A List of Super Websites for Science Teachers

I have used a lot of science websites since I started using digital science notebooks, plus I asked a lot of other middle school science teachers which sites they strongly recommended using.

I pulled the websites all together into a list, grouped into four categories.

• Teacher tools for you to create lessons
• Labs, activities and simulations for students
• Articles to assign students on science topics
• Video websites, including YouTube

Teacher Tools For You to Create Lessons

Let’s face it, we all love websites that help us create dynamic and interactive lessons and assessments. Why not use what’s out there?

The following websites help you create games, use flipped teaching by making videos, or keep you from having to reinvent the wheel when it comes to presentations. These are materials that others teachers have already developed and most of them are also free!

• https://www.screencastify.com/ Record your screen and edit and share the videos.
• https://info.flipgrid.com/ you or your students can make short videos.
• https://edpuzzle.com/ turn any video into a lesson with questions added.
• https://classtools.net/ puzzle, word search and game making.
• https://www.ck12.org/student/ create your own virtual textbook with great, standard-based curriculum.
• https://worldofteaching.com/ PowerPoints in science topics for teachers.
• https://www.canva.com/ Students and teachers can make great graphic designs and the pro version has great stock photos.
• https://kahoot.com/ fun site where are you can make review games.
• https://bookcreator.com/ very nice site for creating books and reports.
• https://quizizz.com/ create your own quizzes or use theirs.
• https://tuvalabs.com/dashboard/ Great data sets for creating graphs.
• https://nearpod.com/ design different types of tests and presentations. Very nice, premade lesson plans.
• https://hyperdocs.co/ very nice, ready made lesson plans.

Science Websites with Labs, Activities and Simulations for Students

A lot of schools purchased devices for students during the recent pandemic and would prefer that they are still utilized. All of us have discovered that there are amazing resources for students to use that will nicely complement your hands-on curriculum.

If I’m going to use a website, instead of doing an actual lab, then it should be something that I cannot provide for them realistically in the classroom. For example, I can show them higher level chemistry demonstrations that I cannot safely do in my middle school classroom.

• https://www.biologycorner.com/ Biology lesson plans, tutorials and other resources.
• https://www.teachengineering.org/ Tons of hands-on, detailed activities.
• https://sciencespot.net/ Great source of activities and handouts.
• https://serc.carleton.edu/k12/index.html very nice labs laid out for many ages.
• https://www.explorelearning.com/ Fantastic, very interactive simulations.
• http://www.teachingabovethetest.com/ excellent site for project-based learning.
• https://datanuggets.org/ Data from real research projects for students to use.
• https://education.jlab.org/ Lots of activities about the periodic table.
• https://www.openscied.org/ Nice, well developed lessons.
• http://www.pz.harvard.edu/thinking-routines Great lesson plans with up-to-date topics.
• https://www.chemicool.com/ Great information on the different elements.
• https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ Great way to do real time earthquake plotting.
• https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ Lots of real time weather information.
• https://www.labster.com/ Nice virtual simulations.
• https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/ experiments, games, facts, quizzes, projects, lessons, images, videos. Great site!
• https://phet.colorado.edu/ Well known as a great site for interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, and science and biology.
• https://www.ngssphenomena.com/ Great, short videos or images to start up a unit with inquiry.

Science Articles to Assign Students

Reading in the science classroom is very important for all students. Keeping a list of websites with interesting, up-to-date articles is advised for many reasons.

One reason I keep bookmarked links to articles is so that the early finishers stay occupied with articles related to our present unit. Second, I use the articles for homework to enrich a concept that we discussed in class.

Third, they are also an important component for days when we need a substitute teacher. At the beginning of each unit, I print out copies of articles that relate to our unit and keep them in my substitute folder. These can be recycled year to year.

• https://www.ducksters.com/science/ Great articles on most subjects for students to take notes.
• http://scienceovereverything.com/ Very nice articles that follow the NGSS standards.
• https://www.sciencedaily.com/ One of my favorite sources of up-to-date science articles.
• https://sciencing.com/ Interesting science articles.
• https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/ Nice articles to send students to read.
• https://earthsky.org/ Up-to-date articles on earth and space.
• https://undsci.berkeley.edu/ Very nice science articles.
• https://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/ Nice website for students to do research on biomes.
• https://newsela.com/ Earth Free membership with the articles to assign students.
• https://www.brainson.org/ interesting science podcasts.
• https://laboutloud.com/ Nice collection of science podcasts.
  

Video Websites

Watching videos, and being able to glean the main ideas, is an important skill that students will always need. I like to give them video notes graphic organizer templates for their digital science notebooks as they are watching short videos.

I tend to look for videos that are no more than 3 to 4 minutes long and loaded with good information. Beyond that, students start to drift off. I also like videos to be short so that I can show them twice for them to fill out their video templates.

• https://sciencetrek.org/ Very nice site bursting with videos and activities.
• https://www.howstuffworks.com/ Fascinating videos about many science subjects.
• https://www.brainpop.com/ Great short, informative videos.

YouTube Science Channels to Follow

YouTube has an abundance of science videos, as you know. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to narrow it down to the authors that you trust.

Note: I have recently noticed that, even my saved videos that I have watched several times, will rotate inappropriate ads. Unfortunately, that means you’ll really need to quickly preview it right before class.

• https://m.youtube.com/user/AmoebaSisters very well done videos for middle school and high school.
• https://m.youtube.com/user/hooplakidzlab Experiments in science tricks.
• https://m.youtube.com/user/ParrMr Loved by my classes! He takes modern pop songs and adds very well thought out lyrics covering tons of science topics. Amazingly talented.
• https://m.youtube.com/user/TheSpanglerEffect Steve Spangler doing many labs.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/NatureVideoChannel Nice, short videos covering many nature topics.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/physicswoman short videos answering all types of physics questions.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/makemegenius cartoony but informative.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision fascinating, up-to-date information.
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjHz5SVHeMT0AViCYZvsGDA nova online. Short videos explaining different areas of science.
• https://www.youtube.com/user/theslowmoguys fascinating, slow motion experiments.
  https://www.youtube.com/user/NatGeoWild stunning short videos from National Geographic.
  

Of course, I realize that this is not a comprehensive list. I would love to hear any suggestions that you have that I should add to this growing and changing resource. If you know of a wonderful website, that should be added to this list, please put it in the comments below and I’ll update this post often.