SciJinks for Kids: Wild Weather
Posted on June 27th, 2015 by Mary Lord
From tidal curiosities and solar flares to bad weather jokes, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s SciJinks website offers a wealth of resources for learning and teaching about Earth’s climate and geography.
Filed under: K-12 Outreach Programs, Special Features, Web Resources | Comments Off on SciJinks for Kids: Wild Weather
Tags: clouds, Environmental science, games, hurricanes, Internet Resources, JPL, NASA, NOAA, Resources for Teachers, Satellite, Space, Tornadoes, Weather, Web Resources
Ever walk through a store’s toy department and wonder: Who dreams up these action figures, games, and other fun stuff? Toy engineers do! They get to play for a living, designing and making new toys to engage or educate kids of all ages.
Do your students enjoy gaming? Harness their interest – and boost their STEM learning – with the Got Game design contest sponsored by STEMFuse.The competition is open to students in grades 5 – 12.
In this lesson, pairs of students in grades 4 to 7 will learn about the engineering design process and electrical circuits by building a dance pad that sounds a buzzer or flashes a light when stepped on.
Computer simulations and games offer “great potential” to assist inquiry-based science learning, according to a report by the National Research Council. They may help boost motivation, understanding and skills, and encourage students to identify with science. 
With their problem-solving techniques and technologies engineers are well-positioned to help render U.S. healthcare more efficient, effective, and affordable. And as new and different models are conceived, engineers can help design and support them, analyzing if and how well they are working.
Verizon Foundation’s Thinkfinity website offers comprehensive teaching and learning resources that are grade-specific and are aligned with state standards. It provides lesson plans that teach 21st Century skills, literary resources, an online group for new teachers, webinars, professional development, tips for teachers, interactive games and tools for students, family learning materials, teacher features, and more.
A treasure trove of resources for grades 3-6, the DragonflyTV website enriches the popular PBS science T.V. programs of the same name. It features a page of experiment activities; various videoes; a focus on nanotechnology; and games, puzzlers, and riddles.
