Science Junction Professional Development

Supplemental Science Materials

Project Wild and Project Wild Aquatic
Grades K-12
http://www.projectwild.org/
Project WILD is one of the most widely-used conservation and
environmental education programs for grades K-12. The materials cannot be purchased, but this site provides information about Project WILD State Coordinators who conduct workshops to train teachers in the use of the Project Wild materials. The guides are distributed free of charge to participants in the Project WILD workshops. The site provides a sample lesson for one of the activities in each of the areas:

Project Wet
Grades K-12
http://www.projectwet.org/
Project WET (Water Education for Teachers) is an international water science and education program. Click on "Contact" at the bottom of the page to request additional information. Go to the "Water Festival" to participate in some of the interactive online activities (very elementary, but informative).

Project Learning Tree
Grades PreK-12
http://www.plt.org/index.html
Project Learning Tree is an interdisciplinary environmental
education program which contain lessons that are designed to develop student's critical thinking skills. A sample activity, Environmental Exchange Box, is available online. The materials cannot be purchased, but you can obtain Project Learning Tree's PreK-8 Activity Guide or Secondary Modules by attending a training workshop.

TOPS Learning Modules (Task Oriented Physical Science) Grades K-12
http://www.topscience.org/
This is a commercial site for ordering the TOPS modules, but they do provide a sample lesson for each of the modules available. For example, Cabbage Chemistry in Module # 10 is an introduction to chemical analysis. The modules are available in book format without supplies or in Starter Kit format which contains almost everything necessary to complete all the experiments in the module.

OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instructional Strategies)
Ages 10-15
http://www.lhs.berkeley.edu/OBIS/OBISpubs.html
This is a commercial site for ordering OBIS. They do not provide any sample lessons, but do provide a brief explanation of each of the modules.

PRISMS (Physics Resources and Instructional Strategies for Motivating Students)
Grades 9-12
http://www.prisms.uni.edu/
This is an educational site from the University of Northern Iowa, but they do provide ordering and workshop information and sample activities. For example, "Will That be Cash or Charge?" is an introduction to different types of electrical charges. Teacher notes are provided with this activity.

Project AIMS (Activities Integrating Science and Mathematics)
Grades K-9
http://www.aimsedu.org/
This is a site from the AIMS Education Foundation. The activities use a hands-on approach to integrating mathematics and science and sample activities are included. For example, "Exploring Environments" contains a sample activity entitled, "Rivers" which is in pdf file format. Some additional AIM activity books include:

  • Out of this World-Grades 5-9
  • Water Precious Water-Elementary
  • Popping With Power-Grades 3-4
  • Jaw Breakers and Heart Thumpers-Grades 3-4

And more.......