1.htm
Since we're focusing on trees this unit, I really recommend Dragonfly Magazine's Trees pages at http://miavx1.muohio.edu/~Dragonfly/trees.htmlx - learn about seed dispersal, tree shapes, and many other things.
The Basics of Tree ID page has a lot of good information (though based in Virginia), and is very easy to use. http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/forsite/Idtree.htm
The Mad Scientist Network has a good page of plant links at http://madsci.wustl.edu/libs/areas/botany.html
The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association has a web page (http://www.massmaple.org/index.html)entirely devoted to that particular kind of sap product known as maple syrup . . . yummmmmm. Click on "How Maple Syrup Is Made" (http://www.massmaple.org/how.html) to make yourself hungry.
The Nanoworld Image Gallery (http://www.uq.oz.au/nanoworld/images_1.html) has microscopic images of all kinds of things, including plant cells.
See some microscopic pictures of root, stem, and leaf structure at a biology course site BioG 101-104 - http://biog-101-104.bio.cornell.edu/BioG101_104/tutorials/botany.html
My favorite leaf identification guide from the American Museum of Natural History no longer seems to be on-line, but they have a whole curriculum called Biodiversity Counts (http://www.amnh.org/learn/biodiversity_counts/) which has some good identification keys under "Resources."
Want to look up a weird plant word? Try the GardenWeb Glossary of Botanical Terms at http://glossary.gardenweb.com/glossary/glossary - Then you can raise your hand in class, look all innocent, and say, "Dr. Turner, what is an epiphyte?" and I won't know.
I love The Virtual Herbarium, which has pictures of many flowers from the Appalachians at http://home.usit.net/~info7/plants.html It's SO pretty.
Vascular Plant Image Gallery at http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/FLORA/gallery.htm has great pictures if you know the Latin name of your plant.
And for REALLY great pictures, see Floral Radiographs: The Secret Garden at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~agrxray/ which is all X-rays of flowers. Albert G. Richards has been doing this for over 40 years, and they are spectacular.
The California Native Plant Society has a good explanation of pollinators and flowers, with pictures, at http://www.cnps.org/kidstuff/pollin.htm
The USDA has a PLANTS database which "is a single source of standardized information about plants." http://plants.usda.gov/
Why Do Leaves Change Color in the Fall? Science Made Simple explains at http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html
The State University of New York explains in more grown-up language at Why Leaves Change Color (http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/leaves/leaves.htm)
The Marine Institute of Newfoundland (Canada) has a good interactive page on The Photosynthesis Process at http://www.ifmt.nf.ca/mi-net/enviro/photo.htm Well, all right, it's not THAT good because it uses big words without explaining them. But at least you can click on things.
The Aliens Explore Earth web site has a good section on Photosynthesis at http://www.alienexplorer.com/ecology/topic3.html I like it even though it's aimed at middle school students because it's clear.
Arizona State University Center for the Study of Early Events in Photosynthesis has good (if advanced) links to web sites on its page What is Photosynthesis? at http://photoscience.la.asu.edu/photosyn/education/learn.html
Review the vocabulary for this unit with 4th Grade Green Stuff at http://www.quia.com/jg/281500.html
Challenge yourself (or play with a friend) at 4th Grade Plant Power http://www.quia.com/cb/24696.html
Try The Beasty Game (http://www.weburbia.com/beast/) - This web site sometimes uses bad grammar because the computer program isn't as fancy as the one in the "Animal Guessing Game." It also asks some rather odd questions.
The BBC Online (British Broadcasting Corporation, a television network in Britain) has a page devoted to animal news and information at http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/
This chapter is all about vertebrate animals, and there are many that live all around us. But how will you know what they are? Try the eNature Field Guides at http://www.enature.com/guides/select_group.asp
The History of the Universe web site is very entertaining. (http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/tl1.html) You can find out what happened 15 billion years ago or 55 years ago. This one is a real keeper.
Nature Channel has a page devoted to animal Puzzles and Fun at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/fun.html Flash required.
And finally, just because it's fun, Switcheroo Zoo allows you to mix and match the bodies, heads, tails, and legs of nine different animals. http://www.switcheroozoo.com/zoo.htm - Flash required.
The University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Animal Diversity Web has good solid facts about animals. http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has a gallery of Pennsylvania Fishes at http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Fish_Boat/pafish/gal1.html - click on a thumbnail picture of a fish to find out all about it. I'm impressed by the number of fish that are native to our state. (The brook trout is our State Fish, by the way)
The Australian Museum Fish Site (http://www.austmus.gov.au/fishes/) is a great source of information on all kinds of fish. Also, you can go through a step-by-step dissection of a fish, take a tour of the museum, or find a factsheet on a particular fish species.
Visit the Fisheye View Cam at http://www.fisheyeview.com for live views of coral reefs and fish.
If you have a fish and want to know what it is, try the Ohio State Department of Natural Resources Fish Identification at http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/wildlife/fishing/fishid/default.htm - many fish native to Ohio are native to Pennsylvania as well.
The National Aquarium in Baltimore (http://www.aqua.org/) has some great stuff.
Ichthyology at the Florida Museum of Natural History has a site just for kids where they'll tell you how to avoid a shark attack and various other useful things, especially the different groups of fish. http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Kids/kids.htm
The best frog dissection website yet! Froguts.com has it all - do this interactive dissection. http://www.froguts.com/
What's an axolotl? Find out at http://www.caudata.org/axolotl/ - Axolotls have neoteny, meaning they stay in the larval or infant stage all their life - the gill-breathing phase, in the case of amphibians.
Check out amphibians on the Aliens Explore Earth web site (http://www.alienexplorer.com/ecology/Ecology.html)- this was created by three teachers in Ontario and has interesting facts about all kinds of living things.
Many lovely photos of salamanders and newts can be found at Herp Pictures (http://gto.ncsa.uiuc.edu/pingleto/herps/sally.html).
I want to go to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, because even if it's half as great as its web pages it will be a wonderful science museum to visit. Try out their section on Frogs at http://www.exploratorium.edu/frogs
Discover Canada's Aquatic Reptiles is part of Canada's Aquatic Environment (http://www.aquatic.uoguelph.ca/index.asp).
The Tuatara is a New Zealand reptile which belongs to a fourth group of reptiles. http://www.bigjude.com/Tuatara.html
How about The Turtle Pages? Explore http://www.crosswinds.net/~theturtlepages/ to find out how long turtles have been around. Can you tell the age of a turtle by the growth rings on its shell?
People who watch birds are called "birders," and www.birder.com is the best birding site I've ever seen. Links to bird songs, bird pictures, bird jokes - it's got everything. The only thing I don't like is that it opens all the links in its own window as if it owned them all.
Another site for birders is BirdSource - which is for birdwatchers and people who want to help birds survive. (http://www.birdsource.org/) It maintains a WatchList of birds to look out for before they become endangered.
See if you can match the bird to its feather on Feather Quest (http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET/FeatherQuest/feather1.html)
A great site is The Life of Birds at http://www.pbs.org/lifeofbirds, which is a companion to a PBS TV show. Is calling someone a "bird brain" an insult or a compliment? You can find out here. It has some good links, too.
The Cornell University Lab of Ornithology has a Bird Of The Week site which is neat. What is this week's bird? (http://birds.cornell.edu/bow/) I particularly like the "Cool Fact" for each bird and the recordings of calls.
Are bats blind? Are they rodents? Can they get tangled in your hair? Find out at Bat Conservation International (http://www.batcon.org)
Did you know the Tasmanian devil is a real animal? And, though endangered, it is still around (though only on the island of Tasmania). Read a brief description and see a drawing of it from the Canadian Museum of Nature at http://www.nature.ca/notebooks/english/tasdevil.htm
It's a little slow to load, but Zooish is full of great animations, facts, images, and sound effects - http://www.zooish.com/
I recommend the San Diego Zoo's web site, especially the E-Zoo. http://www.sandiegozoo.com/
Want to review the vocabulary for the unit test? Review at http://www.quia.com/jg/218661.html (flash cards, matching, and concentration games)
When you've studied, play the "4th Graders With Backbone" Challenge Game at http://www.quia.com/cb/26321.html
Visit Biology4Kids at http://www.biology4kids.com/index.html and find out what cells are.
Check out KidsHealth.org at http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/index.html and find out how to stay healthy.
CellsAlive (http://www.cellsalive.com/) has many cool pictures of cells and other microscopic living things. Check it out! (Don't forget to "page-down" to get to the good stuff)
A school web site, Hillendale Health, has a nice page on the digestive system. http://hes.ucf.k12.pa.us/gclaypo/digestive_system.html
I didn't find any really fantastic pictures of the digestive system, but there were a few that were all right. Go to Pathfinders for Kids: The Digestive System: The Food Factory at the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library and look at the digestive system. (http://infozone.imcpl.org/kids_diges.htm)
On the adult end, Temple University's Gastroenterology Section's Your Digestive System and How It Works is a very clear explanation of the digestive process. (http://www.temple.edu/gisection/howdig.html)
If you want to know what kind of nutrition you get at fast food chains, visit Olen Publishing's Fast Food Finder at http://www.olen.com/food.
Kidshealth has a great section called "The Real Deal on the Digestive System" at http://kidshealth.org/kid/body/digest_SW.html - you need shockwave to see the animation of the digestive process. The explanation before that is very good.
Here's a copy of the Food Pyramid online (http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.gif) and a guideline on how to read it at http://www.nal.usda.gov:8001/py/pmap.htm
Did you know what you eat can make your heart work better? Open The Door To A Healthy Heart at http://www.healthyfridge.org/mainmenu.html.
A really neat site is the Nutrition Cafe at http://exhibits.pacsci.org/nutrition. It has games and good information about eating right, and is put together by the Pacific science Center and the Washington State Dairy Council.
Nutrition Explorations has activities and information. I enjoyed making a shake! http://www.nutritionexplorations.com/kids/main.asp
Get up and exercise! Right now! What are you doing sitting at this computer when you could be outside? Oh, you're busy learning something? Sorry. You can wait a few minutes.
Learn more about the Food Label on food you buy in the store - you may be surprised. This site is at http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/label.html.
KidHealth has a page on Figuring Out Food Labels at http://www.kidshealth.org/kid/stay_healthy/food/labels.html
The USDA's Nutrient Data Laboratory allows you to look up information about the nutrients in practically any food at http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/ - I challenge you to tell me five facts about a medium sized apple, eaten raw with the skin.
There's a whole list of links to nutrition information from companies at the MHHE Nutrition Supersite (http://www.mhhe.com/catalogs/sem/nutrition/foodworks/sites.mhtml)
Want to review for the unit test on digestion and nutrition? I have a Quia vocabulary review at http://www.quia.com/jg/223471.html (matching, concentration, flash cards, wordsearch).
Or you can put the steps of the digestive system in order at http://www.quia.com/pp/7574.html
After you have studied, play the Challenge game ("Reader's Digestion") at http://www.quia.com/cb/28976.html.
Matter
Visit The Atoms Family at The Miami Museum of Science's website - http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln; visit "The Phantom's Portrait Parlor" and observe the spectrograph of an atom. This will give you a better idea of what atoms are like . . . It still isn't what they're really like, though.
More interesting pictures are at What Is Nuclear Physics? (at http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~jac/Nuclear/index.html) which is maintained by Florida State University. Go to "Intro" and click on "atom" and you'll see two very different pictures of what an atom might look like if you could actually see one.
Physicists have made images of atoms using the scanning tunneling microscope. They're not photographs. You can't photograph an atom. Take a look at IBM's Scanning Tunneling Microscopy page at http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/stm.html
Some more images are at Purdue University's Scanning Tunneling Microscope Images page at http://www.physics.purdue.edu/nanophys/stm.html
Scientists think that subatomic particles are in turn made out of quarks (6 types). Go see SciTech's Quark Machine at http://scitech.mus.il.us/qmachine/index.html for a funny treatment of quarks. Build your own subatomic particle!
And quarks are held together with gluons . . . Does your brain hurt yet? SciTech has a Gluon Machine too, at http://scitech.mus.il.us/qmachine/forces.html
Now does your brain hurt? Mine does. I'm gonna go lie down.
A Dictionary of Units of Measurement at http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/index.html lets you look up words that have to do with measurement. Go there and find out the difference between a and A and the difference between a zak and a zoll. They're all units of measurement. I love this site.
One of the nice things about the metric system is that you can use the same set of prefixes to describe very small units and very big units. A meter is a unit of length, similar to a yard. You can add milli to it and you have a millimeter, or one thousandth of a meter (a teensy unit). Or you can add kilo to it and you have a thousand meters (a big unit, slightly less than a mile). Go to Gordon Speers' page on The Metric Prefixes (http://www.essex1.com/people/speer/large.html) and find out what mega means. How big would a megameter be?
Here's some other Metric Numbers to Remember (http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/numbers.htm). What's the boiling point of water in the metric system?
So you don't want to abandon the old "English System?" There's a web site devoted to all the old units of measure at http://home.clara.net/brianp/findex.html. The person who maintains this site hates the metric system but I think it's because he likes to stay complicated. You be the judge. What year did the English have their first standard of weights and measures? Hint: look in "History". Also look in "Anglo-Saxon Weights and Measures" at http://users.aol.com/JackProot/met/spvolas.html for a more detailed list of the English system.
People collect antiques of every kind, and human beings have been measuring things since before there was writing. Go look at some antique Scales and Weights at http://www.scales-and-weights.com - pretty pictures!
Oh, all right. You want to convert English units to metric ones, or vice versa? If your browser can handle Javascript, here's Convert It! (http://microimg.com/science). Find out how many centimeters are in three inches (hint: click on "length equivalents") If that won't work, try Measuring Units Conversion Tables at http://www.french-property.com/ref/convert.htm and tell me how many meters are in a mile.
Why do some things float while others don't? At ExploreScience.com, you can try the Density Lab at http://www.explorescience.com/activities/Activity_page.cfm?ActivityID=29
Find out how sea animals use density to float and sink at Sea World Physics' Buoyancy page. (http://www.shamutv.com/Physics/buoyancy.html)
BrainPop has a page on mass, volume, and density at http://www.brainpop.com/science/matter/massvoldensity/ - play the movie
At absolute zero, matter becomes a Bose-Einstein Condensate. Physicists have actually achieved this extra state of matter in 1995. Check out the BEC Homepage at http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/ for a nice explanation of what they did.
Check out ChemMystery at http://library.thinkquest.org/3659 and read about the states of matter (this is a ThinkQuest site put together by high school students).
The "States of Matter" on Chem4Kids (http://www.chem4kids.com) talks about what matter is and what it isn't.
Explorezone has a States of Matter page (at http://explorezone.com/101/matter.htm) which shows an animation of molecules at different states of matter.
Another animation of the Phases of Matter is at the Atoms Family site in its Phantom's Portrait Parlor - http://www.miamisci.org/af/sln/phases/index.html - this whole site belongs to the Museum of Science in Miami, Florida and is a good resource about physics and chemistry.
The explosions of fireworks are caused by chemical changes. Would would have guessed? The television series NOVA had an episode on pyrotechnics (the scientific word for fireworks) called "Kaboom!" and they have a web site at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/kaboom which has information and pictures.
You wouldn't think hockey had anything to do with physical change, but the Exploratorium's "The Science of Hockey" on-line exhibit at http://www.exploratorium.edu/hockey/index.html has a section on ice. What temperature (in Celsius, please) do they keep the ice for hockey?
And how could autumn have anything to do with chemical change? Well, "Why Leaves Change Color" at http://www.esf.edu/pubprog/brochure/leaves/leaves.htm tells you.
Review for the vocabulary on the test at http://www.quia.com/jg/252293.html - Matching, concentration, flashcards, and wordsearch.
Challenge yourself (or a classmate) with the Matter Marathon at http://www.quia.com/cb/22187.html - some of the questions are really tough!
Fear of Physics has animations of everything in this unit--races, collisions, orbits, and so on. Go there. http://www.fearofphysics.com/
What use are vectors? Well, for one thing, they help pilots fly. Check out Navigational Vectors at http://k12science.ati.stevens-tech.edu/curriculum/vectors/ and click on "Real Time Data Activities" for a lesson on vectors and maps. It's for high school students but it is explained clearly.
Who the heck was Sir Isaac Newton? Only one of the most important scientists of all times. The guy was brilliant. Want to see his picture? There's a gallery of portraits at Pictures of Sir Isaac Newton (http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/rd/ag/isaac/newton/gallery.html) There's also a list of Isaac Newton Links (at http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/newton.html).
The Encyclopedia Britannica has a page on the history of the roller coaster: Roller Coaster: Inventing the Scream Machine at http://coasters.eb.com - the roller coaster is a perfect example of Galileo's idea of the ball rolling down and then up again.
Visualize Science (http://www.hazelwood.k12.mo.us/~grichert/explore/dswmedia/index.htm#mechanics)has some interesting simulations; you might not understand the math but you can see the results if you have Macromedia Shockwave.
An interesting page about Galileo Galilei, who discovered many of the laws of motion, is at the PBS website accompanying the 2002 TV show about him. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/galileo/
Another website on Galileo is at the Galileo Project of Rice University (http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/), and another at http://www.twingroves.district96.k12.il.us/Renaissance/University/Galileo/Galileo.html
The Car and The Wall (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/newtlaws/cci.html) explains why seatbelts are a good thing.
Two Cars in a Two-Dimensional Collision (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/momentum/2di.html) is an animation of what might happen if two cars collided at an angle - and neither one of them got damaged and neither one bounced. Not very realistic but it explains why cars end up at such an odd angle when they have an accident.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) says that the highest rates of injuries and death from injuries happen while driving. Check out Safe on the Move (http://www.cdc.gov/safeusa/move/safemove.htm) to find out how you can help prevent injury or death.
How fast would you have to shoot a cannonball before it wouldn't fall back
to Earth? Go to Newton's
Cannonball at http://www.phys.virginia.edu/classes/109N/more_stuff/Applets/newt/newtmtn.html.
This Java applet lets you shoot a ball from a mountain on the earth. Newton
talked about the possible paths of a cannonball shot from a tall mountain. Weaker
shots fall back down, but soon the curvature of the earth becomes more important
and stronger shots orbit the earth.
Multimedia Physics Studios has a couple of nice ones - try The Monkey and the Zookeeper (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/vectors/mzi.html) or The Elephant and the Feather followed by The Elephant and the Feather (With Air Resistance) (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/newtlaws/efff.html, then http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/newtlaws/efar.html)
The Multimedia Physics Studio has two animations on Horizontally Launched Projectiles (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/vectors/hlp.html) and Non-Horizontally Launched Projectiles (http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/mmedia/vectors/nhlp.html) - in other words, things that are shot straight out, and things that are shot up. But the coolest one is on Satellite Motion, which explains why satellites orbit instead of shooting away from Earth or falling down immediately.
A Thinkquest site on The Physics of Projectile Motion (http://library.thinkquest.org/2779/) has a nice discussion of projectiles and a neat Java applet on the motion of water balloons. See if you can set it so you drop a water balloon on your friend!
The American Yo-Yo Association (AYYA) has a home page at http://ayya.pd.net/index.html. If you look down the page they have articles on how to yo-yo. What do yo-yos have to do with work and energy, you ask? Go read the Entertaining Facts page under Force and Work and think about it.
Marvelous Machines - http://www.galaxy.net/~k12/machines/index.shtml This is a series of experiments about simple machines: levers, wheels and inclined planes. Try it!
Simple Machines Learning Site at http://www.coe.uh.edu/archive/science/science_lessons/scienceles1/finalhome.htm is by Todd Kranz at the University of Houston. He has some easy activities to do which illustrate simple machines.
I also recommend Simple Machines Web Quest (http://www.beth.k12.pa.us/schools/wwwclass/mcosgrove/simple.htm)
The Museum of Science, Boston has "Inventor's Toolbox" (http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/InventorsToolbox.html) which talks about how machines make work easier to do by changing the size or direction of a force. The Gadget Anatomy quiz is also cool at http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/GadgetAnatomy.html
Simple Machines (http://www.fi.edu/qa97/spotlight3/spotlight3.html) is a Franklin Institute page from the "Spotlighting" archives (which are great at http://www.fi.edu/qa96/spotindex.html)
Check out the Physics of Amusement Parks site at http://library.thinkquest.org/2745 - it's a ThinkQuest site, which means it was created by kids for a contest. You can learn about kinetic energy and potential energy there.
Energy Quest (http://www.energy.ca.gov/education) is a great site for kids about saving energy. Try "Kids' Tips" (http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/kidstips/index.html) (consumer tips for kids on conserving energy) and find out what you can do to help. Play the game "Watt's That?" (http://www.energy.ca.gov/education/wattsthat/index.html) to learn all kinds of information about energy. Everything I found on this web site was great. Give it a try!
Exelon has a web site on energy topics, "Energy Chasers Headquarters," at http://www.exeloncorp.com/kids
Try "Kinetic City Cyber Club" at http://www.kineticcity.com/ for some interesting information.
Even though "perpetual motion" machines are impossible (that is, machines that keep on working all by themselves once they've been set in motion, without fuel), that hasn't stopped people from trying to invent them! Go to "Eric's History of Perpetual Motion Machines" at http://www.voicenet.com/~eric/dennis4.html, and read about some of the things people tried to invent. (warning: annoying music)
Review for the unit test with the vocabulary game at http://www.quia.com/jg/262865.html
Play a challenge game with facts about matter in motion at http://www.quia.com/cb/23036.html
The Solar System
Check Today's Moon Phase at http://www.lunaroutreach.org/qpom
Or Moon Phases at http://www.googol.com/moon
Science U has a good animation of the Phases of the Moon and Planets at http://www.scienceu.com/observatory/articles/phases/phases.html
Read stories about the Sun from different cultures at Solar Folklore (http://solar-center.stanford.edu/folklore/folklore.html)
How did the universe begin? Every culture has its own story. Visit Big Myth (Shockwave needed) to see some marvelous myths about the creation. http://www.bigmyth.com/
One of my favorite web sites is Windows On The Universe at http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ - go to "Kids' Space" and play Solar Concentration, or the Solar Word Search game. I love this site.
Visit NASAKids at http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/
KidsKonnect.com has a great section of links on the Sun and Moon at http://www.kidskonnect.com/Space/SunMoon/SunMoon.html
And I recommend a ThinkQuest Junior web site created by sixth graders at http://tqjunior.advanced.org/3645 called Astronomy For Kids.
There is so much stuff on the Web about astronomy. This is only a beginning.
A good explanation of the seasons is on "Windows to the Universe" (http://www.windows.umich.edu) Go there, enter the site, click on "Ask a Scientist" at the bottom of the page, go to the end of that page, choose "Extraordinary Earth" and find the question about seasons. Or you can get sidetracked along the way, which is always fun because this is a good site.
A good general reference with activities is Eyes On The Sky, Feet On The Ground: Hands-On Astronomy Activities for Kids (from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/the_book/index.html
On August 11, 1999, there was a total eclipse of the Sun visible from mainland Europe, the Middle East and south Asia. Eclipse at hermit.org (http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse) was originally a web page about the August eclipse, but is now a general eclipse site.
NASA has a Solar Data Analysis Center at http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse
The Exploratorium (great museum in San Francisco) has a page called Solar Eclipse: Stories From The Path Of Totality at http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse
SKY & TELESCOPE Magazine has an Eclipse page at http://www.skypub.com/eclipses/eclipses.shtml
If you sail, you need to know about tides. BoatSafeKids (http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/tides.htm) has a good explanation of tides for boaters.
There is a more complicated explanation of tides on the Web (they're hard to find) at Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy site (http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/index.html) (the tides page is http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/tides.html). The reason he calls it "Bad Astronomy" is that so many people have wrong ideas about the solar system and the universe in general. This is a very good site. I recommend it.
On The Heavenly Tug o' War (http://score.kings.k12.ca.us/Parts/Tides_Support_Files/Tug_of_War.html), there is a list of all the effects on the tides. The Earth's rotation, the Moon's position, distance, and declination, and even the Sun's position, distance, and declination all affect the tides; the last time all these things worked together to make the highest possible tides was the year 1433.
When the tide recedes, it leaves water behind wherever the ground has a dip; these are called tide pools. For an interesting investigation of Life in a Massachusetts Tide Pool, go to http://www.umassd.edu/public/people/kamaral/thesis/tidepools.html (there's also a good brief explanation of tides there).
Ecosystems:
Part 1: Living and Nonliving World
The National Wildlife Federation has a page called "Animal Tracks On-Line" at http://www.nwf.org/nwf/atracks/activity.html with great activities. I love their "blue paw" Gee Whiz Facts and their "green paw" Ranger Rick Riddles.
The U.S. Forest and Wildlife Service has a "Kids Corner" in their Endangered Species section at http://www.fws.gov/r9endspp/kid_cor/kid_cor.htm - play Risky Critters, check out the Creature Feature, and find out how you can help.
The USFWS also has a "Boxscore" of endangered animals - a listing of how many species are endangered - at http://www.fws.gov/r9endspp/boxscore.html
Want to know about different kinds of environments around the Earth? Go to "What's It Like Where You Live?" at http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/sets/index.htm and find out about different biomes.
Brainpop (http://www.brainpop.com) has a hysterical main page and has great stuff about health.
Are you at the shore? Sandcastle Central (http://www.sandcastlecentral.com/index.html) has tips, tools, contests, photos, and the latest news about sandcastles.
NASA has an earth science and weather page For Kids Only at http://kids.mtpe.hq.nasa.gov
I like Mad Science at http://www.madscience.org - click on "Kids"
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has a great online science site called The Lab at http://www.abc.net.au/science/default.htm
Like animals? Visit a ThinkQuest Junior site about Weird Animals at http://tqjunior.advanced.org/5801, created by fourth grade students in Maryland.
Webmonkey for Kids (http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/kids) is "the fun way to build web sites" offering Parts, projects, and tools for kids who want to build their own homepages, plus parent/teacher guies. I particularly like the way they say, "This Ad Helps Us Make the Site Free" next to the banner advertisements at the top of the page--you'd be surprised how many kids don't understand that ads aren't part of the site.
This page last modified May 18, 2003