Viscosity Explorer - simple virtual lab on viscosity

Viscosity Explorer is a simple site that allows you to explore the concept of viscosity. It consists of two containers and two steel balls. You select the liquid you want in the container, then drop the ball and observe what happens. You can also change the temperature of the liquid. Students can easily compare the viscosity of two different substances side by side.

It's a great site for science classes, and much faster, cheaper, and less messy than doing this for real. I would, however, want to at least demo the real liquids and pour them from container to container to show how the flow of the fluids is different based on the viscosity.

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PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science

PhET - excellent, free, virtual labs and simulations for science - new materials available

PhET is an awesome resource from the University of Colorado at Boulder. The site has interactive simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, earth science, and math that teachers and students can use.

The simulations can be run on the site or downloaded. The simulations are accurate and real and can help students learn concepts in more depth. They are easy and fun to use, and really do demonstrate the concepts well. In the physics ones I use, a big benefit is that students can quickly and easily change variables and conditions and then see what happens. This is very hard and time consuming in many hands on labs. Students can also visualize things that are hard to see in a hands-on lab, such as magnetic field lines, and electron flow.

The simulations are also a great alternative to live labs if you don't have the resources available. Some of the simulations are better than any hands on lab because the students can truly see and understand what is happening.

You can search by topic, grade level, or just see the newest ones added. There are teacher resources for many of the simulations. Teachers who use the simulations post lesson plans and resources to the site for others to use also. These teacher created lesson plans and lab sheets are excellent and free for all to use.

I use the Physics simulations in my classroom and they work great. This is one of those sites that every science and math teacher needs to check out.

Here's a list of some of the new simulations they have and there are more simulations, and resources, being added all the time.

Learning Science - collection of great science resources

Learningscience.org is a great resource for science teachers. It is a free online collection of resources for teaching science, organized by subject area and standards.

The site has tools for science, such as graphing, timekeeping, and graph paper, links to other resources, ways to use Google apps in science.

When I looked under physical science, I found information and resources separated by standards for different grade levels. From there, I was brought to a list of online resources to use when teaching each standard. Some of them I already knew about, but many were new to me.

I recommend that all science teachers take a look at this site. It is well organized, easy to use, and has a lot of great resources for your lessons.

Virtual Fetal Pig Dissection

Virtual Fetal Pig Dissection is a great site from Whitman College that allows teachers and students to experience the learning of doing a fetal pig dissection without the expense (and smell).

The site is designed to supplement an actual dissection lab, but students and teachers can use it alone also.

The site is picture based, with descriptions and annotations on the pictures.




Great for schools who don't have the money to do actual dissections.

Virtual Cell Animation Collection - great for Biology

The Virtual Cell Animation Collection is an incredible collection of animations that show cells, cell function, and different cell processes.

There are 17 animations ranging from Insulin Signaling to Cellular Respiration to Photosynthesis.

This is a great way to show these difficult to visualize concepts to students. 

Interactive Engineering for 9-11 year olds

Engineering Interact is a great site with interactive lessons for 9-11 year olds that help them explore and learn science and engineering concepts.

The activities fall under the following topics: Light, Sound, Forces and Motion, Earth and Beyond, and Electricity.

The activities are in game form and are well done. I played with two of them and had fun myself.

There is also information about how engineers use the science of that particular topic which is a great way to show them why the topic is important.

I was very impressed with these games and I can actually see them being used for older students up to freshman in high school as a fun way to learn or review the topics.

It was created and is supported by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering.

The games and activities require FLASH, so you won't be able to use these on an iPad or iPod Touch.