These links match up with the topics The Haverford School fifth grade study 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.
| Simple Living Things: | [Cells] [Fungi][Protists] [Monerans and Viruses] [Review] |
| Invertebrates: | [Classifying Invertebrates] [Sponges, Stinging Cell Animals, and Flatworms] [Roundworms and Mollusks] [Segmented Worms and Spiny-Skinned Animals] [Arthropods] [Review] |
| Basic Chemistry: | [Studying Matter] [Classifying Matter ] [Atoms] [Chemical Notation][The Periodic Table] [Reactions] [Review] |
| History of Spaceflight: | [The Beginning of Spaceflight] [Starting the Race: Sputnik] [Leaving the Planet: The First Human in Space] [The Beginning of the Race] [To the Moon: The Apollo Program] [Back and Forth: The Space Shuttle] [Review] |
| The Human Body: | [The Skeletal System] [Parts of the Skeleton] [The Muscular System] [Keeping Bones and Muscles Healthy] [Skeleton Review] [The Nervous System] [Actions of the Nervous System] [The Endocrine System] [Keeping The Control Systems Healthy] [Control Systems Review] [Summer Vacation] |
For a tour of the main parts of a cell (fantastic clickable graphics which you can rotate and zoom), try The Virtual Cell at http://personal.tmlp.com/Jimr57/index.htm
Want to see some different kinds of cells? Go to Cells Alive (http://www.cellsalive.com/) and click on the links to view pictures.
I also recommend The Cell (http://library.advanced.org/3564), which is a ThinkQuest project put together by high school students.
Try The Microbe Zoo (http://commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo/), click on DirtLand, and find out how many different living things might be living in one gram of soil. The Microbe Zoo also has many pictures of microscopic living things.
Biology4Kids has a good overview of cells at http://www.kapili.com/topiclist.html
When did the first cell appear on Earth? We don't know exactly, but we can tell within a few hundred million years or so. Check out The History of the Universe at http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com/tl1.html - this site is excellent.
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 branches of 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
Want to try something different? Visit Taylor Lockwood's Mushroom Photography page at http://www.fungiphoto.com/ - it has some of the most beautiful pictures of fungi I've ever seen.
Tom Volk's Fungi has some cool things on it. (http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/) Click on Holiday Fungi to find out how fungi are important to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Halloween, among others.
Explore the world of fungi. Click on the "Links" on the Mykoweb (http://www.mykoweb.com) and see what you can find out on your own.
Fun Facts About Fungi at http://www.herb.lsa.umich.edu/kidpage/factindx.htm has some really neat stuff.
Dr. Fungus is the most complete site I've seen, though it's written for adults. Read about fungus in the news, fungi that cause diseases, and much much more. http://www.doctorfungus.org/
What is it about fungi? There are so many mycologists willing to put up web sites, and so many of them are great.
Check out a Protist Picture Gallery at http://megasun.bch.umontreal.ca/protists/gallery.html
A UK magazine called Micscape has articles with extraordinary pictures of microscopic organisms (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html) Its blurb says: "the worlds leading online monthly magazine on microscopy for enthusiasts."
Biology4Kids is written for middle schoolers but has good information. Go to http://www.kapili.com/biology4kids/index.html and click on "Cell." You can find out what a vacuole is, or the cell membrane.
The Biohazard Zone at http://library.thinkquest.org/26260/ is a Thinkquest site about diseases caused by microbes (bacteria, viruses, and protists). Very cool.
Stalking the Mysterious Microbe (http://www.microbe.org) is a nice site sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology; you can learn a great deal from it.
The Big Picture Book of Viruses is a catalogue of virus pictures on the Internet. You can look up viruses by family or by individual name, by structure or by host. Cruise around--you'll find photographs, paintings, diagrams, and all kinds of images. http://www.virology.net/Big_Virology/BVHomePage.html
I really like the American Museum of Natural History's Infection Detection Protection site (at http://www.amnh.org/explore/infection), though you need Shockwave for it. My favorite is "How Lou Got The Flu."
The Center for Disease Control has a Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases ("mycotic" means fungus), which has a great list of disease information at http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo - you can find out what causes a disease, how you can prevent it, and how it's treated. What's typhoid? How can you catch anthrax? How common is salmonellosis? Go find out.
Review the vocabulary for the unit test at http://www.quia.com/jg/289008.html
Play a challenge game at http://www.quia.com/cb/25364.html
Natural Perspective (http://www.perspective.com/nature/index.html), a site devoted to the wonders of the natural world, is organized according to the rules of taxonomy (classification of living things). Very well written and interesting.
The Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (http://database.mbl.edu/SPECIMENS/phylum.taf?function=form&page=2) has a good invertebrate site. Look up some of the phyla of invertebrates (by the way, "Chordates" are animals which have a nerve chord up their back, and include the vertebrates). I looked up scuds, which are otherwise known as "beach fleas."
Check out the National Aquarium's exhibit on venomous animals, "Venom: Striking Beauty" at http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/venom/splash.html, and take the "Killer Quiz" and look at some pictures. Really pretty and well written, too. Some of these animals are invertebrates, some are not. Which are which?
The National Aquarium (it's in Baltimore) also has an interesting animal page. Go to http://www.aqua.org/animals. Can you play the matching game?
The Archaea are a sixth kingdom of living things, made up of single celled organisms which can live in extreme conditions of heat and poisonous gas. Check out Introduction to the Archaea at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/archaea/archaea.html (this is part of the University of California Museum of Paleontology site which is one of my favorites for everything to do with classification- http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/).
The Evergreen Project (http://www.evergreenproject.com) has a good fact sheet on sponges at http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/salt/animals/sponges.htm.
An Introduction to Porifera (sponges) is at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/porifera/porifera.html (only a part of the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology website, which I recommend highly for any student of biology - http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/index.html). They also have an Introduction to Cnidaria at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cnidaria/cnidaria.html
Read about the Hermit Crab Sponge at Floyd Sandford's Coe College page (http://www.public.coe.edu/departments/Biology/hermit.html). This sponge grows on snail shells, in which hermit crabs live. Truly weird.
The scientific term for the family which includes jellyfish is Cnidarians - go find out about them at another Evergreen Project site (http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/salt/animals/cnidar.htm)
Extreme Science has a page about the deadly Sea Wasp at http://www.extremescience.com/DeadliestCreature.htm
The National Aquarium in Baltimore has a great site at http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/jellies - Jellyfish: Phantoms of the Deep. This is a web site that was put up to celebrate an exhibit the National Aquarium had a few years ago. What are the seven stages of life of a moon jellyfish? Take the jellyfish trivia quiz.
Visit Wendell's Worm World on the Yuckiest Site on the Internet (http://www.yucky.com). Funny and informative site.
The Parasitic Nematodes Home Page at http://nematode.unl.edu/ is a real winner! That's where I found that the largest nematode ever found was a whale parasite over 8 meters long.
The nematode C. elegans is a roundworm which is popular with scientists. They study its DNA and its neurobiology, mostly. Caenorhabditis elegans is a small (about 1 mm long) soil nematode found in temperate regions, and there is a website devoted to it at http://elegans.swmed.edu/ - if you click on "Nematodes" it will take you to many other web sites about other roundworms.
Interested in parasites in general? Someone who must be a student at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, has a great page called World Of Parasites. Click on the map to find out what parasites are common there, and you'll be able to read about all kinds of gruesome things. http://martin.parasitology.mcgill.ca/JIMSPAGE/WORLDOF.HTM
If you want to find out about mollusks there is a great fact sheet at http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/salt/animals/mollusk.htm.
How about a Cephalopod Page? Go to http://is.dal.ca/~ceph/TCP/index.html to find out all about octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish (and the nautilus, the cephalopod with an outside shell).
You gotta love those slugs! Or at least some people gotta love those slugs. Visit the "Slug Site" at http://slugsite.tierranet.com and check out the "Nudbranch of the Week." This is a wonderful site with truly disgusting slug pictures, devoted to the Ophisthobranch Mollusks. Don't ask me what that means, I don't know.
Check out the brief Introduction to the Annelida at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/annelida/annelida.html
"Aliens Explore Earth: Worms and Leeches" (http://www.alienexplorer.com/ecology/topic18.html) has some interesting and extremely disgusting facts about our tubular friends. Check out the leech. Yuck.
Get the facts about echinoderms at http://www.mobot.org/MBGnet/salt/animals/echinod.htm.
There is an Introduction to the Echinodermata at http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/echinodermata/echinodermata.html
Sea and Sky has a nice page of pictures of echinoderms at http://www.seasky.org/reeflife/sea2d.html
Have you ever had the urge to own a Madagascar hissing cockroach? Well, whatever arthropod you yearn to cuddle, The Pet Arthropod Page can tell you how to care for it. http://www.key-net.net/users/swb/pet_arthropod/
Bugbios - "shameless promotion of insect appreciation" at http://www.bugbios.com/ is just marvelous.
The Spencer Entomological Musem in British Museum has Insecta at http://www.insecta.com/insecta/index.shtml - the Bug of the Month for November is the cockroach.
The University of Michigan Museum has pictures of arthropods at: http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/Images.html. Find a good example of Odonata, Lepidopera, Arachnida, Hemiptera, and Orthoptera. What kinds of arthropods do these Latin names stand for?
Find out about genetics and mutations on the Exploratorium's "Mutant Fruit Flies" site http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/mutant_flies/mutant_flies.html
Edible Insects ("or, more than you wanted to know about eating bugs") is at http://www.eatbug.com/ - Need I say more?
Check out the Crayfish Home Page at http://bioag.byu.edu/mlbean/crayfish/crayhome.htm
The Entomological Society of America (http://www.entsoc.org/index.html) has activities for kids and teachers, and electronic postcards you can send.
Get more specific with your arthropods and zoom in on beetles at http://www.source.at/beetles/.
A web-page entitled www.coleoptera.org is slow-loading, but has tons of information about the coleoptera, otherwise known as beetles. I do like beetles. http://www.coleoptera.org/
If you want to keep arthropods as pets, The Provincial Museum of Alberta Natural History Invertebrate Zoology Fact Sheets will come in handy at http://www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/natural/insects/projects/insects.htm
At Nature there's a page called Alien Empire where you can download patterns to make an insect mask. I really like it (You need Adobe Acrobat Reader) http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/alienempire/multimedia/maskindex.html
Review the vocabulary words for this unit at Quia.com at http://www.quia.com/jg/301927.html
Learn the invertebrate Latin names at http://www.quia.com/cm/14664.html
When you know your Latin names, play What's My Phylum? at http://www.quia.com/pop/34443.html
Or try to match the phylum to the traits of the animals which belong to it at Phylum Traits - http://www.quia.com/cm/14713.html
When you think you know your stuff, challenge yourself with 5th Grade Spineless Wonders at Quia.com (http://www.quia.com/cb/26427.html)
Classifying Matter
Some people are fascinated with the alchemists, the people who tried to make gold and the elixir of life. At the Alchemy web site you can look at hundreds of pictures and read many documents about alchemy. (http://www.levity.com/alchemy/home.html)
If you want a good overview of chemistry, try out Chem4Kids at http://www.chem4kids.com/index.html.
Reeko's Mad Scientist Lab has interesting experiments at http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko
My favorite science museum on-line is the Exploratorium at http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/index.html; they have a great site called Science Explorer (http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/index.html) with many activities and experiments.
Hyper Chemistry at http://tqd.advanced.org/2690 is a web site created by three high school students for a contest known as ThinkQuest. Try their "Experiments You Can Do At Home." They also have a good Periodic Table of the Elements and a history of chemistry.
Curious about acids and bases? The Miami Museum of Science has a site - The pH Factor - at http://www.miamisci.org/ph/ which tells you all about it.
In order to describe matter, you have to describe its properties. A good diagram of properties of matter is at http://www.chemistry.vt.edu/RVGS/ACT/notes/Properties_of_Matter.html
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. You want to convert English units to metric ones, or vice versa? Measuring Units Conversion Tables at http://www.french-property.com/ref/convert.htm tells you how many meters are in a mile.
Chem4Kids (http://www.chem4kids.com/)has a good page on mixtures (http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_mixture.html). Find out what concrete and salt water have in common.
One of my favorite mixtures is cornstarch and water. Go to the Exploratorium's Outrageous Ooze page (http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/ooze.html) for a good recipe for making it. They have another mixture at called Go With the Flow at http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/goflow.html. Try it - it sounds like fun.
I drink a couple of cups of a special kind of mixture every day: a suspension called milk. Visit http://www.whymilk.com and see the celebrity milk-moustache posters.
Visit The Atoms Family at 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.
Investigate the electron. Check out "Life, the Universe, and the Electron" at http://www.iop.org/Physics/Electron/Exhibition.
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.
Scientists think that subatomic particles are in turn made out of quarks. 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
The Nanoscale Physics group at Purdue University says: "We look at really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really small things." They have a web site at http://www.physics.purdue.edu/nanophys - go there and click on "Images" to see pictures of atoms (click on STM Images to see scanning tunneling microscope pictures).
The explosions of fireworks (many of which went off on New Year's Eve in honor of the new millennium) are caused by chemical changes. Would you 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. Most importantly, they talk about the elements in the Periodic Table which are used for fireworks - click on Pyrotechnics.
To help you learn the elements and their symbols, try Element Games at http://education.jlab.org/indexpages/elementgames.html - try them all! I like Concentration myself.
Or try Chemistry Quiz Activities & Games at http://www.syvum.com/squizzes/chem/
A great deal of the stuff about chemical notation is for high school students and college students.
Part 5: Periodic Table of the Elements
Chemicool at http://www-tech.mit.edu/Chemicool
The Comic Book Periodic Table at http://www.uky.edu/Projects/Chemcomics/ will show you a comic book page which mentions the element you click. Very strange, and it takes a while to load, but it's fun.
The Los Alamos Periodic Table is at http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic - Los Alamos was the place during World War II where the first atomic bomb was developed.
And last, and definitely least, is a humorous article for Atlantic Monthly (August 1999) entitled Periodic Table of Rejected Elements at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/99aug/9908elements.htm which lists elements such as Linoleum, Chagrin, and Asparagus. Pretty funny.
No, I'm wrong. It wasn't last, nor was it worst. How about the Table of Condiments that Periodically Go Bad? http://backtable.org/~blade/fnord/condiments.html
Want to see how elements can combine? The NIST Webbook (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/guide) has a Search by Chemical Formula page (http://webbook.nist.gov/chemistry/form-ser.htm) which lets you enter chemical symbols for elements and get information about the molecules they can make. For instance, try it with H2SO4 (two hydrogen atoms, one sulfur atom, and four oxygen atoms). Try any other element names and combinations you can think of, like the ones I gave you above.
If you know a chemical name (for instance, trichloroethane? chloroform? ether? hydrochloric acid?) you can search the NIST Webbook by Chemical Name. All right, I'm crazy, but I think this all this stuff is cool.
"Hyperchemistry on the Web," a Thinkquest site, has some good chemistry experiments to do, including some on solutions: http://tqd.advanced.org/2690/exper/exper.htm. Like all ThinkQuest sites, it was created by students.
As always, Chem4Kids is a great site to learn about chemistry, biology, geography, and physics.
The MAD Science Network (http://www.madsci.org) is the best place on the Web for getting your science questions answered. Check it out! Before you ask them a question, do a search for your topic - it isn't fair to ask questions someone has already answered.
Review for the unit test at Quia (I created this review) at http://www.quia.com/jg/234002.html - there are concentration games, matching games, and even flashcards.
Or, even more fun, do the Jeopardy-like Chemistry Challenge at http://www.quia.com/cb/20771.html
Play Chemical Hangman at http://www.quia.com/hm/75264.html
History of Manned Space Flight
Part 1: The Beginning of Spaceflight
What did Robert Goddard do in a cabbage patch on his aunt's farm in 1926 (and why do we care?) Why did Werner von Braun mistreat a red toy wagon? What did Chuck Yeager do with two broken ribs, a broom handle and shampoo on his windshield? Who were these people and why should I know about them? "The Space Place" (a commercial outfit which sells space memorabilia) has a history of rocketry which is well-written and interesting. Go to http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/rocket2.html and find out the answers to the questions.
The best site for the history of space, biographies of astronauts, and details about spacecraft, is Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica at
More about about the history of space flight? Well, one thing NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) is good at is providing information. Start at http://www.nasa.gov and just follow some links. It's extraordinary.
Human flight in general is discussed on NASA Human Spaceflight at http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/index-m.html
And I like the activities at The Space Place (a JPL & NASA site designed for kids) at http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov
For Yahoo's list of links about the history of space exploration, you can go to http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Space/Exploration/History
Space.com (http://www.space.com) is an interesting site if you like space - especially the spacekids.com (http://www.spacekids.com) section, for those of you who qualify. All kinds of up-to-date news and information; like far too many Internet sites I can't quite figure out who owns it or why it's there, but it appears to be a glossy "magazine" on the web about space. I like it.
The NASA Teacher's Resource Center has a whole bunch of activities about rocketry (http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/Other_Groups/K-12/airplane/bgmr.html) as well as some history and background.
Rocket and Space Technology at http://users.commkey.net/Braeunig/space/ is an enthusiast's web site with a great deal of information about how rockets work.
We just studied chemistry and the extremely small things known as subatomic particles, atoms, and molecules. Now we're studying the realm of space and the extremely big things known as solar systems and light years. Visit Powers of Ten to get an idea of the difference. http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/
NASA has a basic summary of the facts about Sputnik at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/, and you can listen to a WAV file of the Sputnik radio signals.
There were actually four Sputnik satellites, though only two of them are remembered today. To read about them, go to Sputnik Satellites and Launch Vehicles at http://www.nauts.com/vehicles/50s/sputnik.html
Sputnik and the Origins of the Space Age is a NASA historical article about the subject, written for adults but with many interesting details.
Russian Dogs Lost in Space has some neat facts about those pioneering dogs in space (http://www.spacetoday.org/Astronauts/Animals/Dogs.html)
If you want to know what it was like living in fear of atomic annihilation, visit Conelrad at http://www.conelrad.com/ - CONELRAD was a national Emergency Broadcasting System outlet available during the early Cold War.
Part 3: Leaving the Planet: The First Human in Space
Check out the facts on Gagarin at "Space Today Online" (http://www.spacetoday.org)
The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Center has interesting information about the ways cosmonauts train, including their version of the "Vomit Comet" (a plane which can give cosmonauts experience with weightlessness).
There's a website about Comrade Gagarin which is maintained by a fan of the cosmonaut at http://www.kosmonaut.se/gagarin/index.html
Part 4: The Beginning of the Race
NASA's Spacelink is a great source of information. (http://spacelink.nasa.gov/.index.html)
Kennedy Space Center has a good website on The Mercury Project at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/mercury/mercury.htm, and a good one on The Gemini Program at http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/gemini/gemini.htm - in fact I recomend their history pages in general (http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/history/history.htm)
A timeline of the Apollo Program (1963-1972) is at http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html
Go find some things out for yourself! Yahoo! has a listing of links to all the Apollo missions at http://dir.yahoo.com/Science/Space/Exploration/Missions/Moon/Apollo_Project
There have been many other missions to the Moon besides the Apollo missions, though none of the others had humans aboard. Read about them at the NSSDC Lunar Exploration page (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/)
Part 6: Back and Forth: The Space Shuttle
Who the heck is Mamoru Mohri? If you want to know anything about people who are currently employed as astronauts, NASA keeps Astronaut Biographies at http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/
If you want to find out about the different orbital vehicles (NASA-speak for space shuttles), go to The Names of the Space Shuttle Orbiters at http://www.hq.nasa.gov/osf/shuttle/orbiters.html
There's a great NASA page of Frequently Asked Questions about The Space Shuttle at http://www.nasa.gov/qanda/space_shuttle.html - For instance, how fast does the space shuttle go? How much does it cost? What do we do with used space shuttles?
Like models? NASA's Spacelink site has a whole page of spacecraft Models (paper and otherwise) that you can build yourself at http://spacelink.nasa.gov/Instructional.Materials/Curriculum.Support/Technology/Models
Finally, NASA for Kids is at http://www.nasa.gov/kids.html
More Quia reviews:
Go to http://www.quia.com/jg/255595.html (Out of This World) to review vocabulary and names from the history of manned spaceflight.
Play the challenge board game Taking Off to review all kinds of facts (and interesting trivia) for the test. http://www.quia.com/cb/22504.html
Support And Movement
The Yuckiest Site on the Internet has a great page on the Your Gross And Cool Body. Choose the Skeletal System and find out: Are your bones alive? What would happen if you didn't have a skeletal system? Visit them at http://yucky.kids.discovery.com/noflash/body/index.html and find out.
You can find a lot about the skeletal system by clicking on the skull at Innerbody.com (http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html)
If you have Shockwave, try assembling "Mr. Bones" at the Lawrence Hall of Science (http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/shockwave/bones.html)
Here's a ThinkQuest site (1997) that really has a lot to say about anatomy: BodyQuest at http://library.thinkquest.org/10348/
The Nanoworld Image Gallery (http://www.uq.oz.au/nanoworld/images_1.html) has great microscopic pictures of all kinds of things -- the reason I have it here is bone marrow, but how about a human hair or a bandicoot kidney?
National Museum of American History has a web site devoted to their collection of papier mache anatomy models. Ho-hum, you say? Try the Artificial Anatomy page where you can guess Jerome's body parts. http://americanhistory.si.edu/anatomy/bodyparts/nma03_bodyparts.html - cool and weird. Don't forget to turn Jerome.
Visit the Virtual Body at Medtropolis. Build your own skeleton. (You can learn about the heart, brain, and digestion too) http://www.medtropolis.com/VBody.asp
The American Council on Science and Health has a great article on popular myths about health (including knuckle-cracking). The article is titled "Was Mother Nature Wrong?" and it's at http://www.acsh.org/publications/priorities/0904/wisdom.html
Arrowvale Community High School has a great page on Joints which gives more detail. http://www.arrowvale.worcs.sch.uk/joints.htm
Innerbody.com (http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html) has a good clickable model of the muscular system.
There is a great Weight Training Muscle Diagram at http://www.uwstout.edu/athletics/carolloj/WeightTraining/diagram.htm which is part of an On-Line Weight Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Stout
Try the 1999 Junior Thinkquest winner by the Hinkle Creek Elementary kids, The Human Body at http://tqjunior.advanced.org/5777 - I recommend the Tour of the Human Body.
The Mad Scientist Network (http://www.madsci.org) has a Tour of the Visible Human at http://madsci.wustl.edu/~lynn/VH - the Visible Human Project (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/visible/visible_human.html) itself is complete, 3-D pictures of two real male and female human bodies which were sliced very very very thin and photographed.
Part 4: Keeping Bones and Muscles Healthy
Sleeping is one of the weirder things human beings (and other animals) do. If you want to find out more about sleep, check out SleepNet at http://www.sleepnet.com, and
Learn to read 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. Look at a food label in the store.
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.
Learn how to stay healthy, avoid sports injuries and other injuries, at http://www.smartplay.net.
A great overall site is SportsMedicine.com at http://www.sportsmedicine.com, which pretty much has everything.
Find out if your BMI (Body-Mass Indicator) is good for your age at Keep Kids Healthy Body Mass Index (http://www.keepkidshealthy.com/keepkidshealthy/welcome/bmicalculator.html)
The Dole Company has a great nutrition site called Dole 5 A Day at http://www.dole5aday.com/menu/nutrition/menu.htm - of course it is a food company, so if you eat right you'll be making them money.
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.
Time to get ready for the unit test already! Review the vocabulary at http://www.quia.com/jg/259959.html
Play a challenge game by yourself or with a friend at http://www.quia.com/cb/22812.html
Match vocabulary words with their definitions at http://www.quia.com/cm/10227.html
Unscramble vocabulary words at http://www.quia.com/jw/44811.html
ControlSystems
One of the best sites on the Web is Eric Chudler's Neuroscience For Kids (at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html) and when I say it's one of the best, I really mean it. Go there.
I really mean it.
The PBS Series Secret Life of the Brain has a companion website at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/ in which you can view a 3-dimensional image of the brain and rotate it. Also some other really interesting goodies like a timeline.
The Brain Connection at http://www.brainconnection.com/ has a good amount of current information about the brain and nervous system.
Check out the Phineas Gage Information Page at (http://www.deakin.edu.au/hbs/gagepage)
Brain Explorer is fairly advanced in content, but it has some neat animations and a lot of information. http://www.luinst.org/brainexplorer/index.html
Want to get some insight into how the brain works with memory? Visit Exploratorium's Droodles page and see what happens. http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/droodles/
Part 2: Actions of the Nervous System
Of course Eric Chudler's Neuroscience for Kids web page has a great section on reflexes at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chreflex.html - go find out about the pupillary response, the patellar reflex, and -- oh yeah -- response time. Which isn't about reflexes.
The Mining Company has a page (http://babyparenting.miningco.com/library/weekly/blreflexs.htm) on Neonatal Primitive Reflexes - that is, the things babies automatically do when they're born. What is the Babinski reflex? The Moro? The rooting reflex? If a baby doesn't have these, something might be wrong.
Newton's Apple is a TV show about science, and it has a page about Reflexes at http://www.ktca.org/newtons/13/rlxes.html
ExploreScience has a multimedia activity page where you can test your Sight vs. Sound Reflexes - you need Shockwave.
There's also a nifty little ExploreScience.com activity which reverses the way a mouse works and lets you experience "reversing the field." http://www.explorescience.com/activities/Activity_page.cfm?ActivityID=40
Most of the information I found on the Internet for kids about the endocrine system has to do with problems people have, such as having too much of a hormone or not enough. Either way there are problems. What's remarkable is that most of the time, your body makes exactly the right amount of every hormone you need.
Endocrineweb is a site about gland disorders, written for doctors by patients (at http://www.endocrineweb.com/)
Brendan Hannemann of Troop 1140, Springfield, Virginia, for his Eagle Scout project, designed a site called Kids Learn About Diabetes (http://www.kidslearnaboutdiabetes.org/). Take the tutorial and quiz, and find out how the pancreas is involved with everyday life.
What Is Thyroid Disease? Find out at http://www.the-thyroid-society.org/ -- go to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section and find out about it.
Part 4: Keeping The Control Systems Healthy
Of course you know that things such as cocaine and certain steroids are forbidden. But did you know that large amounts of caffeine in the bloodstream, and some ordinary decongestants, are forbidden and can disqualify you if you test positive for them? There are many drugs which can disqualify Olympic athletes, even some common over-the counter drugs such as decongestants and asthma medicines. Check out the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency) website at http://www.usantidoping.org/ to find out more.
You probably already know about D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), which brings police officers into schools to talk about drug ause. Haverford School hosts D.A.R.E., and D.A.R.E. has a (Flash required) web site at http://www.dare.com. There's a section just for kids.
Eric Chudler's Neuroscience for Kids website has a great page on the idea of "Smart Drugs" (http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/smartd.html) - wouldn't it be nice if you could take a drug and be smarter? Or would it?
Marshall Brain's site, "How Stuff Works," has a page on How Caffeine Works at http://www.howstuffworks.com/caffeine.htm
Review the vocabulary for Control Systems at http://www.quia.com/jg/269573.html
Play a challenge board game with a friend at http://www.quia.com/cb/23670.html
Summer is a great time for science. Think I'm joking? Science is everywhere. Science is in your attitude, not in a textbook. It's indoors and outdoors, in your home town and in far-off countries, in museums and restaurants and summer camps. It's EVERYWHERE.
Like space? Visit NASAKids at http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov - I enjoyed the "Picture Scrambles" in the Puzzles and Games section, but they were best when set to 25 pieces.
Constructor at http://www.sodaplay.com is an interactive web toy. It is more fun than a Slinky. Run one of the simulations in reverse gravity, or try to build your own "walker." Try it. Hypnotic.
Bewitched at http://www.bewitched.com. Whoever it is that maintains this site, he or she is a wonderful designer. I like "Starry Nights" the best, myself. Click on this and leave it up on your screen for a while. Hypnotic.
Interested in ways science is used to solve crimes? There's a high school ThinkQuest site on forensic science: Evidence: The True Witness at http://library.advanced.org/17049/gather
Finally, I recommend "The Skinny On . . .," Hannah Holmes' column about interesting science facts at Discovery Channel Online (http://www.discovery.com/stories/skinnyon/skinnyon.html) That's where I got the Important Useless Facts on this page.
This page last modified April 14, 2003