Great Writing and Science Task - Paper Helicopters and Procedural Texts

If you are looking for something fun to spice up your writing sessions that you can do with students of all ages then look no further.  Simply Download this template pack I found on Paper Helicopters from Primary Science and you can choose to fo as little or as  far as you like with the science elements from the planner.

Then get you students to create a procedural text explaining how the paper helicopter works.  If you are looking for somewhere to start with procedural texts then look no further than here.

you kids will find this a fun writing activity and really enjoy the opportunity to do something different.  I hope you enjoy it.

Make Science cool again with the surfing Scientist

The Surfing Scientist is a great collection of videos and tutoirals on how to do some simple yet effective science experiments with younger students and teeenagers.  Really easy to follow and highly recommended.  Access it here.

Let your students explore Hunkin's Experiments

Students of all ages will love Hunkin's Experiments. Cool cartoons that will have you experimenting with food, light, sound, clothes, and a whole lot more!! Hundreds of cartoon experiments from cartoonist, broadcaster and engineer Tim Hunkin.   Access Hunkin's Experiments here

Have you got the latest version of THE POWDER TOY for Mac & PC?

We get a LOT of people stop by our educational gaming section to find worthwhile games for students to play and the Powder Toy is a real fan favourite with my own students and many of our visitors to Edgalaxy. 

For those of you who have no idea what the powder Toy is The Powder Toy is a desktop version of the classic 'falling sand' physics sandbox game, it simulates air pressure and velocity as well as heat!  And you can read far more of the educational benefits about the powder toy here.

The Good news is that you can download the latest version of the Powder Toy right here for Windows, Mac and even Linux.  Enjoy.

Health Lesson Plan: The Food Pyramid & Five Food groups

This is complete lesson plan aimed at students aged 9 - 12 examining the food pyramid and the five food groups.  The purpose of this lesson is to inform students about healthy eating options and the manner in which a healthy diet contributes to a healthy mind and body. 

Click here to download the complete PowerPoint of this lesson (recommended)

Click here to download the complete PDF of this Lesson Plan

Lesson plan food pyramid

View more presentations from Kevin Cummins.

This activity will allow students to develop an understanding of the five food groups as outlined in the food pyramid and how to use the pyramid as a guide in maintaining good health and nutrition

At the completion of this activity students will be able to;

–Identify what we can do to keep our bodies healthy

–List the 5 food groups within the food pyramid

–Provide examples of each food group

–Analyse their dietary intake by separating foods eaten into the proper food groups

We would love to hear any feedback and thoughts you have to enhance this lesson.

17 Great Interactive Sites to learn about Forces and Motion

Currently we are looking at forces and motion Science and I came across these great sites that have a range of interactive activities including design a skate park, simple machines, Funderstanding roller coaster simulation and the Pendulum experiment.  Access them here

Activiate your students scientific minds with these great interactive tasks

Edheads helps students learn through educational games and activities designed to meet state and national standards. We partner with various school systems in the United States, which help us research, design and test our activities every step of the way!

Not only do teachers and students appreciate our free activities, Edheads has been recognized by almost every major award on the Web for our excellent educational content!

EdHeads has some great interactive sites based on scientific principles such as stem cells, car crashes, force and motion, virtual knee surgery and plenty more.  Check it out here.

Explosive fun for students with THE POWDER TOY a great science game

My kids have been playing this game for months at school and I really only sat down to have a good look at it this week and found to my surprise that THE POWDER TOY was both a fun game and great educational opportunity for students to learn about chemical reactions.

Teaching & Classroom Resources @ www.theteachinglab.com   

Kids love to blow things up which is essentially what Powder is all about but it goes a great deal deeper  than simply allowing students the opportunity to play around with many "powdery" pixels of diverse natures, each having different simulated physical and chemical properties.

Some fall faster than others, a few are "solid" and hang in mid-air, etc. A good number of them are flammable, so all you high-school chemistry students who just want to see things blow up should get hooked on this game pretty easily. = ) Almost every substance has a special quality when thrown together with another: for example, water solidifies magma; thunder electrifies metal; torch burns what hits it but is dissolved by water; and the infamous virus eats through and overruns all others, eventually turning back into the first material it came in contact with. Searching for all the unique reactions is part of the entertainment.

As you can see there is plenty here for your casual gamer to hard core science geek to get something from POWDER.  I would recommend it to boys especially looking for something a little different. Here is the latest version of the POWDER TOY to Download.

Update on Saturday, February 11, 2012 at 2:02PM by Kevin Cummins

We would love to hear of any other games just like powdertoy that are great fun and also educational.  Please post them below if you aware of any.