Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8

 An excellent site!!

• Watch a slideshow on Rock Hound Collection Safety.
• Follow Rocky the Hound on a discovery of the three types of rocks, their formation, and investigate kinds of rocks of each type.
• Become a rock expert, then try the quiz.
  Level: Primary, Junior
• Metamorphic Magic
  Use the metamorphic cookie recipe to teach the concept.

 An excellent site!!

• Watch a slideshow on Rock Hound Collection Safety.
• Follow Rocky the Hound on a discovery of the three types of rocks, their formation, and investigate kinds of rocks of each type.
• Become a rock expert, then try the quiz.
  Level: Primary, Junior
• Metamorphic Magic
  Use the metamorphic cookie recipe to teach the concept.

Descriptions of rocks and minerals with graphics powerpoint presentations. 

Information provided then interactive assessments of their learning follows.

• Types of rocks
• How Rocks Change
• The Rock Cycle Diagram
• Test Your Skills

Detailed text documents, links and lesson plans.

Text-based site that answers many questions about rocks.

Lesson plan, work sheets and web links that explain rocks and minerals.

Read about colour, streak, transparency, lustre, hardness, cleavage, fracture, specific gravity, crystal form.

• How to Find Minerals
• Create a Collection
• FAQ
• Grow Your Own Crystals
• Mine Games - online games and quizzes
  Test your knowledge at: 
  -Sedimentary, My dear Watson- a true/false game
  -Mining for Minerals- an interactive word search that you can play on-line
  -Knowledge Nuggets- Do you know which minerals are the hardest, softest, most colourful?

 Help Rex solve three mysteries about rocks, fossils and minerals.
An excellent test of what the student know about how rocks are formed!

• Geologic Timeline
• Field Tips- List what tools are necessary when looking for rocks, minerals and fossils.

Read about colour, streak, transparency, lustre, hardness, cleavage, fracture, specific gravity, crystal form.

• Mine Games:
  Test your knowledge at: 
  -Sedimentary, My dear Watson- a true/false game
  -Mining for Minerals- an interactive word search that you can play on-line
  -Knowledge Nuggets- Do you know which minerals are the hardest, softest, most colourful?

Provides picture of mineral, and lists the minerals: color, luster, transparency, crystal habits, cleavage, fracture, hardness, streak test.

A comprehensive site with many printable lesson plans and background information for the teacher.

• For Teachers Only
  http://www.mii.org/teacherhelpers.html
• Idea Starters (lessons and curriculum links- pdf format 21pgs)
  Mineral identification cards and activity, rock cycle explained, plate tectonics activity, minerals and you, industrial mineral list used around the house, 
  http://www.mii.org/pdfs/Ultimate.pdf 
• Individual lesson sheets to print of everyday uses of minerals
  http://www.mii.org/teacherhelpers.html#uses 
• Individual lessons and activities 
  http://www.mii.org/lessons.html 
• Everything comes from Natural Resources
  http://www.mii.org/lessons.html  Part 1 (16 pgs.)
  http://www.mii.org/pdfs/have/every2.pdf  Part 2 (14 pgs.)
• Reclamation Stories
  Positive and negative effects of human interaction on the landscape.
  Good graphics. Reading level above grade level.
  http://www.mii.org/recl.html

• The Rock Cycle
  • Igneous Rocks
  • Sedimentary Rocks
  • Metamorphic Rocks
• Minerals in Your House
• Mineral Properties 

• Make your own fossils
• Make a Volcano 

The discovering of fossils in Nova Scotia.

Lesson plans about fossils, rocks, soil, paleontology.

Discover how, where, and what you need to know about finding fossils.

• How are fossils formed?
• How fossils are prepared at a museum?
• Where are fossils collected?
• Play an on-line fossil identification game! 

Recipe for a dough to simulate rocks- add a 'fossil' imprint.

Two level on-line modules that explain many aspects of fossils. Good information through reading a series of on-line slides.

Lesson plans and on-line activities that explain the seasons.

Water facts and links for this strand.

Dive into this site to learn how we can conserve water by 100 practical ways. 

• 100 ways to save water: A printable list that you can make into cards for illustrating.
• A flash presentation of water saving ideas.

•  Nav Guide
• Water Basics
• Earth's Water
• Water Quality
• Water Use
• Activities
• The Water Cycle

National Geographic site the describes key concepts by an interactive on-line river system. Hand-outs are provided for teachers in pdf files. 

• On-line watershed game novice and intermediate levels
• Educator/Student activities exploring: Using Our Rivers, Changing Our Rivers, Saving our Rivers. On-line activities, printable worksheets, classroom and homework activities about the use of water and its conservation. Look at all activities for the various levels to see  what suits your needs.

Properties of water explored including on-line quizzes and questionnaires.  

• Water- Science Topics

Click on Environment for details about water levels, habitats, uses, etc. For simplified explanations, click on Education.

• Introduction: the Great Lakes
• Natural Processes in the Great Lakes
• People and the Great Lakes
• The Great Lakes Today - Concerns
• Joint Management of the Great Lakes
• Maps

Click on 'The Rivers' to view a map hot-linked to explanations about their significance in Canadian history.
 

Read about the history, ecosystem, culture, recreation, economy of great Canadian rivers. Complete on-line crosswords and take the Rapid Challenge.

Questions about the safety and pollutants of water are answered. Printable copies can be downloaded. Test your water smarts and take the home survey to monitor how you and your family uses water.

An on-line science project where the students report on experiment findings and compare data gathered from around the world.

• Life Cycle of a Glacier
• Teacher's Guide 

Brief descriptions about water, the water cycle, weather, seasons and the atmosphere. Graphics included. Includes amazing water facts.

Animated clip explaining the water cycle.

Dive into this site to learn how we can conserve water by 100 practical ways. 

• 100 ways to save water: A printable list that you can make into cards for illustrating.
• The Water Family Game - In this game you will have loads of fun while you help a family cut down their water use in their homes and gardens.
• A flash presentation of water saving ideas.

Gives facts and tips for water conservation and an explanation of the water cycle.

•  Down and Dirty
  Explore the many layers of soil

• Field Guide
  There's something alive under your feet
• Soil Sarfari
  Micro-size yourself for this journey underground

An experiment to do with your students to observe the make-up of soil composition. 

Read about the composition of soil.

Read the slides that answer questions about soil.

Curser down to - What's Your Soil IQ and take the on-line quiz.

• Energy Story - Cursor down the page for the table of contents of the 'energy story'.
• Science Projects
• Energy Library
• Energy Games
• Super Scientists - A Gallery of of Energy Pioneers

• Energy Sources: read about how heat is produced by different sources of energy
• Using and saving energy

Renewable and non-renewable energy.

This online interactive activity gives students the opportunity to learn how oil is transformed from its "raw" state to more usable forms.

• Worldwide energy consumption
• Consumption of energy by country
  • Oil Reserves
• Renewable Resources
• Countries using nuclear energy

•  Games and Activities- Wildlife, Clamate Change, Energy, The North, Waste and Land Use
  • School Energy Audit
• Downloads
• For Teachers: Activities and Printables

• Eco Kids 
  Online quizes and printable acitivites in each category

• Building a Better Pyramid
• Cooling the Mummy's Tomb

•  Lesson Plans

• Top Tips to Conserve Energy
• The story of energy
• Home Energy Survey- How Energy Efficient is Your Home
• Activities
  • Things to Make 
    (Build a water wheel, Make an elastic band fan, Create your own windmill, Construct a land yacht, Make a balloon buggy)
  • Things to colour
  • Energy worksheets

• Kid's Space  Colouring Books, Digital Puzzles, Space Projects, Space Books
• For Educators
• Resources - Fact sheets
• Image Gallery - Graphics and Videos
• Links
• Space Missions and Astronaut biographies
• Space in my daily life

Games, projects, animations, and amazing facts.

• Projects
• Animations
• Cool Subjects
• Amazing Facts
• Images and activites for the classroom

Resources for students, teachers and researchers.

• For Educators - Resources for grades K-4, 5-8, 9-12
• Find Teaching Materials
• For Students 

• Build your space mission
• Teacher Links
• Videos and Features

In this Lab you investigate questions and answers that will help you elicit student ideas about the distance between Earth, the Sun, and the Moon and about the phases of the Moon.

• Five Question Survey
• In-Class Activities

 An excellent site that provides: galaxy, star, black hole, comet information and on-line activities.

• Myths vs. Realities about Space

Lesson plans and on-line activities that explain the seasons.

Displays real-time and customized results of satellites, star charts and much more information for your local time zone. You can use the features of this site as an anonymous user or you can register for free to utilize customized preferences. 

• Select your location to access database

Pictures, the technology and people behind the pictures are linked. Fun and games.

Watch the Flash video to see the building of an international space station. Click on the menu at the right to read about each section.

Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 

• Index of Pictures of the Day

Good easy to access information with printable activities, quizzes and puzzles.

Topics include: Our Planet, Our Solar System, The Universe, Myths, Space Missions, Biographies. There are beginner, intermediate, advanced levels of reading for the site. Take time to investigate the teacher resources which include hands-on and on-line activities for primary, junior, and intermediate grades.

Information of each of the planets, asteroids, comets, meteorites, history and people. 

• Weighing In
  How much would you weigh on another planet? - calculation on-line.
• Age is relative
  How old would  you be on another planet? - calculation on-line.
• Planetary Icosahedrons
  Print these nets in color then fold and glue them to create parts of the solar system.

The Children's Museum of Indianaplolis- Interctive online activities

• Living in Space
• Field Guide to the Universe
• Expedition to the North Magnetic Pole

Students can make a scale model of the solar system, plugging in the diameter of their sun and automatically receiving the measurements of both space and other planetary bodies. Be warned that choosing a 10mm diameter for the sun would take up 164 feet in order to accommodate your entire solar system.

Video clips of Marc Garneau.

• For Teachers lessons, including a webquest

Information about the solar system in two levels of difficulty.

• Activities to explore  On-line and off-line activities indexed. Includes on-line treasure hunts.

You can scroll East-West and  North-South by clicking on the an icon in the lower right hand corner.  Note that Canada's population is almost exclusively along the U.S. border.

Constellations and stars are listed with pictures, sky locations, origin and description.

Descriptions of constellations and the stars that form them. Graphics and location of constellations. Charts listing the brightest and closest stars.
Level: Intermediate, Senior

Lesson plans to track the sun's shadows throughout the year.

Hands-on science experiments for the entire family. On-line links are included.

• Energy Sources: read about how heat is produced by different sources of energy
• Using and saving energy

• About Renewable Energy

• Canada and U.S. energy partnership
• Energy Facts and maps for Canada
• Teaching Resources

• Worldwide energy consumption
• Consumption of energy by country
  • Oil Reserves
• Renewable Resources
• Countries using nuclear energy

Kinetic Particle Theory Explained

Introduction

•  Educational Resource - 9 page pdf. Use the menu at the bottom of the page to access.
• Interactive site to determine your consumption footprint. Perhaps the revelation will get you thinking of what you can do to make changes in your way of living.
• Trash talk